Hello and welcome friends! Can you believe this is the last day of June and 2026 is half over?
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.””
Psalm 91:1-2 (ESV)
I would invite you to talk a walk in the garden, but with a temperature of 96+ and heat index values of 105 to 109, I advise staying inside with the AC and scrolling through the photos and reading the commentary in comfort!
This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. Now the sunflowers are so tall that we need a ladder to cut the blooms! A blog post with sunflowers and zinnias will hopefully be coming mid-July! Friends who visit often ask what kind of tree has the purple spike blooms. The Chaste (Vitex) tree is constantly buzzing with bees and hummingbirds visit often as well!
‘Endless Beauty’ daylily is rose pink with a lemon ruffled edge and a large green throat. It is the most prolific bloomer of my four varieties of day lilies!
The blooms measure about 7.5 inches. It began blooming around the middle of May and is still blooming.
Last year it bloomed again in September which was a first.
Old-fashioned gladiolas remind me of my maternal grandmother who definitely had a green thumb! In her small flower garden, she always had the prettiest gladiolas!
Gladiolas are available in a rainbow of gorgeous colors. This is our EM’s favorite color and she is excited to see them bloom!
Gladiolus grow best in full sun. Generations of gardeners have loved gladiolas with their elegant 3-flower spikes with orchid-like blooms.
We learned many years ago to keep mint in a pot! Daylilies surround the old chair.
‘Echoes of Mercy’ is a lavender-rose daylily with a purple eye above a green throat, with blooms that are 5 inches in diameter.
‘Lake Norman Sunset’ daylily has pastel coloring of pink and white midribs and green throat.
This lovely daylily was a gift from Mary.
Lake Norman Sunset has been blooming for several weeks, and I noticed three blooms yesterday.
I purchased this daylily last year at a large garden shop with no info nor identifying name. I have searched and found several possibilities, but cannot narrow it down. Do you have an idea?
Black-eyed Susan’s, a special gift several years ago from The Swag Garden high in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. The original plant resides only a few yards from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!
I have one remaining dahlia that manages to produce a few stunning blooms every year. ‘Dahlia Avignon’ is a mystery in our garden. Normally the blooms are creamy white and irregularly streaked with deep purple, burgundy, and lilac speckles. No two flowers are exactly alike. This bloom was opening to more purple than white. I failed to get a photo fully opened, but it was beautiful!
Growing behind the cottage garden fence is Crocosmia, a gift from my dear friend, Martha. It is a member of the Iris family and is a magnet for hummingbirds!
‘Bold Awakening’ is always the first daylily to bloom!
It is a cream yellow with purple eye above a green throat with blooms that are 6.5 inches.
There is a reason they are called daylilies…each individual flower opens in the morning and wilts by evening. Daylilies are incredibly hardy, long-lived perennials. With basic watering and occasional dividing, a single plant or clump can live and bloom reliably for decades.
The two ‘Little Lamb’ hydrangeas at our garden entrance are in full bloom. The heat may take its toll on the white blooms.
Thank you for your visit and gracious comments. Wishing you a wonderful July 4th as we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday!
Linking with: Pieced Pastimes, Between Naps on the Porch,Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Life and Linda
Good Morning, Pam. How gorgeous your gardens are! Your lilies are so pretty, and the gladiolas are picture-perfect. I love seeing your zinnias and sunflowers. I hope we get to see more of them in future posts.
Our day lilies are just beginning to bloom. Your different varieties are quite lovely.
Thanks for the morning stroll.
Happy 4th of July!
Nancy, I always look forward to your visits and thank you for joining me in the garden. Today it is so hot, I am inside drinking sweet iced tea!
Beautiful start to my morning! Thank you for sharing your lovely garden.
Thank you my dear friend!
You have some of the pretty day lilies I used to have. Now all that is growing are the orange ones I don’t like.
Thank you, Carole.
I woke up to a surprise from Everyday Living! I love walking through your garden . In Winter months the structure of the garden is really pretty but then Spring arrives and there’s beauty everywhere. It must take a great deal of your time to catalogue all the plants and must take a lot energy to clean up all of plants when they die back. Your day lily’s are outstanding. I favor EM’s favorite. Every year when you post the day lilies it causes me to think of my mother making beautiful flower arrangements with them and to have the arrangement for only one day. Thank you for the beautiful post❣️
Thank you Alice! I love that the daylilies brought back sweet memories of your beloved mother. I can imagine how beautiful the arrangements were!
Pam the beauty around you each day is such a wonderful blessing. Ahhhhh to take it all in. Your gladiolas are just beautiful. I like EM’s color fave too. Have a beautiful week and Happy 4th a little early. Hugs. Kris
Thank you Kris. We do find joy in the garden, but as we are aging it is getting harder and harder. We will continue until we can’t!
Pam, I always love taking a stroll through your garden from the comfort of my computer, and your daylilies are putting on quite a show. 🌸 It was fun seeing the different varieties and colors with each one is more beautiful than the next! After the challenges we’ve had with drought here in North Carolina this spring, it’s especially encouraging to see your lush blooms and all the beauty of early summer. Wishing you a wonderful week and Happy 4th! ❤️🤍💙
Thank you, Mary. We are watering every day just to keep it going. As you know, gardening is not for the faint of heart! Stay inside and stay cool!
Pam, I always enjoy garden posts and lingering over close shot photos of flowers and shrubs. Your day lilies are beautiful. Mine were all present when we moved here so I cant be certain of the varieties. I love the old fashioned sense of gladiolas. We’re in high 90s and real feel even higher with high humidity. Walks at 6:30am and watering follows, watering in evenings too. Thanks for the garden stroll.
Thank you Rita. The older I get the more that the heat and humidity really bother me. I was out this. morning cutting flowers and came inside after 30 minutes and I was soaking wet. Stay hydrated and take time outs to cool off
“Echoes of mercy” immediately made me think, “whispers of love.” Just this past Sunday, we sang that and I didn’t dream it was the name of a daylilly! How fun! My yard is being taken over by torpedo grass and I don’t know what to do! It’s so hot and muggy, pulling it is futile. Your gorgeous yard gives me hope. The sunflowers alone take my breath away! Thanks for the encouraging and beatiful tour!
Thank you Leslie Anne. I am not familiar with torpedo grass, I will ask Butch. Its name says it will be hard to get rid of. We are always fighting Japanese Beetles and critters. I understand your pain!
Your lilies and glass are beautiful and colorful. Your hydrangeas are so healthy. Love your zinnias from Sunday’s post and your sunflowers look like sentinels standing guard. They are really tall! Thanks for the cool walk in the garden; we enjoyed the pictures. Wishing you a wonderful 4th! We know the grands will have fun and everyone will enjoy the homemade ice cream. Clara❤️
Thank you Clara. I hope you all are staying cool in these extreme temps and stifling humidity. Wish I had a bowl of homemade ice cream now🇺🇸❤️🤍💙🇺🇸
Pam I LOVE your commentary on your individual plants/flowers in your beautiful garden oasis. The many varieties are like visiting a flower farm….and they all look so vibrant and healthy which I know is no accident and takes a lot of TLC. The gladiolus are stunning, especially EM’s favorite. I believe I have shared that Fort Myers (just across the bridge from where we live in the Cape), was once the gladiolus Capital of the WORLD. The A&W Bulb Company also used some fields here in the Cape. So hard to believe, when they went out of business, gladiolus’ fields disappeared… sadly, very few individual gardeners grow them now. Happy 4th my dear friend.🥰🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸🌸🥰🇺🇸
Thank you, Kari. I wonder why glads fell out of favor with gardeners. I love them and find they bring sweet memories of my grandmother. Wishing you a blessed 4th sweet friend 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙🇺🇸
Pam I LOVE your commentary on your individual plants/flowers in your beautiful garden oasis. The many varieties are like visiting a flower farm….and they all look so vibrant and healthy which I know is no accident and takes a lot of TLC. The gladiolus are stunning, especially EM’s favorite. I believe I have shared that Fort Myers (just across the bridge from where we live in the Cape), was once the gladiolus Capital of the WORLD. The A&W Bulb Company also used some fields here in the Cape. So hard to believe, when they went out of business, gladiolus’ fields disappeared… sadly, very few individual gardeners grow them now. Happy 4th my dear friend.🥰🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸🌸🥰🇺🇸
I just love your gardens! The Day Lillies are such beauties, and also my sweet daughter’s favorite! It’s so nice to see your gladiolas, memories of being younger and all the elder aunts proudly taking their beautiful gladiolas to the county fair to exhibit. We don’t see them so much anymore, so this was a sweet treat. Your Black Eyed Susan’s remind me that I need to plant some…
All of your flowers in your gardens bring such joy, thank you so much for sharing and for all of your watering and caring.
Continued happy holiday wishes to you all❣️
Sue, thank you for your lovely comments. Continued happy 4th to you and family 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙🇺🇸
Thank you Leslie Anne. I am not familiar with torpedo grass, I will ask Butch. Its name says it will be hard to get rid of. We are always fighting Japanese Beetles and critters. I understand your pain!
Pam and Butch, always a special treat when you share your lovely garden blooms. Some of my favorites here, gladiolas and day lilies. You have a such lovely boarders and backgrounds for your flowers and everything looks prefect. Your garden provides much inspiration. Sure home your white little lambs don’t wilt in this awful heat! My limelights are in full bloom and I’m hopeful they’ll hold up. I think they do better that hydrangeas here. Have a wonder summer.
Thank you, Emily. The heat has been oppressive! Happy 4th to you 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙🇺🇸
Pam, what a delight to see first thing in the morning. The heat has arrived here as well, but the abundant rains in recent weeks have things looking lush and green. I’ve little in bloom. My day lilies put on their show in spring, but they will bloom again end of summer. I love seeing your variety. My beds are limited to two varieties, my favorite an antique variety known as Ditch Lilly, and a common yellow simply called, Day Lilly. Both were “pass along” plants and I regret planting the yellow in with my beloved Ditch Lilly because they are taking over. I need to rescue the orange Ditch Lilies and move them to their own spot.
Thanks for the garden treat. Happy 4th!
Thank you Sarah. I am very familiar with Ditch Lily. She has already bloomed around our area! It is very hot here. Take care and Happy 4th!
Thanks for sharing your beautiful flowers with us. Hard to believe it’s been over 50 years since I moved from the Mid-Atlantic area. We were the first house in the neighborhood where I grew red and white glads and red and white petunias. Occasionally somebody would stop and say how happy those flowers made them on the way to work.
It is so hot and humid here; the feels like will be up to 109. I got heat exhaustion working in the yard recently. Pace yourselves. Hopefully, the grandchildren will love flowers and take over one day.
Happy 4th of July to all.
Thank you Myrna. Please take care of yourself. Heat index was 106 today and it was miserably hot. Happy 4th to you and yours!
You have such a gift, Pam. Speaking as one who does not share your gardening talent, I bow down in awe.
Jeanie, you are sweet. Butch is the one with the garden talent. It was so hot today and I had to ask him to come in, cool off, and rest!
Pam, your early summer garden is beautiful – even in those temps! I can’t quite belief how high those sunflowers are and I’m with EM on the color of those gorgeous gladiolas. The day lilies are beautiful and such a wonderful variety that you have. I love love the little lamb hydrangeas and I hope they make it through the heat. We have had a very windy and rainy June here with very little opportunity to get out in the garden so it was fabulous to enjoy yours. Tomorrow is our Canada Day and I hope the rain lets up so people can enjoy the festivities. Happy 250th Birthday and I hope you have a wonderful July 4th!!
Thank you Kim! Your comments are always sweet! Happy Canada Day!
Stunning flowers in your heavenly garden! Balm to the soul… Blessings!
Thank you dear one!
Your flower petals are popping like firecrackers! You two have much talent in keeping your gardens looking so very lovely! May you create grand 4th of July memories!
Dear one, good morning! I snipped some black-eyed susans from my little wildflower garden out by the road just yesterday. They are healthy and vibrant and make me smile every time I glance at them sitting in a little old milk bottle on the kitchen counter.
Happy 4th to you and yours. Stay cool!
Oh, Pam,…before my day ended I HAD to visit the cottage. Your flowers are stunning! I wish I knew more about daylily’s to help you with that one. I’m in an area now where I have a SMALL area to place flowers that need full sun. You have me thinking on the gladiolas. My grandmother always had them, too.
The Black-Eyed Susans are some of my favorites! I remember my first time to the Smoky Mountains and in North Carolina. The feeling I get when I happen to stumble upon them in nature. Just like daisies, they make me smile. I wish I knew the names of so many flowers. I dream of walking in a trail of wildflowers.
At my last home, I planted all Missouri natives. They turned my little place into “Karla’s Cottage” and I hear my small area of landscaping, including rocks I got from my campground, tee hee, is doing well.
But this heat is terrible. Pam, I haven’t felt well, precious friend. I’m typing you, but my arm aches horribly so I’ll reply to a few more and call it a day. I found out today they will bring me in for labs on the 16th and scan again on the 27th. I’m praying these don’t coincide with all of my Dad’s upcoming appointments. I’m sorry to update here, but it’s easier to type here and all of these ladies and friends are lovely! I can “SEE” your beautiful cottage all decked out for our 250th! We will see family and have a quiet night at home recovering. A very simple occasion this year for me.
May your precious little firecracker grand kids have the most amazing time too. Please be safe in the heat (we have those indexes here too). I pray for all of you daily! I love you, dearly, Pam. God bless you and keep you all!
Just beautiful, I think I every single one of those day lilies in my own garden except one. I can never remember the names like you do though. I love the Crocosmia!
Thanks so much for your visit, Amy!
Your flowers are absolutely beautiful. I could image just how peaceful sitting in your garden is.
Such a lovely arrange of blooms Pam! Wow, you really are experiencing a heat wave over there. I noticed your Crocosmia looks very similar to our Kangaroo Paw plant.
Congratulations on your 250th year celebration of being an Independent Nation! That’s something special to celebrate indeeed!
Blessings sweet friend, Jennifer
Pam, your gardens are always so pretty. Love the variety of plants and flowers. The day lilies, the hydrangeas and so much more are so pleasing to see. Such a happy garden. I hope your 4th was amazing. Thanks so much for letting tour your gardens virtually.
Thank you Linda, we had a wonderful 4th!
Lovely garden and photos! Stay cool…
Thank you, Jeanne!
The flowers in this post are so incredibly beautiful! My favorite is the “Echoes of Mercy,” and now I am hearing Fanny Crosby’s anointed lyrics ringing in my head, “Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.” Thank you for always inspiring and encouraging my heart. God bless you all.
I love Fanny Crosby’s lyrics! Thank you, Cheryl!