Tag: dry winter

Southwest Roadtrip Garden: Daylily Bloom and Plant Adventures

1 Comment

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!

Primal Scream Daylily Pot
Mini-Pot with Daylily Art

Synchronous Seasons

Leave a comment

It’s beginning to look a lot like summer! Today is 6/8. It was 8/6 when I wrote my last blog about daylilies blooming in my yard.

Saratoga Springtime premier bloom 6/3/22

Today isn’t the first day I had a bloom for the year. That was Friday – the same day we left on our first camping trip of the season. I sort of wish daylily season didn’t overlap with camping season. I always have to miss out on something. Last weekend, however, I did not miss out on the mountain wildflowers.

Stella de Oro premier bloom 6/7/22

I have actually been giving some thought to the blog this summer. I am going to simplify my photos and just use my cellphone – except maybe premiers or exceptional blooms. It takes way too much time to do photos of 60+ blooms/day on both cell and camera. I also want to include my other blooms around the yard somehow. And, I would like to spend more energy on providing gardening tips. Plus, some video.

Our wildflower hike on the Grand Mesa in Colorado

I retire next month – at least until I find part-time flexible work. But, I plan to spend a few months getting my Art from the Hartt (and The Midwife’s Nursery) business going. And, camping.

Colorado wildflowers on our hike

I bought several cool daylilies last fall to celebrate semi-retirement. They did horrible – and I bought from more than 1 reliable seller, so it is on my end. I fully lost 2, and have about half the others with one struggling fan. The ones doing well are also mostly one fan, but normal size. It was a dry winter followed by a cold spring. And, I didn’t winter water. Lessons learned. Perhaps the worst part is the name labels washed off the new plants so I have no idea what I lost and what is left, but they should all still have grower labels so I will do some digging and get new labels up.

Mountain wildflowers on our hike

Here is to a new season. And, my usual premier, Saratoga Springtime. I have ~30 scapes and it is going to be 90 degrees the next few days.

Why is it that wildflowers seem so tame compared to daylilies?

Welcome to summer!