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.
No U, No V – I need to fix that with some new flowers 🙂
No X, either!
That is all for July, folks. Look for our Colorado Day (8/1) blooms up next!
I’m a nurse and I have worked the last shift – in the old days that was 11 PM to 7 AM, although most places have gone to 12s, so it is 7 P to 7 A. When you show up for the last shift, there is still a lot that can happen. It is far from over. However, it tends to be quieter with administration and many of the departments (and physicians) asleep at home unless called. As a midwife, I generally preferred last shift births because it was less hectic.
I would say the same for daylilies – their cycle is more like the 8 hour day, but the first shift is slower than in nursing. These are the early bloomers, often yellow trumpets plus a few brave early bloomers. The second shift is crazy, especially this year. Many of the first shift stayed late and a few of the last shift showed up early. Hectic, yes. Now, it is clearly the late shift – time to gear down and savor the last few weeks of the season.
I am going to focus on premiers since 7.18, since I was on a camping road trip last week. I have had numerous finales during that time . . . too many. I plan to do a month wrap-up post at the end of the month with all the July bloomers and their bloom date range. It will take hours to put together.
Premiers (with date of premier bloom if known)
I now count 151 +/- cultivators that have bloomed this year. I have 3 more premiers (with scapes) coming. Occasionally, someone will through a brand new (not re-bloom) scape in August. One time, Santa’s Pants threw one in October. But, we can count on 154 +/- for the season. That puts us at about 86% bloom rate – one of our highest years. I need to look back.
From here on, the focus will be finales. There are lots so maybe I’ll just wait until the end of the month and tie it up there. IDK.
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!
My daylily counts are dropping into the teens. It’s OK, because I get kinda burned out with the camera this time of year. At peak, the battery needs to be recharged twice a week.
I hit 130 different cultivaters for the year today with one of my most orange daylilies of the whole bunch. The orange is so deep and so saturated – it looks like my mural paint that is deep orange with a little yellow stirred in that shows up here and there. I do not know for sure which daylily this is because I put in in with the landscaping before I was paying much attention to names. Someone on a daylily page said it looked like Orange Vols – and it does, so I am going with that name.
Unbloomed scapes on not-yet-bloomed cultivators are down to a handful. Maybe 5 or 6. I might get an August scape or two – although often I don’t. That puts us at about 80%. Not low 90s like after the rainy spring last year, but not the 60’s I got before the pots and drip system. Speaking of pots, I have some nice ones for the buried Southwest garden in my Target online cart waiting for payday. I think if I do 20 a month – August, Sept, Oct – that is 60. I have 75 in that garden – some still need to be dug out of the mud, clay and roots, too – takes time. Probably 20 or so left to dig up that aren’t in cheep pots. I could leave them for spring.
Fall chores take over my brain. Soon, I trade my camera for a shovel.
Oh, daylilies. I was so clueless when I began collecting these circa 7-8 years ago that I did dumb stuff with them. I stuck them in shade with no water. I stuck them in the hard, clay soil. I put them in pots with no water source except when I remembered the watering can. It never rains here.
A few years ago, it hit me that all I was doing was buying daylilies, watching them bloom for one cycle followed by watching them wither away. So, I put in irrigation and cut down trees. I broke a rib burying pots so the soil was more controlled. I put in more irrigation . . . and more, and more.
I actually think I will have a decent bloom rate this year – and I think it is all in the water. Well, not all – but it is the desert.
So, when I first xeroscaped portions of my front yard, I purchased 3 daylilies to be part of the design – Orange Vols, Lady Fingers and a cultivator named Fooled Me. The first couple of years, they all did fine. Then, Fooled Me started to fade. No bloom, shrinking (last bloom 2015). I know that spot gets dry. Two years ago, I put it in a buried put in the same place . . . it got bigger but no bloom. This year, with the added drip sprinkler, it bloomed – today, for the first time since 2015 -IT BLOOMED!!! I may know how to make daylilies fade, but I am also getting good at year-to-year resuscitation. NEVER GIVE UP!
Other premiers today were Chokecherry Mountain – a Robert’s spider that reminds me a lot of Talon.
And, my favorite early “Southwest name” daylily, Route 66. Roadtrip memories flood my mind when I see her. Love her classic colors.
Soco Gap – a big plant that was a bonus back when the Southwest garden was an experiment. I plunked the little fans in between two medium sized Yuccas thinking she was small. Well, she is a decent sized cultivator and the cactus have grown, too. No way I can dig her out and put her in a pot – but the Yuccas are likely pretty protective of her!
Little Purple de Oro also had a premier bloom. IDK how I ended up with her and she is likely one of my least favorites. I keep waiting to fall in love.
Tomorrow is the 4th and I hope for a big show in the yard because they will be my fireworks during the coronavirus year.
So, this was my camping weekend. And, I’ve had 5 Premiere blooms since my last post. I want to say something before I share them. I had over 30 still in bloom. I have 5 or 6 with scapes that have not bloomed yet. I could possibly get late scapes. I’m at 85% bloom rate – anticipate low 90’s. This week, my regular hours start. It’s going to get crazy. I hope to photograph those that are open before I leave but many don’t open until 9 or 10 AM. They are pretty cooked by 2 PM, so we will see how this goes. Crazy late cycle.
Two brand new blooms on Friday. Cripple Creek – a golden flower that I assume Ned Roberts named after the Colorado gold rush town. Coberg Fright Wig – from back when I bought crazy names. Tried to die, but I finally got it thriving 4 years later.
Cripple Creek 8/2
Coberg Fright Wig 8/2
And, today some new blooms for 2019 on old favorites. Western Sandstone and Pizza Crust. They look and act enough alike that I looked up parentage a couple years ago and they are kin.
Pizza Crust 8/4
Western Sandstone 8/4
Orange Vols is probably my favorite orange.
Orange Vols 8/4
Today, we got a late burst of activity in the daylily garden. A nice dozen showed up today. Given I only have 11 with buds left, I believe it is the last dozen. And, we had several finales. Now comes the time that I contemplate what to do with the ones that have never bloomed. Do I toss them and put divisions of some of my more reliable ones in their place? Or give them another year? Or a little of both?
Finales:
El Desperado 8.8 – blooming since 7.10
Cherokee Star 8.8 – blooming since 7.16
Orange Vols 8.8 – blooming since 7.23
Other bloomers today:
Pink and Cream 8.8
Mini Pearl 8.8
Indian Sky 8.8
Heirloom Heaven 8.8
Blue Beat 8.8
Dream Catcher 8.8
Navajo Curls 8.8
Purple Corn Dancer 8.8
Royal Palace Prince 8.8
The next dozen will be next June. I start to plan poinsettia and amaryllis forcing . . . oh, one of my amaryllises is putting up a scape right now. The ugly daylily.
OK – I forgot my plan was to post all my bloomers from every day and eliminate roll call. Oh, well, that is not the worst of it – I forgot to pay my bills in July and didn’t realize until last night. Seriously, this exhaustion is something else! I have NEVER in my life forgotten to pay bills every month. Oh, well – get through work one day at a time and do what I can to take care of myself. Flower therapy helps, but also takes time. Life balance is a balance indeed. PS – So far, the lights are still on 🙂
So, here are the bloomers from yesterday and today . . . except the finales that were featured yesterday. First, today’s finales.
Finales:
Comanche Princess – in bloom since 6.17!!!
Bloomers:
Mini Pearl 8.6
Purple Corn Dancer 8.6
Pink and Cream 8.6 and 8.7
Dream Catcher 8.6 and 8.7
Ruby Stella 8.6
Navajo Curls 8.7
Tiger Kitten 8.7
Orange Vols 8.7
It was camping weekend, which is good because I need the stress relief. Work is too busy and I am too exhausted. So, I returned to an encore – Stella de Oro has been out of bloom for 3 weeks and she is back. I will just leave her in the roll call. Our last roll call of 2018. We had 37 in bloom this week. We had 56 last week and I predicted half as many this week. Actually – more like 2/3rds. When you look at all the finales this week (see photos below), I will make the same prediction for next week. That’s about 18 for the week. We don’t have many scapes yet, and the ones mostly only have a bloom or two left. Heirloom Heaven, Indian Sky, Pink and Cream, Dream Catcher, and Purple Corn Dancer have some life left in them. I am hoping Passionate Returns, Stephanie Returns, Ruby Stella and Red Hot Returns all return.
Here Goes Roll Call 7/31-8/5:
Anasazi 7.30 – has had finale bloom
Apache Uprising 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Baja 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Blue Beat 8.2
Cherokee Star 8.2
Chorus Line 8.5
Classy Lady 7.31 – Has had finale bloom
Comanche Princess 8.2
Dream Catcher 7.30
El Desperado 8.5
Fox Ears 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Heirloom Heaven 8.2
Heron’s Cove 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Hesperus 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Indian Love Call 8.2 – Has had finale bloom
Indian Sky 8.5
Lady Fingers 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Marque Moon 8.1 – Has had finale bloom
Mini Pearl 8.3
Moon Over Chimayo 8.1 – Has had finale bloom
Navajo Curls 8.1
Nearly Wild 7.31
Orange Vols 8.3
Passionate Returns 7.31 – Has had finale bloom
Pink and Cream 8.1
Pizza Crust 7.30
Prairie Blue Eyes 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Purple Corn Dancer 8.5
Purple Thunderbird 8.1 – Has had finale bloom
Rosie’s Red 8.3
Royal Palace Prince 7.30
Ruby Stella 8.3
South Seas 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Stella 8.5 – Encore bloom today
Tiger Kitten 8.3
Twirling Pinata 7.30 – Has had finale bloom
Yellow Punch 7.31 – Has had finale bloom
Wow – It will be August next weekend. The daylily peak has come and gone. The cultivators were in the teens today . . . a massive drop off from 2-3 weeks ago. It is funny how the first 3 weeks of June are slow progress, then it explodes, then it goes to just a few here and there for months.
Today, we had one new cultivator. Heirloom Heaven bloomed for the first time in 2018. She is an adorable late-blooming mini. She is my last unbloomed scape on a cultivator that hasn’t bloomed yet. This could be it. It seems like I usually get some August scapes . . . not many, but a handful. I don’t know with this drought, though.
Heirloom Heaven 7.29
And, I had a rude awakening last night – because Mount Echo Sunrise doesn’t look anything like Mount Echo Sunrise. I looked at her tag, and she has two. The other one says Moon over Chimayo . . . and she looks like that one. So, I assume . . .
Moon over Chimayo 7.27
Finales:
Lullabye Baby 7.29
Roll Call 7/23-29:
Adios Albuquerque 7.26
Anasazi 7.27
Apache Uprising 7.25
Aztec Firebird 7.27
Baja 7.25
Bela Lugosi 7.24
Blue Beat 7.25
Bluegrass Music 7.24
Bold Tiger 7.23
Cheddar Cheese 7.24
Cherokee Star 7.28
Chorus Line 7.26
Classy Lady 7.27
Comanche Princess 7.28
Dream Catcher (with Navajo Curls) 7.27
El Desperado 7.24
Fox Ears 7.25
Heron’s Cove 7.27
Hesperus 7.25
Indian Love Call 7.24
Indian Sky 7.24
Lady Fingers 7.25
Lime Frost 7.26
Longlesson Show-off 7.23
Marque Moon 7.24
Mildred Mitchell 7.23
Mini Pearl 7.29
Navajo Curls 7.24
Navajo Rodeo 7.23
Nearly Wild 7.28
Nosferatu 7.26
Orange Vols 7.24
Passionate Returns 7.29
Pick of the Litter 7.23
Pink and Cream 7.29
Pizza Crust 7.28
Prairie Blue Eyes 7.28
Prelude to Love 7.25
Purple Corn Dancer 7.26
Purple de Oro 7.24
Purple Moonrise 7.27
Purple Thunderbird 7.26
Raspberry Propeller 7.28
Rosie’s Red 7.23
Route 66 7.26
Royal Palace Prince 7.27
Ruby Stella 7.28
South Seas 7.27
Stephanie Returns 7.23
Tiger Kitten 7.27
Twirling Pinata 7.24
Yellow Punch 7.26
56 for the week . . . that is all! I bet we are down to half of that by next week.
