Night of the Monsoon

It poured rain last night.  

No streaking lightening, no rolling thunder, just rain, rain, rain, and then more rain.  It was  perhaps the heaviest rain i had ever seen, except during a hurricane.  We got 4.5 inches in less than two hours.  (You will have to take my word for it, since i dumped the rain gauge without thinking to take a photo!)

The damage this morning is not too bad.  Plants in the cutting garden are flattened, but will probably stand up again when the sun gets overhead.  The grass is flattened in areas where the water ran off to the the storm drains, but that will be fine.  The worst mess is where the mulch washed out of the garden beds and into the grass.  Now we have nicely mulched grass in the yard and bare dirt in the beds.  It is clear that my assignment for the coming week is to get and spread more mulch - clearly something to be done in the early mornings this time of year.

But there is always a silver lining, and this time it is the tree lilies.  After the deluge, they decided to bloom this morning. 

I have not yet found a botanical name for them, but they are an "OA hybrid" - a cross between oriental and asiatic lilies (not to be confused with orientpets, OT hybrids between oriental and trumpet lilies).  They typically grow 4-6 feet tall and spread over time into a large clump.  Mine are about 10 years old and easily six feet tall - well over my 63 inch height - and all from only one bulb.  It took about three years for them really to get going, but for the past five or more years they have been glorious.  

They are readily available - just Google for suppliers - come in many colors now, and not terribly expensive for what you get!  Mine probably came from Breck's, and will continue to bloom for about four weeks and will then provide a lovely green background for later blooming plants. 

A nice silver lining, indeed!