Sweet Seventeen

July 3, 20192 Comments

Wow, time flies when you’re having July. Almost road trip time. I won’t miss peak, I don’t think. But, it could be starting by the time I get back. I’ll be cutting down used scapes soon enough.

So, a couple quick stories. All American Chief gave me a first bloom ever after three years. He was a gift plant. I love that the sellers pick up my Southwest theme and send approximately named daylilies. Hopi Jewel has bloomed every year, but has a similar story.

Here are today’s Premieres:

All American Chief 7/3

Hopi Jewel 7/3

Return a Smile 7/3

Petite Petticoats 7/3

And, that makes for 13 Reruns:

The Colorado Kid 7/3

Echo Canyon 7/3

Saratoga Springtime 7/3

Canyon Colors 7/3

Mesa Verde 7/3

Navajo Blanket 7/3

Comanche Princess 7/3

Funny Valentine 7/3

Dream Keeper 7/3

Indian Love Call 7/3

Yellow Stella 7/3

Yellow Punch 7/3

Golden Stella 7/3

For the first time in years, Ruby Spider isn’t going to bloom on the 4th. I don’t I can do a shot with red, white and blue flowers together. Oh well, happy 4th!

Baker’s Dozen

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019Leave a comment

Ah, the days of lots of Premieres and no Finales in sight. Today saw 13 blooms. A couple works about Navajo Blanket. I got her early in my daylily crazy. Probably 4-5 years ago. Initially, in the dobie soil until I dug a bunch of half dead daylilies up and put them in pots two years ago. This year, I tried a bigger pot. That, plus the rain, and it bloomed this year.

Another little miracle was Ojo de Dios. She died and I replaced her once I had buried pots in. She is big and healthy now.

So, here we go with Premiers;

Navajo Blanket 7/2

Ojo de Dios 7/2

Mesa Verde 7/2

Echo Canyon 7/2

And, Reruns:

Indian Love Call 7/2

Funny Valentine 7/2

Golden Stella de Oro 7/2

Land of Enchantment 7/2

Comanche Princess 7/2

Dream Keeper 7/2

Canyon Colors 7/2

Yellow Punch 7/2

Saratoga Springtime 7/2

It’s beginning to look a lot like summer!

July 2, 2019Leave a comment

And, so it has begun. Slowly but surely. Despite the very weird weather of 2019 that brought hail, rain, and thunder today. Ten bloomers.

Let’s start with Premiers;

Land of Enchantment 7/1 – I’ve had this cultivator 5 years and this is her first bloom.

Purple Many Faces 7/1

Chief Four Fingers 7/1 – This one bloomed in ’14 and almost died but finally back in good health.

Now, onto Reruns:

Indian Love Call 7/1

Saratoga Springtime 7/1

Funny Valentine 7/1

Golden Stella 7/1

Dream Keeper 7/1

Comanche Princess 7/1

Canyon Colors 7/1

Last year, I think I just listed the Reruns of I had more than 12. We will see. I’m using my phone/Wordpress app more this year. My camera photos need to be retrieved for the last few days. July has arrived.

Here Comes the Sun

June 30, 2019June 30, 2019Leave a comment

Well, time to stop thinking summer will never come. While I anticipate my daylilies are 2-4 weeks behind average, today there was a shift in numbers and colors.

Here are the today’s premieres:

The Colorado Kid 6/30

Comanche Princess 6/30

Canyon Colors 6/30 (first bloom 6/29)

Indian Love Call 6/30

Yellow Punch 6/30

Funny Valentine 6/30

And, here are the show stoppers who have been around for a week or three:

Saratoga Springtime 6/30

Dream Keeper 6/30

Golden Stella 6/30

Yellow Stella 6/30

I’m working on moving my history website moved to WordPress this weekend, so that’s all for the daylilies today. Oh, the cover photo is Ghost Ranch, whose one and only bud opened yesterday.

Multiples

June 25, 2019Leave a comment

So strange. It’s July in a week and I’ve only had 3 cultivars bloom. Maybe the 35 degree low and hail this weekend helped. Lol. All I can say is that my 3 in bloom today all have me 4 blooms. I don’t see any others that ready to bloom . . . Within a week, but not tomorrow.

Saratoga Springtime 6/24

Stella 6/24

Yin and Yang

June 21, 20191 Comment

I’m really not feeling the joy of daylily season, yet. The wet, cold spring has things running 2-4 weeks late. Next week and the following are usually peak weeks. I have lots of scapes, but nothing but Stella, Saratoga Springtime, and Dream Keeper are blooming. And, I’d guess next week at the earliest before that changes. Last year, I had a dozen or so in bloom by now. I thought it was my gardening skills. Maybe some, but mostly the yin and yang of exceptional drought to a cold, wet season.

Dream Keeper 6/20

Saratoga Springtime 6/20

This year, I’ll do Premier photos for new blooms and, like last year, Encore photos for last blooms of each cultivator. For now, though, we wait.

It’s That Time, Again!

June 12, 2019Leave a comment

The contrast seems odd. Last year we had the exceptional drought. Blooms were early because of the warm, dry winter. I winter watered my daylilies once a month. Some buds dried up before they opened.

Stella de Oro, June 6, 2019

This year, winter was long, cold and wet. It warmed up in March, but got cold, again. I lost El Desperado – my big, thriving El Desperado. Nurse’s Stethoscope is struggling. I lost Ghost Ranch. Other daylilies have bigger that average foliage. It’s weird that I lost more with rain than without. We are 200% or something of the average snowpack.

Saratoga Springtime, June 9, 2019

So, blooms are late and scapes are slow to appear. I don’t feel as geared up for my daily daylily blog as usual. Maybe it’s because I have a new job that is a better match, but I’m leading a major transition. So, that and sick dogs, have been my focus.

Dream Keeper, June 11, 2019

But, nature doesn’t care. Summer temps are starting the last couple of weeks, and I’ve had 3 daylily blooms. Stella de Oro was the first. She started scapes at the usual time and then winter returned. She slowly but surely persisted. Other bloomers are Saratoga Springtime and Dream Keeper.

Oh, and my amaryllis finally bloomed after 5 years!

I have more scapes this week, but nothing else on the verge of blooming. So, my blog will have a slow start, just like the spring did.

Three Standard Deviations

August 18, 2018Leave a comment

What a strange week . . . 3 standard deviations from the mean. So, I apologize for no blog since Sunday. The reorganization has hit at work. I worked 12 hour days on Monday and Thursday. Tuesday, I had this skin cancer removed . . . long story short is that I hope like heck it stays healthy until the graft next Tuesday. Wednesday was my eye exam – and I worked until 10 PM. And, today – a steady 6 hours of work with everything in motion. I will get even more new students, I got a new boss (3rd boss in as many weeks), I haven’t even gotten all the new students from the last batch re-settled. And, then, I heard my calling. Doors may open. Let’s leave it at that for now.

My yard has fallen way down on my priority list. I have no idea if I can dig up any lilies this fall with all this noise in my life. Really, my energy has changed this year and the noise is deafening. Speaking of deaf . . . yea, that, too. That said, things are beginning to move in new directions. I let go and started living for a new vision. This created some feng shi space, I guess. Things are moving after a very long, stagnant period. How long do we fertilize something that never blooms?

So, enough of my excuses – here are my flowers for the week:

Finales:

Blue Beat 8.16

Pink and Cream 8.17

Other bloomers:

Purple Corn Dancer 8.13

Indian Sky 8.16

Heirloom Heaven 8.13

Ruby Stella 8.13

Dream Catcher 8.16

No August scapes – no returns, yet, from my “returns” daylilies. No rainy season. A quiet fall in the garden. Which is probably good given everything else in my life. It is a camping weekend and I am home. Too much going on today . . . and this week. I may try for a one-night wonder trip near home tomorrow if I feel up to it. I need to focus on healing my life.

Christmas in August: The Ugly Daylily

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018Leave a comment

The blooms thin out way too rapidly this time of the season. Every day brings another finale or three. I hung the black-out curtains on the poinsettia bloom closet so I can start forcing them in a couple of weeks. It’s 90 degrees outside so it doesn’t feel right. The amaryllis will come in soon, too. Speaking of amaryllis, Ambience bloomed this weekend. Well, more like she is blooming. Unlike daylilies, she takes her time. She blooms every summer at this time. I call her the ugly daylily. Unfortunately, the bugs love her thin blossoms. But, her color is stunning just the same. She looks like Christmas in August.

Amaryllis Ambience 8.11

Now, back to the real daylilies for the past two days. I took last night off of the blog . . . needed a break.

Finales:

Mini Pearl 8.11

Royal Palace Prince 8.11

Tiger Kitten 8.11

Navajo Curls 8.12

Other Saturday and Sunday blooms:

Pink and Cream 8.12

Blue Beat 8.11

Stella de Oro 8.11

Ruby Stella 8.12

Purple Corn Dancer 8.11

Dream Catcher 8.11

Indian Sky 8.11

That’s all folks. We are headed into the quiet of late August. No new scapes at this point. I think we needed monsoon rain for that to happen.

Sleeping In

August 10, 2018Leave a comment

The season winds down, and I find myself hitting my snooze a couple extra times. The work of the daylilies has gotten to be a lot less intensive. It has positives and negatives. Here are today’s bloomers:

Finales:

Nearly Wild 8.9

Pizza Crust 8.9

The rest from 8.9:

Purple Corn Dancer

Pink and Cream

Dream Catcher 8.9

For fun, let’s look at the Walkway Garden cultivators that bloomed last year, but didn’t bloom this year. I wonder why? Drought? Adapting to pots? Neighboring plants got bigger and blocked sunlight?

Little Cadet 2017

Best Seller 2017

Chama Valley

Fine Time Lucille 8.9

Fol de Rol 2017

Pardon Me 2017

Western Sandstone 2017

Tis the season to check these pots and see if they need dividing. Then, there are the ones that have never bloomed in my yard – ever. I think 1 more year and some may get recycled. It seems only fair to give them another year in the pots to see. They are Happy Happy, Scorpio, Coberg Fright Wig, Navajo Blanket, Sanctuary in the Sky, Fringe Benefit, Carlotta, and Quilt Patch.

I wish I had the energy that I did last year because time is getting shorter. Sometimes I wish camping season and daylily season did not run concurrently. I read my blog from last year, and I was burying pots every spare second. Now, it feels like too much to add dirt to the bottoms of the pots that have settled. And, I do need to dig up a couple in the Southwest garden and put in pots. Dividing is easier in pots, though. I guess it is my year not to bloom. Droughts happen, and sometimes it isn’t about water.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Category: Ned Roberts Daylily

Sweet Seventeen

Baker’s Dozen

It’s beginning to look a lot like summer!

Here Comes the Sun

Multiples

Yin and Yang

It’s That Time, Again!

Three Standard Deviations

Christmas in August: The Ugly Daylily

Sleeping In