Wow, tonight I am blogging from my laptop and using my Canon photos!  Getting into the daylily season routine.  At least as much as possible when I work until 10 PM.  Fortunately, I work from home so can run out quickly and snap photos here and there.

Today, Papa Long Legs bloomed for the first time in my yard!  And, he is officially the first bloom in my Southwest named daylily garden.  I am unsure how much daddy longlegs spiders are Southwestern, really.  Although, they certainly inhabit the region.  I love the Ned Roberts (hybridizer) spider daylilies, and I am fortunate to have a whole garden where they dominate.  So, when I go through the lists of his blooms, I pick everything that reminds me of my home area.  And, honestly, I have a lot of these creatures in my yard.  Watching these ones bloom is amazing, it takes a couple hours.

Anytime one takes a space that has been a rock garden on top of W. Colorado adobe earth, one risks.  It is hard, clay that is so basic (pH) that the nutrients lock-up in it.  Amendments help, but not for very long.  Most of my daylilies in that garden are growing, several have scapes.  A few struggle.  Why?  I seem to always find a lot of clay soil in the roots when I dig these ones up.  I also find roots of other species of plants that infiltrate everything in my mature yard.  I’m trying something new and cutting the whole bottom out of cheap pots and burying them with the strugglers inside.  And, good soil.  Hoping for some moisture retention and root guard protection.  Taking care of those who don’t flourish is the work of a true gardener.  Here on the Colorado Plateau, I have my work cut out as the nurse of the daylilies.