Grief and the Lessons of Corona

August 4, 2020Leave a comment

Maybe a daylily blog is a weird place to talk about grief . . . but the daylilies are part of it. Friday the 13th of March was the day my life shifted. We put a traditional onground program online over the weekend. I had two enthusiastic brand new, full-time instructors to help me and I was super glad for years of online teaching experience.

Chaco Canyon 8.3, 20 (blooming since 6.25.20)

It was weird at first . . . we thought it would end in two weeks 😉 The days were long – 15 hours. I was exhausted – But I made progress without the distractions of the office. The students got a little crazy and that was hard . . . but we got through and got the nursing students graduated in late May.

Once the warm weather came, I could eat lunch on my porch and enjoy my yard and daylilies. My pups got to be outside all day instead of cooped up in the house waiting for me to get home at 7 PM. We took evening walks and howled on the porch at 8 PM. I taught my disabled dog to use wheels and got my senior dog through two more treatments to finally clear her of infection. I got projects done around home – like painting murals and installing drip systems. Without the artificial need for an 8-6 with commute, my creativity came back. My energy got better.

Oh, there were the MA students who were in limbo with no clinical rotations who I had until the second week of July. But, I was surrounded by the other elements of my life throughout the journey. I guess I didn’t realize how much I missed them – how they fed my energy. Saturdays are not enough!

My camping trip came and went with only a few crisis – like one of my two full-time people resigning. Once I got home 3 weeks ago, I started feeling the grief. The daylilies would dwindle . . . and once school started, I would have no time for them. More than that, my life would dwindle back to a rut that is created by monotonous work in a small office with no windows and countless unforeseen issues to deal with, mostly alone. I am the only faculty with a doctorate in my institution – and 20 years teaching, 35 as a nurse – it is isolating to be so experientially separated from others. (The new college director is the second person with a doctorate.)

Tomorrow is my last day at home until mid October. Until the leaves turn my pups will be in crates by day. My daylilies will wonder where the camera went. I will become enmeshed in the endless tasks of the day and be too tired to want to walk into the house of hungry dogs at 7 PM. My dogs will become a chore in an all too busy day, again.

What is wrong with me, I think to myself? I really wanted to get away from a stay at home job because of the isolation. And, there are good things about this job. But, I am more engaged with my pups than my career at the moment. It has been a time of a lot of change for my program the past two years . . . a lot of change. And, I am responsible for way more than I want to be at this point in my life.

An online job beckons, again – and/or retirement. Maybe at the end of this school year. I am writing this blog to remind myself of this moment . . . of all the horrible and tragic things Corona Virus has brought to the world, it has brought me insight into my grief. I could step out of my rut and now I am having a hard time finding a purpose in returning.

I hope I have a new direction or at least attitude by the times the greens of the next crop of daylilies is born through the earth. Please enjoy my bloomers on my next to last day of freedom.

I will not forget the lessons of Corona. Perhaps the strangest part of all is that no one seems to see the struggle inside of me . . . . that makes the isolation 10 X worse. Thanks for letting me share with you.

Purple T-bird

August 3, 2020Leave a comment

No, I don’t mean a wild looking old car.

This was a camping weekend – and, like it or not, the last weekend before school starts. I had a frightening encounter with a drunk driver on the ride home. Not awful, but it coulda been.

We got home early afternoon. With temps in the 90s with high UV, my blooms were pretty weathered by the time I took pictures. I had one premier – Purple Thunderbird. That leaves only a couple of Roberts premier spiders to bloom in 2020. Purple Thunderbird is a big flower. Her scapes are short in my yard, though.

I also noticed that the weathered coloring makes Navajo Grey Hills look, well, grey. She is decidedly purple in the morning.

I ordered my first round of improved pots. I need to get soil and manure for the transfers. Might start next weekend and work around those still in bloom – a number that dwindles daily.

July’s Colorful Parade

July 31, 20203 Comments

Are you ready for a beautiful July parade? Here goes – a listing of all of my daylilies that had first blooms in July. I count 81. Enjoy!

Schools of Daylilies

July 31, 2020Leave a comment

The end of July lurks, school starts soon . . . why does summer break end halfway through summer? I mean, it has only been 6 weeks from Solstice. I had 18 in bloom this pre-fall day.

My daylilies follow the academic calendar, mostly. My students graduated the end of May and the blooms started 6/6. Now, I have Heirloom Heaven as a premier, a steady and late-blooming mini daylily. I only have a couple premiers left to bloom . . . 3 maybe. IDK, maybe the monsoons will bring some August scapes.

I had a second premier today – Royal Palace Prince. I really don’t remember that one being a late bloomer. But, this bonus daylily is definitely on the late side this year.

What’s left? Some cool Roberts spiders – Purple Thunderbird, Navajo Curls and Purple Corn Dancer all have scapes.

I dread return to work. No windows in my office and a bleak brick building with gravel around it. I will miss my dogs and my yard. I finally decided to spend a few bucks on photo squares of a few of my Roberts daylilies for my office. I need to get some of my summer camping trips, too – next paycheck. It is the best I can do right now.

Orange

July 29, 2020Leave a comment

My daylily counts are dropping into the teens. It’s OK, because I get kinda burned out with the camera this time of year. At peak, the battery needs to be recharged twice a week.

I hit 130 different cultivaters for the year today with one of my most orange daylilies of the whole bunch. The orange is so deep and so saturated – it looks like my mural paint that is deep orange with a little yellow stirred in that shows up here and there. I do not know for sure which daylily this is because I put in in with the landscaping before I was paying much attention to names. Someone on a daylily page said it looked like Orange Vols – and it does, so I am going with that name.

Unbloomed scapes on not-yet-bloomed cultivators are down to a handful. Maybe 5 or 6. I might get an August scape or two – although often I don’t. That puts us at about 80%. Not low 90s like after the rainy spring last year, but not the 60’s I got before the pots and drip system. Speaking of pots, I have some nice ones for the buried Southwest garden in my Target online cart waiting for payday. I think if I do 20 a month – August, Sept, Oct – that is 60. I have 75 in that garden – some still need to be dug out of the mud, clay and roots, too – takes time. Probably 20 or so left to dig up that aren’t in cheep pots. I could leave them for spring.

Fall chores take over my brain. Soon, I trade my camera for a shovel.

Mistaken Identity

July 25, 2020July 25, 2020Leave a comment

Labels keep me knowing what’s what in the garden. In a few cases, though, there are a few that got switched. I have two labeled Moon over Chimayo but I think I figured out last year that one is Star Over Milagro. Name alert.

I called this bloom Star over Milagro yesterday after comparing to online pictures. 7.23.20

So, yesterday I was convinced this was Star over Milagro. It’s bloom today looks like Moon Over Chimayo.

Today, she looks absolutely like Moon Over Chimayo 7.24.20

I did have premiers today. I’ll start with Moon Over Chimayo, again, since she had the wrong name yesterday.

El Desperado has a premier. This daylily was my first cultivar to live in the Southwest Garden . . . In a big pot with no regular water. Some how, she survived but I did move her to an area with sprinklers. But, last year she died during freeze thaw. So, I got a new one and it lives a cushy life on my drip system.

Carlotta bloomed and I got several camera shots of her, but none with my phone. I’m camping, so I’ll share her photo Sunday or Monday.

Visions of New Mexico

July 24, 2020Leave a comment

Today, I had two Premiers – both Ned Roberts spiders with names from the State to south of here – New Mexico. The first one, Navajo Grey Hills, I believe to be named after a trading post just south of Shiprock, NM (Four-Corners region). I drive that way sometimes but never noticed it . . . I need to keep a lookout.

Star over Milagro is the other Premier of the day. Milagro is east of Albuquerque. Off our road trip circuit by a few miles.

Let’s see – Orange Punch was an Encore today.

Finales – Stephanie Returns, Fringe Benefit, Longlesson Show-off, Black Arrowhead, and Cheyenne Eyes. I like about 25 blooms – it is a good amount but not overwhelming. And, the monsoons have been back all week.

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.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Category: Southwest Name Daylilies