My Long Pergola in Summer
It's definitely mid-summer when 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 winter, the beds are bare and the bordering boxwood is enveloped in protective burlap. 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. And 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 winter, my pergola is sleeping – the boxwood border is covered in burlap and the beds are bare. On this day in mid-March, the pergola was covered in snow.
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- In early spring, this garden is filled with bold green stems of new growth.
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- By late 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.
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- The beds are filled with Camassia, alliums, Hyacinthoides or Spanish bluebells, and others.
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- By June, the colors transform again. One by one, the orange lilies begin to open.
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- The tiger lily’s petals bend back far during the flowering cycle, curling up against its own stem and exposing the stamens and pistol for visiting pollinators.
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- Tiger lilies are covered with black or deep crimson spots, giving the appearance of the skin of a tiger. They have large, down-facing flowers, each with six recurved petals. Many flowers can be up to five inches in diameter. 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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- The leaves can grow to three inches long and about 3/4-inch wide. They are medium green, narrow, smooth along their margins, and glabrous, clasping the stem at their bases.
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- There are also a few white lilies in this bed – adding more interest to the long floral display.
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- This lily is white and orange with bright orange pollinated stamens, which also stain.
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- And there are also some lighter orange lilies.
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- On the granite posts, there are a few lasting clematis flowers. I have always loved clematis, and over the years I have grown many varieties of this wonderful plant. Most species are called clematis, but it has also been called traveller’s joy, virgin’s bower, leather flower, or vase vine. It’s also been called “Old Man’s Beard,” because of the long fluffy seed heads that look similar to an old man’s beard.
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- This is Clematis viticella ‘Betty Corning’, which has slightly fragrant, bell-shaped flowers that bloom from summer to fall.
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- A few passionflowers also grow here. 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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- 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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- In various spots along the pergola garden are some of the dried alliums which I leave be as the garden transforms.
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- This pergola starts across from my perennial flower cutting garden and runs along one side of the carriage road leading to my Winter House. It’s one of the first gardens guests see when they come to visit.
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- Beside the pergola, I also display some potted specimens such as this sago underplanted with Helichrysum petiolare, the licorice plant.
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- And across the carriage road, there are more orange tiger lilies blooming in my Stewartia Garden near the tall and stately bald cypress trees.
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- The entire pergola border and its surrounding gardens, trees, and other specimens provide a spectacular show every year. I am so proud of how it’s grown.
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