My Long Pergola in Summer
My long and winding pergola is full of striking orange-colored tiger lily blooms.
This pergola, located on one side of a carriage road near my Tenant House, goes through several transformations during the year. In late spring, a palette of bold purple and white alliums covers the area, followed by the delicate shades of lavender and blue from the flowering clematis vines that wrap around each of the granite posts. Now, hundreds of brightly spotted tiger lilies line the garden bed for all to see - and they are thriving.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Tiger lilies, Lilium lancifolium, bloom in mid to late summer, are easy to grow and come back year after year.
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- Native to China and Japan, these robust flowers add striking beauty to any border. I love how they look with their bright and showy orange colored blooms.
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- In May, this pergola garden is filled with lots of blue and purple flowers. This palette of colors is a big favorite at the farm – it grows more colorful and vibrant every spring, and then it goes through another dramatic transformation in summer.
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- By early July, this pergola has thousands of waist-to-shoulder-high lily stems.
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- As the days progress more buds appear. This pergola gets tons of light, which is great for lilies. For best growth, plant lilies in an area where they can get at least six to eight hours of sun per day.
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- And here is the pergola border now – bursting with gorgeous orange. This side of my long pergola is one of the first areas I see when I drive into my property.
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- Tiger lilies are covered with black or deep crimson spots, giving the appearance of the skin of a tiger.
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- They have large, down-facing flowers, each with six recurved petals. Many flowers can be up to five inches in diameter.
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- Lilies are well-known for having heavily pollinated stamens, which stain. Here, it is easy to see those pollen-filled anthers. When cutting, always remove the anthers to prevent a clothing disaster – just pinch them off with gloved fingers.
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- The blackish, round “seeds” that develop in the axils of the leaves along the main stem are called bulbils.
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- In front of the tiger lilies is a border of boxwood shrubs I grew from cuttings. They’ve developed and grown into nicely sized specimens. Buxus is a genus of at least 70-species in the family Buxaceae. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here.
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- In this garden, we also have pops of daylilies. The daylily is a low-maintenance perennial—easy to grow, virtually disease- and pest-free, and able to survive drought, uneven sunlight, and poor soil. The daylily’s botanical name, Hemerocallis, comes from Greek hemera “day” and kallos meaning “beauty”. The name is appropriate, since each flower lasts only one day. Despite their name, daylilies are not “true lilies.” Leaves grow from a crown and the flowers form on leafless stems called “scapes,” which rise above the foliage.
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- There are still a few clematis also. I have always loved clematis, and over the years I have grown many varieties of this wonderful plant. When well-maintained, clematis can bloom profusely over a long season, from early summer to early fall.
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- Climbing up a few of the granite posts are passionflower vines. The passionflower has a wide, flat petal base with five or 10 petals in a flat or reflex circle. The ovary and stamens are held atop a tall, distinctive stalk encircled by delicate filaments. The stigmas start high above the anthers and slowly bend backward for easy pollination.
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- On the back side of the pergola garden we planted lots of Russian Sage with its tall, airy, spike-like clusters of lavender-blue flowers above finely textured, aromatic foliage.
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- At one end of the pergola, in large ornamental urns, I displayed two of these philodendrons. These upright plants have giant heart-shaped leaves and a deep green color. The name derives from the Greek words philo- or “love, affection” and dendron or “tree”.
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- Across from the long pergola – a stand of stately bald cypress trees, now full of gorgeous soft green needle-like foliage.
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- The leaves are alternate and linear, with flat blades borne on the twig that are spirally arranged on the stem.
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- The bark of the bald cypress is brown to gray and forms long scaly, fibrous ridges on the trunk. Over time, these ridges tend to peel off the trunk in strips.
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- Not far from the pergola is this giant weeping copper beech tree – I love these trees with their gorgeous forms and rich color. I have several large specimens on the property.
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- And across the “soccer field,” where my grandson, Truman, loves to play whenever he visits, are six matched standard weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’. Weeping hornbeams can grow to be about 50-feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 40-feet. These are very rare and precious trees and I am so happy they continue to grow well here.
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- The entire pergola border and its surrounding gardens, trees, and other specimens provide a spectacular show every year.
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