A sea of Red from named to unnamed

[karen J]

Yet again, my Water Lily tagging system has failed, leaving me with a bunch of "Previously Named" Water Lilies. 
This is my upper pond-





I don't know how I'm ever going to sort them out. Reds are hard! I know I have Gloriosa, Ellisiana, Sultan, Rose Arey, etc. Maybe even an Attraction.
Note to the wise: Don't put all your reds in one basket. 

On a more positive note, I saw a Baltimore Oriole today!
(lousy pic, 10x zoom through the window)-



And, I finally found the secret to growing Marestail. It dies in my nice big, filtered, clean pond. In my swamp pond, it thrives.
Last year-


This year-


No polarizing lens on that one, sorry.

Honestly, don't know what I'm going to do about those lilies. Maybe a hot June day sitting outside with Iced Tea, Slocum & Robinson will help me sort it all out.

[Julles]

Great pics!  The reds are gorgeous.

[Ky Kim]

Great photos, your lilies are outstanding!

Nice shot of the Baltimore Oriole, we had one pass through last year.  They're a beautiful bird. 

Have you ever tried using colored zip ties, they don't fade.  You can keep a journal with what pot has what color.  Then when you run of colors, you can put 2 of the same colors or say one yellow one blue, etc.... that's what I do and it works well, if I kept up with where the notebook is. I get it out and never put it back in the same place twice...

Kim

[water_sprite]

Your lilies are stunning.  They don't need names.

I love the bird.  Wish we had 'em around here.

Brenda

[Ruthie]

oh they are all so beautiful.   

I have a bunch of ??? lilies in the horse trough.  And my meticulaously labeled tomatoes...all those heirlooms I am trying this year?  Every single tag faded in the UV  or the sharpie pen faded in the weather.    per Kim's comment...I was thinking about a notebook too.

[bunny56lbc]

WOW , look at all those lily blooms ! Beautiful !
You're pond look's Great , too ! 

The Baltimore Oriole is a cool looking bird , they usally come around here sometime in July .

bonnie

[karen J]

Thanks for the nice comments.
I did try the notebook thing, like a garden journal. But it only works if you're organized. I am not organized. 
I've tried cut-up cola cans, plant markers, etching the names in the pots, etc. My most recent from '07 was to punch holes in the zip tags and note number of holes to name of Lily. This spring, all the "zip tags with their neatly punched holes" are shredded & rotted.

Another method is the "map" method. Log in the journal where each pot is, and what is in that pot. That works great until it's time to clean the pond and the pots get moved around. 

Ruthie, my hubby made a map of our tomatoes last year and it worked very well. The "heirloom" tomatoes didn't do very well, though. Juliette did the best, but I don't think she's an heirloom.

Kim, I'll maybe try that next....

Brenda, thanks. That bird is elusive. Kinda skittish.

Julles and bunny, thanks!

[Sandye]

Karen, your red lilies are gorgeous!!!!   

If it were me, I probably wouldn't even care what their names were.  They're so pretty it doesn't even matter. 

[miguynmkoi]

Gorgeous lilies and pond!!!  At least Un-named Named lily blooms are better than non blooming Named lilies!!!

Great shot on the Oriole!

[joeyb5980]

What a beautiful show of blooms!  And your mare's tail looks happy too 

[EagleEye]

Wow, can't believe how many blooms you've got. How great is it to see that outside your window
I've got one bud sticking it's head up. Maybe I should stick some tomato spikes in mine.
Very nice Karen

Steve

[Vickie]

Your red lilies are beautiful. My koi help me loose the tags. Now I put a tag in the bottom of the pot under the dirt as a back up. My friend gave me that idea.

[Celia]

What a beautiful sight to see.  I love all that red.  Must be some very happy lilies.

[LeeAnne151]

Beautiful 

Mare's Tail doesn't look half that good here

[Desertponder]

Very pretty lilies.
My labeling system failed me over the winter. Everything had two different labels when I put them to bed for the winter and this spring about 5 pots had no tags on them. I suspect the dogs were to blame for that.
I have a list of everything I have so by process of elimination I know which lilies are tagless. When they bloom I'll be able to retag them.
I like the zip tie idea, I may try that this year. My problem is I would probably lose the color key list. I had to hunt all over the place to find the one I had.

[Bonnie]

Beautiful Karen!

I have tried different methods too and the best one so far is to make two tags, bury one at the bottom of the pot and put the other on the topside of the pot. 

I've heard a Baltimore Oriole in the evenings while at our new property but so far I haven't been able to see it.


Your pix of your Mare's Tail looks great, even from last year.  I just bought some from Tammie and am gonna give it a try again. 
Wondering if I should try it in my mud pond?

[tinkster]

I would take your unnamed's in a minute they are beautiful..  love the bog also!

tinkster