Last year I started bringing in my favorite flowers and putting them in shot glasses. It keeps them looking good longer (especially the dark colors that can melt or look waxy by mid day), and keeps the wind from beating them up. There's also the added benefit of getting to see them more which is good. This morning there were 2 that I wanted to bring in that were covered in ants (tried to remove ants from blooms before and it doesn't work...) so I got out a little pan, put about 3/4" of water in it and put the glasses in the water. It works! No ants crawling all over the kitchen.. just dls to enjoy.

To make the thread less boring thought I'd add a pic taken about 5 in the afternoon:


--- Just wanted to share in case people were leaving them in their yards.

What a great tip, Cats! Beautiful blooms, too.

Thanks Sharon. This is the first year these 3 have bloomed, so I'm still checking them pretty much first thing in the morning.

They are truly beautiful. The shades of color work so well together.
Do you know their names?

Gilded Butterfly on the left, Jammin's Peach Martini in the middle and Painted Pattern on the right. -- Painted Pattern is a ffo on a plant that I've had about 6 weeks. Should be fun to see it bloom next year when it's a little more settled in.

Thanks much!
The combination is just striking.

Very nice!

Several of my clumps are almost bloomed out, and I always find those last few blooms in the clump depressing to look at. This year I have started cutting scapes with the last bloom on them and bringing them inside to enjoy; they go into a tall and narrow bud vase with some greenery (currently spearmint and jasmine). My husband is not a daylily person (nor a garden person, nor an outdoor person) but even he is enjoying them. What works best for us is one scape with a LARGE flower, and imho gold, yellow, near-white, melon, and some pinks are the best color choices for indoor viewing pleasure. ('Osterized' has been giving us some fabulous single-flower displays.)

Today's flower is 'Mary's Gold' (please ignore the dog bedding, ball, and blankie in the background )

Beautiful, and so are those tomatoes.

Very beautiful. Cats, what is your avatar?

Sigh... those tomatoes are from the local farmers' market. I do have several tomato plants in my small shaded veggie garden, but the two or so of mine that have ripened thus far, critters (probably rats) have gotten to. (Our part of town is Rat Haven; besides the creek (to provide water) there are numerous oak trees and probably every other one of them has a rats' nest in it.) I guess I should be grateful that the critters don't like cucumbers and peppers!

Here, it's the squirrels.

My avatar's a very blotchy Modern Symmetry.. I wish it always looked like that.

Polymerous -- Mary's Gold is very pretty. I've got it here and get a lot of sparkling blooms... And your tomatoes do look really good. Hope you can start picking out of your garden soon.

Thank you, cats1!

Today's bloom is 'Osterized' again... which is just about bloomed out.

(Yes, those are the same tomatoes... and the bloom looks better than it does in the picture; it was stunning this morning. I've got it oriented so it is staring DH right in the face when he sits down to eat! )

Its hard to say good bye to these beautiful blooms at the end of the day. last year i was playing with them also, arranging them in bouquets for fun pictures.

Do you know the name of the pink one with the yellow edge?

Lovely, LeChat.

Oooo, very nice, LeChat1! (Is the pink/lavender one 'Mandalay Bay Music'?)

The big pink is Fame, lemon next to it is Don Louis

It is hard to get rid of them, but as long as there's more tomorrow it's good!