July 1: Daylily Roll Call!

July 1, 2018Leave a comment

It is Sunday and the peak is starting. It will probably take me an hour to get this bog with all the photos for the week published. I am doing it this way so that each daylily comes up on a couple searches of the blog. My job entails creating about 20 template emails a day for the following day – it is a lot of looking up progress and pasting from my last note. Not a creative’s dream. So, when I save my drafts for the day, I have a blank email to note that it is a new day – and that email is always named after a daylily. The most creative 5 minutes/day of my job is picking this daylily. The collages just don’t work.

So – We will start with the newbies. Primal Scream is in bloom for the 3rd year. Last year, the blooms were small and anemic. She is now in an above ground put inside the Walkway Garden. I hoped for more scapes, but 2 is OK for this year, gives the fall transplant. Nothing beats her vibrant color.

Primal Scream 7/1

Indian Giver was a newbie in the Southwest Garden. She is a small daylily and was a bonus plant 3 years ago. She only gets a couple buds every year. She needs to be dug up and put in a buried pot, but the yucca is close, so not sure how I will get this done. I would like to have more blooms. She is adorable.

Indian Giver 7/1

Last but not least, from my Family Garden is Stephanie Returns. This flower makes my heart sad. Losing a family member who is still alive is horrid. Losing several is bitter and cruel. Please don’t tell people you understand or offer advise while you are surrounded with family. Please don’t tell people God is giving you this lesson for some reason or other. Do bookmark this page and come back here and look at this flower and help send positive vibes to anyone in the universe who had ever known the heartbreak such a loss can bring.

Stephanie Returns 7/1

OK – Enough heavy stuff. Onward to the roll call. Here go the A-Z blooms from 6/25 through today. Enjoy.

Alabama Jubilee 6/27

Apache Bandana 6/29

Aztec Firebird 7/1

Black Arrowhead 6/30

Black Ice 6/27

Bluegrass Music 6/27

Canyon Colors 6/30

Catherine Irene 6/30

Chaco Canyon 6/30

Cheyenne Eyes 6/29

Chokecherry Mountain 6/26

Comanche Princess 6/26

Dark Mystery (noid) 6/29

Dream Keeper 6/25

Early Bird Cardinal 7/1

Electric Lizard 6/30

Funny Valentine 6/30

Happy Hopi 6/30

Happy Returns 6/29

Holy Sombrero 6/28

Hopi Jewel 6/27

Indian Love Call 6/28

Inwood 6/30

Jungle Queen 6/29

Lady Fingers 7/1

Laughing Feather 6/27

Mesa Verde 6/29

Mini Pearl 6/30

Navajo Rodeo 7/1

Nurse’s Stethoscope 7/1

Papa Longlegs 6/30

Passionate Returns 6/29

Petite Petticoats 6/29

Pink and Cream 6/26

Pink Rain Dance 6/26

Prairie Blue Eyes 6/25

Pueblo Dancer 6/30

Purple Many Faces 6/29

Purple Mystique 6/30

Red Riddle 6/30

Return a Smile 7/1

Rocky Mountain Pals 6/29

Route 66 6/27

Ruby Spider 6/29

Ruby Stella 6/30

Saratoga Springtime 6/28

Soco Gap 7/1

Stella de Oro 6/26

Strutter’s Ball 6/29

Talon 6/29

The Colorado Kid 6/29

Thin Man 7/1

Treasure of the Southwest 7/1

Wild Horses 6/29

Wineberry Candy 6/26

Yellow Punch 6/26

Zuni Eye 6/26

Zuni Thunderbird 6/30

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!

Mountain Daylily Time

June 17, 2018Leave a comment

My current faculty position has me talking with students all over the United States – every time zone in the continental US. I have to type my time zone and theirs into every note – twice. This meeting and next meeting times. I think a lot about time zones!

Daylily season brings a profound shift in my off-time schedule during the week. I wake up earlier to take photos. I also have to spray the orchids most mornings. I prefer it when I can go for a run before work, too. That means I am dead by the time I get off at 8 PM. I walk the dogs, blog, go to bed. And, the more blooms, the earlier I need to set my clock. That is Mountain Daylily Time.

So, I surpassed 10 blooms in the yard today with some cool, new Ned Roberts southwest named spiders. I love these flowers! Talon has been with me going on 3 summers and has never bloomed. The first year, she tried, but they dried up. It is surprising that the blooms are this huge. I organized my garden by the hight listed by the hybridizer. This is in the front row – but it is Huge. Can you see the talons?

Talon 6/17

Comanche Princess was a new add last fall after my first one died. I like her curls! It is beyond cool to finally get to see these blooms 3 years later.

Comanche Princess

The other first bloom (for this year – she usually blooms well) is Funny Valentine. She has a million buds this year! This is the first bloom in my side porch! It is interesting, because I always thought of this area as my first bloom cycle area – hot, light. The flowers just grew to maturity more quickly than the walkway garden out front. With the tree gone and the new systems in the Southwest Garden – this is my new first bloom area. Also, the driveway Rain Barrel Garden pots are now in the equation (added last year).

Funny Valentine

Other blooms today are as follows (some are tattered from the rain we got during the night):

Dark Mystery 6/17

Kokopelli 6/17

Indian Love Call 6/17

Canyon Colors 6/17

Purple Many Faces 6/17

Wineberry Candy 6/17

Stella de Oro 6/17

Saratoga Springtime 6/17

PS – Starting tomorrow, I will only blog about the new daylilies in bloom (including first bloom for 2018) for the day, but will list all the bloomers. On Saturday or Sunday each week, I will add photos of all the bloomers for the week in my blog (with the date of bloom). I will try to pick the best photo of each. New year, new system! Pilot. Because it is Mountain Daylily Time!

Today, the Rain Came

June 17, 2018June 30, 2019Leave a comment

Today the rain came. Not much rain . . . but enough to wet the soil and put some drops on the peddles of my bloomers. It was cool, I worked in daylily labels. I decided to put the same metal labels i have in the Southwest garden in all my daylilies. I have too many, I gotta tell you. Anyway, I ended up short labels for every daylily, so need to reorder. My plastic labels did not hold up for year 3 – and I rearranged some of the plants in the walkway garden. So, I have a few I won’t be sure of until the blooms come. But, progress.

Today, I had the first 2018 bloom on Mesa Verde. This flower was chosen because of her name. Yes, once I figured out a lot had cool southwestern names, I went out of my way to find her. The bloom is one of the most ruffly in my collection. She didn’t even open all the way today . . . maybe the rain and cool weather. Anyway, the bloom was in the division I put in the Southwest garden last fall. My pot isn’t that close yet.

Mesa Verde 6/16

And, another very cool flower – Hope Jewel – opened in the Southwest Garden. I love the colors on this one. She was a gift plant a couple years ago. She bloomed in 2016 and 2017, but her anemic looking blooms last year were one of my motivators to do the buried pots out there.

Hopi Jewel 6/16

Other blooms today follow:

Treasure of the Southwest 6/16

Stella de Oro 6/16

Saratoga Springtime 6/16

Indian Love Call 6/16

Many Faces!

June 16, 2018June 16, 2018Leave a comment

TGIF! And, what a Friday it was in the garden. Things are starting to pop all over. However, I only got two out of three correct on the trifecta guess – bifecta. So, let’s start there. Today was a first-ever bloom for Purple Many Faces – another Ned Roberts Southwestern name spider daylily. It is a big bloom!

Purple Many Faces 6/15

Indian Love Call is one I got 3 years ago for a pot someone gave me for the front yard. It languished in the pot, so I put it in the Southwest Garden that fall. She seems happy there – one of my few bloomers last year.

Indian Love Call 6/15

Also in the Southwest Garden was Canyon Colors. She bloomed her first full summer here but did not bloom last year. I divided her and put one fan in the Southwest Garden. And, so she bloomed this year!

Canyon Colors 6/15

Another new bloom is a no-ID that I am naming Dark Mystery. Several years ago, I tried putting daylilies in this little corner garden. They were not happy, slowly dying back. I tried amendments, but they stayed pretty small and never bloomed. So, last fall, I took them all and put them in a big pot. I bet I have 4 or 5 different cultivators in there – and Dark Mystery was the first to bloom. It is striking, I think.

Dark Mystery 6/15

And, my first near-blue daylily bloom opened for the year – Bluegrass Music. She has a story! I was new with ordering bare-root daylilies and was taken with the near blues. You see, daylilies can’t make true blue. The long story short is that I way overpaid for a very small fan – but she is thriving a few years later.

Bluegrass Music 6/15

And, a few repeats today:

Dream Keeper 6/15

Saratoga Springtime 6/15

Stella de Oro 6/15

Wineberry Candy 6/15

Tomorrow, it looks like rain and a busy day of blooms. We need the rain. I like the daylilies with the drops on the pedals. I want to get to bed soon so I have some energy tomorrow for all the action! I am going to have more photos than I can handle soon – I think I will go with new blooms and a list of all the blooms for the week on Saturday and Sunday once there are more than 10 a day. Many faces are coming!

Very Pregnant and Ready to Deliver

June 15, 2018Leave a comment

Yesterday, I predicted a trifecta of daylilies would bloom today – Indian Love Call, Talon, and Purple Many Faces. Well, I lost that bet on all three counts . . . maybe tomorrow, though. Actually – maybe a lot more than that tomorrow. Several look very pregnant and ready to deliver.

Today, I had one 2018 first bloomer – Wineberry Candy. She was a purchase last summer to spruce up a corner daylily pot. Last summer was when I decided I needed to stop buying daylilies whilst my ones from previous years stopped blooming. Instead, I would add systems – pots, drippers, etc. But, once a daylily passes it’s natural call to bloom, you wait a year for your next chance. So, for the corner pot, I added Wineberry Candy.

Wineberry Candy

Other bloomers for today were as follows:

Dream Keeper 6/14

Kokopelli 6/14

Saratoga Springtime 6/14

Stella de Oro 6/14

Tomorrow is my early day at work . . . no breaks, end of week 6-hour marathon. I could have a dozen blooms. Who knows? And, the photos need to be early because the UV taters them fairly quickly. Besides the trifecta – I have a big mystery red one, Bluegrass Music, Canyon Colors, Hopi Jewel . . . and several of the current bloomers. Who knows what’s behind door #1? Two weeks to peak!

Trifecta

June 14, 2018Leave a comment

Long work day, short blog post. No new faces today, but 3 pretty ones returned. I think Purple Many Faces, Talon, and Indian Love Call are close. If I called those three right (for tomorrow), it would be a real trifecta. There are a couple others that haven’t bloomed yet that are close. The morning light will have the answers.

Treasure of the Southwest 6/13

I counted 94 plants with scapes earlier today, including the 7 that are blooming now. Over three dozen of them in the Southwest Garden. Everything is coming to life. The drought is crazy this year. The humidity is usually single digits in the heat of the day. Today, it was mid-90’s. The next county over is on water restrictions. There are major wildfires in the region. It is not good . . . and I hope I can continue to get my blooms the water they need. We really need monsoons.

Saratoga Springtime 6/13

Many of my orchids are outside. I had to put up a shade sail and misting system for them. Orchids are less adaptable than daylilies – but, they do have a hardiness about them. Everything needs some rain. Especially our firefighters.

Stella de Oro 6/13

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:

Kokopelli 6/12

Dream Keeper 6/12

Saratoga Springtime 6/12

Stella de Oro 6/12

Southwestern Treasures

June 12, 2018Leave a comment

Manic Monday is manic during daylily season. I get up and take care of orchids, take daylily photos. I want to start jogging in the morning, but dealing with some exhaustion issues already.

Anyway, today Treasure of the Southwest bloomed for the first time in my yard. This cultivator has a story. She was a bonus plant 2 years ago when I first built the Southwestern Garden. And, she arrived with 2 scapes. I planted her and waited for blooms, but they dried up in our low humidity. She grew big and last year, I was sure she would bloom, but she stayed quiet. This year, I finally get to see her.

Treasure of the Southwest

Other blooms were as follows:

Passionate Returns

Saratoga Springtime

I remember when the first daylily in my yard usually bloomed around the solstice. More varieties mean more months of blooms. I have several that are close to bloom . . . in the next week. Many of these I have never seen because of my low bloom rate the first two years of the Southwestern Garden. I should triple my bloom rate in the Southwest garden at a minimum. I hope to do even better than that!

A watched pot . . .

June 11, 2018Leave a comment

A watched pot never boils, they say. And watched daylilies don’t bloom . . . until you go camping. Friday, I had 4 in bloom. Saturday, it was 5. Today, back down to 1. I guess the advantage orchids have over daylilies is that the blooms last months. Still, I think my first love is the daylilies.

Here are the Friday Four (Dream Keeper bloomed Friday and today):

Dream Keeper

Passionate Returns

Stella de Oro