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!
The next two posts are a listing of the daylilies that have bloomed ANYTIME during July – even if they started in June. It is a large list but also a colorful one. I believe only 3 of my cultivators were totally done in June – Saratoga Springtime, Scorpio and yellow Stella de Oro.
If you like Ned Roberts cultivators, you have come to the right place because I have about 70 of them, and most (except Navajo Curls and Adios Albuquerque) that are going to bloom the year have bloomed sometime during July.
I went to the rodeo here last night, so I am all practiced-up and ready to go.
Golden Eclipse 7.16-present
July Round-up N-Z – click here for more beautiful July blooms!
Please contact my business – Art and Nature from the Hartt for sales questions/availability.
I don’t remember when I first fell in love with daylilies. I know I have purchased them throughout the years because I liked their colorful blooms. Then, several years ago, I picked them for a xeroscaping project. It seems like that was the tipping point to owning 180 varieties.
I got smarter about gardening. I think the daylily blooms were huge motivators. As I got better with daylilies, I got better with houseplants. I went through a orchid phase. Now, it is largely succulents, bromeliads and begonias.
Back to the daylilies. Fall always made me feel sad because the daylilies went away and it made winter seem more dismal than ever. One day, I decided to learn to paint daylilies so I would never have a day pass at my home without a daylily bloom.
I am a creative and so painting was very engaging for me. I made tiles to hang on my walls so that I see daylilies as soon as I open my eyes. I gave everyone daylily coasters for Christmas several years. I broadened to some more scenic paintings. I did a few oils of the Southwest that turned out well enough to hang or give away. I painted stepping stones for my garden. The list goes on. Painting kept me connected with nature during the winter months.
I am a nurse and nurse-midwife by background. My career has been meaningful – I have helped pioneer and/or transition many health-related programs and I still work part time as faculty and leadership at a small college. However, due to multiple unforeseen issues, I decided to semi-retire this summer.
Am I ready to quit working full-time? Heck no. Am I ready to work for myself doing things that I love and find engaging? Absolutely!
I have had a Facebook page for almost 10 years called “Art from the Hartt” because I had a dream of selling my art. It never moved beyond the Facebook page because work took too much of my time. It is time to live the dream!
I have a background in human wellbeing and resilience. I want to focus my business on creating art (and selling plants) that create positive emotion. I have read that having a flower in the room you are in raises your happiness score! So, that is the vision of my business – making the world more resilient through art and nature.
I have a separate page/blog about my business at Art and Nature From the Hartt (click link). You can also find the business on Facebook (click link for page). I wanted to take a moment to talk about it here so people were aware that I do sell daylily paintings and other nature and Southwest related paintings. I also will be selling daylilies, so if you are ever interested in purchasing one of the daylilies you see on my blog, you can contact me at cathy.hartt55@gmail.com. I will know more about what daylilies are available soon. I also offer some types of begonia, bromeliad, and succulent. I will be launching an Etsy store as soon as I have a bit more inventory.
Before I go, I want to introduce you to my garden helpers. I have three rescue dogs, Kachina, Sazi and Moki. Soksabai, my cat, also follows me to the daylily garden every morning when I do my photos.
Please contact me at the email above if you have any questions. I can do many special or personalized requests. If you love daylilies/plants and/or the Southwest – you are in the right place. I am located in Montrose, CO.
What type of art or plant raises your sense of wellbeing???
I’m a nurse and I have worked the last shift – in the old days that was 11 PM to 7 AM, although most places have gone to 12s, so it is 7 P to 7 A. When you show up for the last shift, there is still a lot that can happen. It is far from over. However, it tends to be quieter with administration and many of the departments (and physicians) asleep at home unless called. As a midwife, I generally preferred last shift births because it was less hectic.
I would say the same for daylilies – their cycle is more like the 8 hour day, but the first shift is slower than in nursing. These are the early bloomers, often yellow trumpets plus a few brave early bloomers. The second shift is crazy, especially this year. Many of the first shift stayed late and a few of the last shift showed up early. Hectic, yes. Now, it is clearly the late shift – time to gear down and savor the last few weeks of the season.
I am going to focus on premiers since 7.18, since I was on a camping road trip last week. I have had numerous finales during that time . . . too many. I plan to do a month wrap-up post at the end of the month with all the July bloomers and their bloom date range. It will take hours to put together.
Premiers (with date of premier bloom if known)
I now count 151 +/- cultivators that have bloomed this year. I have 3 more premiers (with scapes) coming. Occasionally, someone will through a brand new (not re-bloom) scape in August. One time, Santa’s Pants threw one in October. But, we can count on 154 +/- for the season. That puts us at about 86% bloom rate – one of our highest years. I need to look back.
From here on, the focus will be finales. There are lots so maybe I’ll just wait until the end of the month and tie it up there. IDK.
The peak is easing, somewhat rapidly. I only had 40+ today, yesterday was 50+, and the day before 60+. And, so the tide recedes for another season. Not that it is over . . . anything but. However, I can keep up with this pace and it will continue to decline while I am away for a few days. I will only miss 4 days of photos.
I can slow my pace just a bit and savor the duos, trios and quartets of blooms. Daylilies don’t clump with a zillion blooms at once much in the desert. So, it is fun to focus on seeing the small gatherings.
One premier today!
Finales:
What are we waiting for – Zuni Thunderbird, Purple Thunderbird, Desert Icicle, Adios Albuquerque, Glen Eyrie, Cripple Creek, Navajo Curls, Skinwalker, Purple Corn Dancer, Royal Palace Prince, Heirloom Heaven, Dr Doom and Pizza Crust all have scapes now but have not bloomed. I could get some other later scapes, too. That is still a lot to look forward to when I return from New Mexico (or tomorrow).
So far, I have had 140 +/- cultivators bloom and it looks like at least 13 more – so mid-150s/180 puts us at mid 80s bloom rate. Much better than last year. I am looking at moving some new, more reliable bloomers in to replace those that bloom only occasionally and aren’t favorites. I love the smell of new daylily roots! Eventually, they will sing duos, trios, and quartets in my yard.
Perhaps it is a bit premature to start my “between the seasons” chores. However, the best time to update my garden map was with several of the cultivators in bloom. It is funny what I forget when they aren’t blooming and look like a cross between grass and a spider plant. So, I printed off the old map and thought it would be a few adjustments. However, the garden grew and changed over the years and the numbering system was confusing – so I started from scratch.
Garden maps are great, though. You know what you have and what you don’t have. You know approximately where your cultivators are – so when that bloom you don’t remember pops up, you can figure out what it is (esp if you lost the label.
Anyway, back to the blooms – I had 3 very different premiers today.
Finales included a lot of big yellow-white flowers today. Sad to see them go.
Only about 36 hours until I head for New Mexico for a few days – to see a Truchas sunrise and visit Ghost Ranch – Oh, and drive the Enchanted Circle in the land of enchantment.
Well, here I am at 11 PM starting my blog. I had to go into work and trim my hedge . . . so, that’s life. Once again, I have over 60 in bloom including 5 premiers. IDK, I think we are still on the plateau bloom season.
Before I list the premiers, I want to point out something that I learned coincidentally. I have a three sided yard – one side is an outdoor porch between the house and the garage. Then the front and side lawns. Each gets varying amounts of sun and water. When dividing daylilies to fill spaces several years ago, I noted that the cultivators bloomed as slightly different times and even had a slightly different hue. So, blooms that I want to extend for more weeks, I put in two locations in my yard. Like a cultivator? – double it by giving it two different areas.
Canyon Colors first bloomed in my big pot on the NW corner of my home on 6.15 – almost exactly a month ago. Towards the end of that cycle of blooms, the Canyon Colors in the Southwest Garden started blooming. Today, she had her finale. And, the big pot started reblooming. I am going to have Canyon Colors all summer!
OK – Premiers:
Finales:
There may be others that I missed so I should call these finales or near finales.
Encores:
That’s all folks. Thinking a couple more are going to jump in tomorrow.
. . . and dried up all the rain. And, I ended up with over 60 cultivators, again!
Rain is a rare thing here in Western Colorado. The US average is 38 inches of rain a year, we get 11 on a good year here in Montrose. The South, where many of my bloomers came from, gets an average of 45 inches or more. Rain is a good thing – it brings the temps down, too.
Today, we will get back to the high 80s and it is sunny. We are sunny here 245 days/year. That is 40 more days than the national average. My daylilies probably wonder what planet they landed on.
Anyway – I had 3 premiers and 5 finales. The output is higher than the intake, which means we are on the downside of peak but it hasn’t really shown in our bloom count yet. It is like hospitalizations vs positive tests with COVID. It takes a while for the change to show up in both areas.
Premiers . . .
Finales . . .
Weirdly, Bella Boo, Purple Mystic, and Just Plum happy put out blooms today after I said finale. It isn’t a rebloom, it is me missing a bud.
Next week is my camping road trip. I will only be out of the garden for 4 days. Honestly, I am ready to take some scenic photos and get a little breather from the garden. Yeez, though – my hedge needs to be trimmed before I go. I can tell we got rain.
Today, the rain came. And, our predicted high is only 77 today. What a shift after 90 something degrees every day. It will stairstep back up by Saturday, but next week (when we are camping) it looks like it only gets above 90 a couple of times.
The walk through the garden was in drizzle. I didn’t use my cellphone at all for fear of getting water in the charging port. My camera is more resilient to moisture. Some flowers were like the cellphone – sort of weighed down by the rain. Thin man was on the ground, passed out. I had to tie him up. Other cultivators seemed to come to life with brighter colors – doing a rain dance.
And, there were only 54 cultivators in bloom today. Only 1 premier – Dream Catcher. A nice Ned Roberts spider that was one of my 3 pilot daylilies in the Southwest Garden, along with Kokopelli and Aztec Firebird. Interestingly, those are three that grew pretty well in the ground with the tree roots, and all. Not sure if they like the pots as well yet.
Speaking of Ned Roberts, I have had the chance to chat with his wife and daughter via Facebook recently. They live about 5 hours away from me. I need to meet them sometime – they want to come see my garden.
Today is a good day for a short blog. I think I will try painting a begonia today. Yesterday, I finished my succulent. I will get back to daylilies – just trying to challenge myself a little. Remember to watch for the announcement when our Etsy store opens. I plan to have daylily fans available in limited number this fall . . . plus the artwork!
Holy cow! I had almost 70 again today. We have been hovering in the 60s since 7.5. That is definitely a record of some sort. That said, the finales are starting to outnumber the premiers, so it should start to die down soon. That being said, I have about 30 with scapes that have not yet bloomed. I think my bloom rate is around 66% currently. (I finally moved my daylily software from my old computer – which took an hour to boot up 😛 )
Here we go – today we had two loves, one moon and one timber wolf as premiers.
Finales for today were:
I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
Colorado Kid Daylilies 