Pineapple Lily Update

Recent storms have cooled down the temperatures here in Northeast Ohio, and the garden seems to have weathered the heat and drought this summer with a few notable exceptions.  (One will be shown below.)  Things are still very far ahead of schedule, as evidenced by the Japanese anemone buds starting to color up, but the pineapple lily is eclipsing all the rest of the garden bloomers right now.  Check out the individual flowers starting to open up at the bottom of the stalk:

One flower was open the other evening when I first noticed them, but a few move have since joined the show:

The individual flowers are very pretty and delicate when you look at them close up:

I like seeing the lily in situ as well.  The strappy, dark foliage and upright form adds a little something to the rolling tapestry of color and texture in the front yard:

In the foreground of that last photo, the powdery blue leaves of the sea kale really steal the show, don't they?  They hold up well against all of the fine-textured foliage that I let run rampant in that corner of the garden, which includes stipa/nasella tenuissima, hens and chicks, lemon thyme, and agastache:

Not holding up so well is this peach heuchera:

The other heucheras have weathered my "no watering of non-edible plants after their first year in a particular location" rule very well, but this one simply fried out.  I'm going to have to figure out what to add there next year to give the spot a little bit of color, and (preferably) some rounded leaves.


Since I hate to end a post on a bummer note, here's the pretty container by my front door with monstera, asparagus fern, lotus vine, philodendron, striped bromeliad, and a dragonwing begonia that I overwintered in the attic:

That's 'Autumn' philodendron at its feet in a separate pot.  This probably looks like a bad photo, but the whole container "feels" kind of whirly and swirly, so it's a fitting picture for this hard-to-photograph spot.  I couldn't get all of the monstera in the picture, but I mostly just wanted to show off the dragonwing anyway--it finally recovered from its overwintering abuse and has rebounded nicely!


Hope that my fellow garden bloggers are all enjoying beautiful weather like I am today.  Have a wonderful weekend!