The Pale Ones are Laughing

July 23, 20202 Comments

I had no premiers today. It is the time of summer where I am kind of burned out on blogging but there is enough still happening (26 cultivators today) that I am not quite ready to space to biweekly.

I am starting to think about moving the daylilies to better buried pots – thinking I need to purchase the pots soon. Somewhat dreading the work – but know it will be an improvement. That’s fall thinking.

I also decided to get some photo tiles of my favorite daylilies for the office. I think it with be my Ned Roberts spiders – but which ones? I decided I like the light ones that seem to be dancing or laughing – Winds of Love, Skinwalker, and Coyote Laughs come to mind. Darker ones – definitely Zuni Thunderbird. Aztec Firebird and Kokopelli would be high on the list. There are so many I love . . . I will have to see what the pricing is before I decide how many. But, for tonight – enjoy the pale ones who seem to be laughing . . . at me.

A fairy tale, a classy lady and a skinwalker walk into a bar . . .

July 22, 2020Leave a comment

OK, maybe it is a bad time for a joke about bars. Or, not. I am, of course, really talking about my three premier blooms today.

Fairy Tale Pink was one I picked up at a local nursery several years ago because I was bored with my existing blooms. The drip system has helped her – she got so dry in past years that her buds often dried up. She is in my sprinkler blind spot.

Classy Lady . . . I think I got her on the Lily Auction with some other daylilies that I liked and wanted to get the most for my postage.

And, oh Skinwalker! This Ned Roberts spider is the biggest, lankiest spider in the garden (well, the Southwest garden, anyway). I love the colors – and the tall scapes. It reminds me of a scarecrow.

That makes 122 cultivators so far (counting the 2 I missed on vaca). That’s 71%. And, we have a few more premiers in the future. Come on, 75%!

Finales are Cheddar Cheese, Red Hot Returns, Prairie Blue Eyes and Route 66. See you all next year . . . at the bar.

It is time to start ordering the new pots for the Southwest buried garden soon. I will start by repotting the ones already in pots this fall. It is awful to dig into the clay soil and tree roots. I do not look forward to that part at all. But, it is the easement and I don’t want to risk loosing them to a busted water pipe.

The Loneliest Number

July 21, 2020Leave a comment

One. That is the number of Premiers today. Just Bold Tiger – a fun, traditional bloom in the yard.

If feels good to slow down . . . only 16 or so premiers all season. I love the blooms. But it feels overwhelming on top of a busy job because I am a perfectionist with the photos and it takes hours at peak to water, take photos, blog.

I had an Encore today – the first of the season. Happy Returns returned . . . oh, those yellow trumpets!

I am not doing great keeping up with Finales but I did have final blooms on Passionate Returns and Cherokee Star today. So, today the finales outnumber the premiers for the first time this season, I believe.

Soon enough, the blog will be less often and I will pick up other pieces of my life, again. It will be cold and dark – my daylilies will live on my memory card until next spring.

Three

July 20, 2020Leave a comment

I had three charming premiers today, including one of my all-time favorite Ned Roberts spiders – Winds of Love. She always looks like she if floating on the breeze – probably influenced her name.

Kachina Firecracker also gave a first bloom of the year – She looks like Kachina Dancer to me. Cousins, no doubt

And, Nona’s Garnet Spider gave us a hello bloom today.

I did the counts of unbloomed with and without scapes. I believe we are at 117 cultivators that have bloomed now. I have a list of 16 more with unbloomed scapes – so that would come to a total of 133 or 78% bloom rate. That works for me – but it always bugs me why some don’t bloom (41 was my count). Navajo Rodeo, Cricket Call and Purple Grasshopper were big bloomers the last couple of years. Maybe I need to fertilize a bit more and refresh dirt if it has settled. The front garden had several that no-showed this year, but I just put the sprinkler in a few weeks ago, so maybe the drought was the issue. Maybe I will get some late scapes, too.

The southwest corner of my Southwest Garden today 7.19.20

Last year this day I had 70+ in bloom. But, last spring was so cold that my earlier bloomers didn’t show until early to mid July – and the mid bloomers were going by then, too. 70+ is insane. I prefer the more gradual peak.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

July 19, 2020July 19, 2020Leave a comment

I spent some time today trying to re-orient myself to the new lot of daylilies that are in bloom since I got home from my road trip. I got the spent scapes cut off and tried to make a list of finales. I would like to make a list of all the ones with scapes not yet bloomed and all the ones that aren’t trying.

Anyway, I went back through the 7.8 and 7.16 photos and found more premiers. Plus, there were 5 premiers today (at least first bloom since I got home). The total is 114 that have bloomed. That’s a 67% bloom rate. To hit 80%, we will need 37 cultivators to bloom. Twenty-three more. That’s tight but we can hope. I’ll count unbloomed scapes tomorrow.

Here are the premiers from today:

And, to backtrack, here are the premiers from 7.16.20 that I finally had time to look at today. I always come home to rain – so these guys look like they just showered.

Autumn Jewels looks sad but she bloomed 7.16.1

Papa Long Legs first and last bloom 7.16.20

So, that is it . . . back to a normal pace except work starts Monday. However, I am suppose to have July off so I plan to work from home unless they demand otherwise. Plus, I am waiting out the two-week COVID risk.

I worked on transplanting succulent cuttings and transplanting a few succulents into larger pots. I don’t have tons of love left for my orchids . . . so I use those pots but fill the holes with moss. It takes a while but it is relaxing.

Just for the record, here is a list of all of the finales so far for 2020: Apache Uprising (I missed this one but it did bloom), Ruby Spider (today), Lime Frost, Return a Smile (unless she reblooms), Early Bird Cardinal, Prairie Wildfire, Catherine Irene, Thin Man, Comanche Princess, The Colorado Kid, Blue Beat, Mildred Mitchell, Mauna Loa, Mesa Verde, Heron’s Cove, Canyon Colors (today), Jungle Queen, Wineberry Candy, Just Plum Happy, Raspberry Propeller, Santa’s Pants, Red Mystery, Bella Boo, Nosferatwo, Coral Taco, Pink Enchalada, Pink Rain Dance, Zuni Eye (I missed this one but it did bloom), Papa Long Legs, Land of Enchantment, All American Chief, Purple Many Faces, Indian Love Call, Laughing Feather, Coyote Laughs, Kokopelli, Hopi Jewel, Mount Echo Sunrise, Holy Sombrero, Ojo De Dios, Rocky Mountain Pals, Kachina Firecracker, Kiva Dancer, Echo Canyon, Indian Giver, Funny Valentine, Wild Horses, Inwood, Primal Scream, Lacy Doily, Nurse’s Stethoscope, Canyon Colors (today), Kachina Dancer (today), Apache Bandana (today). Not bad for 6 weeks!

Change of Shift

July 18, 2020Leave a comment

Change of shift is obviously when one group goes home and another one takes over. Well, since I left on vacation last Wednesday, I have had a lot of premiers and finales. I am not sure how many of each – but I do know that I have 44 in bloom today and 21 are new since I pulled out on my trip.

I had about 400 trip photos to go through, so I haven’t had time much time to count finales. I do know I missed at least one and others I only saw one bloom.

Was it worth it? Oh, yea – Colorado is beautiful and it is good to get out of town. Of course, the downside is that I now worry about COVID. Oh, I masked and carried hand sanitizer everywhere – around my neck. That said, there are a lot of people wondering around Colorado and our cases are on the rise.

I’ve now had about 104 bloom (+/-) so we are at a 61% bloom rate. I’d like to get to 80%, but we will see. I am just going to list the 21 new bloomers (Premiers) in alphabetic order:

Painted Petroglyph and her sad, bug eaten bloom 7.17.20

With 44 in bloom, I am still at peak. We will see what tomorrow brings . . .

Coyotes and Timber Wolves in my Daylilies!

July 8, 2020Leave a comment

What a long day . . . meetings, packing, daylilies. The day before a roadtrip making I have insurance and AAA cards, etc. And, the first time I went into work since March 13! How crazy is that?. Gosh, I don’t miss spending 4-5 hours/week on the road.

Anyway – let’s get today tied up since it is already tomorrow – which means I’m on vacation. Except I have to do some work before I leave tomorrow. But, well, who cares.

Premiers – a huge event in the Southwest Garden – Coyote Laughs bloomed! After 4 years in my garden – she bloomed for the very first time. She looks like Winds of Love.

And, speaking of 4-legged dog-type wild beasts – Lobo Lucy also premiered for 2020 today.

The REAL Nosferatu also premiered – the Nosferatwo mystery is similar, but redder.

Lacy Doily is the cutest little mini double bloom. She also premiered.

I am going to mention the elusive Just Plum Happy here because she is growing sort of under a shrub in the border garden and I missed her premier yesterday. This is the first time ever for her to bloom in the border garden (I have another one potted) – thank you drip system.

Now, some finales 😦 Two Roberts Spiders – Ojo de Dios has been an amazing bloomer this summer.

Purple Many Faces is also calling it a year.

And, Primal Scream is going quiet until 2021.

Last but not least – my Nurse’s Stethoscope is off-shift until next year.

It will be weird to miss nearly a week of bloomers – I hope I don’t miss any few-buds wonders all together. I will blog tomorrow, then break-time while I blog about my trip for my grands and anyone else who likes SW travel on my other blog.

PS – We have hit 80 cultivators for 2020. Fourty-seven percent. Seems like more when I am going through all the photos.

Hot and Sweaty

July 7, 2020Leave a comment

Today, I got up early to go to a doctor’s appt. It was early enough that buds weren’t open yet on my quick trip to the garden. By the time I got home a couple hours later, the UV was on high and I had a zoom meeting that lasted 90 minutes. By the time I got to go out to the yard, my daylilies looked like I did after standing out there for 5-10 minutes: Hot and sweaty.

I had some nice premiers today – Black Ice is my favorite dark daylily and is a Ned Roberts creation. Unfortunately, the sun leaves the dark ones really zapped.

Apache Bandana also had a premier bloom for 2020 – I like the pattern on this Ned Roberts spider

Treasure of the Southwest also had a premier today. These blooms are huge and very pretty. Nice bonus from a few years back.

Bela Lugosi also bloomed = man, the sun and dark cultivators. The good news is it looks much happier since I put in the sprinklers.

I also had some more finales today. Funny Valentine had a zillion buds and they are all done for 2020.

Pink Enchilada also had its finale today.

And stunning Mauna Loa is done – man, that corner is boring now!

The peak is on . . . I am falling asleep typing this. Ni ni.

Serendipity

July 6, 2020Leave a comment

Today, I had 39 cultivators in bloom. I may miss the peak over the next week – but until I am retired and can choose to separate my summer camping trip from daylily peak . . .

Monarch Butterfly on Black Eyed Susan 7.5.20

I was looking at my cell photos and posting to Facebook when I remembered that I didn’t get a shot of Black Eyed Susan. I went back out front to get one and I got a surprise visit from a monarch. Camo colors.

I had 3 premiers today – two were Ned Roberts spiders back for another year. Maya Cha Cha is one of my favorite because it reminds me of my granddaughter, Maia. It is so beautiful – just like she is.

Twirling Pinata showed up for the first time since 2018. Not sure that happened last year. Weirdly, Purple Grasshopper and Cricket Call are both scapeless this year. Not sure why that happens – sort of miss my purple bugs.

And, a little mini that I like called Pardon Me. I have had her for a long time – way before I was collecting daylilies like I am now.

I had two finales – Kokopelli and Wild Horses. See ya next year!

Tomorrow, I have an early appointment with my nurse practitioner. Best log off. Tomorrow – more serendipity.

Fire Flowers of the Corona

July 5, 2020Leave a comment

A different kind of 4th of July. I slept in – no parade. Then, after taking photos of the 28 cultivators in bloom, I decided it was too hot to take the dogs downtown. So, I puttered around the yard a little. Then, came the weather warning on my phone – big thunderstorm. I quickly finished lunch on the porch and brought the dogs in.

As the storm passed, I worked on my daylily business. I mean – I found an Oh Erica for my yard!!!! One daylily nursery had one listed as display only (not for sale) – but that must mean they have some if they aren’t for sale, right? Turns out, right. He was willing to sell me a couple of fans this fall. I’ll also be adding Dr Doom for a memory I have with my daughter.

Once the business was done, I headed out to pot some of the succulents that I have been rooting. I use orchid pots and fill the holes with decorative moss. It is cute and provides a lot of ventilation. Except, I ordered the moss a month ago and I can’t find where I put it. I had enough left over from last time for today’s project.

The thunderheads continued to pass over, which means non of my yard work that involves power tools got done. Other than daylily business, plotting my roadtrip, updating my GPS, and baking a silly 4th cake, I got nothing done. But, maybe that is balance.

I had a few premiers today – Let’s start with an alltime favorite Ned Roberts spider – Aztec Firebird. I love this one – it is so colorful – really stands out in the garden for all who pass by.

Passionate Returns is back for another year. She is a favorite among my Facebook followers.

And, little $5 special, Bella Boo, made an appearance. She makes a statement for a simple flower.

Ruby Spider celebrating her independence today 7.4.20

So, tomorrow, that means lots of yard work and getting ready for my trip. Maybe today is Groundhog day and we can just get stuck on a lazy day for awhile. LOL – Groundhog day in the daylily garden is my life . . . maybe if I do that or that differently next time, it will bloom.

Comanche Princess also looking like the 4th 7.4.20

Oh – one Finale from yesterday that I forgot to mention – Echo Canyon.

Happy 4th! PS – Fire Flowers are a synonym for fireworks. This year, my daylilies are the only fireworks. Hopefully, next year things are a little more normal, again. Wear your mask! Get one with daylilies on it!

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Category: July Daylilies