Friday, April 21, 2017: Lilies, Yarrow, Cardinals

Very cool and overcast today with off and on sprinkles. Our neighbor's cat comes over every day to ensure our fish are OK. He is ready to help if needed 😃

Yesterday I visited four nurseries looking for something that would go in the upper pond and anything else of interest. For the upper pond, I was looking into the pickeral weed (Pontederia cordata). It is native to Missouri and loves to grow in the bottom of muddy ponds. It likes full sun and has tiny, tubular soft blue flowers are densely packed into erect, 3-6” long spikes. The plant can typically grow to 2' to 4' in height. It can be invasive so I would want to keep it in a container. Being native to Missouri means of course it is hard to find at a Missouri nursery.

Pickeral Weed (courtesy of Mobot)

Another plant of interest was the Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). Also a Missouri native and loves water and sun. It features brilliant red flowers and is a favorite source of nectar for hummingbirds. Interestingly, flowers are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds, but not cardinals. 

Cardinal flower (courtesy of Mobot)

I found neither of these at any of the four nurseries I visited yesterday. I did however get four dwarf asiatic lilies and a yarrow. The lilies (Lilium asiaticum 'Tiny Diamond') supposedly will only grow to a height of 13" (essentially that height when I bought them) and will produce pink flowers. The yarrow (Achillea millefolium 'Desert Eve Red') will grow to a height of 10"-12" and likes full sun. We have no experience with yarrow thus far.

Today, I went to one more nursery which actually showed the pickeral weed on their web site. They did not have it either, but they did have the Cardinal flower. I picked up one of those and two more asiatic lilies. The lilies ('Tiny Bee') will supposedly grow to 20"-24" and produce yellow blossoms. 

I put the yarrow in the corner near the Serviceberry, close to the Butterfly Flower, which I doubt is going to come back this year. It calls for full sun, but the Serviceberry will shade it during the afternoon. We'll see how it does.

Yarrow

The six lilies were planted on the east side of the stream, between the stream and the Cyprus. I put the two taller ones behind the four shorter ones.

Lilies

I put the Cardinal flower in the slotted planter and placed it in the upper pond.

Cardinal flower