The Golden Girls

August 8, 2020Leave a comment

My blog title came to me early this AM, as I tiptoed through my garden at 6-something AM before work. Titles come to me sometimes and they disappear into thin air by the time I sit down to write the blog . . . I just can’t remember what my early thought was.

But, today I do because it relates to the color of the blooms that stood out from my bedroom window as I did aerobics first thing after waking up. Golden Girls . . .

The first one I spied was Navajo Curls. She is yellow, but deep enough to have a golden hue. She is described as yellow-gold in her official listing. She is big and easy to see from the window.

Cripple Creek was in bloom today. Cripple Creek, Colorado is an old gold mining town. I am sure Ned Roberts had that in mind when he named her.

And, Golden Eclipse – a flower that is rust-red on the face side, but gold underneath with a gold eye. I see an eclipse in her. Do you?

I’ve had 52 Ned Roberts spiders bloom this year. About 40% of all my blooms. I don’t remember how many Neds I have total – 65-70? I had I had 61 bloom last year. Yikes – Dang drought. Oh, well, I had 40 in 2018, 13 in 2017, and 10 in 2016. So, my trend is still way up. I will have to show off my Neds one of these nights when I have the energy. They come from all over the US and are the pride of my garden. Might still be blooming in a month . . . we will see.

Three

July 20, 2020Leave a comment

I had three charming premiers today, including one of my all-time favorite Ned Roberts spiders – Winds of Love. She always looks like she if floating on the breeze – probably influenced her name.

Kachina Firecracker also gave a first bloom of the year – She looks like Kachina Dancer to me. Cousins, no doubt

And, Nona’s Garnet Spider gave us a hello bloom today.

I did the counts of unbloomed with and without scapes. I believe we are at 117 cultivators that have bloomed now. I have a list of 16 more with unbloomed scapes – so that would come to a total of 133 or 78% bloom rate. That works for me – but it always bugs me why some don’t bloom (41 was my count). Navajo Rodeo, Cricket Call and Purple Grasshopper were big bloomers the last couple of years. Maybe I need to fertilize a bit more and refresh dirt if it has settled. The front garden had several that no-showed this year, but I just put the sprinkler in a few weeks ago, so maybe the drought was the issue. Maybe I will get some late scapes, too.

The southwest corner of my Southwest Garden today 7.19.20

Last year this day I had 70+ in bloom. But, last spring was so cold that my earlier bloomers didn’t show until early to mid July – and the mid bloomers were going by then, too. 70+ is insane. I prefer the more gradual peak.

Humungous Red Spiders

July 1, 2020Leave a comment

Humungous red spiders surviving in a drought. Something the opposite of itsy bitsy spiders in the rain. Plus, these spiders are daylilies.

I only had two premiers today, and 30 total blooms. The first premier is one of the daylilies that my pup, Kachina, is named after. Yep, I was planting my daylilies when I rescued her. Her name was Tina . . . so Kachina fit perfectly. Honestly, I think this is the only bloom I have ever had on this particular cultivator in 4 years since I planted. So, that is a real premier bloom.

The second big spider was one of my early mail order daylilies. I think it reminded me of Ruby Spider. This is probably one of the biggest blooms in my collection if you measure petal-end to petal-end.

The wind blew in cold and a touch of rain. It took forever for a lot of the blooms to open and they always look funky when that happens. But, the two big, old red spiders were wide awake.

I’m up to 50 cultivators that have bloomed now. That is 30% and it isn’t July yet. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.

I Have My Droughts

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020Leave a comment

I left the new sprinkler system on too long – I got on a video meeting and totally forgot. I am sure I will have the water bill from h@## this summer. Why??? Because see the map below – the darkest red is an “exceptional drought”. The blue circle is my home region. It is a drought year, and getting worse each day.

It’s the kind of year where there are less scapes and more buds that just turn brown and fall-off. Two years ago, we were probably in worse shape at this point . . . and that is why I started to think about more drip systems. I mean, mine are DIY but they do the trick to make the ground moist. Even if they cost more than mom nature. Water now . . . before the restrictions!

I had a few premiers today. Let’s start with Ruby Spider. While I always liked daylilies, she is the first one I looked forward to every year. She is the first one that had her own unique flower-ality.

Primal Scream – I had to have this one early in my daylily days because of the name! I got this sad, inexpensive fan that took a couple years to bloom. Then, the garden store sold me something they labeled as Desert Flame – but I am 99.9% sure it is also Primal Scream. So, I have one on the porch that is big and blooming.

Mount Echo Sunrise – A Robert’s spider with the coolest green throat and beautiful light yellow color. She lives up to her name.

Then – one of my mystery daylilies that were dying in a garden I put them in before I was into daylilies. They were little seedling sized things. I noticed that about the same time I realized my potted daylilies were 2-3 X the size as my in-ground babies. So, I put them in a pot together not having a clue what was what. I think this may be Nosferatu but I really don’t know, so she is called Nosferatwo for now.

I have my droughts that it will be as high of a bloom rate as last year. There are some cultivators who are still small and scapeless. These poor babies came from down South – daylily land. Here they are in the stinkin’ desert doing their best despite their droughts. (I had 21 in bloom today . . . let’s see what tomorrow brings.)

Holy Sombrero, Batman!

May 24, 2020May 24, 2020Leave a comment

Sombrero – That is a Mexican Hat! And, so tonight’s vicarious road trip through the daylilies takes us to Mexica Hat, UT.

We camped near here last summer at a place called Sand Island Petroglyphs. The Mexican Hat is just a few miles from there – Iconic Utah.

It was hot, early July. We got up early and did whatever hiking we were going to do for the day and then drove in AC the rest of the time. Having dogs on a road trip is a little like Corona virus in that you get your food to go and eat in the car with the AC rolling.

Kachina, Sazi and Maizzy at Monument Valley, UT

Bears Ears National Monument is in the area – Mexican Hat use to be part of that system.

Other favorite stops in the area are Goosenecks State Park and Moki Dugway. “Mokee” is derived from the Spanish “Moqui” meaning “small people” which referred to the Native American cultures (Navajo, Zuni, Hopi). I am naming my next dog Moki. Goes well with Sazi Ana and Kachina.

The Bears Ears themselves are cool to see – which can be done from the top of Moki Dugway and down the road a bit.

Then, there is Natural Bridges National Monument.

So, Holy Sombrero is a big, yellow daylily that I got as a bonus after ordering a bunch of Southwest named daylilies. I guess the hybridizer knew what I was doing with my garden.

The cultivator has bloomed every year without fail. Interestingly enough, it hit peak bloom when we were visiting Mexican Hat last summer. It is suppose to be taller than it is, so I have to dig in the tall daylilies to find it.

A few more scapes today. It is another drought this year and my water bill will show it soon. Hopefully the monsoons kick in. Half the year, I live outside in my yard or on a road trip. The other half, I spend doing warm things inside – well, I hike but not during the coldest days. I am so glad it is spring . . . almost summer.

Poinsettias in the Bloom Closet!

November 16, 2019Leave a comment

Poinsettias are a sign that the holidays are just around the corner. I started collecting them a few years ago when I was a starving sixty-something doctoral student. I bought a pretty orange one and babied it because it was a luxury to buy a plant back then.

That plant bloomed all winter and flourished all summer. However, my first experiment in making a bloom closet that fall didn’t work out so well. The poinsettia bloomed, sort of, but was horribly leggy and didn’t survive winter #2.

I’ve gotten better with them. Trial and error. I have two that I’ve had going on four winters. I got a couple more the next year and, again, last year. Well, actually I got more than that, but lost a few along the way. I lost both of my orange ones from last winter to the cold spring.

I have 4 in bloom and one that’s still in the bloom closet. I have two still recovering from the cold spring that I’ll bloom in a couple of months.

How do I rebloom mine? Well, forget all the advice about putting it in a closet by night and a sunny window by day. I’m way too forgetful. But, I have a plant closet in my basement family room that has plant LED lights on a timer and a blackout curtain closed all the time, except when I water.

It’s year #3 for the closet and my poinsettias thrive down there. Once they bloom, they come upstairs for several weeks u til they start dropping leaves. Generally, they go back into the closet until May, when they sit in my front yard and get sprinkler system rain every day.

It’s hot and dry, but the poinsettias do fine. This is the first year that they have struggled a little. They are euphorbia, after all- just like my 6 ft pencil cactus.

I bring them in and put them in the bloom closet just before freeze. I have blooms by late October or early November. Have you ever rebloomed a poinsettia? Meanwhile the drought has returned and I need to winter water the daylilies during Thanksgiving break.

Yin and Yang

June 21, 20191 Comment

I’m really not feeling the joy of daylily season, yet. The wet, cold spring has things running 2-4 weeks late. Next week and the following are usually peak weeks. I have lots of scapes, but nothing but Stella, Saratoga Springtime, and Dream Keeper are blooming. And, I’d guess next week at the earliest before that changes. Last year, I had a dozen or so in bloom by now. I thought it was my gardening skills. Maybe some, but mostly the yin and yang of exceptional drought to a cold, wet season.

Dream Keeper 6/20

Saratoga Springtime 6/20

This year, I’ll do Premier photos for new blooms and, like last year, Encore photos for last blooms of each cultivator. For now, though, we wait.

It’s That Time, Again!

June 12, 2019Leave a comment

The contrast seems odd. Last year we had the exceptional drought. Blooms were early because of the warm, dry winter. I winter watered my daylilies once a month. Some buds dried up before they opened.

Stella de Oro, June 6, 2019

This year, winter was long, cold and wet. It warmed up in March, but got cold, again. I lost El Desperado – my big, thriving El Desperado. Nurse’s Stethoscope is struggling. I lost Ghost Ranch. Other daylilies have bigger that average foliage. It’s weird that I lost more with rain than without. We are 200% or something of the average snowpack.

Saratoga Springtime, June 9, 2019

So, blooms are late and scapes are slow to appear. I don’t feel as geared up for my daily daylily blog as usual. Maybe it’s because I have a new job that is a better match, but I’m leading a major transition. So, that and sick dogs, have been my focus.

Dream Keeper, June 11, 2019

But, nature doesn’t care. Summer temps are starting the last couple of weeks, and I’ve had 3 daylily blooms. Stella de Oro was the first. She started scapes at the usual time and then winter returned. She slowly but surely persisted. Other bloomers are Saratoga Springtime and Dream Keeper.

Oh, and my amaryllis finally bloomed after 5 years!

I have more scapes this week, but nothing else on the verge of blooming. So, my blog will have a slow start, just like the spring did.

Trifecta

June 14, 2018Leave a comment

Long work day, short blog post. No new faces today, but 3 pretty ones returned. I think Purple Many Faces, Talon, and Indian Love Call are close. If I called those three right (for tomorrow), it would be a real trifecta. There are a couple others that haven’t bloomed yet that are close. The morning light will have the answers.

Treasure of the Southwest 6/13

I counted 94 plants with scapes earlier today, including the 7 that are blooming now. Over three dozen of them in the Southwest Garden. Everything is coming to life. The drought is crazy this year. The humidity is usually single digits in the heat of the day. Today, it was mid-90’s. The next county over is on water restrictions. There are major wildfires in the region. It is not good . . . and I hope I can continue to get my blooms the water they need. We really need monsoons.

Saratoga Springtime 6/13

Many of my orchids are outside. I had to put up a shade sail and misting system for them. Orchids are less adaptable than daylilies – but, they do have a hardiness about them. Everything needs some rain. Especially our firefighters.

Stella de Oro 6/13

It’s Almost Daylily Season!

June 3, 2018June 3, 2018Leave a comment

Maybe even tomorrow! Kokopelli is busting at the seams – so soon, for sure.

It is interesting to watch the variables at work. Last year, Kokopelli bloomed on June 21st. Almost 3 weeks early this year. Why? Is it that she is in a buried pot? Is it the new soak hose watering system? Is it the lack of one tree what was blocking light? Is it the extreme drought that has been upon us since last fall (and winter watering)? Is it just that she is older? Who knows?

Kokopelli bud 6/2/2018

Last year, my new Lowes daylilies (Stella offspring) gave my first bloom. Then, my old Stella, Then Return a Smile. My Stella offspring do not have scapes yet, but the other two have early ones.

Another big shift this year is 20 daylilies with scapes in my Southwestern garden . . . already. Last year, I don’t think I got that many blooms all season. So, something I did shifted the ecosystem . . . or the extreme drought. Or, the plants are just more mature. Or, a combo. I vote for the latter. Here are a couple of comparison shots – a year apart late May/early April. Bigger plants!

Southwest Daylily Patch: End of April, 2017

Southwest Daylily Patch: Early May, 2018

Bets on a bloom greeting me tomorrow?

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: drought