Perhaps it is a bit premature to start my “between the seasons” chores. However, the best time to update my garden map was with several of the cultivators in bloom. It is funny what I forget when they aren’t blooming and look like a cross between grass and a spider plant. So, I printed off the old map and thought it would be a few adjustments. However, the garden grew and changed over the years and the numbering system was confusing – so I started from scratch.
Garden maps are great, though. You know what you have and what you don’t have. You know approximately where your cultivators are – so when that bloom you don’t remember pops up, you can figure out what it is (esp if you lost the label.
Anyway, back to the blooms – I had 3 very different premiers today.
El Desperado 7.17 – This was actually the first cultivator I had in the Southwest Garden (that was much smaller and just had yucca. I put it in a pot and set it out there with no water system other than my watering can. Suffice it to say, she didn’t flourish. I moved her and she did fine but up and died a couple years ago, so this is a replacement. She taught me that I needed irrigation out there before I tried daylilies in that spot, again. Now, there are 79.Oh Erica 7.17 – This is a new addition to the family garden this year. I found the daylily by searching the family member’s name but couldn’t find it for sale. I found the hybridizer and he sold me the fans. I hope she does OK – she looks a little but eaten.Purple Many Faces 7.17 – Pretty late for a premier bloom from this Roberts spider. It usually blooms early July. IDK – moving to the pot – also the drought – she was very slot to start this spring due to looking very dry.
Finales included a lot of big yellow-white flowers today. Sad to see them go.
Heavenly Curls finale 7.17 – She had her best bloom year ever, though!Ghost Ranch finale 7.17 – She only had 2 buds so one premier and one finale. Glad I ordered more.Papa Longlegs finale 7.17 – He also had a good bloom year.Hopi Jewel finale 7.17 – I think of her as an earlier bloomer so it is unusual to still have her blooming.Coral Taco finale 7.16 – I missed her yesterdayPrelude to Love finale 7.17
Only about 36 hours until I head for New Mexico for a few days – to see a Truchas sunrise and visit Ghost Ranch – Oh, and drive the Enchanted Circle in the land of enchantment.
I’ve been intrigued by the show Hoarders this year. IDK why, because I hate reality TV. Maybe it is because I have a 1st degree family member who struggles with this. Maybe because I needed to feel something with human emotions. Maybe my own home needed some cleaning and decluttering. Maybe just to kill time.
What is the difference between hoarding daylilies and collecting daylilies – that is my question. I guess that if your garden has labels, is watered and weeded, and you take photos everyday – that is probably a collection. Hoarding would probably be a back yard full of disorganized pots with some live and dead plants – and you can’t move anywhere because the pots are everywhere. Bugs . . . well, I have a few of those but my guess it isn’t like a hoard. Some of my daylilies are named after bugs, though. Is there such thing as a daylily hoard?
I have collections within my collection. My favorite collection is my Ned Roberts cultivators. I have ordered these from far and wide to form my collection. The other, overlapping, collection is my Southwest names collection. Some of these were bonuses sent with my Roberts collection because the names were Southwestern – so they go with my Ned Roberts collection. My original collection was those available at local nurseries. I have a collection with family names for my grandma, mom, dad, daughters and grandkids. The list goes on. If I kept adding, I think it could become a hoard. Daylilies are too much work to have too many!
I have had 94 bloom so far this year and 7 more premiers today. Here they are:
Baby Blue Eyes – 7.6- added to my near blues collection (yes, I have one of those, too) a couple years ago.Black Arrowhead – 7.6 – A distinctive Ned Roberts Southwestern spider.Blackthorne – 7.6 – This cultivator is from my original local nurseries collection and this is the first bloom in many years.Cheyenne Eyes – 7.6 – A big, lanky Roberts spider.Chorus Line – 7.6 – A pretty pastel from a local nursery.Classy Lady – 7.6 – IDK, maybe she came from the auction?Melon Balls – 7.6.1 – A sweet little bonus from my early collecting years.
Finales – Yesterday was the finale of Purple Moonrise.
Purple Moonrise 7.5
I counted about 50 with scapes that haven’t bloomed. I think we will hit at least 80% this year. I need to move my daylily software over to my other computer to be sure, though.
Colorado Kid Daylilies 