Tacos, Firebirds, and Skinwalkers: Come see what is new in my drought ridden daylily garden!

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025Leave a comment

Droughts, Wildfires, and Daylilies

Droughts and wildfires go together, daylilies not so much. The smoke has cleared (mostly) from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire (<10 miles away), and they have the fire 15% contained. My last blog post talks more about the fire. Some rain has fallen on my garden since the last post, too. The drought continues, though. Keep reading to enjoy my daylilies from the past week!

Monitoring and Maintaining My Resilient Daylilies

I am surprised my daylilies have done as well as they have this year with the heat and drought. I have somewhere around 190 cultivators. I badly need to do inventory, maps, and labels this year. I love the Flower daylily software, but I struggle to keep it updated. I seem to lose a lot of the newer ones from other climates over the first winter/spring – but I am not even sure what I have lost until I do inventory because some lost tags.

Black Canyon South Rim Fire – Watch Duty from today. About 15% contained.

Honestly, though, I am limited by time and water. I may replace some cultivators if I lose them, but I won’t be adding many more to my total. I’m at capacity. I am growing ditch lilies in the desert drought. I love daylilies, and they are survivors! My time goes into keeping those I have alive and healthy. And, my money goes into city water. I can’t imagine trying to hybridize or sell in my situation.

New Blooms and Current Bloom Rate

I have had a total of 139 cultivators bloom this season (out of around 190). That is a 73% bloom rate. Last year, we only got to the mid-sixties, so I am thrilled. And, the season isn’t over. In the high desert, 80% is a huge win. I need to fertilize, but without the monsoon moisture and cooler temps, I am waiting until next month. With daylilies in pots, I find applying liquid fertilizer improves bloom rate for the following year because the plant is more resilient.

Here are my “first bloom for 2025” cultivators since my last post:

The bloom peak is now over the top and past the plateau. However, I still have 30-40 cultivators in bloom daily, with 2-3 new ones most days. My beloved Ned Roberts’ southwest names spiders are just now peaking! Life gets extremely busy during daylily season, especially with my business and volunteer work.

Which is your favorite daylily from this post? For me, Zuni Thunderbird has always been a favorite! This computer is even named Zuni Thunderbird after the daylily.

Keep flourishing, Cathy H

Exciting New Daylily Blooms of 2024: Ghost Ranch, Simmering Elephants, and More

July 31, 2024Leave a comment

I am posting a quick update. Several mid-late bloomers in the past week. I haven’t posted here because of brain fog (no AC), little dogs, other blogs (I have 4 active) and old frogs. I am just going to do a quick post to catch-up.

My 3 Special Needs/Senior Rescues Keep Me Busy!

On 7.24, Ghost Ranch bloomed with the first decent sized blooms ever in my yard. I replaced the first plant a couple years ago because it died. I also had a NOID Red Spider that may be another Skinwalker or Winds of Love, but doesn’t perfectly match either. It was suppose to be Coyote Laughs, but it clearly isn’t. I also had reliable El Desperado.

On 7.25 I had a first ever bloom from Simmering Elephants. I like it! I also had Kachina Firecracker and Laughing Feather, but Ned Roberts spiders

Then, 7.26 brought Apache Uprising, Mama Cuna and Little Cadet.

The days 7.27-28 brought Petite Petticoats, Purple Corn Dancer and Cripple Creek.

Today, the newbies (for 2024) were Royal Palace Prince and Frans Hals.

It’s an interesting year – I am still in the low 20s every day. My highest day was in the 30s or low 40s – nothing like 60-70. It has been a slow, steady season.

I am going to go to weekly with this blog now that the season is slowing. I will continue to blog until the last daylily blooms, but frequency will decrease as the yard slows. I need to get back to life!

And, a quick reminder about my Until the Last Daylily Blooms Etsy sale! I use my earnings to help support my rescue dogs, so I appreciate readers who take the time to visit my shop. Thank you!

Visit Art From The Hartt by clicking on picture.

Daylily Care: Tackling Weed Infestation and Pot Maintenance

June 26, 2024Leave a comment

What happened today was a couple first blooms for the season – Comanche Princess and a NOID that I call Dark Mystery. But that’s not all . . .

Today, I wrestled daylily pots! Nothing is as frustrating as grass and creeping bellflower in my pots! Desert daylilies need water – so I have drip systems for 90% of my daylily pots. It is like velcro for grass seeds, grassroots (despite having weed fabric under each pot), and the bellflower. Additionally, the bellflower has tuberous roots that look very much like daylily roots – but lighter in color. Left unattended, they can eventually crowd the daylily out. (Tips for keeping weeds out of pots.)

Unfortunately, chemical choices are limited because the roots of these plants intertwine with the daylily. I have had some luck with the coir rounds – but they wear out in a couple of years and are somewhat expensive in bulk.

I extract the inhabitants of the pot and slowly pull soil and roots away until I expose the daylily roots. Then, I hydro-wash the daylily to get any remaining alien roots off (hopefully) and I repot in new soil. It is a time-consuming process and the pot’s old dirt must be discarded. If you know of an easier way – please post a reply and share your expertise. It is my least favorite part about my daylilies.

Video showing daylily root system.

But, I digress. The day started with me wanting to get the high-bloom fertilizer that I talked about in the blog yesterday. I decided to daylily shop while at the nursery because I had some strugglers that needed to be replaced. I stopped at three nurseries and only one had any daylilies that I don’t already have. So, I got the fertilizer, 2 new daylilies, and some filler plants.

Video on how to fertilize daylilies.

When I got home, I freed the strugglers from their grass and moved them to a different spot to (hopefully) recuperate. I filled the pots with the new daylilies. Now, we wait. I’ll fertilize tomorrow before the storm on Thursday – and I will talk about that in my next post.

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A post shared by Cathy Hartt (@artfromthehartt)

Daylily Art Sale on Etsy: Until the Last Daylily Blooms

Don’t forget my daylily art sale. This original painting of Mama Cuna on a wood panel is perfect for the daylily lover’s decor! Click here or on the photo below for the Etsy shop listing.

The Old Bucket is Blooming

July 6, 2023July 6, 2023Leave a comment

Well, the bucket itself isn’t blooming, but the daylilies I put in it are. It’s been 8 years since I rounded up all the daylilies from one of my edge gardens because they were devolving. I’m surprised how well they have peacefully existed over the years.

Both today’s new blooms are from the “bucket” AKA planter. Prairie Blue Eyes is a classic with a decent blue eye in some lights. The other one is NOID that I call Dark Mystery.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: NOID daylilies