Tag: Art and Nature from the Hartt

About Art (and Nature) from the Hartt

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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.

Daylilies in my Southwest daylily name garden

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.

Colorful, stripped bromeliad

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.

Painted daylily small tile

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.

Working in my art cove looks like this!

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.

This is me out by my potting shed, tending daylilies.

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!

Succulent painting

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!

Art and Nature from the Hartt

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.

Painted tile of rex begonia

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.

My dogs Kachina, Sazi Ana and Moki
Soksabai – My gardening cat

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???

Grand Daylily Mesa, Colorado

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What an interesting year! Not only have I reached semi-retirement age, I am having an amazing daylily bloom year. The drip systems with miracle grow soil replacement paid off in spades. It is honestly overwhelming because it takes an hour just to photograph them. I spend about 5 hours a day (not counting the painting) on daylilies right now.

I would not call this a peak – because on 7/3 we hit 60. It has been in the 50s and 60s each day since. And . . . drumroll . . . today I had 63. Last year, I charted the peak and it was clearly one day at 40, the other days were 20s at best. Granted, I was on vacation the last 2 years this week, but I think the numbers are an accurate reflection of a short, less intense peak. This isn’t a peak, it is a Southwest Mesa – and a grand one, at that.

I had 6 premiers today. Laudy. Here they are:

Quilt Patch 7.9 – I am headlining this one because I got her on the auction at the same time I got Kokopelli. The start of being a serious hobbiest. I put her in a different pilot garden and she almost died – she became a seedling in size. I moved her to a pot out front after a year out there and put her in the front garden. Each year, she gets a little stronger. Today, the first ever bloom came. Now I see why I had to have her!
Blue Beat 7.9 – One of my early near blues. I must say it is my near blues that need repotting once we get over the Grand Mesa and things settle down. They are not at their best this year.
Cherokee Star 7.9 – A pretty velvet cultivator that fits with my Southwest collection. She is from the local nursery.
Iktomi – This is a classic Robert’s spider. I see his DNA in so many of his hybrids. Reminds me of Chaco Canyon but I also see Apache Bandana and Black Arrowhead.
Rocky Mountain Pals 7.9 – Another Roberts cultivator. I understand it was named for his cancer treatment team in Denver.
Rosie’s Red – Another cool bonus bloomer who is usually one of the later bloomers in the front garden. This year, she is at the top of the Mesa with everyone else.

That’s all folks! Off to paint some daylilies in the basement while the temps reach 100 today.

Click photo to visit our business page with updates about daylily plant and artwork for sale.

High, Hot and a Hell of a Lot

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High, hot and a hell of a lot is a type of enema that nurses use to give more frequently than we do today. I had to learn about them in school many years ago. Suffice it to say you put a lot of water (with soap) in an enema bucket and hang it high so gravity does its thing. Oh, and make that water hot just to give it an extra twist.

For some reason the words came to mind when thinking about my garden today. Not enemas – but altitude, temperature and the number of cultivators I had today. Almost 60, again. So, the peak this year is more like the Grand Mesa . . . you get to the top but it plateaus for a while before it starts going down.

As far as new blooms today – I had two birds. Maybe I should have titled this “Giving you the birds” or something. These are both Roberts spiders.

7/8 Aztec Firebird – one of my original 3 Southwestern daylilies in my garden pilot. I had it, Kokopelli and Dream Catcher only the first year. Big lesson when I enlarged it is that where you water large surface areas, you attract lots of tree roots. I love the bright colors of the Aztec bird – she is a little late this year. The daylilies that thrived the most in-ground are pretty slow to bloom this year, whereas those that were being strangled in roots before bloomed early and lots.
Raven Woodsong – I love the color of this one.

And – while not a premier, Chief Four Fingers finally had a picture perfect bloom. The bugs got the early buds but it got better when I improved the water flow so the plant got stronger.

Chief Four Fingers perfect bloom (or close)

I painted another painting last night – Canyon Colors. I have put a lot of energy into my art business the last couple of days so I can get some inventory built up. I plan more than daylily paintings, but I am starting there because I have done more of them than anything else and it is a good way to get my skills back. Yesterday, I worked on lighting for the Art Cove. Today, I got tiles, oil paints, and canvas. Please follow my business page (link at bottom) for more info.

My Art Cove – back in business!

As far as finales – I may go to once a week because it is too confusing when I have 60 in bloom. Easier to do when I cut spent scapes once a week.

Click photo to visit our website

Daylilies are My Life

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This time of year, it feels like daylilies are my life. I have had about 30 blooms in the garden for several days. Yesterday, we hit 40. Today, we hit 60!. It took me almost an hour just to photograph them – let alone photo editing and posting. Last night, I took a lot of photos of fireworks – It felt very similar in my garden today. A few pauses, but mostly lots of action. Do I think we are at peak – no. But it is getting closer.

Here are the premiers for today. Hang on – there are 10 (so about 80 cultivators have bloomed so far). Today, there were several of my favorite hybridizer’s blooms that opened (Ned Roberts). Daylily season is like Christmas . . . the peak is a little overwhelming. At the same time, it is like old friends who visit once a year.

Chokecherry Mountain 7.5 (A Ned Roberts Spider)
Feather Woman 7.5 (A Ned Roberts spider)
Heavenly Curls – one of my favorite bonus daylilies!
Longlesson Show-off – Not one of my favorite bonus daylilies, but the bloom looked fuller and more colorful today than usual. Maybe the soil change and drip system.
Medicine Feather – A lanky Ned Roberts spider
Another bonus – Nona’s Garnet Spider – I have always liked her.
Pueblo Dancer – 7.5 – another Roberts spider but I have always questioned her ID. Her blooms are larger this year with the soil change!
Ruby Stella 7.5
Strutter’s Ball – 7.5 – a late bloom start for this long-time member of my daylily pack
Talon – 7.5 Another old friend from my Roberts collection

Finales have started to add up a little, too. I missed Platinum Pink Palette Whispers. Today was the last of Funny Valentine’s show for 2021.

Platinum Pink finale 7.2
Funny Valentine finale 7.5

Wholly cow! This took all day. It’s 4:30! Hopefully, I got the bugs worked out of my back-up system so it doesn’t take as long tomorrow. I gotta get painting and get my business inventory going! Follow my business blog for updates, too.

http://www.artandnaturefromthehartt.com