Serendib Garden

Hollyhock.

I think this is my favorite of the lilies currently. Such a lovely cool white, graced with a hint of green, and such delicate ruffled petals! Looks like it belongs in a wedding bouquet.

Heh. I was hoping to get a photo of the dozen or so little birds (robins and others) that were madly chirping around me this morning in the redbud, but you really can’t see them. If I look carefully, I think I can spot three of them in this pic. Please imagine the branches full

Hydrangea “Quick Fire” (my second favorite, after oak leaf), with redbud. This is a lacecap style of hydrangea, and its white petals will go to pink and then red as autumn approaches, but in high summer, they’re a lovely cool white. Lacecaps don’t generally need pruning; you can deadhead to increase flower production if you

Spent a little time tending the parkway garden this morning, and among other things, propped up a stem of this veronica that had fallen over. I try to avoid staking, planting thickly instead, but some bits aren’t as filled out as I’d like, so needs must. It’s tricky in a perennial garden where some plants

Daylilies and bells. (I would still like a pink daylily here instead, but haven’t found a reliable one yet…)

When I first came to UIC, I really hated its Brutalist architecture, which can be a bit depressing in a long Chicago winter. But it’s grown on me over time, mostly because I’ve realized the clean, rigid lines provide a dramatic modern backdrop to the wildness of nature. Tension and harmony. So when I was

Coneflower, two ways. The one on the right is the native; the one on the left is a cultivar. In general, natives are going to be better for the birds and pollinators, because when you breed for other flower structures (doubled blooms, for example), often you make the seeds / pollen / etc. harder to

Anand took the phone so it would track him sprinting the last bit of the way home on our walk; I was too hot and tired to run it (stayed up too late last night, dragging today as a result). And then he took photos, so you get a pic of the tired gardener contemplating