“Better lit than Neva” is the punchline of a long, involved story about Rasputin. I won’t go into that here. I’ll just say that holidays and Harry Potter had something to do with my being a day late for July’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

July is the time when my climbing rose Rosa ‘New Dawn’ is in full flight. 2009 has been a particularly lush year for this rose. The arbour is weighed down with blooms.

On the other hand, with so much vegetative matter, a rose like this needs lots and lots of moisture. Water runs through my sandy garden like a sieve. And when ‘New Dawn’ doesn’t get what she wants, her buds dry on the vine without falling. So you get pink froth and brown frizz, “blooming” side by side. As our grandmother would have said, “It spoils it, doesn’t it?”

July is also when the Asiatic lilies shine. Unsure the name of this pink variety I picked up on sale as bulbs at the end of a season a couple of years ago in a big-box store. It’s certainly doing well this year, and I keep hoping to like it more. But there’s something vicious about this shade of pink in real life.

Speaking of pinks, a very lusty crop of brilliant orange ‘Enchantment’ lilies is clashing enthusiastically with all the pinks. I also have Asiatics that are now finished, including a pink-and-white ‘Lollypop’ (which I do like) and yellow ‘Connecticut King.’ The Oriental lilies are in bud.

In the front garden, this mystery daylily has crashed the noisy party all the Hemerocallis fulva are having now. I’d be thrilled if it would stay. It’s doubly a mystery, as it sprang from a clump of unlabelled daylilies I picked up on sale at a nursery years ago. Has it self-seeded? Is this the new ‘Helen Battersbyi’ daylily, or can someone ID it for me?

How do I love thee, ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea? Let me count the ways.

Those are the main events here in a small city garden in the east end of Toronto. To see what’s blooming in mid-July in gardens around the world, visit May Dreams Gardens, where on the 15th of every month, Carol invites garden bloggers to share their experience.