Daylilies are My Life

July 5, 2021Leave a 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.

June Daylily Blooms A-Y (no Z yet)!

July 3, 20211 Comment

I’m back! My house is cleaner and I feel like I can pick-up the blog, again. Don’t worry, I spent my usual amount of time with my daylilies in the AM. I love getting photos of them – something to get out of bed for. After three years of a stressful job and a commute, I just had to clean because my poor home has been like a neglected garden. I needed to pull weeds and plant some new seeds.

I am going to show off my June blooms (A to Z) for June in this post. I am going to have a good bloom rate this year and it sort of scares me what peak will be like with all my plants so happy. Good thing the house is clean. I count 51 cultivators for June 2021. Last year, it was 50 in June – so close. I think I have about 180 cultivators now – almost 30% have bloomed.

Big Red Rhyme (my NOID name for her) premiered 6.22

Chief Four Fingers premiered 6.27 (with some bug damage but more buds ahead)

Dream Keeper premiered 6.11, finale was 7.1

“Fringe Benefit” premiered 6.27 (mislabeled bonus but I still call her that)

Happy Returns – I believe the real cultivator is yellow and some of my gold ones are actually Stella – this one premiered 6.25

Nurse’s Stethoscope (the only registered daylily I helped to name) premiered 6.24

Platinum Pink Pallet Whispers premiered 6.21

Purple Moonrise (larger bloom on the R, to the left is Orchid Moonrise) premier bloom 6.15

Purple Mystic (my name for NOID) premiered 6.24

Red Riddle (my name for NOID) premiered 6.23

Saratoga Springtime premier 6/3, finale 6.23 – The star of early daylily season. A big, fancy yellow trumpet.

Scorpio premier 6.26, finale 6.29. Only two buds for the first bloom ever after 5 years in my yard.

Stella premier 6.7 and dwindling – I don’t think we have a finale yet but maybe.

Let’s close the book on June for 2021 – It’s a wrap!

Meanwhile, back at the daylily farm . . .

June 22, 20211 Comment

I can’t believe it has been almost 10 days since my last post. That doesn’t mean that daylilies aren’t blooming – although I think peak bloom is going to be a week or so later than usual. Maybe the drought . . . maybe some late cool days in the spring?

All I can say is life is in transition, so blogging had taken a back burner while I continue my job (part-time), clean and organize my house (also put on the back burner too long), and start a business. It is 11 PM (or later) when I finally have time to blog, but my heart and soul need rest.

So, since my last blog on 6.12, there have been a lot of premier blooms! (Premier meaning first bloom of the season) and I have 120 in bloom or with scapes. Here we go:

Rich-colored Canyon Colors made her debut on 6/15. She didn’t bloom last year so I had to dig her roots out of grass that had taken over her pot. She is recovering, but I don’t anticipate more than one scape this year.

Comanche Princess had a premier bloom on 6.18. She looks vigorous in both locations this year.

Echo Canyon made her debut today with three blooms. Our lead photo is her other two blooms.

Funny Valentine had her first blooms open when I returned from camping on Sunday. She has a ton of buds and scapes this year.

Mesa Verde showed up on 6.15. I love her colors, too. Makes me want to take a roadtip . . . actually, I will be at Mesa Verde next month.

Orchid Moonrise had her premier-premier bloom on 6.17. That means, despite having her in my garden for 4ish years, this is the first bloom year. She likes being in the pot away from the tree roots, I think.

Platinum Pink Pallet Whispers premiered today. Who names these daylilies, anyway?

Purple Grasshopper premiered on 6.11 but I can’t remember if I included her in my last blog.

Ruby Spider – One of my first and favorite daylilies. Premier was 6.21.

Wild Horses bloomed for the first time this season on 6.15. Always a stunning bloom.

Yellow Punch, my Lowe’s special a few years ago, opened on 6.15.

My first yellow Stella de Oro opened on 6.18. She is a very different color than my golden Stella and rates her own listing.

That’s about 12 premiers since the last blog. 100++ more to go. What’s next? I guess we will see tomorrow. I would like to get back to blogging regularly, at least on Sunday. I feel like daylily season will come and go so quickly this year. The plants (mostly) appreciate all the work I did potting them and/or refurbishing the soil. A few are too crowded now and seem hesitant to send out a scape. Fortunately, I can divide and sell them this fall.

Speaking of which – please drop by my Art and Nature from the Hartt website to see what I plan to carry in my Etsy store. I have lots of begonias and coleus cooking now . . . and some succulents. I can’t wait to start making daylily art, again, too. I will clean my house first, though. Come visit us at this link – http://www.artandnaturefromthehartt.com

TTFN!

Here Come the Monsoons!

July 16, 2019Leave a comment

Today, I had 63 in bloom. It’s a record. Despite the wet, cold spring that did in a couple of my cultivars, my blooms so far are numerous. For a late start season, we are catching up! And, now, our monsoon rains are assisting with hydration.

I have several that are first blooms ever this year.

For time’s sake, I’m just doing Premiers tonight:

Lullaby Baby 7/15

Bluegrass Music 7/15

Blue Beet 7/15

Mildred Mitchell 7/15

Heavenly Curls 7/15

Medicine Feather 7/15

Black Ice 7/15

Maya Cha Cha 7/15

Indian Giver 7/15

Platinum Pink 7/15

Hesperus 7/15

Jungle Queen 7/15

Mauna Loa 7/15

Chaco Canyon 7/15

My lesson – water early and often. And, with any luck, the monsoons show up like they have this year.

Horses, Canyons, Rodeos, and Our Blooms for the Week!

June 25, 2018Leave a comment

Summer is here! I got home from camping 6 hours ago and am still trying to get everything done for the weekend! When I don’t take photos in the morning, the blooms are pretty sunburned by noon. And we had wind today. And single digit humidity. So, for today there were 5 new blooms.

Wild Horses is a favorite, dependable bloomer. I have had her 3 years and she puts on quite a show. Can you see the wild horses in her pattern?

Wild Horses 6/24

So, Chaco Canyon bloomed when we returned from this same camping adventure last year. I love her stripes!

Chaco Canyon 6/24

A brand new face for this year is Navajo Rodeo. Waiting 3 years to see some of these has taken patience. She reminds me of Talon, but redder. I am sure they are related.

Navajo Rodeo 6/24

Ruby Spider is one of my oldest blooms, and always a favorite. She is huge, and oh so red!

Ruby Spider 6/24

And little Happy Returns is back. She is such a delicate little yellow trumpet.

Happy Returns 6/24

And there is the long roster (with photos) of all or our blooms from 6/18 through today:

Bluegrass Music 6/21

Canyon Colors 6/21

Comanche Princess 6/22

Dark Mystery 6/20

Dream Keeper 6/22

Funny Valentine 6/19

Holy Sombrero 6/22

Hopi Jewel 6/20

Indian Love Call 6/20

Jungle Queen 6/20

Kokopelli 6/19

Laughing Feather 6/19

Mesa Verde 6/22

Nurse’s Stethoscope 6/21

Painted Petroglyph 6.21

Pink Rain Dance 6/22

Platinum Palate Pink Whispers 6/22

Prairie Blue Eyes 6/19

Pueblo Dancer 6/22

Purple Many Faces 6/22

Purple Mystic 6/20

Red Riddle 6/21

Return a Smile 6/19

Saratoga Springtime 6/21

Stella de Oro 6/19

Talon 6/21

The Colorado Kid 6/22

Treasure of the Southwest 6/21

Wineberry Candy 6/24

Yellow Punch 6/22

Zuni Eye 6/20

So far, that makes 36 that have bloomed in the yard. Of 170-something. 21% or so of my cultivators have bloomed so far. Tomorrow, it looks like more new faces will join the count!

Say that three times fast!

June 13, 20181 Comment

What is in a name? I don’t know – for some of my daylilies, I choose them partially for their Southwestern names. Platinum Palette Pink Whispers was not picked for her name, though. In fact, I paid no attention to her name. What I know is that the garden shop had a 2 for $10 special on daylilies this spring. I said no more, but I had an empty container due to loss of one of my bonus plants from last fall. So, I got two different ones that were not Stella De Oro. I really didn’t notice the tongue-twister name until I went to put this one in my software program. Say that 3 times fast!

Platinum Palette Pink Whispers 6/12

My yard is getting so full of spikes. It is seriously worrying me how I will handle the photography. And, the blog. Posting every one, every day . . . that may get crazy cause I don’t get off until 8 PM. Wondering about a weekly list of all the blooms? I have done a collage, but then you can’t really pull up the individual photos later. I don’t know, but I better figure in our because these blooms won’t be slowing down any time soon. I have 3 dozen with scapes in the Southwest garden, alone. Probably 60+ total in the whole yard. I wonder how many I’ll have in bloom on the peak of the peak day?

Here are the other blooms for the day: