Dog Day Bouquet

August 27, 2019Leave a comment

It’s National Dog Day!!! Dogs and daylilies are my two most expensive hobbies. LOL. Well, my dogs help me garden to earn their keep. They take naps in the sun for me and chase off every other dog who dares walk past my daylily garden. My dogs have been sick a lot this summer, unfortunately. Maizzy, the larger, short-haired chi, is just senior and Sazi, the small long-haired chi, has disc disease and was paralysed in June. She slowly regains function – she is walking and running but lost a lot of feeling in her back legs. I do blame that for part of the fact that my yard is not at its best. Of course, they are a happy part of my camping travels and the best companions ever! Happy Dog Day pups!

Kachina, Sazi, and Maizzy at Monument Valley last month.

What bloomed for them today?

Purple Corn Dancer is doing yoga around her bud. I have a few more blooms to look forward to from her.

Purple Corn Dancer doing yoga 8.26

Royal Palace Prince is on the new drip line and opened his last bud today. Hoping for more blooms next year.

Royal Palace Prince 8.26

Mama Cuna also opened her last bud. She is so big and showy – I may see if I can divide her and put a couple fans up in the front yard.

Mama Cuna 8.26

Indian Sky – and I am not sure if she has buds left. Maybe. But, not many.

Indian Sky 8.26

Purple Grasshopper – this would be Kachina’s favorite. She loves to chase those things! (Kachina is the Terrier).

Purple Grasshopper 8.26

Ruby Stella – she is a champion bud maker this year and I have a few left to bloom.

Ruby Stella 8.26

And, as the blooms fade away, the weeds seem more noticeable. My front yard looks as gross as ever. Don’t plant grass on a hill in the desert. And, the daylilies can disrupt the sprinkler flow . . . which doesn’t help. I am thinking of thyme or sedum for part of it – and maybe ornamental grass. Thrilling to dig in this mud. Can’t wait. LOL.

Tired

August 21, 2019August 21, 2019Leave a comment

It’s crazy – I had 13 cultivators in bloom today. Hello . . . It’s August 20th. The weather is now acting like desert weather. Hot and dry. It was in the 90s today.

Purple Corn Dancer 8.20

It’s been a year tomorrow since my surgery. After that, I could not be in the sun for a few months, so the blog just stopped . . . Until the poinsettias bloomed. I only had Purple Corn Dancer in bloom, anyway. Healing was a journey.

Purple Thunderbird 8.20

I never know what to think this time of year. Tired of the heat but dreading the cold, dark seasons ahead. Tired of my camera but don’t want to miss the late bloomers. Hate to see camping season end but ready for some mellow hikes around home. I think my daylilies are in a similar place with life right now – still blooming but longing for a rest.

Cripple Creek 8.20

PS – I ordered my new 2 in one laptop. My old one was tired, too.

Shape Shifter 8.20

Purple Grasshopper 8.20

Indian Sky 8.20

Orange Flurry 8.20

El Desperado 8.20

Chaco Canyon 8.20

Coberg Fright Wig 8.20

Ruby Stella 8.20

Frans Hals 8.20

Chaos and Routine

August 20, 2019Leave a comment

The school year feels like it has started. The new faculty are awesome. Eventually, the routine will settle in, but the chaos takes time to run its course.

Indian Sky 8.19

And, as that happens, the daylilies thin. I have maybe 18 cultivators with buds. Probably about 100 buds. It’s hot, some of them are too thirsty. I lost a few this week.

Shape Shifter 8.19

I start to think about fall chores. Should I put a drip system in the front garden? I need to fix some things in the Southwest garden.

Purple Grasshopper 8.19

By the time the final grades come in, we will be talking about Santa Claus. And, my poor poinsettias. Why aren’t they growing faster. I usually start forcing the first ones about now. I have 2 of 6 that are blooming size. Maybe I need to up their water? Why did 2 grow big?

Frans Hals 8.19

And, my amaryllis have bloomed more this summer than last winter. I had 4 blooms this summer, though my seeds haven’t sprouted.

Navajo Curls 8.19

Fall and winter start to occupy my mind. Air plant decorating . . . They look cool in with cactus, which gives me all sorts of ideas.

Cripple Creek 8.19

For now, I need to focus on this week. Looks like I need a new computer. Sigh. I’m hoping Santa can still afford to bring me a new camera for Christmas.

Heirloom Heaven 8.19

Daylily Who’s Who????

July 25, 2019Leave a comment

Another amazing day with over 60 cultivators in bloom. I blogged the other day about knowing my flowers by name tags, mapping, and photographic surroundings. Well, I blew it on one of my Roberts spiders. It all feels so rushed with being at work most of the day – I have been home with my daylilies for the last 4 summers. That is when my collection grew. Now, I rush around in the morning to get pictures and that is really the only time I see these beauties. Hopefully, in a couple years, I can reduce my summer hours.

Until then, my flub was stellar. That is, both daylilies referred to the sky. Seriously, looking at them, they totally look like their names. I don’t know how I got them mixed up other than taking 80-100 photos off my camera, editing and organizing in the evening . . . and travel, and two special needs dogs, and work. Well, stellar flubs happen. Here they are both in bloom the same day (today), which helped.

Star over Milagro 7/24

Truchas Sunrise 7/24

So, now that I have confessed, here are today’s Premiers:

Mama Cuna is another Roberts daylily – it is good to see her, again! She resembles Star over Milagro – I need to look up and see if they share genes in common.

Indian Sky is probably not the real Indian Sky, although it was sold as such. It was one of my early online purchases – it fit my Southwest theme. I think it is still really pretty.

Rosie’s Red was another bonus daylily – and one I really like. The deep red color is beautiful and I like the shape.

Mama Cuna 7/24

Indian Sky 7/24

Rosie’s Red

Three Standard Deviations

August 18, 2018Leave a comment

What a strange week . . . 3 standard deviations from the mean. So, I apologize for no blog since Sunday. The reorganization has hit at work. I worked 12 hour days on Monday and Thursday. Tuesday, I had this skin cancer removed . . . long story short is that I hope like heck it stays healthy until the graft next Tuesday. Wednesday was my eye exam – and I worked until 10 PM. And, today – a steady 6 hours of work with everything in motion. I will get even more new students, I got a new boss (3rd boss in as many weeks), I haven’t even gotten all the new students from the last batch re-settled. And, then, I heard my calling. Doors may open. Let’s leave it at that for now.

My yard has fallen way down on my priority list. I have no idea if I can dig up any lilies this fall with all this noise in my life. Really, my energy has changed this year and the noise is deafening. Speaking of deaf . . . yea, that, too. That said, things are beginning to move in new directions. I let go and started living for a new vision. This created some feng shi space, I guess. Things are moving after a very long, stagnant period. How long do we fertilize something that never blooms?

So, enough of my excuses – here are my flowers for the week:

Finales:

Blue Beat 8.16

Pink and Cream 8.17

Other bloomers:

Purple Corn Dancer 8.13

Indian Sky 8.16

Heirloom Heaven 8.13

Ruby Stella 8.13

Dream Catcher 8.16

No August scapes – no returns, yet, from my “returns” daylilies. No rainy season. A quiet fall in the garden. Which is probably good given everything else in my life. It is a camping weekend and I am home. Too much going on today . . . and this week. I may try for a one-night wonder trip near home tomorrow if I feel up to it. I need to focus on healing my life.

Christmas in August: The Ugly Daylily

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018Leave a comment

The blooms thin out way too rapidly this time of the season. Every day brings another finale or three. I hung the black-out curtains on the poinsettia bloom closet so I can start forcing them in a couple of weeks. It’s 90 degrees outside so it doesn’t feel right. The amaryllis will come in soon, too. Speaking of amaryllis, Ambience bloomed this weekend. Well, more like she is blooming. Unlike daylilies, she takes her time. She blooms every summer at this time. I call her the ugly daylily. Unfortunately, the bugs love her thin blossoms. But, her color is stunning just the same. She looks like Christmas in August.

Amaryllis Ambience 8.11

Now, back to the real daylilies for the past two days. I took last night off of the blog . . . needed a break.

Finales:

Mini Pearl 8.11

Royal Palace Prince 8.11

Tiger Kitten 8.11

Navajo Curls 8.12

Other Saturday and Sunday blooms:

Pink and Cream 8.12

Blue Beat 8.11

Stella de Oro 8.11

Ruby Stella 8.12

Purple Corn Dancer 8.11

Dream Catcher 8.11

Indian Sky 8.11

That’s all folks. We are headed into the quiet of late August. No new scapes at this point. I think we needed monsoon rain for that to happen.

The Three Amigas

August 11, 2018Leave a comment

My dogs earned the reputation of being the Three Amigas last year at a dog Halloween party. They won a prize for the funniest dog costumes. It was a good time.

Kachina, Maizzy, and Sazi

So, today when I had only three blooms, I thought about my dogs. I think Blue Beat is my oldest dog, Maizzy. She is mellow (blue) and has a heart condition (Beat). So, it fits her. Indian Sky is my youngest dog, Kachina. Not only do the names work together, but Kachina is the red-orange sky color. Then comes little goofy Sazi, my newest addition (although she is middle-aged). Heirloom Heaven fits her because she is a small late bloomer. Who else has canine garden helpers?

Today’s Blooms (no finales):

Blue Beat 8.10 – Maizzy’s bloom

Maizzy

Indian Sky 8.10 – Kachina’s bloom

Kachina

Heirloom Heaven 8.10 – Sazi’s bloom

Sazi

The Last Dozen Daylilies

August 9, 2018August 9, 2018Leave a comment

Today, we got a late burst of activity in the daylily garden. A nice dozen showed up today. Given I only have 11 with buds left, I believe it is the last dozen. And, we had several finales. Now comes the time that I contemplate what to do with the ones that have never bloomed. Do I toss them and put divisions of some of my more reliable ones in their place? Or give them another year? Or a little of both?

Finales:

El Desperado 8.8 – blooming since 7.10

Cherokee Star 8.8 – blooming since 7.16

Orange Vols 8.8 – blooming since 7.23

Other bloomers today:

Pink and Cream 8.8

Mini Pearl 8.8

Indian Sky 8.8

Heirloom Heaven 8.8

Blue Beat 8.8

Dream Catcher 8.8

Navajo Curls 8.8

Purple Corn Dancer 8.8

Royal Palace Prince 8.8

The next dozen will be next June. I start to plan poinsettia and amaryllis forcing . . . oh, one of my amaryllises is putting up a scape right now. The ugly daylily.

The First Sunday of August

August 6, 2018Leave a comment

It was camping weekend, which is good because I need the stress relief. Work is too busy and I am too exhausted. So, I returned to an encore – Stella de Oro has been out of bloom for 3 weeks and she is back. I will just leave her in the roll call. Our last roll call of 2018. We had 37 in bloom this week. We had 56 last week and I predicted half as many this week. Actually – more like 2/3rds. When you look at all the finales this week (see photos below), I will make the same prediction for next week. That’s about 18 for the week. We don’t have many scapes yet, and the ones mostly only have a bloom or two left. Heirloom Heaven, Indian Sky, Pink and Cream, Dream Catcher, and Purple Corn Dancer have some life left in them. I am hoping Passionate Returns, Stephanie Returns, Ruby Stella and Red Hot Returns all return.

Here Goes Roll Call 7/31-8/5:

Anasazi 7.30 – has had finale bloom

Apache Uprising 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Baja 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Blue Beat 8.2

Cherokee Star 8.2

Chorus Line 8.5

Classy Lady 7.31 – Has had finale bloom

Comanche Princess 8.2

Dream Catcher 7.30

El Desperado 8.5

Fox Ears 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Heirloom Heaven 8.2

Heron’s Cove 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Hesperus 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Indian Love Call 8.2 – Has had finale bloom

Indian Sky 8.5

Lady Fingers 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Marque Moon 8.1 – Has had finale bloom

Mini Pearl 8.3

Moon Over Chimayo 8.1 – Has had finale bloom

Navajo Curls 8.1

Nearly Wild 7.31

Orange Vols 8.3

Passionate Returns 7.31 – Has had finale bloom

Pink and Cream 8.1

Pizza Crust 7.30

Prairie Blue Eyes 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Purple Corn Dancer 8.5

Purple Thunderbird 8.1 – Has had finale bloom

Rosie’s Red 8.3

Royal Palace Prince 7.30

Ruby Stella 8.3

South Seas 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Stella 8.5 – Encore bloom today

Tiger Kitten 8.3

Twirling Pinata 7.30 – Has had finale bloom

Yellow Punch 7.31 – Has had finale bloom

Last Sunday in July

July 30, 2018Leave a comment

Wow – It will be August next weekend. The daylily peak has come and gone. The cultivators were in the teens today . . . a massive drop off from 2-3 weeks ago. It is funny how the first 3 weeks of June are slow progress, then it explodes, then it goes to just a few here and there for months.

Today, we had one new cultivator. Heirloom Heaven bloomed for the first time in 2018. She is an adorable late-blooming mini. She is my last unbloomed scape on a cultivator that hasn’t bloomed yet. This could be it. It seems like I usually get some August scapes . . . not many, but a handful. I don’t know with this drought, though.

Heirloom Heaven 7.29

And, I had a rude awakening last night – because Mount Echo Sunrise doesn’t look anything like Mount Echo Sunrise. I looked at her tag, and she has two. The other one says Moon over Chimayo . . . and she looks like that one. So, I assume . . .