Singing the Blues

July 31, 2019July 31, 2019Leave a comment

Why is it that we always want what we can’t have? Early in my daylily addiction, when I had planted my first mail-order roots, I became fascinated with blue daylilies. Well, actually, daylilies lack the genetics to make blue. So, you know, I became infatuated with “near blue” daylilies whose mosiac genetics lead them to look blue. This predates my addiction to Ned Roberts spiders. All my near blues are in pots and come into the back porch for the winter because they are evergreen daylilies and prefer warmer temps. My near blues have a special spot in the front yard where the pots live from March-October.

So, one of my Premiers today is a new near blue added last year called Baby Blue Eyes. I honestly thought I had killed her because the drought hit and, after my skin cancer surgery, I just gave up on the yard. I kept her on the porch, though, despite the fact she looked dried up. And, come spring, she came to life. I love the colors – she is a true near blue.

Baby Blue Eyes 7/30

I am going to show off my other near blues because their bloom cycle is nearing an end. My favorite is The Colorado Kid. I was just googling place names to see if there were daylilies with that name – and she popped up. I think this is year 4 for her – she is our mascot flower. She had a lot of blooms this year and has a couple of buds left. Baby Blue Eyes has similar coloring.

The Colorado Kid – July, 2019

I also have Blue Beat, an early addition and a nice blue replica.

Blue Beat – July, 2019

Bluegrass Music is a must-have blue daylily. I got pretty ripped off by the place I bought her from, but she has paid off with several years of blooms.

Bluegrass Music – July, 2019

Mildred Mitchell is an older cultivator, but she caught my eye as having a nice blue -looking color in the right light.

Mildred Mitchell – July, 2019

Prairie Blue Eyes is not in my blue section, but she also has a blue hue at times.

Prairie Blue Eyes – July, 2019

I got Heron’s Cove as a near blue – but moved her because she rarely looks blue – but occasionally, I see a bit of a bluish tint in her.

Heron’s Cove – July, 2019

OK – So I had two other Premiers today – both Ned Roberts spiders. Golden Eclipse showed her first bloom in my yard today. I have had her 2-3 years. The grower is someone I got a lot of my Neds from and she said it was an ugly brown color and to be sure I really wanted it. I think she is a pretty gold – a unique color for a daylily.

Golden Eclipse 7/30

And, big bloom Purple Thunderbird is back this year.

Purple Thunderbird 7/30

I will be out of premiers soon with three in one day. I maybe have 6-12 left in my whole yard. Honestly, I will be glad for it to slow down. I had 58 today.

Daylily Rodeos

July 29, 2019July 29, 2019Leave a comment

Yesterday was our County Rodeo. I go every year. In fact, when I worked less in the summer and didn’t have so many dog duties, I went almost every evening to some event. The rodeo signals that summer is on the downside. I guess we are only 5 weeks into summer, but school starts in a couple of weeks or so. And, the daylily blooms drop off – which I only had 50+ of today. That is a drop off of 10-20.

Montrose County Ram Rodeo 7.27

Anyway – not a Premier, but Navajo Rodeo looked very pretty for rodeo weekend. I need to paint her this winter. IDK which Robert’s daylilies I want to paint the most – but there are a lot. By far the highest bloom rate of his cultivators. So many first blooms this year.

Navajo Rodeo 7/28

That is my segway to the Premiers for today. Only two. The first one is a never bloomed in my yard before Roberts spider named Dancing Maiden. She looks a lot like Aztec Firebird, except her shape is a little different. I barely noticed that she was from a different plant! I should have put her in a different place – but oh, well.

Dancing Maiden on the right, Aztec Firebird to the left 7/28

And, I got my first ever bloom on Sanctuary in the Clouds. I got this daylily for the woman who runs the animal sanctuary (Black Canyon Animal Sanctuary) where my dogs (and one cat) came from. I ordered this for her the year I adopted Kachina – so 2016. It came with lots of fans and I saved one. Anyway – finally, she blooms!

Sanctuary in the Clouds 7/28

Tomorrow is Monday – so squeeze blooms between my workday! Better get to bed.

Show Me Your Stethoscope!

July 28, 2019July 28, 2019Leave a comment

I am a nurse and a midwife. Remember the “show me your stethoscope” incident on The View a few years back? It took over my Facebook feed for a few weeks – nurses united! During that time, I was pretty active on the American Daylily Society Facebook page. I had an idea – they should name a daylily Nurse’s Stethoscope. Well, one of the hybridizers who was also in healthcare picked-up on the suggestion and registered a daylily with that name.

It was a pretty daylily – beautiful, I thought. Except it was new on the market so out of my price range. Summer before last, I finally caved and bought it. It thrived last summer and gave me quite a show of blooms. But, she was one of the ones who struggled because of the cold, wet spring. Her scapes died back after sprouting. I put her in a smaller pot and moved her to the front yard for the summer. I crossed my fingers. She is coming back enough to have a couple buds. Once she blooms, I will fertilize. Glad to have her as one of my premiers today! My little daylily legacy!

Nurse’s Stethoscope 7/27

Another Premier was Kachina Firecracker, another Ned Roberts spider. I was putting her in my new daylily garden three years ago when I adopted my rescue dog, Kachina. There were two daylilies – Kachina Firecracker and Kachina Dancer. Kachina was a stray before going to the sanctuary, so they gave her the name Tina due to her small size (7 pounds of anxiety!) I was trying to think of a name for her that rhymed with Tina. It was the daylilies named Kachina that synapsed my choice of names for my mutt.

Kachina Firecracker 7/27

Last Premier is Baja – an old favorite. One of my early daylilies that just keeps coming back every summer.

Baja 7/27

I do find the taking photos of 70+ flowers every day for a few weeks is exhausting on top of the blogging. I start to dream of fall hikes in the canyon and watching Call the Midwife. For now, we will see what tomorrow brings. We had another gusher monsoon today, so I will see what is up when I awaken from much-needed sleep.

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

Route 66

July 24, 2019Leave a comment

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

Friday the 13th!

July 14, 2018Leave a comment

The last time we had a Friday the 13th was in April – the day I left for my annual Southwest Road Trip down the Devil’s Highway all the way to the border of Mexico. I had 2 sick dogs with me . . . well, not sick, sick – post-op and injured. It was a good trip even though I named it Southwest Superstitions. I love my annual road trip just like I love my daylilies.

So, today was a good day in the Garden. Fifty-four bloomers, so one of our top days so far. Mother Earth even managed a couple of new blooms.

Classy Lady is one I got on the auction a few years ago. She is doing better in a pot this year. I usually only get one or two blooms out of her all year. Today, it was a trifecta. She looked so pretty!

Classy Lady 7.13

The other one is another Ned Roberts spider . . . but without a Southwestern name. I ordered a bunch of Southwest named daylilies from a small grower and there was an issue with one I ordered, so I picked another one. However, there were no more spiders to pick from. This is Raspberry Propeller.

Raspberry Propeller 7.13

It is sort of interesting that Raspberry Propeller is a sib (from the same pod) as one of my Southwest spiders – Twirling Pinata. It is interesting that these guys had the same parents but are two different blooms. Like paternal twins, I guess. Clearly related, though!

Twirling Pinata 2017

Tomorrow, I need to move a couple daylilies out of the Walkway Garden into the Border Garden or the Rainbarrel Garden. The problem with pots is the plants get so much bigger here, so I have an over-crowding (blocks the sun) and so I don’t have many scapes in that area. I think I will move Blackthorne and Autumn Jewels. Maybe I can still coax a bloom out of them . . . not great odds, but not 0, either.

Walkway Garden 7.13

OK – here goes the list of today’s Friday the 13th bloomers: Comanche Princess, Skinwalker, Navajo Rodeo, Black Ice, Dream Catcher, Aztec Firebird, Zuni Thunderbird, Iktomi, Treasure of the Southwest, Happy Hopi, Shape Shifter, Nosferatu, Cheddar Cheese, Dark Mystery, Red Riddle, Prairie Blue Eyes, Wineberry Candy, Mesa Verde, Heron’s Cove Purple de Oro, The Colorado Kid, Mildred Mitchell, Blue Beat, Thin Man, Passionate Returns, South Seas, Longlesson Show-off, Return a Smile Chorus Line, Early Bird Cardinal, Lacy Doily, Ruby Spider, Stephanie Returns, Catherine Irene, Mini Pearl, Prairie Wildfire, Pick of the Litter, Bela Lugosi, Baja, Pink and Cream, Yellow Punch, Stella de Oro, Black-eyed Susan, Red Hot Returns, Hesperus, Route 66, Ruby Stella, Strutter’s Ball – I think that is it. I am pretty sure we will have 1 or 2 more new blooms tomorrow.

Popcorn

June 5, 2018June 5, 2018Leave a comment

Daylilies remind me of popcorn. When I was a kid, we had a metal tray with a screen over it and a handle that was our popcorn popper. No nuking a sack for a few minutes. No, you had a jar of corn and you poured it in with oil. It was usually over the gas flame on the stove or fireplace. You had to shake the popper the whole time or the popcorn would stick. Good exercise.

Pretty soon, though, if you were persistent enough, you would hear a pop. A few seconds later, another. Pretty soon, the kernels are popping so fast that you can’t count them anymore. Keep shaking that popper! Eventually, they slow to almost a stop. If you wait too long for the last few to pop, the whole thing burns. It is an art, really.

In early June, the daylilies start to pop. One cultivator at a time, the buds get bigger and bigger. The early days are like a treasure hunt in the morning, looking to see if any popped during the night. In a month, we will be at peak. This honestly scares me a little, because if my bloom rate improves like I think it might, I have no clue how I will keep up with photographing them all. It is possible I’ll have days with 100! Crazy. I burn more space on my memory card during daylily season than any other time all year. Then, come mid-August, the explosion begins to settle down. It is back to treasure hunt mod, again. Except it is usually a couple months at the slower rate.

Dream Keeper 2018

So, today Dream Keeper came to visit. She is another Ned Roberts spider daylily. Her sibling (or parent?) is Dream Catcher – one of my most flourishing daylilies. Dream Keeper bloomed early in 2016, right after I put her in, but not again since that time. I love her orange coloring.

Saratoga Springtime 2018

The surprise today was Saratoga Springtime. This is her first ever bloom in my yard. I have had her for 2 years – but she was small and I put her in not the best place. Last summer, I moved the daylilies out of garden areas where they never bloomed. She is now by my driveway on a solar drip system. It seems to agree with her. The surprise was that her pot was mislabeled and I thought she was orange flurry. Geez, I need to get my labeling caught up soon.

I am guessing that the three that have bloomed thus far will be the early popcorn for the next week or so. They are really the only ones ready to pop. But . . . keep shaking because it won’t be long now.

Kokopelli has Landed!

June 3, 2018June 3, 2018Leave a comment

Kokopelli has made history as the first daylily bloom of 2018! In Native American folklore, the Kokopelli turns winter to summer (and visa versa). Today, Kokopelli brought thunderstorms . . . badly needed thunderstorms to our exceptional drought area. Chilly, overcast. When I first went out this AM, it was hot and dry, now it is cool and 60s. I hope she brings more rain.

Kokopelli6.3.1.JPG

Kokopelli was my first Ned Roberts daylily. Now, my Southwest garden bulges with them. I have around 66 Roberts cultivators – most with southwestern names in my Southwestern Garden. I have just over 75 cultivators in the Southwest Garden. What bonds the is names from the Southwest US. They live with some big yucca out in that garden, and a Kokopelli sculpture.

Kokopelli6.3.2.JPG

Last year, I had about 15 different cultivators bloom in the Southwest Garden. Not such a great rate out of 75. That meant I needed to make changes. My soil here is heavy clay with roots embedded. We don’t get much rain, even on a good year. So, that is when I started looking around and noticing that my potted cultivators did better. Therefore, I dug up around 60 of the daylilies in the Southwest Garden, put them in better soil in a quick draining container, and buried the container. Broke a rib and got sciatica in the process.

But, it seems to be paying off because I now have 20 cultivators in scape out there! It is early in the season so I only have 8 scapes in all my other gardens combined. Last fall, I had the elm tree that cast shade on the Southwest Garden removed. I also added a soak hose watering system. 20 in scape by 6/3. . . I can’t believe my eyes. It is the first time I ever had my first bloom from out there, too.

So, once the elm was a stump, I had to figure out what do with said stump. I decided on a native garden. It is raised on one side and slopes down so that the yucca that have been under the tree for years could be part of the new garden. It has sage, Morman tea, ornamental grass, cactus, and several zeroscape flowers. Today, I want to share photos of the current bloomers – neighbors to the Southwest Garden. The new garden is the Hovenweep Garden.

PS – Next up is Orange Flurry – maybe tomorrow. Who knows what a cool, rainy day might bring?

Just a Painter Passing Through in History

September 2, 2016September 2, 20161 Comment

“If you want to know my secret don’t come runnin’ after me
For I am just a painter passing through in history” – Gordon Lightfoot

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be” – Abraham Maslow

Painting of Kokopelli by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, so it is. Yesterday, I painted Kokopelli. One of my early bloomers is now always in bloom in my house. It settles my nerves. Lots going on in my life – but I slept like a baby.

I woke up to a pretty bloom from Red Hot Returns. Nice way to start the day.

Red Hot Returns – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Fall Blooms and Roots

September 1, 2016Leave a comment

Time flies . . . it has been a couple of weeks since I posted. A lot has happened. I am less than two weeks away from my doctorate. And, I believe I have a full-time job in my future. A couple cultivators are still in bloom, and I have new roots in the ground. Perhaps returning to school is like planting new roots. You give them water, soil, sunshine, and fertilizer. Then, in time they bloom. Blooms are like jobs – the reward for the TLC given to the roots.

Today’s blooms were Heirloom Heaven:

Heirloom Heaven – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, Red Hot Returns (with less thrip damage than before):

Red Hot Returns – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

As promised, here are the Painted Petroglyph roots from a couple weeks ago next to the photo from a few days ago:

Progress toward that 2017 bloom. Like submitting an assignment . . . it takes time.

Fall is here and my attention is turning to my winter indoor blooms. My amaryllis bulbs and poinsettia need to go dark soon. I got a new mum, Thanksgiving cactus, and designer begonia. My Gerber Daisy is in bloom, as is my azalea. Oh, and those geraniums. They tend to be my winter bloomers. I will probably blog about those some over the winter.

I’m also working on my fall daylily fertilizing program. My re-bloomers ran out of steam this year, so that is a sign that they need more nutrients. I have added some great Ned Roberts roots to my Southwest daylily patch – Glen Eyrie, Adios Albuquerque, Twirling Pinata, and Truchas Sunrise. I got extra fans (as bonuses) of Echo Canyon and Desert Icicle that will thicken up my existing plants. My Navajo Rodeo roots are booming this time. And, I think I am already getting my spring daylily order planned. That paycheck will be great to feed my daylily habit.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: Ned Roberts

Singing the Blues

Daylily Rodeos

Show Me Your Stethoscope!

Daylily Who’s Who????

Route 66

Friday the 13th!

Popcorn

Kokopelli has Landed!

Just a Painter Passing Through in History

“If you want to know my secret don’t come runnin’ after me
For I am just a painter passing through in history” – Gordon Lightfoot

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be” – Abraham Maslow

Fall Blooms and Roots

“If you want to know my secret don’t come runnin’ after me For I am just a painter passing through in history” – Gordon Lightfoot

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be” – Abraham Maslow

“If you want to know my secret don’t come runnin’ after me
For I am just a painter passing through in history” – Gordon Lightfoot