Ultimate Daylily Blooms Contest: Win $35 Coupon!

As the daylilies slacken-off, life begins to revert to default mode. I have been busy in the Art from the Hartt studio and at my shop. Plus, my other blogs needed a lot of attention. Not to worry, the daylilies are still blooming.

Adios Albuquerque

Since my last post, I have had first-of-the-season blooms from Adios Albuquerque, Navajo Curls, and Indian Sky. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I have any other unbloomed scapes. I do see a rebloom scape on Happy Returns, though – so the first of my rebloomers.

Navajo Curls

I want to encourage some rebloomers this year, so I am going to do another fertilizer experiment next week with liquid Bloom fertilizer. I am using an organic liquid because it is still pretty warm and I think it is a little safer in regards to burning the roots. Liquid fertilizer is often recommended for midseason application. I also need to trim up any spent scapes so the plant can focus needed energy on reblooming.

Indian Sky

Rebloomers Matter: My Art Giveaway (ENTER TODAY)!

Ok, folks, I am sweating it because I need rebloomers in order for my Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale to be a success. And – I need readers like you to ENTER THE CONTEST! There is no cost and potentially a $35 coupon to spend in my Etsy shop! I am doing this to help more people know about my Art from the Hartt business.

Art from the Hartt Until The Last Daylily Blooms Giveaway! Enter Today!!!

Here are the details: All you have to do is guess the day that the last daylily will bloom in my yard and email your guess to Cathy@artfromthehartt.com by no later than September first – put “daylily” in the subject line. You need to pick a date that occurs later than September first in order to be entered, so the first date you can pick is September 2nd.

I typically have some blooms throughout September. Last year my last bloom was October 30th. I have had blooms up until Thanksgiving. If I get a very late scape, I may put it in the lean-to at night to protect it from freezing. However, it is rare to get a new scape once the freeze happens. Our date of first freeze is generally around October 1st. Zone 6 Colorado. That’s all the hints that I am giving!

Purple Corn Dancer: One of my favorite late bloomers.

The entry closest to the actual date of the last daylily bloom will win. In the case of a tie, the winning entries will receive a coupon code for $17.50 each. (I do not sell my email list or use it to send spam.)

Last Year’s Last Bloom: Open My Eyes (October 30th.)

One entry per customer. Winner will be notified within a week of the last daylily bloom and will be sent a code to use in my Etsy Shop valid through January 1, 2025.

What If There Are No Rebloomers?

I hope I didn’t jinx myself by running this sale. What if there are no rebloomers? What if the scapes I have now are the last ones of the season? I think the best way to handle this is to give a 20% off coupon to all people who entered the contest if there are no blooms on September 2nd or later. In that case, everyone wins!!! Coupons will expire January 1, 2025 – these will be great to use for Christmas!!!

Purple Thunderbird: Another stunning late bloomer

Come on, Bloom fertilizer, work some magic.

Cool Stuff You Could Win!

  • Daylily art – of course! Wall art, paintings, signed prints, pots and more.
  • Pour knobs – colorful hand painted fluid art door knobs (coming soon to Etsy.)
  • Fall palette hand painted tiles
  • Hand painted fluid art pumpkins
  • Stunning pour paint tile and wood pallet clocks
  • Handmade pots and planters for succulents and houseplants
  • Daylily and wildflower greeting cards
  • Yard art and pet memorials!

Visit my shop Art from the Hartt to see the possibilities – you can apply the $35 to any item in my shop!!!!

Pour knobs: Fluid acrylic cupboard knobs.

You have nothing to lose – just drop an email to cathy@artfromthehartt.com with “daylily” in the heading with your guess. Be sure to send in your entry before midnight on September 1st.

Recycled Habitat for Humanity tile turned into a colorful, hand painted coaster.

I am working on fall seasonal decor right now that will be added. For more info on my art – please follow my art process blog at Art from the Hartt.

The Savings Are Happening Now!

Don’t wait for the $35 prize! The shop now has several items at 30% off. This goes up to 35% off in about a week – and I will be throwing in more items! What would you like to see added to the sale items?

New 2024 Daylily Blooms: Stunning Photos and Varieties Revealed

Return from the Colorado Mountains: Fourteen New Bloomers for the Season

I always feel overwhelmed the day after I take a camping break – especially during daylily season! Fortunately or unfortunately, my underwhelming bloom rate for 2024 has made it more manageable. But, it is still a lot of photos to organize and turn into an Instagram reel/blog post.

Below are my Ned Roberts’ spiders that are new since my last post.

So, how is the bloom rate doing now? I have had 84 of 196. So, 43%. That’s way down from the past few years for this point in time. I am hoping to hit 60%. That would take 34 more new blooms for 2024. I think that’s optimistic. Too many pots decided to rest this year.

Here are my other first blooms for 2024 (since my last post.)

Remediating a Poor Bloom Rate

Gardening is a science experiment. I am going to try some liquid spray fertilizer once we have a some cooler weather in the forecast. I will probably do more time release before the end of the season – and I am considering working some manure into the pots in September, about a month before freeze.

My Wildflower Dogs on our camping trip this week.

Peaks and Wildflowers

I have a wonderful trip to Hahns Peak, Colorado – and to Pearl Lake State Park which is named after my grandmother. The land was once a summer sheep pasture for my granddad’s companies. Grandma sold it to the Forrest Service – and the State Parks owns that portion with the Lake. This is my blog post from last year – I am still working on my post for this year so please check back in a few days.

Pearl Lake State Park, Colorado

If I didn’t get much of a daylily peak this year, at least I got a break in the heat at a picturesque Colorado peak.

Hahns Peak (background) from Steamboat Lake State Park, July 2024.

Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale: 30% Off Starting Tomorrow

Just a quick reminder about the Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale. Prices drop again tomorrow – 30% off for the next month on daylily wall art, tile art, planters, and cards. I also added my hypertufa and cement yard art and pet memorials. Please visit my last post to see details on the yard art and memorials. So, please come check it out at my Etsy shop!

I wanted to share my Pearl Lake Wildflower Cards as today’s listing. I just added these to the Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale that goes live tomorrow. They will be 30% off for the next month! Perfect for flower lovers. The cards will be approximately (depending on Etsy’s calculator) $2.80 for a single card or 10.50 for a set of all 5 cards. This is in addition to FREE SHIPPING. Click on the photo below or this link to go to the listing.

Questions on the sale? Special order requests? Please reach out and email me!

Unique Yard Art and Memorials for Daylily Gardens

My Memorial/Family/Pet Gardens

How many of my readers have a memorial garden integrated into your yard? Daylilies are great for memorial gardens because the names often speak to us of a friend or loved one. In fact, I have a family name section of my daylily garden with Catherine Irene, Mini Pearl, Stephanie Returns, Isaac, Mayan Poppy and Oh Erica that are all names of family members, both alive and dead. It’s almost as good as having them come to visit.

I also have a pet memorial garden that is actually coneflower. I didn’t get coneflowers with pet names – they have Southwestern names like Moab Sunset, though. I have my handmade memorial pet leaf castings, each with a little of my pet’s own ashes in the hypertufa (cement + sphagnum moss + vermiculate) mix. I also added some of my cute handmade garden gnomes and I have a plague for the first dog I lost, Maizzy. In the lilac tree that towers above the garden I have a solar bird feeder collection.

Coneflowers in my pet memorial garden.

Please share a story about and/or photo of your memorial gardens in the comments!

Bouquet of the Day

After no new blooms yesterday, I had 5 today. I am at about 35% bloom rate. Not great for mid-season but the plateau shaped peak in blooms continues. We will see where we are when the last daylily blooms.

I had some vivid colors and some pastels today. And, an older near blue, Mildred Mitchell. The vivid orange of Nearly Wild and the deep maroon of Open My Eyes add stunning color to the collection. My pink girls – Fairytale Pink and Classy Lady – added a nice contrast.

Yard Art & Memorials Added: Until The Last Daylily Blooms Sale

This blog inspired me to add my handmade yard art to the Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale at my Etsy shop – at least for July-August 19th. Specifically, I added hypertufa leaf casting ash memorials, cement dog plaque memorials, garden gnomes, and mushrooms. These are great companions for daylily gardens.

Hypertufa Leaf Casting Ash Pet Memorial

Pet memorial ash leaf castings – click here for listing.

Cement Pet Memorial Plaque: Acrylic Pour and Solid Colors

I am playing with painting my cement dog/cat plaque memorials with pour acrylics. This is one I made yesterday. The lettering will be painted in a lighter color to make it more readable and other highlights added. I will get this listed as soon as possible, in the mean time if you are interested, please email me. I also can do custom colors if you prefer.

Process video of a pour acrylic pet memorial plaque.

Garden and Holiday Gnomes: Pour Acrylic or Solid Colors

These garden gnomes are my “seconds” so I decided to try pour painting on them. I have 6 gnome styles (see slides below and click here for Etsy listing) and I am adding a couple new styles very soon. I normally paint them solid, traditional colors, but I will be adding some pour paint styles soon. Again, I can do custom colors – contact me via email or my Etsy shop.

Time For Nature

I’m headed off on a camping adventure tomorrow. It will be next weekend before I post, again, unless I do a post on wildflowers. You can follow our adventure at my travel blog – click here to visit and subscribe.

Pearl Lake State Park, Colorado

Balancing Daylily Blooms, Camping, Hiking, and Rescue Dogs While Running An Online Business

A Saturated Batch of Red Daylilies on a Hot Summer Day

I had a nice bouquet of reds for my first blooms of 2024 today. Red is high-intensity, like the sun is today. I’m actually doing my blog from the basement family room/winter nursery today. Why? Because I don’t have AC and my portable swamp coolers get overwhelmed when it is above 90. It’s 92 (feels like 99) today and 85 upstairs. It’s probably 10 degrees cooler downstairs, but the dogs are disoriented. I’m working to socialize them to the basement.

Prelude to Love

But, I digress. Daylilies are heat lovers. That’s why so many bloom in mid-season. And, the colors grow more intense and saturated as the season heats up.

Ruby Slippers of OZ

Today, was a day for medium sized red blooms. Prelude to Love is a very saturated red with some maroon tones. Ruby Slippers of Oz is a colorful ruby red. Cherokee Star is a deep velvet red – like a theater seat. Twirling Pinata is red with a twist and a yellow-green throat to add some character. And the red-black theme of Route 66 makes me want to be in a 1955 Chevy getting my kicks. I also had one purple – Indian Giver – a nice contrast of intense purple.

Cherokee Star

It is now mid-July. I may be at peak bloom with 65 that have bloomed for the year and 35 in bloom today. That’s a 33% bloom rate. Maybe we will make it to 66% for the year? Or, maybe we should just get our kicks camping on Route 66 this year.

Making Daylilies Work With Other Summer Hobbies

I wish I had a good recipe for making multiple summer-only hobbies work together. The Daylilies are seriously blooming from July 1st through mid to late August. But, daylilies are in bloom in my yard from early June through September or later. Pretty typical for zone 6 in Colorado, I think.

But, then there is camping. I find connection with nature is very spiritual. Camping season is mid May through Mid September, early October. Schedule conflict.

Route 66

Let’s take a closer look at how daylilies fit into my warm-season schedule. I may be retired from nursing, but I run a retail art business Art from the Hartt – partially so I can afford to give my rescue dogs their best life. That means running it more like a business than a hobby. So, I don’t consider myself to be retired (although the schedule for “weekends” is more flexible.) Online business are a lot of work.

Juggling Warm-Season Activities

  • March – Hiking and early yard prep. I often do one day a week of each. I move the daylilies that wintered in the porch or patio back to their summer locations. I start hooking up irrigation systems and giving them some regular water.
  • April – My road trip to AZ, hiking, yard prep.
  • May – Camping starts. I rotate a weekend of camping, a weekend of yard work.
  • June – A repeat of May but add in beginning daylily season and the blog.
  • July – I plan one camping trip and focus more on the daylilies.
  • August – My camping road trip becomes the focus – planning and executing. I’m still focused on the daylilies but losing momentum quickly. I want to get back to my other activities.
  • September – Daylilies are waning in blooms. The daylily pots may need work (new soil, etc) and I am also planting any new daylily roots that I ordered. Fall hiking starts, similar schedule to spring. I take a camping road trip to the 4-corners for several days as my camping finale.
  • October – If I am lucky, I still have a daylily in bloom here or there. Freeze is happening. Snow usually starts by the end of the month. I love my October canyon hikes.
  • November – Daylilies are leaf mulched for the winter. My semi-evergreens and evergreens may be moved to the lean-to for the winter.
Indian Giver

Managing Warm-Season Activities

How do you manage your multiple activities in the summer? It gets so crazy, that I lose my daylily momentum. I want to get back to putting energy into my business, etc – and I usually give up the blog and photos sooner than I plan to. I would like to hang in this year – until my last daylily blooms. Maybe not daily. I know daylily people who blog all year and never seem to tire of it. How on earth do you keep your momentum?

Pick Your Favorite Daylily this Summer (on Etsy)!

My daylily paintings bloom all year and require no fertilizer! Don’t miss my Until The Last Daylily Blooms sale on Etsy. Right now, my daylily paintings, prints, clocks, and pots are 25% off. I will be making new daylily art to add – but as you can see, it may be a month or so away. What is your favorite? I would love to know so I can make more! Follow the link or click the picture to see the listing.

Route 66

A Busy Day and A Gorgeous Daylily Bouquet

Some days, I like to talk about daylily gardening and blogging. Other days, I run out of time and energy. Today was full of shipping and restocking for my business, Art from the Hartt. And, I am on the Valley Food Partnership Board that oversees out local Farmer’s Market – so I also had an evening meeting. I figure with almost 200 daylily varieties that I have some farmer in me. My main reason for supporting the local farmers, though, is my background in nursing and wellbeing science. And, my love of leadership and my community.

Today, I had 5 new bloomers. I am just going to cut to the chase and post their photos: Bold Tiger, Pardon Me, Little Grapette, Moon Over Chimayo, and Glen Eyrie. The bottom row are my latest two Ned Roberts spiders. (I’m up to 15/70 in Neds that have bloomed.) Tomorrow, I may have more time to share my gardening life with you. For now, enjoy the pictures!

Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale on Etsy

A reminder about my daylily art that is on-sale at my Etsy shop all summer. Prices will continue to drop! I also have sales running on my handmade hypertufa pots/art, houseplants, and orders over $50. Check it out at this link or click on the photo below.

Daylily Photography: Capturing Every Bloom and Seeking Tracking System

Today’s Fresh Faces for 2024

July is cooking! I had 6 first of the season blooms today. It is well past yellow trumpet season and the color variety is amazing. Here are today’s new blooms: Better Off Blue, Coral Taco, Echo Canyon, Nurse’s Stethoscope, Talon, and Titan Skye.

Which of these do you think would make the best coaster or mini clock? Please add to comments.

A Day in the Life of a Daylily Hobbyist in July

My days during prime daylily season aren’t particularly entertaining, but they are very different than the other 10-11 months of the year. As always, the day starts with the dogs and a jog. But, somewhere in there, I go out with my cellphone and photograph a bloom from every cultivator that has one. I use to use my Canon Powershot, but as my collection grew my time shrunk. Each photo is edited and uploaded to my online photo drive. By noon-thirty, my phone battery is dying.

After that, I post to Facebook (my personal page) and then make a reel of all the first blooms of the season for Instagram. Then, I share that reel to my business IG, FB, Threads, and my story. My phone is now charging and the clock saying early afternoon..

And, then it’s time for the blog. Except for today, because I stopped to make an extra Instagram video about my Until the Last Daylily Blooms Art Sale on Etsy. So, I opened Canva to start designing a short reel and there went another hour. It does take longer because I am trying to integrate my art business, Art from the Hartt. I don’t sell daylilies because of the need for a nursery license, but I do sell daylily art. So, I do whatever I can do to support myself with my garden.

OK, so now it’s 4 o’something and it’s time for the blog. What can I choose for a topic? Something simple, because it’s late and I still have chores to do. I haven’t touched my art.

Daily Daylily Photography

So, let’s talk about daylily photography. Why do I take a photo of every cultivator that’s blooming every day? Maybe I am just an anal retentive retired nurse who is use to taking vital signs every shift. Only through monitoring the norm can we spot trouble coming. Maybe because I am an artist and I use my photography to make art – the more photos I have, the better chance of capturing cool things like this Nurse’s Stethoscope daylily painting. Maybe it is because the sun is so intense in the high desert that my blooms are melted by early afternoon and I’m not ready to let go.

Looking for a Daily Bloom Tracking System

What I am looking for is an app or software where I can track which cultivators are in bloom every day. I don’t need more hybridization software because I love PlantStep. I want a chart of what is in bloom each day. Ah, this is the anal retentive nurse coming out. But really – I would like to ask my readers if they know of a charting system where I can input the daylily names and put a checkmark each day (like a calendar) that it blooms – then run a report at the end. It would be cool to have a photo of each – but you would only need 1 photo for the year.

I monitor a lot by photographing each day, but I can’t use the data as well as I could with a better system of daily daylily tracking. I appreciate any ideas from readers!

Until The Last Daylily Blooms Art Sale on Etsy

What happens to all those photos? Mostly, they are stored. The inspirational ones, however, can become art! Daylily art was my first dive into painting many years ago and I still adore making art from my daylilies.

I have lots of wall art, clocks, cards, and painted pots available for sale this summer – literally until my last daylily blooms. Last year, that was the day before Halloween. So, while the sale lists an end date in November, it will actually end at midnight 24 hours after my last daylily blooms. If we are lucky enough to be blooming in late October, my art is 50% off! The Instagram (above) has the sale dates and percentages off. Please visit my Etsy store and check it out.

Open My Eyes on October 27th, 2023. She bloomed again the 29th and the bloom was hit with freezing rain. She lost her other buds.

PS – The time is now 5:55 PM and I am about to hit publish.

Colorful Daylily Showcase: Latest Blooms and Seasonal Garden Tasks

When I logged off on Sunday, I didn’t think it would be almost a week before I got a chance to write another blog. The heat is on!!! Camping, the 4th of July, and lots of daylilies have happened since I last posted.

What’s New in the Daylily Garden?

Let’s start with 7/1: Hopi Jewel and Lady Fingers.

On 7.2, we were on our camping trip to Vega State Park. Here is a post I did for my travel blog about the trip. There were so many gorgeous wildflowers up there – The wild Colorado Columbines are my favorite.

On 7.3, we returned home. The daylilies where pretty sunburnt by the time I got pictures. Canyon Colors and Maya Cha Cha made their debut in my Southwest Road Trip Garden.

Yankee Doodle Daylily blooms where Strutter’s Ball, Mini Pearl, Chaco Canyon, and (our namesake/mascot) The Colorado Kid.

Those that bloomed the first time on the fifth of July were: Melon Balls, Lime Frost, Pueblo Dreamer, Chief Four Fingers, and Pink and Cream.

Today was a gorgeous slue of new blooms: South Seas, Heron’s Cove, Papa Longlegs, Chokecherry Mountain, Kachina Dancer, Stephanie Returns, and Cheddar Cheese.

Summertime Work in the Daylily Garden

The work of summer is waiting, watching, watering, weeding, dead-heading, counting, photographing, photo editing, making Instagram posts, and writing this blog. It is more than it seem. It takes all day. I started this morning and here I am at 5 PM, still working.

And, this summer is slow. Some of the early bloomers no-showed. I am currently in the low 100s with plants that have scapes, are in bloom, or have finished blooming. Forty one out of 198 have bloomed so far this season. That’s 21%. So, it’s either going to be a wild late summer peak or a boring season. Likely somewhere in-between.

I’m up to 12 Ned Roberts spiders now. Most of my Neds are in the Southwest Road Trip Garden that is likely going to have the lowest bloom rate of any of my gardens.

I do know that I have fall work ahead to improve next year’s bloom rate. And, I will likely fertilize in a few weeks – I will time it around the monsoons, again, if possible. I will also be planting my new daylily roots from Shady Rest once they arrive in late August.

Until the Last Daylily Blooms + Hypertufa Planter Sale on Etsy

Just a quick reminder that all of my Etsy shop daylily artwork – wall art, clocks, pots, paintings – is on sale “Until the Last Daylily Blooms” in my yard. If you follow this blog, you know the photos and paintings are original Colorado artwork. On July 21st, this discount goes from 25% to 30% off. On August 20th to goes from 30% to 35% off. In September it will jump to 40% off. Will I still have blooms in mid to late October? IDK but if I do, my art will be 45% off. How low can you go??? Don’t miss the bus!!! Click here or on the photo below for the specific listing – and be sure to check out all my sale items.

Original wood panel painting of Skinwalker daylily from my Etsy Shop.

I also make hypertufa (a mix of Portland cement, sphagnum moss, and vermiculate) planters that are 25% off on Etsy during July. My planters are too small for daylilies, but I know many of us adore a wide variety of flora. Hypertufa is porous, similar to terra cotta. So, it lets the roots breath. It has thick walls for stability and can be left outdoors in winter. I do put mine in a protected area (shed) for winter due to freeze, thaw. All of my handmade hypertufa pots are put in a vinegar bath for several days to assure that the pH is favorable to plants of all types. Planters can be used indoors or outdoors. I also make some fun art with hypertufa that is also on sale during July. Click here or on the photo to go to the listing – be sure to check out my other hypertufa pots and art that is on sale during July. Love this one of the cat petroglyph at Petrified Forest

Petrified Forest Cat Petroglyph Replica Pot

Southwest Roadtrip Garden: Daylily Bloom and Plant Adventures

Mellow day in the daylily garden after the rain last night. I should be camping but I postponed a day due to more rain predicted tonight. I didn’t have any first blooms for 2024 today.

Catherine Irene in bloom in my garden today.

My scape count is hanging in the 80s, although it is slowly increasing. When I say scape count, I really mean that I am counting plants with scapes, not total scapes in the yard. Some plants have several scapes, but they only count as one plant. My Southwestern Named Daylily Garden is just not moving much. The first year I had a bloom rate of maybe 20% and I am a little nervous that this could be a repeat. Not even Dream Keeper showed up this spring – and she always shows up.

All American Chief in bloom today in my Southwest Roadtrip Garden.

When I have a bad year, I always wonder why. Dry winter (only shoveled once), dry spring, didn’t winter water, left the leaf mulch on the Southwestern Named Garden too long, pot soil needs more fertilizer, etc. I’ll likely be working on those pots this fall – because spring is often too late. In my climate, I find that if I can get them thriving before freeze, they come back pretty strong as long as they get moisture during the winter months.

Inwood in bloom on my patio today.

PS – Southwest Named Daylily Garden is a weird long name. How do you like Southwest Road Trip Garden? Afterall, that is the inspiration for this garden!

Next Up: Colorado Windflowers

I’m headed camping tomorrow, so no blog for a few days. Hopefully, I’ll have some nice photos of our Colorado native wildflowers when I post, again. And, I will have billions and billions of new scapes!

Wild Columbines from this time last year.

Today’s Chores: My Plant Business

I worked on harvesting and potting succulents for my Art from the Hartt booth at Country Flair in downtown Montrose, CO. I am 80-90% focused on art with my business, but people love plants. It’s that dopamine I was just talking about! I have some nice agaves and aloes that I get while on my Southwest road trip every spring plus a variety of other succulents. I also cleaned out my yucca pots. So far, no rain. (Oops – I lied. That weather report changed since I started writing the blog an hour ago. Check out this monsoon just a little while ago!)

Daylily Pots for Succulents

Speaking of succulents, my little mini-terra-cotta pots are part of my “Until My Last Daylily Blooms” sale on Etsy. I handpainted every one of these to resemble a daylily from my yard. This one is Primal Scream. Click on this link or the listing to go to the sale listing. These are perfect for daylily lovers who also have small succulents!

Daylily Software: Streamlining Cultivator Management and Tracking Bloom Cycles

The daylily bloom season continues to dribble along. I have nearly 80 scapes (or cultivators with scapes). Still, many early bloomers have not put out scapes. I am unsure what to do – I might try some high-bloom fertilizer before the monsoons hit full force. But just a little bit of fertilizer because the timing isn’t optimal. I rarely intervene like this, but after two years of high bloom rate, I feel the soil may need a little nutrition. I also don’t like to use much fertilizer when the temps are getting so high, but the rains would help.

Orchid Moonrise

I had one new cultivator today: Orchid Moonrise. I was surprised, as this one is usually not a super early bird. I love the purple color of this Ned Roberts spider. My fourth Ned spider this season, the others were Burgundy Crab, Kokopelli, and Fried Green Tomatoes.

Fried Green Tomatoes in bloom today.

I got a new computer last spring (2023) and I discovered tonight that I never moved my daylily software from my old computer. Yes – I have a software program just for my daylilies. Last year, I didn’t use it! The shift from a regular career to a “retirement” small business takes a lot of energy. I got it moved over tonight and trying to update all my cultivators. I have lost some the last two summers – and I need to take those out. I added a couple new ones last year that need to be added.

I have a system where I add a photo from each year labeled with the year. That helps me keep track of what is blooming and what is struggling. The software also lets you put a location – plus I have a daylily map of my main gardens. It also needs to be updated. This is super handy if you lose the plant pot label.

My daylily map.

If you grow daylilies and are interested in affordable software – check out this website. They also have a Facebook page and Kent, the software developer, is very responsive to customer service requests. It is seriously awesome. There are also videos on the website if you are interested in more info.

The other good thing about the software is that I can tell when a cultivator normally blooms in my yard each year. Last year, the peak was mid-July to early August. There is hope that things may pick up this year.

Don’t forget that I have my “Until the Last Daylily Blooms” sale on daylily art in my Etsy shop all summer. Check out these prints of my handpainted pictures of my daylily collection! Great wall decor for the daylily lover! Visit this link or click the photo to visit the listing.

Alberto Reigns and Rains

Today was one of the stormiest days I remember here. The remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto have been hitting the Four Corners and San Juan Mountains hard. My ditch lilies are likely pretty happy about all the moisture.

I had 3 “first of 2024” cultivators in bloom today. Fried Green Tomatoes had her first-ever bloom (in my yard) today. I really like the color combo. Of course, with the drenching rain and wind, everything is a little waterlogged.

The other firsts for this season are Kokopelli and Indian Love Call.

I am a little uneasy with the slow state year and the number of scapes. Perhaps Alberto will do some magic! I didn’t go out and count today – but I will tomorrow when the sun returns to duty. Daylilies require an inch of rain/week. Montrose gets less than an inch a month. So, Alberto reigns.