OK, maybe it is a bad time for a joke about bars. Or, not. I am, of course, really talking about my three premier blooms today.
Fairy Tale Pink 7.21.20
Fairy Tale Pink was one I picked up at a local nursery several years ago because I was bored with my existing blooms. The drip system has helped her – she got so dry in past years that her buds often dried up. She is in my sprinkler blind spot.
Classy Lady 7.21.1
Classy Lady . . . I think I got her on the Lily Auction with some other daylilies that I liked and wanted to get the most for my postage.
Skinwalker 7.21.20
And, oh Skinwalker! This Ned Roberts spider is the biggest, lankiest spider in the garden (well, the Southwest garden, anyway). I love the colors – and the tall scapes. It reminds me of a scarecrow.
Cheddar Cheese 7.20.20
That makes 122 cultivators so far (counting the 2 I missed on vaca). That’s 71%. And, we have a few more premiers in the future. Come on, 75%!
Red Hot Returns 7.20.20
Finales are Cheddar Cheese, Red Hot Returns, Prairie Blue Eyes and Route 66. See you all next year . . . at the bar.
Prairie Blue Eyes 7.20.20
It is time to start ordering the new pots for the Southwest buried garden soon. I will start by repotting the ones already in pots this fall. It is awful to dig into the clay soil and tree roots. I do not look forward to that part at all. But, it is the easement and I don’t want to risk loosing them to a busted water pipe.
I will say one thing positive about the pandemic is that I have spent a lot more time in my yard and patio doing projects that I have wanted to do for some time.
Dream Keeper 6.21.20
So, today I extended my side yard drip system to the upper part of my front flower bed. I am guessing there are 50 plants in that area – so it took a chunk of time. I was nervous to hook it up, but it works fine. My sprinkler system is great for the lawn, but not for the flower pots. It is just not enough. So . . . I will come back to drip systems in a minute.
Mauna Loa 6.21.20
First, I had several premiers. Mauna Loa is a pretty Ned Roberts daylily that I added last year. It is one of his older ones, but the color is still vibrant.
Petite Petticoats 6.21.20
One of my minis, Petite Petticoats, gave me a premier bloom today, too. I seriously almost missed her in a big bucket of minis.
Purple Many Faces 6.21.20
Purple Many Faces showed her face for the first time in 2020 today. Another colorful Roberts cultivator.
Return a Smile 6.21.20
Oh, and sweet Return a Smile. She was one of my very first daylilies and always makes me smile.
So, that is it for premiers today. Likely, this week, I will shift to premiers only. I have a couple honorable mentions today. I had 4 premiers this week that didn’t open right the first time. Now, they are back with their normal beauty – Kokopelli, Land of Enchantment, Jungle Queen, and Mildred Mitchell.
Kokopelli 6.21.20Land of Enchantment 6.21.20Jungle Queen 6.21.20Mildred Mitchell 6.21.20
OK, back to the drip system. Last year, I put one in on the front part of the bed I did today. Again, it had a lot of plants and I was new at doing drip systems other than it a short line. So, I did it the same, and needless to say, the drippers at the end did not have enough pressure.
Funny Valentine 6.21.20Indian Love Call
I decided to research it and you need to put the line in a continuous circle – so both the start and end of the tube connect to the tap. Earlier this spring, I went back and fixed the front so it worked correctly. And, I am seeing a difference in the plant health – we will see on bloom rate. So far, Stella is much happier. And, my poinsettias are in heaven!
Mesa Verde 6.21.20Ojo de Dios 6.21.20
I don’t have either of the newer drippers on a timer – other than my brain. It is still a lot easier to crank the hose and do something else for 30-60 minutes that haul water to all those pots.
Saratoga Springtime 6.21.20Happy Returns 6.21.20
I am wondering if peak will happen before my trip in 2.5 weeks. I know it will be busy with blooms. I just need to get away and have an adventure.
It is the longest day of the year for another hour or so in Colorado. Summer is here – the season of the daylily explosion. And, now the world takes us slowly to that dark, cold December day a few days before Christmas.
Wild Horses 6.20.20
It wasn’t a real exciting day in the garden. I had one premier – Wild Horses. I really like the shape and color of her blooms. She is one of my favorite on the back porch.
Funny Valentine 6.20.20
I also am so disappointed in myself for not watching my scape when I went to get some sedum cuttings and accidentally knocked 3 buds off Jungle Queen. Every summer I do something like that and it hangs with me for a bit.
Mesa Verde 6.20.20
The good news is that the new sedum garden looks good. It is a little garden made of wine bottles with a new mural of a Navajo Tree of Life. It is the back side of my garage so I never painted there before – but it is my view from where I sit to eat. So, it’ll be fun.
Saratoga Springtime 6.20.20
Tomorrow, I extend my drip system to an area where my pots only get sprinkler water. It isn’t enough during the hot, dry weather. At this point, it may be too late to influence scape formation, but it could keep my buds from drying up before they bloom.
Golden Stella 6.20.20Yellow Stella 6.20.20Yellow Punch 6.20.20
Any, hey, I own mother nature 3 buds now. And, that is the way the world turns.
A spellbinding magic show that brings you delight and pleasure . . . that is what it means to be enchanted. New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment. I am perhaps less enchanted with New Mexico than I am Arizona because Western Colorado has areas that resemble New Mexico.
Yucca in a drift at White Sands National Monument
That said, I am enchanted by my roadtrips through New Mexico. The badlands are beautiful, and the cultural flavor is richer than Colorado – if you are into the Southwest.
The stark horizon at White Sands National Monument, NM
Last year, we saw different side of New Mexico at White Sands National Monument. It is a landscape so boring that it is enchanting. Non-colored sand with a few resilient plants poking their heads through.
This view reminds me of the ski slopes in Colorado – White Sands National Monument
The hikes are like marching through a very hilly sand box. My cats would likely like it better than my dogs, who considered it way too hot at 85 degrees. I had never seen dunes quite like these ones . . . enchanting.
Kachina, Sazi, and Maizzy feeling the heat at White Sands National Monument
So, my vicarious roadtrip daylily of the day is Land of Enchantment – another Ned Roberts spider. Last year was her first year to bloom in my yard and by golly, she does look a bit like the New Mexico State flag.
Land of Enchantment daylily – 2019
She was one of my early bloomers last year. She doesn’t have scapes yet – but I do have 15 cultivators with their weird claw hands being raised to the heavens in prep for a bloom.
Land of Enchantment daylily – 2019
I am nervous because drought years tend to bring early blooming but poor bloom rates. I try to keep up with watering, but I am not the same as a good monsoon. And, the monsoons are too late – it is really the March-May water that matters.
Land of Enchantment daylily 2019
I did put in a new drip system out in the walkway garden and the plants are bigger. So, I guess we will wait to see how enchanting this summer is in the garden. 2020 has brought my 65th birthday, a dead furnace, a broken sewer mainline and COVID-19. I could use a little enchantment.
So, my day job is busy, although the buzz of the term is settling down some. My evening job this week is tweaking the new drip system. Last night, it was staples and stakes. Tonight, I tried sprayer heads on a couple of the larger pots that were hogging water. I think the little sprayers will work better without a much water waste.
I can’t believe I still have 7 in bloom today. But, the buds become rare and every day I say goodbye to at least one cultivator for another year.
Purple Corn Dancer is in 2 locations and so she has most of her buds left in location #2.
Purple Corn Dancer 8.27
Frans Hals has maybe 10 buds left – +/-
Frans Hals 8.27
Purple Grasshopper and Ruby Stella have a handful of buds left.
Purple Grasshopper 8.27
I think both Navajo Curls and Cripple Creek have a bud or two left.
Navajo Curls 8.27
Purple Thunderbird maybe has one bud left (max).
And, then it ends. Except that I found one of my Lowe’s Stella hybrid rebloomers with a new scape. It only has a few buds, but it is still 90 degrees. So, my hope is that the new drip system might give me a few more reblooms. My stay of execution.
Ruby Stella 8.27
My poinsettias seem to be perking up – but it is not a good year for them. I need to start forcing the big ones so they can all cycle through the bloom closet.
El Desperado 8.27
I’m camping this weekend and maybe looking for succulents down in SW Colorado. Oh, and I mail ordered my first air plants. They should be here tomorrow. I was reading that too many varieties of plant detracts from all of them. I honestly am OK with having less and getting more air plants and succulents. All my super market specials make the place look cluttered . . . we will see. The long and boring winter is less than 4 months away. My stay of execution is only temporary.
The weekend draws to a close and my to-do list for yard stuff didn’t get as short as I hoped. I haven’t done 8-5 x 5 days a week (away from home) in nearly 20 years. I feel it every day.
Cripple Creek 8.25
I spent the morning watching orchids and (other than a haircut and a grocery run) spent the afternoon finishing up the new drip system for the front garden.
Purple Grasshopper 8.25
It works, although I had to crank the pressure up. And the drip tube doesn’t fit very tightly on the timer, so it drips. It’s not auto, though, so I can set it for an hour or two, then shut the valve off. But, it could drip for a bit and be ok.
Purple Corn Dancer 8/25
I think that’s why the poinsettias stopped growing. I watered a lot more last year when I was home. The sprinklers just don’t get deep enough. Hoping for a growth spurt before freeze. We have maybe a month.
Frans Hals 8.25
My knees hurt from being on the pavement so much. And, I don’t want to get as exhausted as last week.
Ruby Stella 8.25
I teach Pharmacology at 8 AM. I guess it’s drip, drip, drip with students, too.
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.
Colorado Kid Daylilies 