The more you chase it, the more it eludes you. Sleep is similar. The header photo is All American Chief and friend 7.8.
Busy day today with 50 new blooms. Here we go:
I need to go chase butterflies 🦋. We will see what tomorrow hatches.
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!
The peak is easing, somewhat rapidly. I only had 40+ today, yesterday was 50+, and the day before 60+. And, so the tide recedes for another season. Not that it is over . . . anything but. However, I can keep up with this pace and it will continue to decline while I am away for a few days. I will only miss 4 days of photos.
I can slow my pace just a bit and savor the duos, trios and quartets of blooms. Daylilies don’t clump with a zillion blooms at once much in the desert. So, it is fun to focus on seeing the small gatherings.
One premier today!
Finales:
What are we waiting for – Zuni Thunderbird, Purple Thunderbird, Desert Icicle, Adios Albuquerque, Glen Eyrie, Cripple Creek, Navajo Curls, Skinwalker, Purple Corn Dancer, Royal Palace Prince, Heirloom Heaven, Dr Doom and Pizza Crust all have scapes now but have not bloomed. I could get some other later scapes, too. That is still a lot to look forward to when I return from New Mexico (or tomorrow).
So far, I have had 140 +/- cultivators bloom and it looks like at least 13 more – so mid-150s/180 puts us at mid 80s bloom rate. Much better than last year. I am looking at moving some new, more reliable bloomers in to replace those that bloom only occasionally and aren’t favorites. I love the smell of new daylily roots! Eventually, they will sing duos, trios, and quartets in my yard.
Today started with a parade and will end with fireworks. Must be July 4th, In between, I visited my daylilies. I think in July in Colorado (or the desert States) that we should call them 7-11 lilies, because after about 11 AM, the blooms start to melt. I mean, they literally look like melting wax to me. Our UV is just so high for them here when the humidity drops towards the single digits. Maybe that is why I take so many photos and paint the blooms. There is no hanging out with them all day because it is just too hot and I melt, too.
Anyway – I had 43 in bloom today, including 3 premiers. No finales today. Oh, and add Maya Cha Cha = who premiered yesterday but I missed her photo with the camera. I actually take pictures with both cell and camera. I post the cell shots to my Facebook page ASAP. That is a great back-up to the camera and helps me remember what is what if I get behind on camera shots. Maya is on the phone yesterday, but not in my computer library. I guess that puts us at 76, which is a patriotic number.
It is hard to believe only 40% of my daylilies have bloomed. I probably have a dozen or so without scapes so who knows if they will skip or be late? If they don’t bloom – that means we have 92 more premiers and our bloom rate will be 93%. That’s an A in my book. I am just waiting for water cost to shoot up because they declared a state of drought emergency in my part of the State yesterday.
Keep on blooming. Happy 4th!
Hi all – When it is Saturday and it hasn’t been the fun day that I planned. COVID had driven the world mad – and they seem to all be mad at me. So, how about a little Ned Robert’s daylily therapy? I fell in love with Ned’s southwestern named daylilies after finding Kokopelli on Lily Auction 5 years ago. I have a collection of 70 ish now. I am including a few from 2019 if they didn’t bloom this year. Comment with your favorite! Direct from Montrose, Colorado . . .
Today, I got up early to go to a doctor’s appt. It was early enough that buds weren’t open yet on my quick trip to the garden. By the time I got home a couple hours later, the UV was on high and I had a zoom meeting that lasted 90 minutes. By the time I got to go out to the yard, my daylilies looked like I did after standing out there for 5-10 minutes: Hot and sweaty.
I had some nice premiers today – Black Ice is my favorite dark daylily and is a Ned Roberts creation. Unfortunately, the sun leaves the dark ones really zapped.
Apache Bandana also had a premier bloom for 2020 – I like the pattern on this Ned Roberts spider
Treasure of the Southwest also had a premier today. These blooms are huge and very pretty. Nice bonus from a few years back.
Bela Lugosi also bloomed = man, the sun and dark cultivators. The good news is it looks much happier since I put in the sprinklers.
I also had some more finales today. Funny Valentine had a zillion buds and they are all done for 2020.
Pink Enchilada also had its finale today.
And stunning Mauna Loa is done – man, that corner is boring now!
The peak is on . . . I am falling asleep typing this. Ni ni.
Last year, I posted all my blooms each week on Sunday since it is too much to do daily. This year, I am going to try to do a recap at the end of the month. So, for June 2020, we had the following 50:
Today was another red flag day with a fair amount of wind. Nothing like we have had a few times this spring – but decidedly dry and breezy. And, as the clouds do so often in drought years, the grey clouds seem to tease as they drift by, only leaving a few drops of moisture behind.
The premiers today were mostly pink spiders. And, pink Ned Roberts spiders, at that. Now, trying to photograph a spider daylily with wind gusts up to 30 MPH is interesting. I am like a dentist trying to tell the wind to hold it’s breath until I snap the picture. My patient is non-compliant.
First premier pink spider was Rocky Mountain Pals. This daylily has a sweet story of being dedicated to the hybridizer’s cancer treatment team. I told the story to a co-worker today because she is battling cancer.
Next, big old Pink Rain Dance catches my eye. She is a huge bloom and such a great pastel pink. I can only guess Ned Roberts named her during a drought year in the Southwest.
Funky named Pink Enchilada was also in my pack of pink premier spiders. Another big. floppy spider from my Roberts collection. I suppose they are all cousins, or something.
My last premier is an older daylily that deserves some credit for a bit of near blue – which didn’t happen much during the time she was hybridized. Prairie Blue Eyes opened her eyes for the first time in 2020 today.
I recounted scapes tonight and I think it is about 130 now. So, potentially a decent bloom rate. I can’t believe I’ll miss 6 days of it – but I will savor coming home to see the color.
As for things that go bump in the night – it is probably just my cats playing with their toys at 2 AM.
Only 40 something daylilies today and no Premiers. So, it leaves time to talk about some of my daylily categories. I have talked a lot about my Ned Roberts spiders. I originally started collecting them after seeing Kokopelli on the Lily Auction – I love the Southwest and had to have her (I got the bid)! From there, I added more = lots more. At first, it was all fully Southwest names. Then, I gathered some animal and insect names to my Ned collection. And, some stellar names. IDK, is Dancing Maiden a name from the Southwest?
So, tonight, I will show you my purely Southwest named daylilies – the obvious names from the Southwest. But, first, Mildred Mitchell had an extra petal today – a genetic flaw that made her look pretty cool.
OK – Here are my Southwest Ned Roberts spiders. (These are the ones that have bloomed the last two years. Mostly this year, except Kokopelli did not bloom this year – which is unusual).
Adios Albuquerque – 2019
Apache Bandana – 2019
Apache Beacon – 2019
Aztec Firebirds – 2019
Black Arrowhead – 2019
Chaco Canyon – 2019
Cheyenne Eyes – 2019
Chief Four Fingers – 2019
Chokecherry Mountain – 2019
Comanche Princess – 2019
Coral Taco – 2019
Desert Icicle
Dream Catcher
Echo Canyon – 2019
Feather Woman – 2019
Ghost Ranch – 2019
Glen Eyrie – 2019
Happy Hopi – 2019
Iktomi – 2019
Kachina Firecracker – 2019
Kokopelli – 2018
Land of Enchantment – 2019
Laughing Feather – 2019
Mama Cuna – 2019
Maya Cha Cha – 2019
Medicine Feather – 2019
Mount Echo Sunrise – 2019
Navajo Curls – 2018
Navajo Grey Hills – 2019
Navajo Rodeo – 2019
Ojo de Dios – 2019
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Pink Enchalada – 2019
Pink Rain Dance – 2019
Purple Corndancer – 2018
Purple Many Faces – 2019
Purple Thunderbird – 2019
Santa Fe Christmas
Shape Shifter – 2019
Skinwalker – 2019
Spirit of the Morning – 2019
Star Over Milagro – 2019
Taco Twister – 2019
Talon – 2019
Truchas Sunrise – 2019
Twirling Pinata – 2018
Wild Rose Fandango – 2019
Zuni Eye – 2019
Zuni Thunderbird – 2019
So, I had a record number of cultivators in bloom the day before my trip, but no time to blog. Tomorrow, I’m home but too late to see any blooms. So, here is the 7/16 batch. Honestly, I don’t remember which were new bloom, but I’ll try. It’ll be good to see what’s new on Sunday!
Premiers:
Apache Beacon 7/16
Inwood 7/17
Wild Rose Fandango 7/16
Coral Taco 7/16
Little Cadet 7/16
Winds of Love 7/16
Lacey Doily 7/16
Royal Palace Prince 7/16
Black Eyed Susan 7/16
Anasazi 7/16
Reruns – lots and lots of reruns:
Purple de Oro 7/16
Mauna Loa 7/16
Longlesson Show-off 7/16
South Seas 7/16
Isaac 7/16
Stephanie Returns 7/16
Passionate Returns 7/16
Prairie Wildfire 7/16
Catherine Irene 7/16
Strutter’s Ball 7/16
Prairie Blue Eyes 7/16
Red Riddle 7/16
Indian Love Call 7/16
Purple Many Faces 7/16
Iktomi 7/16
Indian Love Call 7/16
Chief Four Fingers 7/16
Zuni Thunderbird 7/16
Rocky Mountain Friends 7/16
Soco Gap 7/16
Black Ice 7/16
Maya Cha Cha 7/16
Purple Mystery 7/16
Ruby Spider 7/16
Comanche Princess 7/16
Mildred Mitchell 7/16
Thin Man 7/16
Lady Fingers 7/16
Papa Long Legs 7/16
Purple Grasshopper 7/16
Chaco Canyon 7/16
Happy Hopi 7/16
Feather Woman 7/16
Ojo de Dios 7/16
Canyon Colors 7/16
Cheddar Cheese 7/16
Mesa Verde 7/16
Primal Scream 7/16
The Colorado Kid 7/16
Melon Balls 7/16
Pardon Me 7/16
Cricket Call 7/16
Wineberry Candy 7/16
Raspberry Propeller 7/16
Route 66 7/16
Golden Stella 7/16
Yellow Punch 7/16
Early Bird Cardinal 7/16
Pink and Cream 7/16
Mini Pearl 7/16
Orange Flurry 7/16
Golden Stella 7/16
Cheyenne Eyes 7/16
Pink Enchilada 7/16
Apache Bandana 7/16
Colorado Kid Daylilies 