Tacos, Firebirds, and Skinwalkers: Come see what is new in my drought ridden daylily garden!

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025Leave a comment

Droughts, Wildfires, and Daylilies

Droughts and wildfires go together, daylilies not so much. The smoke has cleared (mostly) from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire (<10 miles away), and they have the fire 15% contained. My last blog post talks more about the fire. Some rain has fallen on my garden since the last post, too. The drought continues, though. Keep reading to enjoy my daylilies from the past week!

Monitoring and Maintaining My Resilient Daylilies

I am surprised my daylilies have done as well as they have this year with the heat and drought. I have somewhere around 190 cultivators. I badly need to do inventory, maps, and labels this year. I love the Flower daylily software, but I struggle to keep it updated. I seem to lose a lot of the newer ones from other climates over the first winter/spring – but I am not even sure what I have lost until I do inventory because some lost tags.

Black Canyon South Rim Fire – Watch Duty from today. About 15% contained.

Honestly, though, I am limited by time and water. I may replace some cultivators if I lose them, but I won’t be adding many more to my total. I’m at capacity. I am growing ditch lilies in the desert drought. I love daylilies, and they are survivors! My time goes into keeping those I have alive and healthy. And, my money goes into city water. I can’t imagine trying to hybridize or sell in my situation.

New Blooms and Current Bloom Rate

I have had a total of 139 cultivators bloom this season (out of around 190). That is a 73% bloom rate. Last year, we only got to the mid-sixties, so I am thrilled. And, the season isn’t over. In the high desert, 80% is a huge win. I need to fertilize, but without the monsoon moisture and cooler temps, I am waiting until next month. With daylilies in pots, I find applying liquid fertilizer improves bloom rate for the following year because the plant is more resilient.

Here are my “first bloom for 2025” cultivators since my last post:

The bloom peak is now over the top and past the plateau. However, I still have 30-40 cultivators in bloom daily, with 2-3 new ones most days. My beloved Ned Roberts’ southwest names spiders are just now peaking! Life gets extremely busy during daylily season, especially with my business and volunteer work.

Which is your favorite daylily from this post? For me, Zuni Thunderbird has always been a favorite! This computer is even named Zuni Thunderbird after the daylily.

Keep flourishing, Cathy H

Code Red

July 27, 2023Leave a comment

I’ve had 3 red and 1 orange daylily have their premiere blooms for 2023 since my last blog 2 days ago. It’s hot and by evening i look like my cooked daylilies. Enjoy!

Please visit my website Www.artfromthehartt.com

The Heat is On

July 21, 2022Leave a comment

It’s just too hot to enjoy my harden after 11 AM. And my daylilys often look like melted wax by then, anyway. What happened to our cooling monsoons?

The flow of new daylilies begins to drop. It won’t be long until I’m counting non-blooming pots instead of blooms. I think I only have 4 left to bloom in front (unless I get a late scape). I have one on the porch and several in the Southwest Visions garden. It’s like late afternoon on Christmas Day when you realize that the day won’t last forever but there is still dessert to eat.

So, my premiers for yesterday and today included three Ned Roberts spiders and a beautiful bonus cultivator. I think I’m up to 48 Ned Spiders now. I think I have at least 10 more with scapes and there could still be surprise late scapes. So, 140 total cultivators have bloomed so far. 75% bloom rate. Hoping to get to mid 80s if more buds don’t dry up.

So, here we go.

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!

Downshift

July 27, 2020Leave a comment

I had sweet 16 today. Feels like a big downshift from a couple of weeks ago – and it is. Work is about to upshift. Due to a resignation, I only have about 40% of my classes covered – fortunately I have subs for the first few weeks. Work, again, invades my brain.

I begin to wonder more about retirement – one to three years. I re-read some of my psychology research (Dr Martin Seligman) in the tent last night. They took rats and implanted cancer with a 50% mortality rate. Rats in the no-intervention group had 50% mortality rate. Rats who received inescapable shocks died 75% of the time. And, rats who were given shocks but could escape them died 25% of the time. Bottom line, be the master of your life. Escape the shocks. Yes, retirement.

Anyway – no premiers today but I missed Carlotta on Friday so here she is. I have a bunch of finales – maybe I can catch up on those tomorrow.

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.

Momma’s Bouquet

August 25, 2019Leave a comment

My mom would be 102 years old this day. That makes me sound older than I am. Mom waited to have kids. It is also the anniversary of the job offer for my current job. This job is a great match for my strengths, but not for my senior energy. I am likely too liberal minded to be an early morning person – my coworkers do much better. Yes, circadian rhythm does relate to our liberal vs conservative brain. I am middle-of-the-road, slightly liberal. And, yea, political views are only one small part of how this part of our brain impacts our work. Liberals do better starting and ending their days later than conservatives.

Frans Hals 8.24

At any rate, I didn’t celebrate today – other than a few more air plants. My yard looks neglected. I worked all summer and camped every other weekend. I have been keeping up with daylily photos (sort of), but not much else.

Purple Corn Dancer 8.24

Today’s chore was installing a drip system in the front garden. Daylilies, squash, poinsettias – they get too dry. When I worked from home, I could run out and water. Don’t get me wrong – I am glad to be less isolated. But, my yard suffers especially when summer isn’t a pause.

Carlotta 8.24

I went to the nursery for a plant for a coworker – a surprise. I grabbed a couple of air plants – my new addiction. I like them because they are small and less needy than my orchids. I was into water culture orchids – but with not being home, it is hard to keep up with all the water changes. The air plants are small – and I plan to get more into succulents as my current plants thin.

Purple Thunderbird 8.24

So, the coleus were half price – I have some in with my daylilies that are on the side of the driveway but not in all the pots. So, I grabbed 3 of those. They are actually nice companion plants for daylilies. I got some fall colors. Then, of course, I have to decide if I bring them in when it gets cold. Probably – one big pot. I can take cuttings and replant outside next spring. Sure . . . if I have time.

Navajo Curls 8.24

Putting in the drip system meant giving the daylilies a haircut. I cut a lot of stuff back – like those blue bells. I have about 27 drippers in and 17 to go. For now, I need to this sleep, precious sleep. Goodnight, momma. I lost you too young and miss you every day.

Purple Grasshopper 8.24

Oh, BTW – I tried the block editor for WordPress on Internet Explorer – It was awful! A few more days of testing S mode before I likely go to regular Windows 10.

Ruby Stella 8.24

One last note – the featured photo is from earlier this year. Catherine Irene – the same name as my mom.

Worth the Wait!

August 11, 2019August 11, 2019Leave a comment

Today. Two dozen still bloom. One Premier – Carlotta. She has a story. She was a bonus plant early in my daylily root days. She was planted in our adobe dirt overwhelmed with the bluebells. When I transplanted to pots, she was seedling size. Today comes her first bloom. Much better than the pictures. She is lacy and flowing. I like her.

Chaco Canyon – who did not bloom in 2019 until yesterday – threw an extra petal today. I’ve not seen her do that before. Also, worth the wait.

And, here it is, bedtime, again.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: Carlotta