September Daylily Blooms: 2024 Recap & 2025 Preview Plus Art Sale Update

September 10, 20241 Comment

September: Where Have All The Daylilies Gone?

It’s September. How on earth did that happen? The days are growing shorter and cooler. Glad for the cool – but dread the time change and cold months.

I had a few more blooms in August – the 20th and 22nd.

Four-Corners Adventure Ends Daylily Season

The 22nd was the day we left for a 2-Corners camping adventure. It’s so fun to see the Ancient Pueblo Ruins. My love of the Southwest shows in my selection of daylilies!

Since returning, I had 1 bloom on September 1st. I have no scapes. This year will either end early or late. We will wait and see. But as of right now, Navajo Curls is my latest bloom for 2024. The scape got broken in the monsoon a few days before, but bloomed she did.

Broken but blooming: My last bloom from Navajo Curls on 9.1.24

Until The Last Daylily Blooms Sale Ends September 20th!

The Until the Last Daylily Blooms sale continues until September 20th – if I have no scapes by then, the sale ends. If I get a late, late scape, then I will resume the sale as previously outlined. This sale means 35% off purchases on selected merchandise including:

Art pumpkins
Hypertufa pots
Terra Cotta pots
Leaf castings
Tile clocks
Daylily wall art
Daylily cards

Check them out AT MY ETSY SHOP!

If you entered the “guess the date of the last daylily bloom” contest – I am waiting until freeze and if no new blooms by then, I will give everyone (who entered) the choice of a new plant or a 40% off coupon.

New Daylily Roots: Looking Ahead To Bloom Season 2025

I did get my daylily roots from Doris at Shady Rest Gardens on Saturday.

Daylily roots taking a re-hydration swim before being planted in my yard today.

I generally soak my roots in a big pot to rehydrate them for a day or two before planting. This year, I decided to convert my two squash pots to daylilies because the squash have not done well. You can see how I place the roots in the pot. I cover them and trim the plant back. It’s magic to watch the leaves put out new growth before freeze.

I put my two new OZ daylilies in the squash pots and my two new Ned Roberts daylilies in the large multi-species pots I have out front. I want to get covers for the tops of the pots that are not buried this year.

Anyway – I will check back in about the sale and the contest in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep blooming. And, remember that my daylily art can add a daylily bloom to your decor 24/7/365. Please check out my sale! 35% off on many items through the 20th of this month!

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.

Anasazi: My Daylilies in Ruins

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020Leave a comment

Anasazi is a Navajo word meaning “enemy ancestors” – but today we equate the word with the Ancient Pueblo people of the Southwest. This week, I talked about Chaco Canyon, which was the center of the population – like our New York. If there was a pandemic, it would likely center at Chaco. But, I have visited so many Ancient Pueblo ruins on my trips that it is mind boggling. Here are some favorites:

Maybe we should start at the center: Chaco Canyon, NM – The Center of the Universe!

Chaco Canyon – 2014

Chaco Canyon has outlying ruins that are miles and miles away – We have visited the two directly to the north – Salmon and Aztec Ruins National Monument near Farmington, NM.

Salmon Ruins – 2016

Aztec Ruins – 2016

One of the most interesting of the Chacoan Outliers is Chimney Rock near Durango, CO. My heavens, I had the worst vertigo when we camped there in 2009. This is the highest of all the Chacoan Ruins and they think it was used to send smoke signals to the other sites! It was beautiful and rainy on the day I visited.

Chimney Rock – 2009

Of course, not too far west of Chimney Rock is the famous Mesa Verde National Park. I started fostering my little disabled dog the same weekend we visited Mesa Verde. She was Dotsie in her past life, and I was trying to think of a name that rhymed, so she is Sazi Ana.

Mesa Verde – 2017

Not to talk politics (save me from that during this pandemic!), but White House Ruins at Canyon de Chelly, AZ is also part of the the system. I miss this canyon.

White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly – 2018

Lowry Pueblo is a very interesting outlier not too far from my home. I love this one because you have to drive through rural farm land to reach the site. I love the figurines in the kiva – they represent summer and winter people.

Lowry Pueblo – 2019

Then, let’s zoom up to Utah to Edges of the Cedars State Park, where there is another Chacoan outlier. They had a crazy large geographic area for that time in civilization.

Edges of the Cedars State Park, UT – 2019

There were other Ancestral Puebloan ruins that are not direct Chaco outliers, like the ruins at Petrified Forest National Park. I love the Agate House – a ruin made of petrified wood!

Agate House, Petrified Forest National Park – 2018

And, Navajo National Monument has Betatakin and other Ancient Pueblo ruins.

Navajo National Monument – 2016

My old favorite, Hovenweep National Monument, has awesome Ancient Pueblo castle ruins.

Hovenweep National Monument – 2019

Some lesser known Ancient Pueblo Ruins we have visited include Five Kiva Pueblo near Blanding, UT.

Five Kiva Pueblo, UT – 2019

And, Yucca House National Monument near Cortez, CO.

Yucca House National Monument – 2019

I think the furthest one from the Four Corners is at Anasazi State Park in Utah – way up in the mountains near Boulder, UT.

Anasazi State Park, UT – 2019

That is a lot of ruins for one daylily. And, that Daylily is Anasazi. How on earth could I resist a name like this one? She was a bitty fan when I first got her – took her a few years to bloom. But, the first year she bloomed, she threw a double. It was memorizing.

Anasazi daylily double bloom – 2017

She usually blooms fairly early, but is a rebloomer.

Anasazi daylily – 2018

She looks a bit slow to take-off this spring. I probably should refresh her soil – the ants like her pot so I probably should take a look at the roots.

Anasazi daylily – 2019

I have other cultivators that would fit with this blog, but I will wait because I am trying to savor the vicarious daylily road trip for a couple more weeks.

Daylilies for the Navajo Nation

May 10, 2020May 10, 2020Leave a comment

Today, it struck me that no series of blogs about the Southwest during Coronavirus would be complete without a mention of the Navajo. I love the Navajo culture – it makes my trips to the Southwest take on a cultural feel that is humbling. I have so much to be grateful for in life. And, I do envy their sense of family and community.

I was wondering if we could trace the boundaries of the Navajo Nation from various road trips. So, last year, we traced the New Mexico side starting at the Shiprock and down through the Bisti Badlands.

Shiprock Flea Market – 2019 road trip

Bisti Badlands – 2019 road trip

If we were to have headed due east after the Bisti Badlands the way the crow flies, would would trace the Navajo Nation boundary to Window Rock (the capitol of the Navajo Nation) and Fort Defiance. These are absolutely some of my favorite stops in Navajoland. I like to spend the night in Window Rock so I can spend the whole day taking in the scenery.

Window Rock, AZ – 2018 Road Trip

Near Fort Defiance – 2018 Road Trip

Then we would turn due south – if we were tracing the boundary. That would take us just south of Route 66.

Route 66 Arizona – 2014 Road Trip

And, then we trace west to the Northern Border of the Painted Desert at Petrified Forest National Park.

Painted Desert – 2018 Road Trip

From there, you head due west, almost to Flagstaff. Then it is a turn to the North through Cameron up to Page – just east of the Grand Canyon.

Eastern Grand Canyon – 2015 Road Trip

You end up almost to Utah, at Page, AZ. That was a strange stop the year we went because they weren’t on rez time, even though everything surrounding the city was an hour later. We visited the famous Horse Shoe Bend near Page.

Horse Shoe Bend – 2015 Road Trip

Then, you are up in Utah at the Glen Canyon Dam area – a favorite stop on our road trips!

Glen Canyon – 2015 Road Trip

Mexican Hat – 2019 Summer Camping Road Trip

Then, it is pretty much due east to Mexican Hat, UT. Very iconic Utah.

Bluff Utah – 2019 Summer Camping Road Trip

And then a bit further to Bluff, UT – we camped here last summer. It was a fun (but hot) spot to explore.

We approach home as we get to Hovenweep National Monument on the Colorado Border – this is absolutely a favorite spot and a place I plan to go camping as soon as we can travel more than 10 miles, again.

Hovenweep National Monument – 2019 Summer Camping Road Trip

From there, the boundary heads South to Teec Nos Pos, AZ. They have a great trading post there.

Teec Nos Pos – Fall Break Four Corners Trip 2015

And, we are almost back to Shiprock, where we started. I wish I could end the story here, but there are a few other favorite places that are internal to the Navajo Nation that we must visit. First, the infamous Monument Valley. This is just south of the Mexican Hat.

Monument Valley – 2019 Summer Camping Road Trip

And, Navajo National Monument has great free camping and some very spiritual ruins.

Navajo National Monument – 2016 Utah Graduation Camping Trip

The other route we frequent is 191 South – This is a good route to the Senora through the Four Corners area. I absolutely love Canyon de Chelly – it has the best red rock of any canyon I have visited.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument – 2017 Road Trip

With a stop at the Hubbell Trading Post on the way to Petrified Forest.

Hubbell Trading Post – 2017 Road Trip

Sadly, Coronavirus has hit the Navajo Nation hard. As of tonight (5/9) they have nearly 3,000 cases and nearly 100 deaths. So, this blog is my tribute to this nation that is feeling the grip of COVID-19.

OK, back to the daylily blog. Here are my Navajo named daylilies. (I have a few, I wonder why?)

Navajo Blanket Daylily – 2019

Navajo Curls Daylily – 2019

Navajo Grey Hills Daylily – 2019

Navajo Rodeo Daylily – 2019

With this, I live vicariously through my daylilies while I stay safe at home. It is not the time to travel to Navajoland – but my heart goes there often. Now, I think of the reservation. I think of the poverty and the hardship that these people know. They lived a less hurried life, they honor their ancestors. I learn so much from my visits. With this, I send heartfelt thoughts of hope and healing to this spiritual land.

PS – This was fun, although a bit time consuming – I never really thought about tracing the border of the Navajo Nation through my trip photos.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: Hovenweep National Monument