Two very different gardens

Lily, Pine Ridge Gardens

While visiting my family in Buffalo last weekend, I had the privilege of visiting two very different private gardens: Pine Ridge Gardens in Orchard Park and Smug Creek Gardens in Hamburg.  Both are participants in Garden Walk Buffalo but since I was in town for such a short time, the owners were gracious enough to accommodate me on a weekend day when they were not normally open to the public.  I wish that my photos could do justice to these gardens; it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for garden touring, but not ideal for photography.  I had to adjust the contrast in some of the photos but I hope they give some idea of how wonderful these gardens are!

Hemerocallis 'Kindly Light'

 
Hemerocallis 'Kindly Light'

When I first saw daylily 'Kindly Light' in a botanical garden several years ago, I was immediately smitten.  The long, narrow tepals gave it an exotic and almost tropical look that was unlike any other daylily I had seen.  In 2005 I found it at a local garden center and brought one home.

Throwback Thursday: ghosts of July past

For Throwback Thursday I'm going through my photo albums, looking at plants that I photographed in early July in past years but are in my garden no longer.  Some of these were lost just recently, after our coldest winter in 20 years, but some of them died from poor growing conditions, neglect, or simply because I lost interest and removed them to try something new.  As I like to tell people, the secret to being a successful gardener is to keep killing plants.