nursery pots – Colorado Kid Daylilies

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.

I swore I would not work putting pots in the Southwest garden again today. I lost the bet with myself. Because there was an area on the thriving side that looked sad and I was curious. What did I find? Lots of tree roots. Even the daylily that I put in a half pot a couple months ago had roots growing up into the pot – but the daylily was doing better than without the pot.

Such findings make me feel a little nauseated, really. I made an investment in daylilies after doing a pilot out there. All my pilot plants did (and do) beautifully. So, I make a bigger garden spot there. The problem is that I think the scale is drawing the roots. In the pilot, I hand watered. But, now I have to mass water and fertilize. The half pot I dug up had roots woven around the outside of the pot in its exact shape. They dominate.

So, now I think I may have to do real garden pots (as opposed to nursery pots) out there, after all. The reason is that if I cut big enough holes in the pot bottoms to protect from root rot, I get root invasion. Catch 22. The real (decorative plastic) pots that I used in the front garden have a second bottom piece to help with drainage – so I can have a large drainage hole and roots can’t really grow up into the daylily space. Oh, I will work with the nursery pots for this year. But, I see the future. I am feeling like a farmer now.

I also divided several more daylilies. Little by little, the fall work is getting done. I am really ready for a boring split shift where I walk the dogs downtown. I feel overwhelmed with daylilies. Seriously. Am I ready to be a farmer?

Anyway, enjoy my blooms from today. I’ll worry about the tree roots.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: nursery pots

Show Me Your Stethoscope!

Catch 22