Many Blessings

August 31, 2017Leave a comment

It nears September. Today, I did musical Amaryllis pots. Some of my bulbs are 4 feet tall now. Never doubt that you get more plant if you buy from a nursery vs big box or grocery store. They are a cool addition to the landscape. In pots, of course. I can’t believe it is nearly time to bring them in to hibernate for a bit. And, my two poinsettias will be a pain to get into bloom, again. But, I am up for it.

Stella de Oro

And, so I am beginning to plan past daylily season. I hope to have blooms through September. Maybe, if another scape appears, they will go into October. It happened last year . . . into November. I await my last addition . . . Nurse’s Stethoscope. I have her pot ready. As soon as the weird weather passes Kentucky, she will be on her way.

Passionate Returns

It is time to blog less. I am ready to watch some videos in the evening. I am taking steps to decide what my new steps will be. I hope I can get my orchids to bloom this winter! And, keep my new azalea blooming. I hope this winter brings many blessings. We shall see. No matter what, the blooms will help.

Yellow Punch

A little help from my friends

August 30, 2017Leave a comment

Daylilies bring positive emotion to most folks. The bright colors are engaging and awe inspiring. This year, I gave daylilies away to friends and coworkers. I gave them away at some cost to myself. Next year, I think I may try to sell some of my daylily offspring to offset the costs of my hobby.

Passionate Returns

This year, though, I chose to give them. At first, I was just wanting to thin mine so they would do better in the pots. So, I found takers. The very cool side effect was seeing friends I had not seen for a while. One coworker even came to Montrose to pick hers up (well, amongst other errands here). Wow, makes me wish I lived closer to Colorado Springs where the Daylily Society meetings are. Life can be isolated in rural America.

Broadening and building resources means keeping our ratios of positivity high. That helps us reach out to others, thus forming networks of resilience. I need to be working on that ratio right now. My job requires an attitude of positivity, always. It is business, 100%. That means I need to surround myself in a garden of supportive friends. The daylilies are a start.

PS – I loved the red yucca pods (above). They add a fall touch to the yard as the daylilies dwindle,

Savor the Moment

August 29, 2017Leave a comment

The days are getting shorter. Although it is hot now . . . as hot as July. But, still, fall is coming. It is getting dark by the time I get off work at 8 PM. I am beginning to want to watch Call the Midwife in the evenings and put the blog more on the back burner. Not yet, but it is coming.

Today, I had one of my big box rebloomers (Pink and Cream) and a red Mexican Daylily (Shellflower). They are mostly yellow – so I like the red ones. It is cool they are peaking later than the real daylilies.

It is time for me to begin to consider matters from the heart . . . sadness, anger, grief. Such loss of so much that I wanted for life. I know where it leads . . . and I need to find new soil. Unreal. Life feels unreal. The daylilies have been the perfect pause button. I am not ready to let them go. Hoping for several more weeks of the (more) occasional bloom. Savor the moment. Smile 🙂

Double or Nothing

August 28, 2017Leave a comment

Anasazi is turning out to be a delightful addition to my late bloomers. She is producing a lot of double blooms. I only have a couple other doubles, and neither bloomed this year. She was my only flower today . . . otherwise, nothing.

Today, I did the musical pots task. It was hot, too – 91. But, it is finished. No more big digging projects this year. I up-potted Mesa Verde and Canyon Colors – the size of their root balls was amazing. I feel sort of sad for the daylilies in the Southwest garden – those pots will be easy to outgrow. Still, more space than now. Who knows what ideas I will have for the future?

I also got the drip system rigged up for the border garden pots. That will go on with the soak hose. I hope there is enough sun out there. Oh, who knows what a couple years will bring? All I know is that another season is winding down . . . yet, so many of the daylilies look so happy to have a chance to grow in good soil with better water retention. The Colorado Plateau has sunshine going for it, though. As long as there aren’t trees in the way, that is.

A Shoebox of Adobe

August 27, 2017August 27, 2017Leave a comment

The way the story was told to me, the Ute Indians put a curse on white men way back when because of how they were treated by “us”. The curse was that you had to take a shoebox of our adobe clay earth with you when you left or you were destined to always return. I thought maybe the yucca I planted in the stuff might suffice, but I guess not because I have been back for 12 years.

Each daylily now sits in a buried pot.

I think of the curse as I dig in my Southwestern garden, installing buried pots for most of the daylilies. That stuff is nasty. My poor yucca – it never looked good when it was planted in that stuff. It is either clay or cement . . . no in between. And, I don’t water houseplants that much. Cement.

My only bloom today: Passionate Returns

Today, I finished what I plan to finish this year as far as buried pots in the Southwest garden. I count close to 70 pots out there. And, 50+ in the front garden – but that is easier. Way easier. Now, it is musical daylily pots . . . the big decorative ones. I literally had to figure out which one I needed to start with so the right pots would be empty for the next step. But, this is comparatively easy work. It should move fast. Then, extend the side yard drip system for pots I am putting out there this year. Finally, mulch the Southwestern garden. Then, other than a few side duties, I can put this year to bed. In a shoebox. I can’t wait to hike in the desert canyons this fall. It seems like years since spring.

H2O

August 26, 2017Leave a comment

Water, the giver of life. Usually. I watch Hurricane Harvey and think of my days living in Galveston, Texas. Eighteen years ago? Where did the time go? Well, anyway, those days taught about having so much water that it becomes life threatening. Tonight, my thoughts are with those affected by the storm.

Coral Taco

I live in the desert, so our rain is never close to what they get on the Gulf Coast. Generally, my daylilies beg for more water, not less. Still, I hold my breath as I try both pots and a drip system in the Southwestern garden. I worry that they are too dry. I worry that they are too wet and going to get root rot. I have 3 makes of pots out there, too . . . so one may be OK and the other not. In the spring, I will put them all in plastic pots with drainage inserts = that should also keep the tree roots out. If they all survive the storm.

Passionate Returns

Water. Life giving. Most of the time.

Yellow Punch

The Stages of Daylily Obsession

August 25, 2017Leave a comment

Today, I got a package with daylily roots from one of my favorite places –Shady Rest Gardens. Well, Doris always sends huge fans . . . and she included some extra fans of two that I ordered. Two of the ones I ordered were to thicken up some of mine that shrunk in the Southwestern garden. So, it becomes too much daylily for the pots. I divided both the new ones into two and put the existing small ones with the smaller division of the new ones.

Pink and Cream

So, now I need to make room in the front or side yard for the extras. I am giving away a couple that I have doubles of to make room. And, so it begins . . . which to keep and which to give away? Is variety better than focusing on favorites? I have a feeling this problem could get worse before it gets better. In a way, though, it is nice because you can see how the same cultivator behaves in different conditions in your yard.

Yellow Punch

So, I decided to come up with some stages of daylily obsession:

You consider daylilies the perfect perennial enough that you favor them when you pick out nursery plants for your garden.
You start noticing more little things about the daylilies you pick . . . like size, shape, and name.
You decide to have daylilies as the dominant plant in at least one garden.
You discover that roots are a cheaper way to fill the space, with more selection.
You discover the auctions and find several reputable daylily root nurseries.
You start to favor some type of bloom or hybridizer. In my case, it was the Southwestern names of the Ned Robert’s cultivators that caught my eye.
You realize there are billions and billions of the type you want . . . you start collecting. You have to make fairly major garden revisions to host so many.
A year or two later, you have all the ones you want. They need to be divided and find new homes. It seems weird to have too many.
(I am not here yet) You become a hybridizer and/or farm them to sell.

Coral Taco

Oh, it is my mom’s 100th birthday today. I wish she could be here to see the Easter Lily Cactus blooms today. Like daylilies, they only last one day. I love all their biological features.

Easter Lily Cactus

Shift Happens

August 24, 2017August 24, 2017Leave a comment

I am so excited to be ALMOST done with the buried daylily pots. I have 48 done (in the Southwestern garden), 4 to go. Well, if you don’t count the 20+ that I am not potting this year. I have to tell you that potting the front garden and potting the Southwest garden are day and night different. One is an easy dig, pull weeds out, put in a pot, and easy dig to replace the pot. The Southwestern garden is hard dig with root clippers, shovel, trowel. I feel like a surgeon doing open heart surgery of something! Seriously. I dig enough heavy clay dirt and roots out of each hole to nearly fill one of the big Home Depot buckets (times 48). Then, I bag it and have to dispose of it when done. Fitting in nursery pots is harder than decorative pots because they are not tapered. My carpal tunnel gets so crazy it feels like I am getting shocked.

I am hoping to see new growth on the transplants soon. It seems a bit slow. I will fertilize once I finish the last 4 pots. This weekend . . . finished. This has been the biggest garden project of my life, especially if you count the veggie garden.

Anyway, I had four cool visitors today.

Anasazi had a bit of a double bloom.

Heirloom Heaven bloomed her last bloom of 2017.

Passionate Returns continues to be awesome. I honestly had no idea I would like these blooms so much! Love the shape and color.

And, good old Pink and Cream, my big box re-bloomer still putting out new scapes.

The kids have returned to the bus stop on my running route. Soon, there will be daylily-less days. I still hope to have a few through the first freeze. We are only 2-3 weeks away from putting the Amaryllis and Poinsettias into hibernation for winter bloom. When the spring comes again, we will see if the pots really made a difference. Shift Happens.

No Words

August 23, 2017Leave a comment

Eclipse!

August 22, 2017Leave a comment

Today brought the solar eclipse . . . and the first ever Anasazi bloom in my yard! There is a connection between the Anasazi (Ancient Pueblo Indians) and total solar eclipses. The eclipse of 1097 likely mplayed a part in the Ancient Pueblos leaving the Four Corners area. It was one of many celestial events that may have made this civilization decide that they were being given messages to leave.

I saw a video this AM of a Navajo talking about how the eclipse is seen as spiritual by their tribe. They see it as a time of new beginnings . . . a time to make resolutions. Like New Year, he said. My resolution is a big long pause on some things in my life that were not good for my spirit. I love them too much to ever do harm to them . . . or to ignore harm being done. That is a BIG resolution for me. I am glad I won’t have to do that for another 100 years 🙂

I wish I had realized how the sun reflects in the drops on the petals of the daylilies. I missed my 100-year chance to capture the eclipse within one of the daylilies in my yard. This photo was taken several minutes before the peak. If you look closely in the background, you can see some crescents in the shadows of the tree leaves. It was weirdly dark . . . but I never thought of focusing on the drops. Dang!

I nursed Anasazi from a 3.50 cent fan to a blooming size pot . . . it took 2 years. She is in a pot, of course. I smile for my progress. I had Heirloom Heaven and Cherokee Star also today. Somewhat sad to say this will be my last new bloom for the year . . . unless I get a surprise.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Month: August 2017

Many Blessings

A little help from my friends

Savor the Moment

Double or Nothing

A Shoebox of Adobe

H2O

The Stages of Daylily Obsession

Shift Happens

No Words

Eclipse!