Double Helix

August 12, 2017Leave a comment

Today, I believe, brought my next to last NEW bloom for 2017. Pizza Crust, a late bloomer that I added last year. This year, a two bud wonder. Seriously?

At any rate, I was taken back by how it looked like a twin to Western Sandstone. Like, can you see a difference?

So, curiosity got the best of me. I thought that these two had the same DNA, and while their parents were not listed, they originate from the same hybridizer. Ah, ha . . . I think my eye does not deceive.

Honorable mention goes to Cherokee Star, who put out a near perfect, velvet bloom today.

Today was the beginning . . . of a weekend of daylily digging and putting in pots, again. This time the Southwest Garden. Only the bad side. But, that’s over 40 daylilies and the digging is hard. Tight space, tree roots and clay below the good soil that is now full of tree roots, too. I have 17 done and like 25 left to go. I think I will hit the hay early and get up early to start. I would prefer to be done or mostly done by Sunday. I still have divisions to do for friends. This work actually makes me look forward to snow . . . kind of. I do wonder if I will end up with decorative pots out in that garden, too. I guess this is a pilot. PS – I was digging up the daylilies out there to raise the grade of the garden at exactly this time last year. Sigh. It never ends!

Tomorrow, I think my Ugly Daylily will be in bloom. That is my confused Amaryllis. Life in the garden is always full of surprises.

Upward Spirals

August 11, 2017Leave a comment

The daylily garden is my happy place. Gardening brings a feeling of flow – or a loss of self. And, with daylilies, my optimism, curiosity, creativity, and appreciation of nature strengths kick in, bringing a sense of joy.

And, today must have been extra nice because I managed to take 30 pictures with only 4 cultivators in bloom. Well, and I snuck in a couple shots of my mini sunflowers, Mexican daylilies (shellflowers), and my confused amaryllis (yes, it is about to bloom in my yard).

It was a nice daylily day, though, despite the small number in bloom. First of all, Western Sandstone bloomed for the first time ever in my yard. This one was ordered the first year I was doing roots . . . 2014? And, so it is a gardener’s triumph! A pretty one, too. (pictured below)

So, back to the happy place. There is some good science that says we need 3 positives for every negative (emotion/event) to flourish. Or, somewhere around that number. When we flourish, we broaden and build resources. A month or two ago, I was feeling weighed down in some stuff that was creating an amazing negative spiral out of life. Having the daylilies to focus on is hugely therapeutic. No wonder the longest lived populations all garden!!! No wonder we call it “flourishing.”

Tomorrow, maybe Pizza Crust will bring a smile. Or, my silly amaryllis 🙂

Peace in the Garden

August 10, 2017August 10, 2017Leave a comment

The garden was cool this AM when I got up to look what was in bloom. I needed a fleece to stay comfortable. The scattered blooms took forever to open. Stella has returned, after 2 months of rest. I got Stellas last year so that I would have blooms all summer, and it has been disappointing. I probably need to divide more often.

I like my big box Pink and Cream that has been in bloom much more frequently and is prettier – a nice offspring. It will need to be divided in the spring, for sure!

And, fun with flower photos is turning into dances with shovels. Today, 8 more put in some sort of pot. The Southwest garden is hard work . . . clay and tree roots. And, odd shaped working space for digging holes. So many left to go. I have the worst corner done now. That’s a bit of progress. Every time I think I have foiled my desert garden, I end up re-doing it a couple years later. Because, when you add water and fertilizer, the natives want first dibs!

Somehow, this Gordon Lightfoot song has been going through my head all day:

There’s peace in the garden
There’s peace in the air
Peace in the sound of the river
There’s peace in the meadow
The sun shines like gold
And if she were with me
There’d be peace in my soul

Tomorrow, maybe I’ll talk about the upward spirals from time with my daylilies. I may have my first Western Sandstone tomorrow!

Quiet

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017Leave a comment

Today was quiet in the yard. Four blooms. Cool, rainy. Shifting seasons in the air. It is good to see the new growth on the daylilies I put in pots a couple of weeks ago. There is no doubt they look healthier.

I walked by Fairy Tale Pink and saw her shrinking fans under those invasive blue bells. I stopped to put her in a pot before the dog walk. I’m out of potting soil, again. More, tomorrow.

I sincerely hope I never have to put this many buried pots in any place ever again. The veggie garden was the worse. The Southwestern garden is more of a challenge than the front. At least as far as big roots. The invasive blue bells are in all the roots out front. A woman at the farmer’s market last weekend says they probably have something in their roots that inhibits the growth of other plants. I have to do a procedure where I paint the weeds that appear in the pots with herbicide. After all the pots are in the ground, that is. I hope the bloom next year is worth it! Oh, life on the Colorado Plateau!

Savoring

August 8, 2017Leave a comment

Savoring is a concept that I learned about over a decade ago as a student of positive psychology. Savoring is what I do in the garden every morning – I immerse myself in the color and shape of each bloom. It is a sense of awe, really. And, fall seems to turn up the volume of appreciation for each bloom. July feels almost rushed to get photos of each flower . . . but August slows it down enough to notice each individual bloom.

It is almost funny that today brought two new faces. I only have three unbloomed (for 2017) cultivators left to bloom now. Today brought an old favorite, Heirloom Heaven. A sweet, petite late bloomer.

And, it brought the first Passionate Returns (except the one that I missed Saturday). This is a new plant just a couple weeks ago when I was craving some more late bloomers. I love the color and the ruffles.

Now, it is fall chores. This year, that is a lot due to the decision to put almost everyone in pots of some sort. I’m maybe 2/3 finished. Then, I have several that need to be divided and given to friends/coworkers. I have turned into a serious hobbiest, and the transition is a bit painful at times. I am hopeful that next year will be easier. More time to savor.

Grit

August 3, 2017Leave a comment

Today was split shift . . . a day of grit to get more daylilies protected from the soil and roots in my home ground. I gotta tell you, I am ready to be done. And, yet, I have barely started in the Southwest garden. Ugh, that clay soil is definitely part of the problem in the area where the daylilies are not thriving as much. I put my first two full pots out there, buried. The challenge is to make sure the sprinkler hose hits them. Some others are in bottomless pots, and some in the black nursery containers, mostly without bottoms. We will see what works. It is possible that what works is just digging deeper in that clay and replacing it with real soil. But, the pots keep the unwanted roots out. Grit.

So, I had no new blooms. Decided to play with my photo editor. So, here is Indian Sky from today in colored chalk.

Also, I am resharing my Ned Roberts spider collage because I forgot Glen Eyrie. I guess 19 out of 69 could be worse. Almost 30%. But, that clay has to get split up to improve things. Next year, I would like to hit 40. Keep on digging. Grit! Except, this weekend I have a date with my tent.

Left to Right: Top Row – Adios Albuquerque, Aztec Firebird, Black Ice, Chaco Canyon, Chief Four Fingers, Coral Taco. Middle Row: Desert Icicle, Dream Catcher, Dream Keeper, Ghost Ranch, Glen Eyrie, Kokopelli, Papa Longlegs. Bottom Row – Pink Enchilada, Pueblo Dancer, Rasberry Propeller, Skinwalker, Twirling Pinata, Zuni Thunderbird

Web of Spiders

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017Leave a comment

Today, I think I got my last NEW Ned Roberts bloom for the year. The new one is Coral Taco. The challenge is taking a photo of a flower doing yoga. Yes, both me and the flower!

I started collecting Ned’s spiders a couple years ago when I saw one named Kokopelli on the auction. I cannot believe how little I knew about daylilies then!!! Anyway, once I figured out they were hybridized close to home and there were lots of Southwestern and Colorado names, I had to have more. And, most have not ever bloomed yet, although this year most of them grew big and healthy.

From L to R: Top Row: Adios Albuquerque, Aztec Firebird, Black Ice, Chaco Canyon, Chief Four Fingers. Middle Row: Coral Taco, Desert Icicle, Dream Catcher, Dream Keeper, Ghost Ranch, Kokopelli. Bottom Row: Papa Longlegs, Pink Enchilada, Pueblo Dancer, Skinwalker, Raspberry Propeller (not a Southwestern name), Twirling Pinata, Zuni Thunderbird.

It is sort of disappointing that several that bloomed last year did not bloom this year. My Southwest garden was where a pine was planted until they uprooted it for a new sewer a decade or more ago. A pine in the middle of a rock garden. So, I work on water and soil. There is clearly a part of the patch with bigger plants and a part with strugglers. And, so I am working on that, too. Maybe a tree trim???

Despite the disappointment of wanting more bloom, I was impressed when I put these all together in one collage. I cannot wait to see them all!!! I think I have around 50 total.

I think there will be a break for several days before any more new blooms. So, like these cool spiders, I will be thinking of themes to highlight certain daylilies.

Born to Be (Nearly) Wild!

July 30, 2017July 30, 2017Leave a comment

Last night it rained. It has been overcast all day, and now it is raining, again. It is a good weekend to dig daylilies and put them in pots. It is not a good weekend to chill with my dogs at the brewery. Or, go camping!

So, I did have a new bloom today. Her name is Nearly Wild. And she held up pretty well to the rain and sprinkler.

I am fairly sure she is named for the ditch lily, Fulva, that is the original American daylily. It was brought to the US from Asia in the 19th century as an ornamental flower. It grows along ditches in certain areas of the country, and (unlike most daylilies we grow today) has rhizomes that make it invasive. You can order it, but it comes with a black box warning that it is invasive! But, it does look like Nearly Wild, don’t you think?

OK – so the pot moving took most of the day. So far, 43 moved and 13 to go. Of the 13, 10 are still in bloom or have scapes. So, tomorrow is a much shorter day with that piece. Plus, I am starting to do some dividing, so may do a bit of that tomorrow. The cool weather makes a good time to do this part. Probably more so than camping.

Focus

July 25, 2017July 25, 2017Leave a comment

I was downloading photos from my camera tonight and had to laugh that the first 5 or 6 were horribly out-of-focus. Must have been Monday! The first photo is Mini Pearl – I was trying to catch a bee on her. No luck, but the focus is kinda cool. (Little Cadet – in focus.)

Daylilies give a focus to my life for several months every year. Not the only focus, but a creative focus. Now, work is more structured and less creative. I crave my time with the colors. One woman walked by yesterday and says she choose this route so she can see which lily blooms next. Yea, me too! (Black Eyed Susan is putting on a good show.)

Nothing new in bloom today – and not much cued-up. I’m featuring my golden blooms with eyes today, I guess. The season winds down a bit, and I am sad by the number of blooms I did not see this year. Fol de Rol dropped its bud. Why? It is hard to be a farmer. (Indian Sky paints the front lawn today.)

I did order pots – lotsa pots – from Amazon. Digging and transplanting kills much of a chance for reblooms. But, making the plants stronger this season will build blooms for the next. And, that’s my focus. PS – Two of the three featured blooms today are in pots!

Going to Pot

July 23, 2017July 23, 2017Leave a comment

It’s Colorado, but not that kind of pot. I mean that I sunk about a dozen daylilies from my walkway garden into buried pots. I look at the fans and they look so sad compared to the daylilies in pots around the yard. So, that made me consider bloom rate (and volume) of pot vs in the soil daylilies. I figured out my bloom rate in the pots is 70% +. My overall bloom rate is going to be around 50%. The pots have better bud count, too. So, we will see what spring 2018 brings.

So, believe it or not, I had two new faces today. First off, Fairytale Pink. I love the color and shape of this one. It needs a pot when it is done with its few buds.

Next is a cute little red miniature and I have no clue on the name. It is one I rescued from the shady garden near the back fence last year. I put those in before I knew this much about daylilies, so did not keep track of names. It is cute. I’ll have to research it, I guess. Maybe it is a Ruby Stella?

Well, I must be running out of new faces . . . but I do have scapes around on a few that are still small. So, who knows. I am working around the ones with scapes for now on the potting. So far, I have about 20 that bloomed last year that didn’t bloom this year. And, I have about the same number that bloomed this year and not last year. Last year, I spent so much time mulching and fertilizing each walkway garden daylily, but the grass and other flowers liked the treat as well as the daylilies. I have daisies and blue bells that are invasive. And so, I will go broke buying plastic pots!

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Category: Late blooming daylilies