Tag: Open My Eyes

Unique Yard Art and Memorials for Daylily Gardens

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My Memorial/Family/Pet Gardens

How many of my readers have a memorial garden integrated into your yard? Daylilies are great for memorial gardens because the names often speak to us of a friend or loved one. In fact, I have a family name section of my daylily garden with Catherine Irene, Mini Pearl, Stephanie Returns, Isaac, Mayan Poppy and Oh Erica that are all names of family members, both alive and dead. It’s almost as good as having them come to visit.

Catherine Irene
Mini Pearl
Stephanie Returns
Isaac
Mayan Poppy
Oh Erica

I also have a pet memorial garden that is actually coneflower. I didn’t get coneflowers with pet names – they have Southwestern names like Moab Sunset, though. I have my handmade memorial pet leaf castings, each with a little of my pet’s own ashes in the hypertufa (cement + sphagnum moss + vermiculate) mix. I also added some of my cute handmade garden gnomes and I have a plague for the first dog I lost, Maizzy. In the lilac tree that towers above the garden I have a solar bird feeder collection.

Coneflowers in my pet memorial garden.

Please share a story about and/or photo of your memorial gardens in the comments!

Bouquet of the Day

After no new blooms yesterday, I had 5 today. I am at about 35% bloom rate. Not great for mid-season but the plateau shaped peak in blooms continues. We will see where we are when the last daylily blooms.

Fairytale Pink
Mildred Mitchell
Nearly Wild
Classy Lady
Open My Eyes

I had some vivid colors and some pastels today. And, an older near blue, Mildred Mitchell. The vivid orange of Nearly Wild and the deep maroon of Open My Eyes add stunning color to the collection. My pink girls – Fairytale Pink and Classy Lady – added a nice contrast.

Yard Art & Memorials Added: Until The Last Daylily Blooms Sale

This blog inspired me to add my handmade yard art to the Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale at my Etsy shop – at least for July-August 19th. Specifically, I added hypertufa leaf casting ash memorials, cement dog plaque memorials, garden gnomes, and mushrooms. These are great companions for daylily gardens.

Hypertufa Leaf Casting Ash Pet Memorial

Pet memorial ash leaf castings – click here for listing.

Cement Pet Memorial Plaque: Acrylic Pour and Solid Colors

I am playing with painting my cement dog/cat plaque memorials with pour acrylics. This is one I made yesterday. The lettering will be painted in a lighter color to make it more readable and other highlights added. I will get this listed as soon as possible, in the mean time if you are interested, please email me. I also can do custom colors if you prefer.

Process video of a pour acrylic pet memorial plaque.
New Pour Acrylic Style
Green Style A
Flowered Style B

Garden and Holiday Gnomes: Pour Acrylic or Solid Colors

These garden gnomes are my “seconds” so I decided to try pour painting on them. I have 6 gnome styles (see slides below and click here for Etsy listing) and I am adding a couple new styles very soon. I normally paint them solid, traditional colors, but I will be adding some pour paint styles soon. Again, I can do custom colors – contact me via email or my Etsy shop.

Time For Nature

I’m headed off on a camping adventure tomorrow. It will be next weekend before I post, again, unless I do a post on wildflowers. You can follow our adventure at my travel blog – click here to visit and subscribe.

Pearl Lake State Park, Colorado

Daylily Photography: Capturing Every Bloom and Seeking Tracking System

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Today’s Fresh Faces for 2024

July is cooking! I had 6 first of the season blooms today. It is well past yellow trumpet season and the color variety is amazing. Here are today’s new blooms: Better Off Blue, Coral Taco, Echo Canyon, Nurse’s Stethoscope, Talon, and Titan Skye.

Better Off Blue
Coral Taco
Echo Canyon
Nurse’s Stethoscope
Talon
Titan Skye

Which of these do you think would make the best coaster or mini clock? Please add to comments.

A Day in the Life of a Daylily Hobbyist in July

My days during prime daylily season aren’t particularly entertaining, but they are very different than the other 10-11 months of the year. As always, the day starts with the dogs and a jog. But, somewhere in there, I go out with my cellphone and photograph a bloom from every cultivator that has one. I use to use my Canon Powershot, but as my collection grew my time shrunk. Each photo is edited and uploaded to my online photo drive. By noon-thirty, my phone battery is dying.

After that, I post to Facebook (my personal page) and then make a reel of all the first blooms of the season for Instagram. Then, I share that reel to my business IG, FB, Threads, and my story. My phone is now charging and the clock saying early afternoon..

And, then it’s time for the blog. Except for today, because I stopped to make an extra Instagram video about my Until the Last Daylily Blooms Art Sale on Etsy. So, I opened Canva to start designing a short reel and there went another hour. It does take longer because I am trying to integrate my art business, Art from the Hartt. I don’t sell daylilies because of the need for a nursery license, but I do sell daylily art. So, I do whatever I can do to support myself with my garden.

OK, so now it’s 4 o’something and it’s time for the blog. What can I choose for a topic? Something simple, because it’s late and I still have chores to do. I haven’t touched my art.

Daily Daylily Photography

So, let’s talk about daylily photography. Why do I take a photo of every cultivator that’s blooming every day? Maybe I am just an anal retentive retired nurse who is use to taking vital signs every shift. Only through monitoring the norm can we spot trouble coming. Maybe because I am an artist and I use my photography to make art – the more photos I have, the better chance of capturing cool things like this Nurse’s Stethoscope daylily painting. Maybe it is because the sun is so intense in the high desert that my blooms are melted by early afternoon and I’m not ready to let go.

Looking for a Daily Bloom Tracking System

What I am looking for is an app or software where I can track which cultivators are in bloom every day. I don’t need more hybridization software because I love PlantStep. I want a chart of what is in bloom each day. Ah, this is the anal retentive nurse coming out. But really – I would like to ask my readers if they know of a charting system where I can input the daylily names and put a checkmark each day (like a calendar) that it blooms – then run a report at the end. It would be cool to have a photo of each – but you would only need 1 photo for the year.

I monitor a lot by photographing each day, but I can’t use the data as well as I could with a better system of daily daylily tracking. I appreciate any ideas from readers!

Until The Last Daylily Blooms Art Sale on Etsy

What happens to all those photos? Mostly, they are stored. The inspirational ones, however, can become art! Daylily art was my first dive into painting many years ago and I still adore making art from my daylilies.

I have lots of wall art, clocks, cards, and painted pots available for sale this summer – literally until my last daylily blooms. Last year, that was the day before Halloween. So, while the sale lists an end date in November, it will actually end at midnight 24 hours after my last daylily blooms. If we are lucky enough to be blooming in late October, my art is 50% off! The Instagram (above) has the sale dates and percentages off. Please visit my Etsy store and check it out.

Open My Eyes on October 27th, 2023. She bloomed again the 29th and the bloom was hit with freezing rain. She lost her other buds.

PS – The time is now 5:55 PM and I am about to hit publish.

Psychrophilic Daylilies of 2023

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It’s been a weird year. Not just the weather, but definitely the weather. Cold, wet spring. It felt like winter until it was summer – then BAM we get into fire weather with high winds and low humidity. I also lost my beloved soul dog, Sazi, in March. I adopted a new special needs senior in April and she had major surgery in May. Oh, and my art/houseplant business, Art from the Hartt, changed locations in May.

My dog, Kachina, and her new sister, Kokopelli

So, daylilies have been on the back burner. But, hey, it is July 1, and only 6 cultivators have bloomed so far this season, anyway. Mostly Saratoga Springtime – who bloomed on June 7th and is now finished. I lost almost all of the daylilies that I added last fall plus a couple old timers 😦 I added a few new ones from local nurseries to fill gaps – I am also using coleus as pot savers. I ordered a few new ones for fall, but I think I am out of space to nurture too many more.

Saratoga Springtime began blooming 6.7
Dream Keeper first bloom 6.25
Comanche Princess began blooming today (7.1)
Kokopelli began blooming 6.30
Open My Eyes began blooming 6.25
Stella de Oro began blooming 6.28

I can’t believe it has been nearly 11 months since my last blog. One would think I had 4 other websites and a bunch of social media to run. . . Wait, I do. LOL. Plus, it was past peak when I stopped blogging last year in early August and we are no where near peak today. Anyway, enjoy my list (with pictures) of cultivators that have come through the cold spring and into bloom. I call them psychrophilic.