The Lily, The Beauty

The Lily. That was the name of the new exposition held in Saint Petersburg Botanic Gardens last week. As I have some Trumpet Hybrids lilies in my garden, I wanted to visit this show and to learn more about Lilium.

 

The Botanic Gardens is not far from my place and at 11 am I was there. The first visitors and I began to get acquainted with lilies, to sniff and take photos of these beautiful cut flowers. All lilies were put in vases and the owners watched them carefully and exchanged the faded by the blooming ones.

Here are the photos of some Asiatic, Martagon, Trumpet and Candidum Hybrids that I liked the most. I was interested in the shapes, combination of colors, some unusual shades. Some of the flowers amazed me by their combination of colors as white and light brown, deep red with white edges, pale pink with yellow center. 

 

Others looked very tenderly of white, pink, purple, lime. The deep red or better to say black one was a surprise for me. 

 

The very elegant and graceful Martagon lilies were shown in another hall. I have no them in my garden and I thought to plant some near the patio. 

 

There was a stand with books and handicraft souvenirs made by the exhibitors. I liked these decoupage pots and cups! I've also seen the contoured drawing on a dense paper for any amateur of lily could paint them with watercolor. Great!

Hope you liked this exposition, did you choose some lilies for your garden, balcony or terrace?

And in the end if you're not tired of lilies I would like to show you my Trumpet hybrids:

GBBD in August 2014

This Garden Blogger Bloom Day is a day of roses. The weather is still very warm, severe thunderstorms were yesterday and today. The temperature dropped a little, but we are still in summer, autumn has not come yet. Usually autumn comes in late August or early September here. Days became shorter and nights are already very dark. 
I have to turn on the lights in the garden and the porch at the evenings. White roses beautifully look at night in the darkness. Every morning I have a walk around the garden, greet roses, tear the faded flower buds off, tie long branches, touch large flowers. 

Here are some garden roses, different in shape and color:

rose Folklore

rose Golden Showers

  rose The Fairy

rose Boys' Brigade

rose Margaret Merrill

rose Pristine

rose The Pride of England 

rose Red Cover

rose Red Velvet

I am pleased that many varieties of my roses are well tolerate rain. There were flower buds covered with spots of rain drops, but then flowers were well kept and did not wilt.   
Branches of rose Red cover are too thin having a lot of buds so all flowers were lying on the ground after rain. Yesterday I put a support and tied branches. Roses Yellow showers and Pristine have very strong stems and don't bend from the strong wind during a thunderstorm and buds don't fall down. 

What wonderful days in summer! Flowers are in bloom, veggies ripen, weeds grow, the weather is hot and the water in tanks is enough.

What about your summer days? Your garden?

A Summery Walking into the Woods and the River

We are in summer, it's hot.

Rains are warm. Mushrooms grow. In the river they say, fish is caught well.

A company of gardeners decided to walk into the woods and the river. I was also invited. The stroll wasn't far of the gardens, 5-7 km.

We left early and were on the river before noon. The day was great, not very hot, with light clouds, and wasn't rain forecast. 

 

The river is not wide but has strong flowing and some places of whirlpools, the water was of tea color due to turf. 

Fishermen began catching fish and I went to look at the river and to pick up mushrooms.A dry swamp overgrown with young pine trees was near the river bank. Everywhere in the forest large granite boulders covered with moss could be found. This is a reminder of a glacier passed here many centuries ago.

 

 I went on, the forest was clear transparent resinous of pines. Reddish-brown pine trunks seemed theatrical scenery in the sunshine. Nature has its own unique theater.

I climbed the hill and have seen low blueberries bushes growing between pines. Blueberry was sweet and juicy. To pick up berries it's necessary to bend, oh!

 

Between pines in the moss under dry branches, fallen leaves mushrooms had grown. There were chanterelles. They are considered as the most environmentally friendly mushrooms. Let's look closely: how many chanterelles have been there, they hid but were found and put in the basket. 

At my summer cottage I cooked soup with chanterelles, potatoes and carrots and will soon cook a blueberry pie. What a wonderful summer!

How about you, my friends? Do you like to pick up mushrooms or berries in woods (not in supermarket)? Do you love fishing in a small river or in a sea? Thank you!