Ice Garden Update 250722

Beautiful blooms are best when shared. So say I, not least because I believe it to be 100% true, but also because I’m justifying sharing a post that’s the better part of two weeks overdue. Although there are already some even newer updates in the parade of blooms that we’re enjoying around the icehouse courtyard, I’d be shortchanging these beauties (and all of Teddi’s hard work) if I didn’t give them their due. So I offer you this “Ice Garden Update 250722” on August 5 instead of July 22 so that you may properly appreciate these beauties despite the fact that I’ve bumped the post so often. And I’ll try to get caught up soon…

As I’ve already noted, these photographs were taken between July 16 and July 22, and since then several additional White Prickly Poppy ‘Carolina’ (Agremone albiflora) blooms have followed this forerunner that emerged in the flowerbed northwest of the icehouse.

The White Prickly Poppy ‘Carolina’ petals, pleated crêpe fluttering in… [the] breeze, faintly ruffled, so delicate, drawing my vision inward toward a miniature copse of egg yolk yellow stamina (aka stamens), and then, at the hub of this meditative mandala, a purple stigma, a sensuously sculptural embellishment as intriguing as it is unlikely… (Source: Prickly Poppy ‘Carolina’)

If your eyesight is keen, you might even glimpse a couple of White Prickly Poppy ‘Carolina’ blooms in the left side of the photo above. The focus however is the dramatic spires in the middle, Liatris spicata ‘Floristan White’. Here they are again, tall and proud, seen against the croquet court as a background.

In the following photograph you can once again see the Liatris spicata, but the foreground showcases two additional ice garden species, Asiatic ‘Casa Blanca’ Lily blooms (on the left) and a large Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ pom-pom to the right.

If you squint just a little bit to help resolve the blurry background you just might discern the Echinops bannaticus ‘Star Frost’ near the top right of the photograph. Thistles are a favorite from my childhood, though we never grew up this white variety. I’ll feature them in a subsequent update to give them their deserved attention.

This closeup of an Asiatic ‘Casa Blanca’ Lily looks pretty similar to the one in the photograph above, but it offers an interesting point of reference for a *mystery lily* that appears in the next image. Bear in mind that everything we cultivate in the ice garden is white or off-white. There’s one notable exception, the small early-season violet colored blooms of the Vinca Minor. But those blooms are a fun preamble that are generally little more than fading memories by the time the rest of the flowers begin to bloom. And then it’s white, white, white. Even some of the greenery is white or white-ish (i.e. variegated ornamental grasses and Dusty Miller.) So that begs the question… what is this lily?

An interloper, perhaps? Or an early flush of color that will quickly resolve to white? Hhhmmm… All ideas welcome!

We’ll wrap up this update with a couple snapshots of Gladiolus ‘White Prosperity’ which dazzle long enough to catch wind and sway ground-ward again and again. Lovely blooms. But gravitationally challenged.

I’ll apologize one last time for the tardy update. So many noteworthy posts clamoring for attention this time of year! But I’ll try to make timely updates instead of excuses. I promise. Thanks for your patience.