A little closer please.

Does it fully open?

bk

OMG!!!!!!

you actually have plants in the ground????

ken

BKay, this is the first bloom opening, so I don't know yet if it fully opens or not. From a distance it appears totally black. Only when you get up close is there a purple coming through, like a funeral dress of crape de chine.

And yes, Ken, the ground around here does support plant life. Sometimes way too much of it. But as you can tell, my DH the professional weeder/mulcher has taken care of the bed. He also dug up Winter Snow which is now in a bad way in the experimental driveway bed for the hosta.

That bed is going along okay actually. Blue Angel was very slow emerging for here. So was S&S late coming out. Empress Wu, specially purchased for this job, has not added any eyes, just the one original. The Undulata Albomarginata brought in a pot from DH's Massachusetts garden is looking better than it did up there with the voles tunneling all through it. My little Golden/Grand Tiara collection is doing very well. So is the Sugar Daddy pair. Alabama Gold was early up and doing very nicely and holding its gold. I add crushed red peppers to the mulch to keep away squirrels, who go beneath the hosta leaves to bury nuts. Wheaton Blue looks better in the ground than in a pot. While Minuteman looks normal, poor Patriot looks stunted. Don't really care for it anyway. Fragrant Queen, my one fragrant in this bed, is slow. Perhaps it will do something, but this bed gets late afternoon sun, and of course the radiated heat of the cement driveway. And Millie's Memoirs is growing nicely, just not a very exciting hosta.

Ever since the bi-polar plant thief stole plants and stepping stones out of my front garden, I've hesitated to plant outstanding items there. However, I had to do something to expand my hosta growing area.

I grow day lilies too, Ken. Not with any finesse, just plain garden variety stuff, especially the fragrant ones. And milkweed, cassia, salvia, canna, hydrangea, and camellia. Oh, and clumping bamboo, philodendron, fern, and tall liriope to shade my black pots.