Oops-a-Daylily! It’s Bloom Time in the High-Desert

June 29, 2026Leave a comment

Hello Daylily Fans,

Another week has sailed by in the garden. I have 34 gorgeous daylilies that showed their faces (or throats) for the first time this season since last Sunday.

The daylilies are stunning but the real surprise is that they have survived “fire weather” watches and warnings nearly every day this week. For our friends in China and anyone not on the Colorado Plateau – that means low relative humidity, warm temperatures and gusty wind. We did have a couple days of rain last week – it was a nice break.

Of course, fire weather means it’s wildfire season. We have had a couple major fires close by this week – the Snyder Fire near McInnis Canyons and the Gold Mountain Fire outside Ouray. I’m near the airport and there is a constant buzz of firefighting traffic over my home all day the last couple of days going to Ouray. Sadly, three firefighters died fighting the Snyder Fire – so these flower pictures are dedicated to them and their loved ones.

What does fire weather do to daylilies? It melts them. Or at least they look melted by noon. They fade, get translucent – some more than others. Butthey were made for humid ditches, not high-desert droughts. It also means they have dealt with high winds that have ripped off petals and the smoke isn’t good for anyone.

My win this week is a first ever bloom on Fulva – the original ditch lily. She is rumored to be invasive but in the desert, she is pretty tame. I planted her 3 places in my yard as an experiment. This year, the plant near the sprinkler head is the one that finally bloomed! After 5 years. The second one is in a pot and does “ok” but is small and doesn’t bloom. The third is in a raised planter with the native plants and she looks like a seedling at year 5.

It’s been too busy. I am experimenting with my business and adding some new avenues for my art sales. My special needs senior rescue dogs get stressed with the heat and my busier summer schedule – I swear they are telling me to slow down. Of course, camping is happening. So, I miss a couple days a month of my blooms in June but I watch for cool blooms whereever we travel.

Don’t forget to stop by my Etsy shop. I have some cool garden gnomes that are handpainted to look like the Painted Wall at Black Canyon of the Gunnison. They are perfect companions for any daylily garden.

I’ll be back next week.

Until then, keep on blooming!

Cathy Hartt (Doctor of the Daylilies)

Late June/Early July Daylily Blooms: A Peak Season Update

July 4, 20251 Comment

July is here, and with it comes peak season. I don’t think we are quite to peak yet, but it is approaching quickly. My day starts with photographing each daylily in bloom. Then I feed dogs, irrigate, jog for an hour. When I return, I sit on the front porch and edit the photos. Then, I put them in folders online and post to my personal Facebook page. By then, it’s 2 PM and time for breakfast!

I have had a bunch of new ones since my last post. I will put them in a gallery below. I’ve had 50 new ones since my last post last week!!!

I have had 73 cultivators bloom so far this season out of approximately 190. I lost some last winter. I really need to update my inventory in the software program. Based on those numbers, my bloom rate is about 38% currently. My hope is for 80% this season.

Today, the rain came. Finally! I am hoping for a good monsoon season. We need it. The drought lingers and is growing to the north. So many wildfires out west. I’m surprised that my daylilies are as happy as they are all things considered.

I adore daylily season. But it is always a lot of work that takes a chunk of the day with the photography. However, at this elevation, heat and humidity, the blooms don’t last long. Somedays, they are pretty faded by noon. They look like melted wax to me.

It’s a very different summer with my civic volunteer work. I adore my mornings on the porch editing daylily photos. Finding balance is hard in a “drought of time.”

Catcha next week. I hope your 4th of July garden brings you joy. Sometimes, we are best to focus on the small things right before our eyes and feel gratitude.

AI Impact on Blogging and Etsy: Insights from a Daylily Hobbyist and Artist

July 9, 2024Leave a comment

Midseason Monday Meanderings

Midseason Monday brings only 2 first blooms for 2024 to the yard. The first is an older daylily, Prairie Blue Eyes. Even though she is a classic, Prairie Blue Eyes has a nice blue hue around the eye zone.

The second is one I got as a bonus called Nona’s Garnet Spider. She is a 90s girl. Nona is a petite spider that adds a nice red accent in my front path garden.

It was a nice break in the flurry of midseason today. I had other things to get done today. Finding balance during peak season is always a challenge, and I don’t think I am at peak. This year may be more like a prolonged plateau until Fall.

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A post shared by Cathy Hartt (@artfromthehartt)

Ned Roberts Spider Daylily Collection To Date

I wanted to show off my Ned Roberts spiders so far this season. I have over 70 total Ned cultivators – I hope this isn’t an accurate mid-season picture as far as bloom rate. I am nowhere close to 35 (or midway). Here they are in the order shown below: Chaco Canyon, Chief Four Fingers, Chokecherry Mountain, Comanche Princess, Coral Taco, Echo Canyon, Fried Green Tomatoes, Kachina Dancer, Kokopelli, Maya Cha Cha, Papa Longlegs, Pueblo Dancer, Talon. 13 of 70 is about 18%, so the Southwest Road Trip Garden is lower than my yard as a whole.

To AI or Not to AI? That is the Question!

To my fellow bloggers out there, what are your thoughts on AI? I have been using the Word Press AI feature for headlines and my stats seem to be up, but it also feels a little distant or impersonal. That said, it does save a little time. The excerpt is another time-saver, but again feels impersonal. I feel like the 3rd person.

I usually use Grammarly, but it hasn’t been running for a few days for some reason. I like the feedback it gives, generally speaking. I used it for my doctorate, also, and found it helpful – although it argues with the AI I use for my Etsy listings. I SMH with the bots arguing about grammar but using AI does seem to be increasing my Etsy traffic.

Bloggers – if you are using AI, do you think it is helping with traffic? If yes – why and how much???

Speaking of Etsy . . .

Please don’t forget my Until the Last Daylily Blooms art sale on Etsy. This sale is on all of my daylily artwork – wall art, pots, clocks, and cards. Please follow my Art from the Hartt page on Facebook and Instagram for updates and process videos. Click here to visit my Etsy shop.

I will be adding some new pieces before the summer is over. I plan to do some daylily paintings over a marbled acrylic pour background. I will be talking more about my process in the next few weeks!

A Little Steam

July 15, 2023July 15, 2023Leave a comment

Today, the daylily garden picked up a little speed with 6 “first bloom for 2023” cultivators. It feels like late June usually does. I wonder if peak will be late or if we will just ride the plateau this year.

Here are photos via Instagram. Names in order: Nona’s Garnet Spider 🕷, Passionate Returns ❤️, Heron’s Cove 🐦, Holy Sombrero 🤠, Kiva Dancer💃, and Chorus Line 💃. Potpourri of cultivators.

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A post shared by Cathy Hartt (@coloradokiddaylilies)

The next few days are supposed to be scorchers and no rain in sight.

Please visit my website Www.artfromthehartt.com

Colorado Foothills

July 8, 2022Leave a comment

Gradual increases in elevation as we climb to the peak. Today, it felt like the peak was not too much more of a climb. Grab your oxygen, here are the new blooms for today:

Cricket Call 7.7 (Ned Roberts spider #15)

Maya Cha Cha 7.7 (Ned Roberts spider #16)

Rocky Mountain Pals 7.7 (Ned Roberts spider #17)

That’s 9 new, 44 in bloom today, and 70 total that have bloomed this year. That’s a 40% bloom rate and we are headed for around 90%. 70 down, almost 100 to go to reach that goal. Makes me tired but tomorrow, we climb, again. Good thing for our Rocky Mountain Pals.

July Daylily Round-up N-Z

August 1, 20211 Comment

Here is part 1 of this blog post These posts include all daylilies that were in bloom in July in my yard. Please see first post for more details.

Nosferatu 7.12-7.19 (end 7.19-7.24 during vaca)

Oh Erica 7.17 (end 7.19-7.24 during vaca)

Pizza Crust (started week of 7.19)-present

Purple Grasshopper 6.11-present. Non-stop!

Red Hot Returns 7.11-7.19 (ended 7.19-7.25 during vaca)

Royal Braid 7.18 (ended 7.19-7.25 during vaca)

Ruby Spider 6.22-7.19 (ended 7.19-7.24 during vaca)

Spirit of the Morning 7.12-8.1 (unless I missed a bud)

No U, No V – I need to fix that with some new flowers 🙂

No X, either!

Yellow Punch 6.15-7.4 (first encore 7.31)

That is all for July, folks. Look for our Colorado Day (8/1) blooms up next!

Daylilies are My Life

July 5, 20211 Comment

This time of year, it feels like daylilies are my life. I have had about 30 blooms in the garden for several days. Yesterday, we hit 40. Today, we hit 60!. It took me almost an hour just to photograph them – let alone photo editing and posting. Last night, I took a lot of photos of fireworks – It felt very similar in my garden today. A few pauses, but mostly lots of action. Do I think we are at peak – no. But it is getting closer.

Here are the premiers for today. Hang on – there are 10 (so about 80 cultivators have bloomed so far). Today, there were several of my favorite hybridizer’s blooms that opened (Ned Roberts). Daylily season is like Christmas . . . the peak is a little overwhelming. At the same time, it is like old friends who visit once a year.

Chokecherry Mountain 7.5 (A Ned Roberts Spider)

Feather Woman 7.5 (A Ned Roberts spider)

Heavenly Curls – one of my favorite bonus daylilies!

Longlesson Show-off – Not one of my favorite bonus daylilies, but the bloom looked fuller and more colorful today than usual. Maybe the soil change and drip system.

Medicine Feather – A lanky Ned Roberts spider

Another bonus – Nona’s Garnet Spider – I have always liked her.

Pueblo Dancer – 7.5 – another Roberts spider but I have always questioned her ID. Her blooms are larger this year with the soil change!

Strutter’s Ball – 7.5 – a late bloom start for this long-time member of my daylily pack

Talon – 7.5 Another old friend from my Roberts collection

Finales have started to add up a little, too. I missed Platinum Pink Palette Whispers. Today was the last of Funny Valentine’s show for 2021.

Wholly cow! This took all day. It’s 4:30! Hopefully, I got the bugs worked out of my back-up system so it doesn’t take as long tomorrow. I gotta get painting and get my business inventory going! Follow my business blog for updates, too.

July’s Colorful Parade

July 31, 20203 Comments

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!

Three

July 20, 2020Leave a comment

I had three charming premiers today, including one of my all-time favorite Ned Roberts spiders – Winds of Love. She always looks like she if floating on the breeze – probably influenced her name.

Kachina Firecracker also gave a first bloom of the year – She looks like Kachina Dancer to me. Cousins, no doubt

And, Nona’s Garnet Spider gave us a hello bloom today.

I did the counts of unbloomed with and without scapes. I believe we are at 117 cultivators that have bloomed now. I have a list of 16 more with unbloomed scapes – so that would come to a total of 133 or 78% bloom rate. That works for me – but it always bugs me why some don’t bloom (41 was my count). Navajo Rodeo, Cricket Call and Purple Grasshopper were big bloomers the last couple of years. Maybe I need to fertilize a bit more and refresh dirt if it has settled. The front garden had several that no-showed this year, but I just put the sprinkler in a few weeks ago, so maybe the drought was the issue. Maybe I will get some late scapes, too.

The southwest corner of my Southwest Garden today 7.19.20

Last year this day I had 70+ in bloom. But, last spring was so cold that my earlier bloomers didn’t show until early to mid July – and the mid bloomers were going by then, too. 70+ is insane. I prefer the more gradual peak.

Lovely Ladies

August 7, 2019August 7, 2019Leave a comment

As I download, upload, and edit photos every night, I try to think of some meaningful focus for this blog. Tonight, I am tired and what strikes me are the lovely lady names of some of today’s bloomers. They all look like they are dancing to me, too.

Classy Lady caught my eye first thing!

Classy Lady 8/6

Dancing Maiden is getting some great, flowing blooms now.

Dancing Maiden 8/6

Rosie’s Red always adds such color to the front garden.

Rosie’s Red 8/6

Nona’s Garnet Spider is doing morning yoga.

Nona’s Garnet Spider 8/6

Maya Cha Cha is always an eye-catching gal ready to meet the day with a smile.

Maya Cha Cha 8/6

Lobo Lucy is a fine redhead.

Lobo Lucy 8/6

Black-eyed Susan shines on.

Black-Eyed Susan 8/6

And, Ruby Stella is a non-stop bloomer this summer!

Ruby Stella 8/6

The top photo is Spirit of the Morning, who woke up dancing a beautiful ballet.

And, amidst my flourishing daylilies who have not been bug sprayed or fertilized all summer due to my busy schedule are my Christmas plants. My baby amaryllis bulbs of 3 years ago are sending up spikes now! But, my poinsettias still look like they are frozen in early June. New leaves, but small. I started fertilizing . . . but I usually bring these in late August to start the bloom cycle and these guys are nowhere close to ready. Well, one is big and full. Two are small size but not pigmy. Three are pigmy. What to do with them if they don’t correct in the next few weeks??? Was it the cold spring??? And, oh, the fall daylily chores start to cross my mind – maybe move a couple that haven’t bloomed or add a front garden drip system. A gardener’s mind is always dancing.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: Nona’s Garnet Spider