I love that old movie Groundhogs Day. “Babe, I got you, babe.” Every day, he wakes up to the same day.
It feels that way in my daylily garden this year. The same 8 cultivators. Some daily, some intermittently. The buds grow larger and leak their color. But, for now it’s “I got you babe.” Until all hell breaks loose.
No new daylilies in bloom today. What IS new is that I’m now officially retired. But, that’s not why all hell is going to break loose. Well, maybe.
I have ~185 daylilies. I have 8 that are currently in bloom. About 5%. I have ~140 with scapes or in bloom – about 75%. That’s the hell that’s about to break loose. One day, I’ll wake up to 50 in bloom or something.
I’ll show off the 3 Ned Roberts spiders that were in bloom, again, today.
I’ll also show off my gorgeous prickly pear bloom and my cool bromeliad bloom. My broms live on the front porch all summer, so they are part of my outdoor garden.
I wonder if all hell will break loose tomorrow?
Indian Giver was a bonus plant I got probably 6 years ago. It had water issues the first couple of years, both loves being in a buried pot. It was a delight when it finally bloomed. I love the purple with white edges. I wouldn’t call it a mini, but it’s a smaller bloom. She had her premiere bloom today.
My other premier bloom was Happy Returns. She is a yellow, fragile Stella de Oro type daylily.
Indian Giver is an old expression for one party thinking they are being given a gift, while the other party thinks it’s a trade. When the second party realizes it isn’t a trade, they take back the “gift.” We would call it scamming these days.
Happy Returns means to wish someone a good day or happy birthday. It’s an expression of hope that the joy will return many times.
The paradox is in the meanings of the names. One is an expression of anger and discontent. The other of goodwill and optimism. It hit me as funny as I posted these to Instagram this morning. Purple and yellow are also opposite colors. I smile at nature’s hidden message.
The monsoons should return tomorrow. We will see.
Kokopelli is one of the most intriguing and widespread images surviving from ancient Anasazi Indian culture. He is depicted as a humpbacked flute player, and is widely believed to bring well-being to the people. He was the one who would change the seasons and bring about a good harvest. Allie Prater
Kokopelli came today, bringing with him the change of seasons. Kokopelli, my Ned Roberts spider daylily that is. This cultivator is my gateway to my collection of Neds. Spied at the lily auction back when I was first considering a Southwestern Visions garden.
My other premier today is Apache Bandana. Another Ned Roberts spider.
I have 120+ in bloom or scapes. Two days left until retirement starts and 20% cell battery. See you tomorrow. My others are still blooming, BTW.
As my Facebook memories pop-up, I become aware how slow this year is as far as blooms. I have the same 4 in bloom as yesterday.
I counted 103 scapes yesterday and 111 today. So, I think it’s not far off. I’m still upset that so many of my new ones parished over the winter.
I wanted to talk a little about weeds. Creeping Bellflower is the nemesis of my front garden. I thought the pots would keep the things from spreading, but they also send seeds. This article has good info https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/campanula/removing-creeping-bellflower.htm
The worst part is their roots look like pale daylily roots, and they grow right into the daylily root structure so it looks like daylily root. They grow tall and smother the daylilies.
This year, I’d had enough but was hesitant about herbicides. So, I decided to smother them back. I put down thick landscape fabric (including under each pot) and mulched over that. I bought about $200 in the round pot disks made of coir. Most my pots have those. My other invader is grass, so this should help that, too.
So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted.
It’s a camping weekend, so I missed whatever bloomed yesterday. But, when I returned, I found Funny Valentine’s first bloom. Nice to see this deep reds returning. This one has a zillion scapes, too.
It’s both Juneteenth and Father’s Day. My granddads both died before my birth. Dad was abusive and our relationship never healed (in this lifetime). I’m not married and my son-in-law wants me distant. But, I lived in Galveston so Juneteenth means something. So, happy Juneteenth Valentines.
Another premier is Orange Punch (or Yellow Punch). Lowe’s daylily I picked up several years ago and I don’t remember the name- just the Punch part.
Oh, and the monsoons arrived while we were in our tent, of course. I don’t mind rain on the tent and hoping this brings more scapes!
Saratoga Springtime and Stella keep blooming, as do my clematis. I think Apache Bandana is very close!
Jaundiced trumpets always start the daylily show. Screaming yellow jaundiced trumpets. It’s like a bad day in the newborn nursery, a little bit. And, since my last post, It has been pretty much the same two showing up to blow their hepatic little horns every day. Um, I don’t think bili lights are going to help them turn pink, orange, red, or purple. The warmth of the sunshine, however, is beginning to bring a bigger rainbow of color to my daylily garden. (Did I mention that I’m a nurse-midwife)
So, today my first Ned Roberts spider opened her eyes. Dream Keeper. Definitely not a jaundiced (yellow) trumpet. I love my Neds. My Southwest Road Trip Garden is moving slowly – only 20 scapes for 70+ cultivators so far. It’s that window where it could be the cold, dry, windy spring is just delaying the scapes or it eliminated them altogether. My other gardens have a higher percentage of scapes (unusual timing) but also get more water, so IDK yet.
Anyway, I mentioned I wanted to highlight a few of my non-daylily flowers this summer. So, here we go. Definitely, not all jaundiced trumpets.
It’s beginning to look a lot like summer! Today is 6/8. It was 8/6 when I wrote my last blog about daylilies blooming in my yard.
Today isn’t the first day I had a bloom for the year. That was Friday – the same day we left on our first camping trip of the season. I sort of wish daylily season didn’t overlap with camping season. I always have to miss out on something. Last weekend, however, I did not miss out on the mountain wildflowers.
I have actually been giving some thought to the blog this summer. I am going to simplify my photos and just use my cellphone – except maybe premiers or exceptional blooms. It takes way too much time to do photos of 60+ blooms/day on both cell and camera. I also want to include my other blooms around the yard somehow. And, I would like to spend more energy on providing gardening tips. Plus, some video.
I retire next month – at least until I find part-time flexible work. But, I plan to spend a few months getting my Art from the Hartt (and The Midwife’s Nursery) business going. And, camping.
I bought several cool daylilies last fall to celebrate semi-retirement. They did horrible – and I bought from more than 1 reliable seller, so it is on my end. I fully lost 2, and have about half the others with one struggling fan. The ones doing well are also mostly one fan, but normal size. It was a dry winter followed by a cold spring. And, I didn’t winter water. Lessons learned. Perhaps the worst part is the name labels washed off the new plants so I have no idea what I lost and what is left, but they should all still have grower labels so I will do some digging and get new labels up.
Here is to a new season. And, my usual premier, Saratoga Springtime. I have ~30 scapes and it is going to be 90 degrees the next few days.
Welcome to summer!
Today is Colorado Day! My home state is 145 years old today! I remember when it was 100 and I was 21, but we won’t go there.
Today, before my one premier, I want to talk about my CO namesake daylilies. I am going to start with Cripple Creek, because she was in bloom today.
That’s a nice batch of daylilies to celebrate Colorado’s 145th BD.
Now, on to our (likely) next to last premier. I only have Adios Albuquerque left unless we get an August Surprise. I love Navajo Curls. She looks like melting butter to me. An awesome late bloomer with a ton of buds.
I’m blogged out for the moment but I will be back after a short break – later this week. Despite having over 2 dozen in bloom today, we have a lot of finales brewing.
Here is part 1 of this blog post These posts include all daylilies that were in bloom in July in my yard. Please see first post for more details.
No U, No V – I need to fix that with some new flowers 🙂
No X, either!
That is all for July, folks. Look for our Colorado Day (8/1) blooms up next!
Colorado Kid Daylilies 