Are you ready for a beautiful July parade? Here goes – a listing of all of my daylilies that had first blooms in July. I count 81. Enjoy!
July’s Colorful Parade
Tag: Navajo Grey Hills
Visions of New Mexico
Today, I had two Premiers – both Ned Roberts spiders with names from the State to south of here – New Mexico. The first one, Navajo Grey Hills, I believe to be named after a trading post just south of Shiprock, NM (Four-Corners region). I drive that way sometimes but never noticed it . . . I need to keep a lookout.
Star over Milagro is the other Premier of the day. Milagro is east of Albuquerque. Off our road trip circuit by a few miles.
Let’s see – Orange Punch was an Encore today.
Finales – Stephanie Returns, Fringe Benefit, Longlesson Show-off, Black Arrowhead, and Cheyenne Eyes. I like about 25 blooms – it is a good amount but not overwhelming. And, the monsoons have been back all week.
Daylilies for the Navajo Nation
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.
50 Startling Southwest Spider Daylilies!
Only 40 something daylilies today and no Premiers. So, it leaves time to talk about some of my daylily categories. I have talked a lot about my Ned Roberts spiders. I originally started collecting them after seeing Kokopelli on the Lily Auction – I love the Southwest and had to have her (I got the bid)! From there, I added more = lots more. At first, it was all fully Southwest names. Then, I gathered some animal and insect names to my Ned collection. And, some stellar names. IDK, is Dancing Maiden a name from the Southwest?
So, tonight, I will show you my purely Southwest named daylilies – the obvious names from the Southwest. But, first, Mildred Mitchell had an extra petal today – a genetic flaw that made her look pretty cool.
OK – Here are my Southwest Ned Roberts spiders. (These are the ones that have bloomed the last two years. Mostly this year, except Kokopelli did not bloom this year – which is unusual).
Adios Albuquerque – 2019
Apache Bandana – 2019
Apache Beacon – 2019
Aztec Firebirds – 2019
Black Arrowhead – 2019
Chaco Canyon – 2019
Cheyenne Eyes – 2019
Chief Four Fingers – 2019
Chokecherry Mountain – 2019
Comanche Princess – 2019
Coral Taco – 2019
Desert Icicle
Dream Catcher
Echo Canyon – 2019
Feather Woman – 2019
Ghost Ranch – 2019
Glen Eyrie – 2019
Happy Hopi – 2019
Iktomi – 2019
Kachina Firecracker – 2019
Kokopelli – 2018
Land of Enchantment – 2019
Laughing Feather – 2019
Mama Cuna – 2019
Maya Cha Cha – 2019
Medicine Feather – 2019
Mount Echo Sunrise – 2019
Navajo Curls – 2018
Navajo Grey Hills – 2019
Navajo Rodeo – 2019
Ojo de Dios – 2019
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Pink Enchalada – 2019
Pink Rain Dance – 2019
Purple Corndancer – 2018
Purple Many Faces – 2019
Purple Thunderbird – 2019
Santa Fe Christmas
Shape Shifter – 2019
Skinwalker – 2019
Spirit of the Morning – 2019
Star Over Milagro – 2019
Taco Twister – 2019
Talon – 2019
Truchas Sunrise – 2019
Twirling Pinata – 2018
Wild Rose Fandango – 2019
Zuni Eye – 2019
Zuni Thunderbird – 2019
Daylily Photobombs
The peak lives on with 72 blooms today. One of the things about photographing so many daylilies before I have to leave for work is that I get in a rush. I focus on the flower and hit the shutter button. Sometimes, when I am editing later, I find stuff that I didn’t notice at the time.
My favorite photobombs have other daylilies that I didn’t notice in the background – like Happy Hopi today:
Happy Hopi with friends Laughing Feather and Zuni Thunderbird 7/26
And, the most common photobombs are when I cut off a petal in the shot by a lot. Why am I struggling to get photos of Navajo Grey Hills?
Navajo Grey Hills 7/26
Of course, there are occasionally cat photobombs:
Skinwalker and my cat, Sokasbai – 7/25
Or, dog photobombs:
Blue Beat and my dog, Maizzy – 7/25
The most embarrassing, though, are the foot photobombs. The flower is at a weird angle, so you try to bend over so you can get a front shot. What was I thinking?
Black Ice and my feet – 7/26
OK – so what about Premiers. Only three today. The pace slows a bit, although I saw my neighbors at dinner and the first thing they talked about was my giant daylilies. So, it isn’t over yet!
Nona’s Garnet Spider was a bonus. She hasn’t been a consistent bloomer but is putting on a good show of buds this year.
Nona’s Garnet Spider – 7/26
Autumn Jewels . . . I think this was a bonus, too. She is related to El Desperado. I had a huge El Desperado for years but lost it to the weird, cold, wet spring. I lost a couple and several had setbacks . . . but so many are blooming this year that haven’t before or the regulars have a higher bud count than usual. It’s interesting the yin and yang of this year. Anyway – I got a new El Desperado and it is just putting up scapes now. I like both of these cultivators.
Autumn Jewels – 7/26
And, Nearly Wild is another bonus plant – she looks like her ancestor, the ditch lily or Fulva. I am sure that is where she gets her name.
Nearly Wild – 7/26
It is raining, again. We will see what that brings.
Five Months Until Christmas!!!
The rain is pouring outside as the thunder crashes. It was hot today and I had over 70 blooms, again. For some reason, the 7/25 hit me as 5 months until Christmas. The daylilies will lie still under the ground and snow; under layers of leaf mulch. I will be inside bored and playing with orchids and poinsettias as the daylilies rest before the next season. I thought I would share my two Christmas named daylilies from today as a reminder that the seasons change so quickly.
Santa Fe Christmas 7/25
Santa’s Pants 7/25
I got called in early to work, so my daylily photos had to wait until after work – late afternoon. Some were a little weathered, but all were fully open (which is a challenge before work). I had 3 new kids today – and I forgot to take a photo of Navajo Grey Hills. I saw it but got distracted by all the others so had to blow up a photo of it in the background (see top photo). Tired and out of sync.
Navajo Grey Hills – 7/25
Today’s Premiers include Classy Lady – she was one that was either a bonus or an add on to a lily auction order. I like her shape and color – she is a consistent bloomer.
Classy Lady 7/25
Tiger Kitten gave us her first purr for the season. I am fairly sure she was a bonus. Seriously, I paid nothing for many of my daylilies. Others were only a few dollars online. Nurse’s Stethoscope was my most expensive at about $100. But, I helped to name her so it was a treat. (She suffered a set back with the cold spring but finally has a scape.)
Tiger Kitten 7/25
The last Premier is Bella Boo. I got Bella Boo and Platinum Pink Palet Whispers for $10 for 2 deal at a local nursery a couple years ago. I stuck them in the same pot. I think this might be Bella’s first bloom ever in my yard.
Bella Boo 7/25
My flowers are so beautiful at peak. I love the huge spiders the most. Tomorrow, we will see what blooms after the downpour. PS – Speaking of Christmas and poinsettias, the cold spring has my plants looking like they should in mid-June. Sort of wondering if they will come back enough before fall.
Route 66
Route 66 is, of course, a famous highway that runs partially through the Southwest. We usually pass over it going and coming from our spring road trip to the desert. Route 66 is also the name of one of my favorite daylilies. It was the first place name daylily that I got and after that, I was hooked. My daylily names are like points on a road trip a lot of the time.
Route 66, Flagstaff, Arizona
Today, I had 66 cultivators blooming in my yard. I was thinking about Route 66 (she was in bloom and is the lead photo) and my own route to having 66 daylilies in bloom in one day. In 2015, I had 7. I now have 10X the number of daylilies. How did I get here? . . . well, I started at local nurseries. Then I tried one online site, then another. Eventually, I got attached to my Ned Roberts spiders and found a couple growers with good supplies of those. (I now have around 70 of his cultivators.) I also found the lily auction – which was fun but I get into trouble on that site. LOL.
Some of the daylilies I got in 2015/16 are having their first bloom this year. I think it takes them time to adapt to the desert – and last year, we had the exceptional drought. The year before that, I transplanted them into buried pots – so that was another adjustment. Anyway – it is cool to finally see some of these after tending them for a few years.
A couple of our Premiers today have been around that long and finally blooming. One is Navajo Grey Hills and another is Fringe Benefit. Navajo Grey Hills was a sought after Ned Roberts Southwest named daylily. Fringe Benefit, on the other hand, was a bonus plant that looks nothing like the Fringe Benefit I see online. But, oh well. I honestly had no idea what it looked like until today. I like both of them a lot!
So, without further ado, here are the Premiers (it’s not slowing down – So far, 133 blooms or about 74% bloom rate. Last year this date we were at 123 – and I have a lot more scapes left this year.):
“Fringe Benefit” bonus plant 7/23
Navajo Grey Hills 7/23
Fol da Rol 7/23
Lime Frost 7/23
Glen Eyrie 7/23
Adios Albuquerque 7/23
Bold Tiger 7/23
A Celebration of Spiders! (Ned Roberts)
The days grow August-quiet. It seems a dream that I had nearly 60 blooms per day just a month ago. So, today, we will do finales. And, then, a roll-call of my Ned Roberts spiders.
Finales:
Chorus Line 8.5
Rosie’s Red 8.6
So, maybe if I do the Ned Roberts spider roll-call it will entice one more into bloom this year. My Ghost Ranch is a fall bloom, but I am having a rough time getting her to thrive here. Maybe some fish fertilizer? Our temps are still above average with little rain.
Ned Roberts Spiders for 2018 Season:
Adios Albuquerque
Apache Bandana
Aztec Firebird
Black Arrowhead
Black Ice
Chaco Canyon
Cheyenne Eyes
Chokecherry Mountain
Comanche Princess
Desert Icicle
Dream Catcher
Dream Keeper
Fox Ears
Happy Hopi
Iktomi
Kachina Firecracker
Kokopelli
Laughing Feather
Mama Cuna
Moon Over Chimayo
Navajo Curls
Navajo Rodeo
Papa Longlegs
Pink Rain Dance
Pueblo Dancer is her label, but she doesn’t look like that one. So???
Purple Corn Dancer
Purple Grasshopper
Purple Many Faces
Purple Moonrise
Purple Thunderbird
Raspberry Propeller
Raven Woodsong
Rocky Mountain Pals
Santa Fe Christmas
Shape Shifter
Skinwalker
Taco Twister
Talon
Twirling Pinata
Wild Rose Fandango
Zuni Eye
Zuni Thunderbird
Out of interest, here are my Ned Roberts spiders that bloomed last year but did not bloom this year:
Coral Taco 2017
Glen Eyrie
Pink Enchilada 2017
And, we had a few in 2016 that have not bloomed again:
Chief Four Fingers 2016
Ghost Ranch
Winds of Love 2016
I have around 64 of Ned’s spiders in my garden. I had 42 bloom this year or about 65%. Last year, I had 13 (about 20%) bloom. Marked improvement. All total, to date, I have had 48 (or 75%) bloom. That is a long way from 100%. But, marked improvement. I think some of the ones that bloomed in 2016 were put in that year (still flourishing from the nursery), struggled last year in the clay soil, and are recovering (growing new roots) this year in their pots. I am sure that the drought had an impact, as well.
So, for fun, here are the ones I have that have never bloomed (photos from the web):
Apache Beacon
Coyote Laughs
Cricket Call
Cripple Creek
Dancing Maiden
Echo Canyon
Feather Woman
Golden Eclipse
Kachina Dancer
Kiva Dancer
Land of Enchantment
Maya Cha Cha
Medicine Feather
Mount Echo Sunrise
Navajo Grey Hills
Ojo de Dios
Orchid Moonrise
The Real Pueblo Dancer
Spirit of the Morning
Star over Milagro
Truchas Sunrise
Wildwood Flower
We made improvements, but we have aways to go. That’s life
Colorado Kid Daylilies 