This lily has been wafting perfume into the house when the windows are open. It used to be one of three in this area, but now it is on its own.

Beautiful! I love your supports too. No lily beetles?

Lovely, NHBabs! So nice to see true lilies returning as the beetles recede.

I also have lilies with essentially no beetles.

Old-fashioned tiger lilies (Lilium lancifolium) were originally planted by my mother and somehow they persisted here without blooming during the reign of the lily leaf beetles. Now they bloom every year.

I planted Lillium 'Arabesque' and it does really well here. I have three or four of them and they all bloom.

If you look closely you can see a hummingbird moth visiting the lily (a good bug).

Daylilies continue with the later cultivars in action.

Hemerocalllis 'Autumn Minaret'

and 'Frans Hals' is still blooming.

The inherited No-ID daylily shows no sign of stopping.

Medium height phlox are still blooming in the phlox protection zone. There's a fence hidden under all that greenery.

The tall phlox, David's Lavender is just starting in a different location. I'm holding my breath on this because a woodchuck has been walking by this phlox regularly without apparently noticing it. The phlox is behind a section of fence and surrounded by soapwort, but is otherwise is in the open and a woodchuck could easily walk around the fence if it wanted to.

Not really a flower yet, but the sedums are now in their broccoli-look-a-like stage and are very decorative in their own way (at least to my taste).

I have a few more pictures to show but I've reached Houzz's limit so I'll add another post.

Claire

A few more:

I decided this year to let my rugosa rose 'Yankee Lady' go to hips rather than do any deadheading. I'd always deadheaded for a few rounds to get more flowers and then let the last ones form hips, but it was never very successful.

This year the first flowers got to form fruit and they seem very enthusiastic about it.

My mother used to make rose hip jelly and I'm tempted to try, but I'll probably leave them for the birds and critters.

The doublefile viburnum fruit are getting closer to ripe (blue-black) but are still mostly red and the birds haven't been around yet.

Claire

Lovely, Claire! I am a real sucker for plants with ornamental fruit that the critters can enjoy. I have always liked the way you mix your daylilies with other plants that provide foliage contrast, and you have a couple of really long bloomers. Do any of your true lilies have scent? The orientals I had prior to the invasion of lily beetles had nice scent IIRC.

Skibby, that particular lily is an orienpet, a cross between a trumpet and an oriental lily. I found that they were more resistant to the lily beetles because they were largely unmollested when the beetles first arrived, unlike the Asian and regular Oriental lilies that I had. So I have a couple of kinds of those, but no other lilies right now. They tend to be tall and strong in my garden and bloom for a few weeks because they have a lot of buds. Here is the one in my photo which they say is 3’-5’ but in my garden is well over my 5 1/2’ head.

https://brentandbeckysbulbs.com/Lilium/Conca-d-Or/Lily

Thanks for that info NHBabs. Good to know.

Thanks, NHBabs - I love to mix plants (and sometimes they mix themselves by volunteers sneaking in).

Lilium 'Arabesque' is an orienpet and supposedly has good fragrance but the bloom coincides with allergy season and my nose is challenged now. I first noticed that the phlox were beginning to bloom when I walked by and smelled them, but I don't detect much now. I've planted a lot of things with reputed scent but I just hope other people enjoy them when I can't.

I still get to look at them though and that's a joy too.

Claire

Nice you have been entrusted with some monarch caterpillars, Deanna. I got curious about the fungus, so I did a web search for lobster claw fungus since to me that what it looks like in your photo. Here is what I found:

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/stinky-squid-fungus/

I like the mix of Joe Pye, Jewelweed and Echinacea though I would be worried that it would get out of control in my garden which is generally not well deadheaded. I am sure the critters like it also. Are any of your kids still young enough to enjoy the jewel weed pods?

Thank you! It doesn't stink now, but I'll keep a nose out for it.

I'm giving the jewelweed space only because it is so easy to pull if not wanted. I used to pull all of it until I found out last year that it is a top hummingbird flower here. Considering that i pulled it so much, and I have plenty now...I'm sure my future will involve lots of jewelweed where it doesn't need to be, but as long as I like strolling through and yanking things I'm going to give it a shot.

My local post mistress, who is always eager to talk gardening, got me started on monarch cat-raising when she gave me a milkweed leaf with an unhatched egg on Monday. Tuesday I picked off three big caterpillars from my own plants, not knowing that they happened to be ready to make a chrysalis. On Wednesday I had to work in the office and I took my cats with me, and the office ladies got to watch with me as the baby wriggled and spiraled out of his egg. By Thursday afternoon I had two chrysalides and three of my kids had watched one of them wriggle and molt out of his old skin and harden. This morning the third did his thing, and my last kid watched him (or her). SO EXCITING! My post mistress gave me a big mesh monarch tent yesterday and I've got several babies in there, all of whom just happened to hatch from eggs laid on the plants I picked for the other big caterpillars. The big ones didn't eat much since they were ready to molt, but I kept the milkweed in water so all the eggs survived easily. I can't wait to get butterflies!

How exciting! I have seen several adult monarchs, but haven’t raised caterpillars indoors to watch them since I was a kid.

I must admit, beginning my monarch “farming” experience with caterpillars ready to transform was the way to go. They did some eating, but mostly “rest-walked” as they prepared to hang upside down and chrysalize. (Can I make that a word?) easy peasy!

I have to share this. Yesterday when we watched the last caterpillar transform, my oldest son, 14, had seen it the day before so he knew what to expect. The amazing thing is that the green caterpillar that emerges and hardens into a chrysalis is significantly bigger or thicker than the original caterpillar. The caterpillars are long and thin, but the green “thing” that will harden into a chrysalis is fat. So, you see the black and yellow skin split and a huge green thing emerges. As it was happening yesterday my son put on his best Hulk voice and said, “Caterpillar ANGRY!”

I just can’t stop laughing. It was so funny.

That's a great story about the “Caterpillar ANGRY!”, deannatoby! It's so good that you're able to raise monarch caterpillars and watch them develop.

My garden is still in the daylily/true lily/phlox phase.

The last of my daylilies to open is 'Challenger' and the first bloom opened a few days ago. Here it is yesterday:

H. 'Challenger'

Another daylily, H. citrina 'Yao Ming' has been blooming for at least a month but the blooms were always half open so I haven't posted pictures. I'd decided that the daylily was blooming in the night time, which the species is known for, and what I was seeing was the bloom closing. However, this morning Yao Ming was fully open at last.

H. citrina 'Yao Ming'

'Autumn Minaret' is still blooming with sedum 'Matrona' behind it..

Phlox 'David's Lavender' is blooming behind the inherited No-ID daylily that's finally winding down.

The phlox is accompanied by various daylilies and the tiger lily, L. lancifolium.

L. lancifolium

And the Phlox Protection Zone is still blooming, with taller garden phlox emerging and the medium size phlox continuing to bloom:

Claire

Daylilies and phlox are still blooming, and the Royal Standard hostas are now flowering. I think these are probably Royal Standard although they weren't labeled. Other Hosta plantaginea cultivars are starting too.

Hosta 'Royal Standard'

Blueberries are finally ripening after about a month of sitting there green. The birds don't seem to have found them yet.

The pokeberry flowers are turning into fruits..

Rugosa Yankee Lady hips are getting brighter.

And the compost pile has its own fruits, AKA mushrooms.

With all this heat and humidity I sort of feel like I'm getting ripe too.

Claire

Just a note for those of you who like late-blooming classic daylilies:

Taken this morning, August 26.

H. 'Challenger', blooming every day and still has buds left.

H. 'Autumn Minaret' opened its last two buds this morning.

Claire

The fruits are beautiful, Claire! Do the Viburnums still have fruit or has it been eaten? I am impressed by the length of bloom for your daylilies!

Deannatoby, have your monarch chrysalises (?) emerged as butterflies yet?

Three of them have! The first flew out of the jar from the back porch, the second alighted from my hand (Wee!) and the third my husband filmed as he crawled out and flew away. I'm getting pretty crazy about it now. I've got three more chrysalises ready to go very soon (meaning they should be turning black, and then about a day before the butterfly emerges), and I am hoarding caterpillars now. My awesome post mistress gave me a mesh cage for the butterflies and now I have 11 more waiting to become chrysalises. Husband also found one caterpillar hanging in his upside-down "J" on the potted mint plants outside, so there's a new chrysalis there, too.

Deannatoby - we have also been raising monarchs this summer. It's been incredibly satisfying :) Thus far we have released 20 butterflies with at least 15 more to go. I'll post those on the mobile features thread.

Some variety of tiger lily whose name I cannot remember!

Unnamed thistle

wild Goldenrod at the end of my driveway that I hope to spread around

Agastache and coreopsis

Delphinium

Wild Senna

Crape Myrtle Hopi

volunteer sunflower with happy bees at one of the community gardens I manage :)

Suzabanana, you look to have a lot blooming right now. I envy your ability to grow crape myrtles, and yours is lovely. IME the goldenrod will spread via shallowly buried runners and the seed will float around, so I usually cut the seed head to reduce weeding, but you could cut them and place them on the ground where you want more. Your globe thistle looks like globe thistle, Echinops.

My garden is looking tired and unkempt right now, but I have taken a few photos, and I will look to see what is in bloom now while it is still cool.

We have had just a few nice sunsets this summer, perhaps because this month it has been raining so much that we sometimes don’t see much afternoon sun.

NIce, lush garden, suzabanana! I think your tiger lily is Lilium lancifolium 'Flore Pleno'. I didn't realize it bloomed this late.

NHBabs: My viburnums still have fruit ripening (red turning to blue-black) and the ripe fruit are not getting eaten. I don't know if they're not tasty yet, taste bad, or if the wild black cherry fruits are just more desirable right now.

Viburnum 'Summer Snowflake"

No-ID doublefile viburnum

Wild black cherries (Prunus serotina)

Flowering crabapple fruits are still green.

Claire

Beautiful, Claire. So far my only fruiting Viburnums are wild and aren’t ornamental as far fruit goes, though the wildlife eat them, one species now, and then the maple leafed Vib as late winter emergency rations.

i noticed that the Prunus serotina in our back field had a good amount of bird life enjoying the fruit today.

I have been having a tough time getting anything to post this week, but it is more likely my ISP rather than anything Houzz has done to muddle things up more. So here are a few photos, I hope.

The back field is in its full autumn bloom with two native grasses: Erogrostis spectabilis/ purple love grass is the shorter, redder plant, and the tall, slightly reddish-gold plant such as the plants to left near the front of the color patch is Schizachyrium scoparium/Little bluestem.

And here it is this week.

I just love the colors of the native grasses. It turns driving on the interstate into a travel through a quilt of fall color. Your field photograph is just beautiful and serene, NHBabs. Thank you!