Until the Last Daylily Blooms: Daylilies Dwindle But Art Production Thrives!

August 19, 20241 Comment

Dwindling Daylilies and Late Bloomers

The daylilies dwindle and I am back to creating new art! Each day still starts with a walk through the blooming daylilies to get photos. It is just a lot easier (and less spectacular) when there are only a couple blooming. And, my Art from the Hartt is back in production because I need colorful adventures to survive!

Still with us this past week were Adios Albuquerque, Autumn Minaret, Frans Hals, Happy Returns, Heirloom Heaven, Indian Sky, Kachina Firecracker, Navajo Curls, Purple Corn Dancer, Raven Woodsong, Rosie’s Red, Simmering Elephants, Skinwalker, and my NOID Roberts that could be Winds of Love or Skinwalker. This coming week is going to start to be much slimmer pickings. Oh, and Happy Returns is a first bloom for the year – likely my last first!

Encouraging Rebloomers, Prepping For Next Season

To encourage my rebloomers, I used liquid fertilizer yesterday and today. I gave about 1/3rd of the pots some organic fertilizer in their water. The rest got Miracle Grow spray today. This should help the plants fill out and rejuvenate before they go dormant.

I think part of my problem this year is that I didn’t do any fall care. I also need to put more soil in a few pots this fall – plus I plan time-released fertilizer next month. The weather is cooling off and we have some rain the next several days, so I picked the spray type since it is still summer.

Until the Last Daylily Blooms Art Sale Prices Drop Again This Week

On the 20th of August, my Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale prices drop to 35% off select items in my Etsy Shop. These prices drop to 40% off is I still have a daylily in bloom on September 20th. My sale ends within 72 hours of my last daylily bloom! Don’t wait!

What is on sale starting August 20th?

Most of my hypertufa art is included in the August 20-Sept 19th sale prices. This includes pots, leaf castings, leaf castings and pet memorials!!!
All of my hand painted tile clocks. There are stunning pour paint on tile and wood styles (various sizes) and landscape clocks. I even have one daylily clock.
My daylily wall art is part of the sale. Hand painted daylily wood panels and signed prints to help you see daylilies 365 days a year!
My daylily terra cotta pots are on sale. These are an adorable way to show your daylily love with a year around houseplant or succulent.
My flower photo notecards are part of the sale!
And more.

Visit my Etsy Shop today! Email me if you are interested in a product line and need help finding the listing.

Adorable Fluid Art Pumpkins On Sale!!

I wanted to spend a minute on the adorable hypertufa pumpkins that I just made. These stunning fall art pieces would look awesome in the yard for Halloween or on the table for Thanksgiving. I have several in process – so more designs will be added to Etsy soon! Great for garden lovers who want some fall color in their lives! Learn more about the pumpkins on my art blog – Art from the Hartt.

More Sale Merchandise Planned for September

I have more autumn themed art that I will add to the Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale IN A MONTH on September 20th – if my daylilies are still blooming. The art is so new it isn’t listed (of finished) yet! I have everything from paw art to candle holders to succulent planters coming to the sale if those daylilies keep blooming! Sneak preview below.

I will run the sale through September 2nd regardless to give the rebloomers a little time. If I end the sale and get a very late scape – we will restart the sale where we left off!

Don’t Forget to Enter the Give Away TODAY!

I also have the give-away of $35 if you email a guess on the day the last daylily will bloom. Entries are due by midnight September 2nd. Email me at cathy@artfromthehartt.com with your guess (the day my last daylily blooms for 2024) and put daylily in the topic to enter. More info on the contest here – click.

A Dedication to My Daylily Friend and More Colorful Spiders!

July 23, 2024Leave a comment

A Dedication: For My Daylily Friend

Life can change in a moment. A couple of years ago, an online friend who I met through a Facebook daylily group called Daylily Lovers and I did a daylily exchange. He lived in the same USDA zone but in the eastern US. I’m out west. I sent him Saratoga Springtime and he sent me Autumn Minaret. I guess we were looking for daylilies from opposite seasons to add to our yards.

The daylily he sent didn’t do much last year, so today is the first ever bloom for Autumn Minaret. I want to dedicate this post to my friend. So much happened to him so quickly. I doubt he will ever see this post but I wonder how he are doing. The flower will always remind me of his love of daylilies.

Readers – Have you ever exchanged daylilies with a friend? How did it go? Please share the experience! Did you stay local or ship the daylily roots? Do you recommend daylily exchanges to others?

More Ned Spider Daylilies

I had two new Ned Roberts daylilies in the Southwest Road Trip Garden today: Black Arrowhead and Skinwalker. I like the dark daylilies, and I didn’t even realize Black Arrowhead had a scape. Nice surprise.

Skinwalker is an old favorite – love the pale yellow and the wispy petals.

Yesterday, was also a day of new spider daylilies from my Ned Roberts collection. Maybe my Southwest Road Trip Garden will catch-up a little. Cheyenne Eyes, Desert Icicle, Shape Shifter, and Taco Twister. That makes 31 total Roberts Spiders for the year out of 72, I believe. That’s 43% for the year. A dozen more and it’ll be 60%. Stretch goal!

Until the Last Daylily Blooms: Skinwalker Painting and Signed Prints

Immerse yourself in the serene beauty of nature with this exquisite, original hand-painted daylily wall art. Capturing the delicate forms of Skinwalker, a yellow daylily with subtle pink edging, this piece serves as a charming accent for any room.

Speaking of Skinwalker, I have an original hand painted wood panel or limited edition signed prints available of my Skinwalker painting. These are available through my Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale and they are now 30% off through August 19. These are limited edition and available while supplies last. The original panel is now $24.50 (plus free shipping) and the prints are only $8.50. Click on photo to go to listing for the painting (or click here). Click here for listing of the limited edition signed prints.

Visit my Etsy shop Art from the Hartt at the link above – or my business website here. This is a time-limited sale – until my last daylily blooms!

Unique Yard Art and Memorials for Daylily Gardens

July 14, 20242 Comments

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.

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.

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

July 12, 2024Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Busy Day and A Gorgeous Daylily Bouquet

July 10, 2024Leave a comment

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.

AI Impact on Blogging and Etsy: Insights from a Daylily Hobbyist and Artist

July 9, 2024Leave a comment

Midseason Monday Meanderings

Midseason Monday brings only 2 first blooms for 2024 to the yard. The first is an older daylily, Prairie Blue Eyes. Even though she is a classic, Prairie Blue Eyes has a nice blue hue around the eye zone.

The second is one I got as a bonus called Nona’s Garnet Spider. She is a 90s girl. Nona is a petite spider that adds a nice red accent in my front path garden.

It was a nice break in the flurry of midseason today. I had other things to get done today. Finding balance during peak season is always a challenge, and I don’t think I am at peak. This year may be more like a prolonged plateau until Fall.

Ned Roberts Spider Daylily Collection To Date

I wanted to show off my Ned Roberts spiders so far this season. I have over 70 total Ned cultivators – I hope this isn’t an accurate mid-season picture as far as bloom rate. I am nowhere close to 35 (or midway). Here they are in the order shown below: Chaco Canyon, Chief Four Fingers, Chokecherry Mountain, Comanche Princess, Coral Taco, Echo Canyon, Fried Green Tomatoes, Kachina Dancer, Kokopelli, Maya Cha Cha, Papa Longlegs, Pueblo Dancer, Talon. 13 of 70 is about 18%, so the Southwest Road Trip Garden is lower than my yard as a whole.

To AI or Not to AI? That is the Question!

To my fellow bloggers out there, what are your thoughts on AI? I have been using the Word Press AI feature for headlines and my stats seem to be up, but it also feels a little distant or impersonal. That said, it does save a little time. The excerpt is another time-saver, but again feels impersonal. I feel like the 3rd person.

I usually use Grammarly, but it hasn’t been running for a few days for some reason. I like the feedback it gives, generally speaking. I used it for my doctorate, also, and found it helpful – although it argues with the AI I use for my Etsy listings. I SMH with the bots arguing about grammar but using AI does seem to be increasing my Etsy traffic.

Bloggers – if you are using AI, do you think it is helping with traffic? If yes – why and how much???

Speaking of Etsy . . .

Please don’t forget my Until the Last Daylily Blooms art sale on Etsy. This sale is on all of my daylily artwork – wall art, pots, clocks, and cards. Please follow my Art from the Hartt page on Facebook and Instagram for updates and process videos. Click here to visit my Etsy shop.

I will be adding some new pieces before the summer is over. I plan to do some daylily paintings over a marbled acrylic pour background. I will be talking more about my process in the next few weeks!

Daylily Photography: Capturing Every Bloom and Seeking Tracking System

July 7, 2024Leave a comment

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

July 6, 2024Leave a comment

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

July 1, 20241 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.

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!

The Science of Flower Power: Dopamine and Daylilies

June 29, 2024Leave a comment

Dopamine and Daylilies: Do Your Blooms Make You Happier?

Have you ever wondered why we are so drawn to daylilies and gardens in general? This is the time of year when I wake up, remember it’s daylily season, and can’t wait to go out to the garden. Now that the empty pots are filled, it’s even better. A lot of positive emotion – feelings of awe, gratitude, and curiosity abound. Daylilies are like velcro, drawing me out to see what is new.

There have been lots of studies looking at flowers and wellbeing. This linked article gives a great synopsis of the research. I need to remember to use my sense of smell more when I am out there, though.

I think daylilies are extra special because the garden has new blooms daily. So, going beyond color, fragrance, and our internal connection to nature, our brains adapt to our surroundings very quickly. My begonias with beautiful leaves or the stunning blooms on my orchids increase my sense of wellbeing. But, day 2 is a little less than day 1 . . . each day, my brain adapts and stops reacting as strongly to the beauty. Less dopamine.

Adaptation is the same mechanism that makes vacations “lifelong memories” and raises in salary not such a “lifelong” joy. The good part about adaptation is that it can boost resilience. If I get bad news, the news usually seems less bad the next day. Give me 120 days after even devastating news, and like most people, I’m probably back to my baseline happiness. After 120 days of the orchid or begonia, I am probably pretty unaffected by their presence.

With daylilies, every day is a new day with different colors and blooms. I think that is why I love daylily season. And, even though blogging about it is work, it does help me savor the joy of the flowers each day. It forces me to take notice of my surroundings.

PS – My doctoral work in nursing revolved around the science of positive psychology and optimism. Positive psychology is one of my favorite garden tools!

Daily Daylily Update from My Garden

I didn’t work in the yard today other than to take photos of my bloomers. Did you know I take a photo of each blooming cultivator every day? Then, I file the photos by name and make an Instagram reel for both my pages. Then, I write the blog. So, every day is a daylily day this time of year – unless it is a camping day.

I did have two first blooms for 2024: Inwood and Thin Man. Both beautiful blooms, keeping a dozen other blooming cultivators company. Inwood is an older cultivator and reliable bloomer. Thin Man reminds me of a droopy Ruby Spider.

As for scapes, I’m at 90 +/-. I decided today that I have no yardstick (so to speak) to keep track of scapes (or cultivators with scapes) like I do blooms. So, is 90 scapes above, below, or at the mean? Hmmmm. I need a better reference. I do know that several early bloomers don’t have scapes, which makes me nervous because it’s almost July. Does anyone else out there count scapes? Any good systems for tracking these each year?

Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale on Etsy

One of the items I have for sale this summer is this Ruby Spider plant pot. I painted it in several layers so that the paint has a textured feel. The background is a very flat chalk paint on terra cotta, while the flower is bright acrylic. The 6-inch size is perfect for many houseplants. It comes with a saucer, also done in chalk paint. The red and teal are a stunning color combo. And, it is 25% off until my last daylily blooms for 2024. Click this link or the photo below to visit the listing. That’s only about $20 and includes postage!