July, She Will Fly and Give No Warning to Her Flight

July 3, 2022Leave a comment

Simon and Garfunkel were spot on. July and daylily season will fly by. Time is different in July. The flowers . . . what will bloom and when will it bloom? Blogs are a way to document the days when daylilies dominate our lives. They fly by too fast to remember without written record.

I had 3 new Ned Roberts spiders today, and 6 total premiere blooms for 2022. I’m still in the 20s for bloom totals each day. Peak is 40-60, so we need premiere to outnumber finales for a bit longer.

The first Roberts spider was sold to me as either Pueblo Dreamer or Pueblo Dancer. It’s never fit either description. It hated life until I put it in a pot with a soak hose. I thought that might be making the bloom weird. But, she is happy now and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s Roberts’ Bark at Me. In my Southwest Visions garden? Well, I always take the dogs on road trips. Woof.

Pink Rain Dance is timely this year in the middle of monsoon season. And, Land of Enchantment takes me to all our trips to New Mexico. Last summer was fun visiting Truchas, Chimayo, and Ghost Ranch.

South Seas is a nice coral color that put in an appearance, but not in the Southwest garden.

Sweet Petite Petticoats opened. I think she is my favorite small all yellow bloom

Canyon Colors is a favorite but struggling a bit. The bloom obviously has bug damage. July has definitely brought the bugs. Always a tough problem in the daylily garden.

Tomorrow, we will see what July holds in store.

Winter Blooms: Daylily paintings and photo prints!

October 27, 20211 Comment

Hi guys, sorry I’ve been so quiet the last few weeks. Semi-retirement is crazy so far. Started a business and running 2 programs for my part-time day job.

My Etsy Store is hopping. And, I’ve gotten lots of artwork done. I’m going to share some of my work below just to brighten your day. If you see something you like, please visit my Etsy store!

Skinwalker 8×8 painting (photo prints coming soon)

Daylily ornaments featuring Candy Cane Dreams, Santa Fe Christmas, Desert Icicle and Santa’s Pants

Nurse’s Stethoscope photo print from original painting 8×8

Canyon Colors photo print from original painting 8×8

Land of Enchantment photo print from original painting 8×8

More coming soon!

July Daylily Roundup A-M

August 1, 2021August 1, 20212 Comments

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.

“Fringe Benefit” 6.27-7.12 (mislabeled bonus)

Glen Eyrie 7.25-7.30 (started while I was on vaca 7.19-24)

Golden Eclipse 7.16-present

Jungle Queen 7.1-7.19-24? Finished during vacation

Marque Moon 7.13-7.19 (ended 7.19-7.24 during vaca)

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.

Double Date

July 17, 20212 Comments

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:

Autumn Jewels 7.16 – a close relative to El Desperado tells me the season is moving forward

Dancing Maiden 7.16 – With her close relative, Aztec Firebird, in the background. I am glad these are in separate pots because otherwise it is hard to tell which bloom belongs to which plant. I think there were a couple of years where I thought the was Aztec Firebird.

Golden Eclipse 7.16 – Another bloomer that comes later in the season. I love her color, although the grower told me I might be disappointed. I’m not.

Indian Sky 7.16 – I bought this from a grower who called it Indian Sky but it doesn’t look like the one on the Daylily Society website. It does look like the one on the grower’s website. So, I still think she is pretty.

Navajo Grey Hills 7.16 with a funky first bloom. Bugs, no doubt. I have faith it will straighten out. I really like this Roberts spider!

Finales:

Nurse’s Stethoscope finale 7.16 – This one that was born out of a name I suggested on the Daylily Society FB page. She totally fits her name if you ask me.

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.

High, Hot and a Hell of a Lot

July 9, 20213 Comments

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.

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.

June Daylily Blooms A-Y (no Z yet)!

July 3, 20211 Comment

I’m back! My house is cleaner and I feel like I can pick-up the blog, again. Don’t worry, I spent my usual amount of time with my daylilies in the AM. I love getting photos of them – something to get out of bed for. After three years of a stressful job and a commute, I just had to clean because my poor home has been like a neglected garden. I needed to pull weeds and plant some new seeds.

I am going to show off my June blooms (A to Z) for June in this post. I am going to have a good bloom rate this year and it sort of scares me what peak will be like with all my plants so happy. Good thing the house is clean. I count 51 cultivators for June 2021. Last year, it was 50 in June – so close. I think I have about 180 cultivators now – almost 30% have bloomed.

Big Red Rhyme (my NOID name for her) premiered 6.22

Chief Four Fingers premiered 6.27 (with some bug damage but more buds ahead)

Dream Keeper premiered 6.11, finale was 7.1

“Fringe Benefit” premiered 6.27 (mislabeled bonus but I still call her that)

Happy Returns – I believe the real cultivator is yellow and some of my gold ones are actually Stella – this one premiered 6.25

Nurse’s Stethoscope (the only registered daylily I helped to name) premiered 6.24

Platinum Pink Pallet Whispers premiered 6.21

Purple Moonrise (larger bloom on the R, to the left is Orchid Moonrise) premier bloom 6.15

Purple Mystic (my name for NOID) premiered 6.24

Red Riddle (my name for NOID) premiered 6.23

Saratoga Springtime premier 6/3, finale 6.23 – The star of early daylily season. A big, fancy yellow trumpet.

Scorpio premier 6.26, finale 6.29. Only two buds for the first bloom ever after 5 years in my yard.

Stella premier 6.7 and dwindling – I don’t think we have a finale yet but maybe.

Let’s close the book on June for 2021 – It’s a wrap!

Meanwhile, back at the daylily farm . . .

June 22, 20211 Comment

I can’t believe it has been almost 10 days since my last post. That doesn’t mean that daylilies aren’t blooming – although I think peak bloom is going to be a week or so later than usual. Maybe the drought . . . maybe some late cool days in the spring?

All I can say is life is in transition, so blogging had taken a back burner while I continue my job (part-time), clean and organize my house (also put on the back burner too long), and start a business. It is 11 PM (or later) when I finally have time to blog, but my heart and soul need rest.

So, since my last blog on 6.12, there have been a lot of premier blooms! (Premier meaning first bloom of the season) and I have 120 in bloom or with scapes. Here we go:

Rich-colored Canyon Colors made her debut on 6/15. She didn’t bloom last year so I had to dig her roots out of grass that had taken over her pot. She is recovering, but I don’t anticipate more than one scape this year.

Comanche Princess had a premier bloom on 6.18. She looks vigorous in both locations this year.

Echo Canyon made her debut today with three blooms. Our lead photo is her other two blooms.

Funny Valentine had her first blooms open when I returned from camping on Sunday. She has a ton of buds and scapes this year.

Mesa Verde showed up on 6.15. I love her colors, too. Makes me want to take a roadtip . . . actually, I will be at Mesa Verde next month.

Orchid Moonrise had her premier-premier bloom on 6.17. That means, despite having her in my garden for 4ish years, this is the first bloom year. She likes being in the pot away from the tree roots, I think.

Platinum Pink Pallet Whispers premiered today. Who names these daylilies, anyway?

Purple Grasshopper premiered on 6.11 but I can’t remember if I included her in my last blog.

Ruby Spider – One of my first and favorite daylilies. Premier was 6.21.

Wild Horses bloomed for the first time this season on 6.15. Always a stunning bloom.

Yellow Punch, my Lowe’s special a few years ago, opened on 6.15.

My first yellow Stella de Oro opened on 6.18. She is a very different color than my golden Stella and rates her own listing.

That’s about 12 premiers since the last blog. 100++ more to go. What’s next? I guess we will see tomorrow. I would like to get back to blogging regularly, at least on Sunday. I feel like daylily season will come and go so quickly this year. The plants (mostly) appreciate all the work I did potting them and/or refurbishing the soil. A few are too crowded now and seem hesitant to send out a scape. Fortunately, I can divide and sell them this fall.

Speaking of which – please drop by my Art and Nature from the Hartt website to see what I plan to carry in my Etsy store. I have lots of begonias and coleus cooking now . . . and some succulents. I can’t wait to start making daylily art, again, too. I will clean my house first, though. Come visit us at this link – http://www.artandnaturefromthehartt.com

TTFN!

Daylilies of Corona: June Blooms

July 1, 2020Leave a comment

Last year, I posted all my blooms each week on Sunday since it is too much to do daily. This year, I am going to try to do a recap at the end of the month. So, for June 2020, we had the following 50:

Spikes or Waves

June 25, 2020Leave a comment

Ah, the talk of pandemics. Nothing like having a doctorate in nursing at a historic time like this. I almost wish I was back in biostats or epidemiology class right now.

People debate if this is a spike in the first wave or a second wave. Hmmm, well, it reminds me a little of the epidemic of daylily blooms in summer. There are days with 8+ premier blooms (new cases) and days with only 1 or 2. Are the busy days waves or spikes within a wave? IDK that there is a right and wrong answer – but I would say the second.

Like the epidemic, we will see a peak and a decline after that. Fortunately or unfortunately, daylilies are seasonal. There will be no second wave during flu season . . . or Christmas.

So, today was a good day if you are into low numbers. I only had 2 premiers. Both are old daylilies from my early days of collecting these plants. Lady Fingers is one I got for my landscaping circa 9 years ago. It is simple yellow – but a spider, not a trumpet. I like the green throat.

The other one from today is Inwood, who is having a better than average year. Her buds are healthy and she has more spikes than average. I was delighted to see such a pretty bloom. She reminds me a bit of Canyon Colors, who is having a bad year and I think it is because the grass is taking over her pot. As soon as her sad scape gets done blooming, I will dumb her our and dig the grass off of her roots.

Fall project – I think I will start working on putting my Southwest Garden daylilies in better pots, like my daylilies out front. I think they are more protective against tree roots AND after my sewer issue last winter, I am reminded that my garden is on the easement. That means if the water pipe gives, the City digs. If they are potted, it will be much easier to deal with. I have them in pots, just not better quality ones. I may do half this year and half next. It will be way easier than digging them up the first time!

Anyway – We will see if tomorrow brings a peak, but I think it is all one big summer wave. PS – I have 32 folders of cultivators on my computer now – out of 171 possible. That’s almost 20% bloom rate. Less than 3 weeks since the first bloom. Let’s see where we are in a week. I should do a graph like the epidemiologists. Really.

Freedoms

June 20, 2020Leave a comment

Today, I woke-up late because I worked until midnight on a supply list for one of our new programs. It is busy on top of COVID-19 – the world of nursing academics is and will stay upside-down.

I was foggy . . . but when consciousness returned, I realized it was Juneteenth. I knew nothing about Juneteenth until I lived in Galveston and read a book by the same name. It is a day worth remembering.

We live in a world that seems shaken by so much right now. But, I am free to go out in my yard and take photos of the 13 bloomers of the day. All are different colors, and I treat each the same. I am free to write the blog. I can put just about anything I want in this blog – that is freedom. I can be a crazy daylily lady – that is freedom.

The other cool thing about today is that my Nurse’s Stethoscope daylily bloomed her premier bloom. She is the one I suggested the name for through the Daylily Society. She is named for the Show Me Your Stethoscope episode of the View. Maybe COVID-19 has helped the world understand all of the capabilities of my profession.

I had a few other premiers – I do believe the peak is beginning to build. Canyon Colors had a premier bloom today. There is so much grass in her put that she didn’t put out many scapes. I was going to replant her in March, but couldn’t get out to buy the soil before she got too big.

Indian Love Call had a nice first bloom. She is loaded with buds.

Land of Enchantment had a premier bloom that looks almost as beat-up as Kokopelli did yesterday. I think it is bud damage from the big windstorm a couple weeks ago.

It is Friday, summer solstice is tomorrow. It just feels like a significant day.

My flowers today are dedicated to those who don’t know the same freedoms that I have known. And, they are dedicated to the frontline workers during COVID-19 – my Nurse’s Stethoscope seems to say “thanks” to my colleagues.

It’s my home weekend tomorrow. A few things planned around the yard. Solstice . . . Summer Solstice. And, I get a little sad knowing that the days will start shrinking, again.