Surviving a 1,000-Year Drought: Daylily Care in High Desert Conditions on the Colorado Plateau

July 15, 2026Leave a comment

Hello Daylily Fans!

July, she flies. In fact, all of daylily season flies. Every year. It seems like the time between Saratoga Springtime and Purple Corndancer is about a week. But, in reality, it’s generally late May through sometime in August or September.

I have had several bloom since my last post on July 6th. We are getting into middle-late bloomers now. The temps have been close to or at 100 degrees daily for several days with minimal humidity. The smoke has cleared some, but the daily poor air quailty reports continue. And, we had about 10 minutes of rain a couple days ago – the first in weeks.

While droughts are common here in the high desert of the Colorado Plateau, this year is different. According to Drought.gov, this is the most severe drought period the region has experienced since at least 800 CE, beating out droughts that led Ancestral Puebloan cultures to abandon the Four Corners region.

And, despite that, my daylilies have done OK. Not great, but OK enough that I am at a 61% bloom rate for the year so far. The sad part is that it is my Southwestern Roadtrip Garden that is hardest hit. And, that is where my favorite cultivators live – my Ned Robert’s spiders and others that bear high desert names. The list of what hasn’t bloomed is bigger than the list of what has – at least for that garden.

I am planning to do some hardcore rehab of my pots in the Southwestern Roadtrip Garden this fall. And, the winter looks good for snow so far. Hopefully, my high desert spiders will be back in 2027.

Here are all my cultivators that have bloomed since July 7th. Enjoy!

I should add, that I have had about 34 of my Ned Roberts spiders bloom so far this year. That’s a gift. Last year, I had about 50. I still have a few left to bloom. But, it won’t be close to last year. I will do a whole blog on this once they have all bloomed.

Until next week,

Keep on blooming, Cathy Hartt, DNP (Daylily Nerd Person)

Visit my Art from the Hartt website for some great garden and daylily art from the high desert of the Colorado Plateau.

It’s Daylily Savings Time on the Colorado Plateau

June 14, 20262 Comments

I never adapted to Daylight Savings Time this year. It’s been a variety of factors – my own circadian rhythm, an evening Etsy revamp, new routines, etc. But, I need to start springing ahead – or is that summering ahead? Why? Because the daylilies are blooming at increasing rates this week. And, daylily season is like an online class – don’t get behind or you never catch up.

My season started with Saratoga Springtime on 5.23: the same day I started selling my art from home-based events. The same day I started a new injection (Tymlos) for my osteoporosis. (Gardening builds bone) The week after oral surgery. Two days before my first camping trip. And it the midst of the chaos, daylily season quietly started with a windblown bloom from my early bird cultivator.

On 5.31, Dream Keeper started blooming. My first Ned Roberts cultivator to join the 2026 bloom cycle. On 6.5.26 she threw a polymerous bloom with extra petals. This may have happened in response to our drought and low humidity – a sort of stress reaction. It is super pretty, though.

The third one to join the season was my simple yellow Stella. Her first bloom was on 6.2.26.

It felt like a lul. Like I could ignor the daylilies while I reorganized my business. Ha ha – the daylilies aren’t waiting. This week, amidst 3 on-ground events for my business, the blooms started coming. First, on 6/12, Return A Smile returned along with The Potter’s Touch. A day later, Ruby spider joined the small crowd – on the day of my 5th on-ground sale.

Today, I thought I would have a breather after the business event – but no dice. I spied with my little eye more action in my Southwest Garden daylily bed more cultivators. Canyon Colors was visible as I walked towards the garden with her rounded bloom shape and soft sandstone colors. As I drew closer, I noticed Land of Enchantment dancing in front of my banana yucca. I stepped into the wire garden fence in the easement to capture their photos when I noticed the first Comanche Princess in bloom.

And, I said, “That’s it!. It’s daylily savings time, again!”

Balancing a summer on-ground business with daylilies, hiking, camping, and everything else “summer” is kind of crazy, but I am committed to keeping the blog going this summer. IDK if I’ll post weekly or twice a week – I am keeping it a little soft until I see how things unfold.

As far as my business, it started as a hobby, painting daylilies on tiles to make coasters. The first years, I painted daylilies on ornaments and pots. But, as time went on, the focus shifted to my acrylic pour and cement projects – including adorable garden gnomes. This summer, I am going back to the daylily tiles as soon as I find time to sit and paint in a quiet, uninterrupted setting for a few hours.

I will be combining my acrylic pour backgrounds with daylilies painted in the foregrounds. The backgrounds with feature high desert colors – like sandstone and sage. And, the cultivators I will be painting will feature my daylilies with Southwest names. Ones like Dream Keeper, Canyon Colors, Land of Enchantment, and Comanche Princess.

I still have some cool daylily pots for sale (not for daylilies, but for houseplants and succulents). I will attach a few photos with listing links for those interested. These are terra cotta pots painted in a base of chalk paint. Then I add my stunning daylily painting over the chalk so it pops! So much fun.

Visit the above pot listings and more at my Etsy Shop: Mesa Stone Planters section.

I wish all the daylily lovers out there a happy blooming season! What’s blooming in your garden right now?

Keep on blooming, Cathy Hartt

Maylilies and Early June Daylilies

June 16, 2025Leave a comment

Hi Daylily Fans,

The weather has turned from spring to summer since my last post a couple weeks ago! It is in the mid to upper 90s this week. The scapes are sprouting fast and furious. I have around 100 cultivators with scapes now. I’m never sure how the daylilies will respond to drought, but I am optimistic that my bloom rate will be decent. My water bill, not so much! (I am city water dependent. It’s not cheap because we don’t get much help from Mother Nature.)

I have two cultivators that just came into bloom today. Jungle Queen and Wild Horses. Sounds like the title of a good sci-fi novel. I asked AI and got the photo below. I kind of like it. Maybe I need to use some fun AI photos of daylily names in the blog this year!

What AI says Jungle Queen and Wild Horses look like!

Here are the actual blooms. Both of these are cultivators that were early to my collection and neither bloomed last year. Good to see them back.

My Maylily was Saratoga Springtime. I don’t usually have a Maylily, so worth a mention that the blooms started earlier than usual.

My other early bloomers are Dream Keeper and Stella de Oro. Both are still actively blooming. I always say when Saratoga Springtime gets done, that is when the popcorn starts to pop.

It’s getting too hot to be outside during the day. Maybe I will have more time to post between camping and community involvement! This year brings new civic priorities but I will do my best to keep you all updated on what is going on in my Western Colorado daylily garden!

My pups, Cimarron, Kachina, and Kokopelli, enjoying camping season at Ridgway, CO last week.

TTFN, Cathy

And So It Begins: A Very Large Array of Daylilies!

June 3, 20251 Comment

Hello from Western Colorado!

And so it begins! The 2025 daylily season began on May 28th with Saratoga Springtime. Always my first!

First, I am naming this bloom season “A Very Large Array of Daylilies” in honor of our recent road trip through New Mexico and Arizona with a stop at the Very Large Array (of telescopes). I wonder if daylilies can be used to talk to aliens? (The movie Contact was filmed there.)

My dogs, Kokopelli, Kachina, and Cimarron during our visit do the Very Large Array.

The season started a week or two early this year. This is likely because of the drought. It has been a dry winter and spring so far. My lawn is still semi-brown. I got out a couple of weeks ago and started my drippers to add to the sprinkler water.

Life on the edge of an extreme drought – in April!

Drought tends to bring the daylilies out early, but negatively impacts the overall bloom rate. So, we will see what happens. I currently have about two dozen cultivators with scapes.

This year, I had a lot of weeds in my pots. It is so discouraging to see this because I have nearly 200 pots and digging weeds out is costly in time and money because of soil replacement. I have creeping bellflower that is an invasive weed. The roots of the bellflower resemble daylily roots and they grow into the daylily and choke it out. Pulling them just causes roots to break and spreads the plant.

I decided to get more of the coir rounds (small tree rings) because covering bellflower is somewhat effective. I used these rounds several years ago, and they have helped, but they break down over a few years. The downside is my daylilies don’t spread – but they don’t die, either. They are not for everyone, but growing in a desert in pots – especially with invasive bellflower – they work.

Other bloomers so far are Stella de Oro and Dream Keeper. Stella is the generic daylily that is so common in flowerbeds. I like her because she is an early and repeat bloomer. Like most early bloomers, she is a yellow trumpet. (So is Saratoga Springtime.)

Dream Keeper did not bloom last year, so I am happy to see lots of buds on several scapes. She is my first Ned Roberts daylily of the year. For those who may be new to my blog, I have a decent collection of of Ned’s spiders. Last year, my blooms were low for the garden where most of these are located.

As far as the 4 new cultivators I added last year, I lost 2 of them. I lost at least two others. I will blame the drought and the fact that I had some minor medical challenges this winter. I wasn’t focused on watering. I need to do inventory and labeling this summer (hopefully).

This post starts the blog. I generally won’t be doing daily posts this year because I am involved in a lot of civic volunteer work this summer. I will plan weekly, except for during peak. IDK if I will have a set day of the week. We will take it one post at a time. Just wanted to get started on the VERY LARGE ARRAY!

What cultivator bloomed first for you this year?

Happy blooming, Cathy

A Dedication to My Daylily Friend and More Colorful Spiders!

July 23, 2024Leave a comment

A Dedication: For My Daylily Friend

Life can change in a moment. A couple of years ago, an online friend who I met through a Facebook daylily group called Daylily Lovers and I did a daylily exchange. He lived in the same USDA zone but in the eastern US. I’m out west. I sent him Saratoga Springtime and he sent me Autumn Minaret. I guess we were looking for daylilies from opposite seasons to add to our yards.

The daylily he sent didn’t do much last year, so today is the first ever bloom for Autumn Minaret. I want to dedicate this post to my friend. So much happened to him so quickly. I doubt he will ever see this post but I wonder how he are doing. The flower will always remind me of his love of daylilies.

Readers – Have you ever exchanged daylilies with a friend? How did it go? Please share the experience! Did you stay local or ship the daylily roots? Do you recommend daylily exchanges to others?

More Ned Spider Daylilies

I had two new Ned Roberts daylilies in the Southwest Road Trip Garden today: Black Arrowhead and Skinwalker. I like the dark daylilies, and I didn’t even realize Black Arrowhead had a scape. Nice surprise.

Skinwalker is an old favorite – love the pale yellow and the wispy petals.

Yesterday, was also a day of new spider daylilies from my Ned Roberts collection. Maybe my Southwest Road Trip Garden will catch-up a little. Cheyenne Eyes, Desert Icicle, Shape Shifter, and Taco Twister. That makes 31 total Roberts Spiders for the year out of 72, I believe. That’s 43% for the year. A dozen more and it’ll be 60%. Stretch goal!

Until the Last Daylily Blooms: Skinwalker Painting and Signed Prints

Immerse yourself in the serene beauty of nature with this exquisite, original hand-painted daylily wall art. Capturing the delicate forms of Skinwalker, a yellow daylily with subtle pink edging, this piece serves as a charming accent for any room.

Speaking of Skinwalker, I have an original hand painted wood panel or limited edition signed prints available of my Skinwalker painting. These are available through my Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale and they are now 30% off through August 19. These are limited edition and available while supplies last. The original panel is now $24.50 (plus free shipping) and the prints are only $8.50. Click on photo to go to listing for the painting (or click here). Click here for listing of the limited edition signed prints.

Visit my Etsy shop Art from the Hartt at the link above – or my business website here. This is a time-limited sale – until my last daylily blooms!

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Welcome to Summer 2024: A Flair For Florescence!

June 21, 20241 Comment

Hello, fellow daylily lovers,

It is summer, again. I have had 3 daylilies bloom this season: Saratoga Springtime on 6.6, Burgundy Crab on 6.10, and Mesa Verde today. I have about 60-70 scapes. My bloom rate may be down this year because we didn’t get much local snow/groundwater last year. The mountains got a lot, but that doesn’t help my pots if I don’t turn on the hose.

I feel that selling my beautiful begonias at Country Flair in Montrose, CO is creating some gardening burnout for me. A few of my daylilies are really struggling – I mean I may lose them. Others have grass or weeds in the pots and I didn’t repot this spring. I’m an artist first and foremost (after being a retired nurse/nurse-midwife and a wellbeing practitioner.) Oh, and rescue dog mom. Time flies and plants take time. Looking forward to the daylily blooms has always been a joy – but now that the begonias are a year-around job, I just don’t get the same dopamine fix.

Camping with my rescue dogs last weekend – Kachina, Cimarron, and Kokopelli

That creates a quandary about what to do with the blog this summer. I only posted for a month last year. Really? Why? Because I needed my time back for my business – plus camping, hiking, my travel blog, etc. I will try the Instagram reels, again, because that seemed to work OK. I always say I can keep going until the last bloom – I’ll try, again!

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A post shared by Cathy Hartt (@artfromthehartt)

The good news is that I’m also going to be plugging some of my stunning daylily artwork that I sell in my Etsy shop. I am running a 25% off sale “until the last daylily blooms” – so come check that out! I have cards, wall art, clocks, and pots with daylily designs – all handmade!

Anyway, things are heating up – although today was cool and rainy. Not sure who is next. Maybe Kokopelli?

Psychrophilic Daylilies of 2023

July 2, 2023July 4, 2023Leave a comment

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.

Comanche Princess began blooming today (7.1)

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.

Slow Start and Creeping Bellflower

June 20, 2022Leave a comment

As my Facebook memories pop-up, I become aware how slow this year is as far as blooms. I have the same 4 in bloom as yesterday.

I counted 103 scapes yesterday and 111 today. So, I think it’s not far off. I’m still upset that so many of my new ones parished over the winter.

Saratoga Springtime and Stella de Oro 6.20

I wanted to talk a little about weeds. Creeping Bellflower is the nemesis of my front garden. I thought the pots would keep the things from spreading, but they also send seeds. This article has good info https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/campanula/removing-creeping-bellflower.htm

Photo of Creeping Bellflower in my walkway garden last year.

The worst part is their roots look like pale daylily roots, and they grow right into the daylily root structure so it looks like daylily root. They grow tall and smother the daylilies.

This year, I’d had enough but was hesitant about herbicides. So, I decided to smother them back. I put down thick landscape fabric (including under each pot) and mulched over that. I bought about $200 in the round pot disks made of coir. Most my pots have those. My other invader is grass, so this should help that, too.

The walkway garden today. Creeping Bellflower 90% gone.

So far, so good. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy Juneteenth Valentines!

June 19, 2022Leave a comment

It’s a camping weekend, so I missed whatever bloomed yesterday. But, when I returned, I found Funny Valentine’s first bloom. Nice to see this deep reds returning. This one has a zillion scapes, too.

It’s both Juneteenth and Father’s Day. My granddads both died before my birth. Dad was abusive and our relationship never healed (in this lifetime). I’m not married and my son-in-law wants me distant. But, I lived in Galveston so Juneteenth means something. So, happy Juneteenth Valentines.

Another premier is Orange Punch (or Yellow Punch). Lowe’s daylily I picked up several years ago and I don’t remember the name- just the Punch part.

Oh, and the monsoons arrived while we were in our tent, of course. I don’t mind rain on the tent and hoping this brings more scapes!

Saratoga Springtime and Stella keep blooming, as do my clematis. I think Apache Bandana is very close!

More Jaundiced Trumpets

June 17, 2022Leave a comment

Jaundiced trumpets always start the daylily show. Screaming yellow jaundiced trumpets. It’s like a bad day in the newborn nursery, a little bit. And, since my last post, It has been pretty much the same two showing up to blow their hepatic little horns every day. Um, I don’t think bili lights are going to help them turn pink, orange, red, or purple. The warmth of the sunshine, however, is beginning to bring a bigger rainbow of color to my daylily garden. (Did I mention that I’m a nurse-midwife)

So, today my first Ned Roberts spider opened her eyes. Dream Keeper. Definitely not a jaundiced (yellow) trumpet. I love my Neds. My Southwest Road Trip Garden is moving slowly – only 20 scapes for 70+ cultivators so far. It’s that window where it could be the cold, dry, windy spring is just delaying the scapes or it eliminated them altogether. My other gardens have a higher percentage of scapes (unusual timing) but also get more water, so IDK yet.