Tag: spider daylily

Maximizing Daylily Blooms: Fertilizer Tips and Rainy Day Experiments

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Ruby Spider, my gateway daylily (I’m a daylily addict), showed up for the first time this season. I adore these big red and yellow blooms. Several years ago, I divided her and I now have her in 3 places. She is the only one that can thrive in this clay soil of the Colorado Plateau with all the competitive plant roots.

Ruby Spider 6.26

Today was also a perfect day for a little experiment with fertilizer. Overcast, drizzly, and pretty cool. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty rainy. By the time I was done, it was sprinkling.

Comanche Princess 6.26

I used to fertilize spring and fall with a sprayer. I am not sure why I stopped. Probably just got busy but I am thinking I need to fertilize more regularly. Pot soil doesn’t interact with the environment the way that ground soil does. The soil can run low on nutrients.

This is the fertilizer I used today – I put 1/3-1/2 cup per plant. I used more for larger pots and plants that had not scaped. Fingers crossed.

Today, I used a perennial fertilizer that may help with inducing some blooms. It is a slow-release type dry fertilizer and I only used it sparingly. I put more closer to the drip system water source. I made this choice because if the soil is depleted, this might be better than a spray.

A small amount of fertilizer in each pot.

I always hold my breath a little when temps are this warm. I have turned daylily plants a stunning yellow by overdoing it with fertilizer, especially with high temps and low water. Sigh – so much for blooms. I am hoping the rain really washes this in tomorrow, but I will likely step up my irrigation for several days.

I also got more daylily photos from last year (and a few from this year) added to my software. If I put a photo of the bloom each year, then I can look back and see if something hasn’t bloomed for a couple of years. That’s a great way to know which pots may need some TLC in the fall or early spring. Or, sometimes, I move it to a different location in the yard to see if that makes a difference.

My daylily software screenshot.

I decided that, for now, I am going to focus on water and fertilizer for the strugglers. I don’t want to mess with roots for fear of stopping any bloom they may have coming – and roots don’t like to be messed with in the heat. I may purchase more coir circles or just buy landscape fabric to put over the top of the grass in the grass/weed-infested pots. Landscape fabric has the advantage of being tucked in a little around the edges, but it is a pain to cut into circles.

I always forget how much time the blog takes. And, I am trying to add backlinks, so that adds more time. Hopefully, I can finish cataloging photos tomorrow – which will help with time. However, wait until peak and keeping up with 60 blooms in one day! Yikes.

Until the Last Daylily Blooms Sale On Etsy

Don’t forget to visit my Etsy shop to see all the daylily art that is on sale for the summer. I also wanted to share one of my tile clocks. This one is on sale until July 5th (not part of the daylily art sale) and is called Arizona Road Trip. The vibrant red-orange center reminds me of a daylily. Click on this link or the photo below to visit the listing.

Arizona Road Trip tile clock.

I think I am going to make some pours during the peak by using the primary color of each cultivator in my yard that day. That will be pretty fun! I’ll add those to the sale! Cupboard knobs, clocks, coasters, succulent planters. Can’t wait!

Enchantment in the Garden

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A spellbinding magic show that brings you delight and pleasure . . . that is what it means to be enchanted. New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment. I am perhaps less enchanted with New Mexico than I am Arizona because Western Colorado has areas that resemble New Mexico.

Yucca in a drift at White Sands National Monument

That said, I am enchanted by my roadtrips through New Mexico. The badlands are beautiful, and the cultural flavor is richer than Colorado – if you are into the Southwest.

The stark horizon at White Sands National Monument, NM

Last year, we saw different side of New Mexico at White Sands National Monument. It is a landscape so boring that it is enchanting. Non-colored sand with a few resilient plants poking their heads through.

This view reminds me of the ski slopes in Colorado – White Sands National Monument

The hikes are like marching through a very hilly sand box. My cats would likely like it better than my dogs, who considered it way too hot at 85 degrees. I had never seen dunes quite like these ones . . . enchanting.

Kachina, Sazi, and Maizzy feeling the heat at White Sands National Monument

So, my vicarious roadtrip daylily of the day is Land of Enchantment – another Ned Roberts spider. Last year was her first year to bloom in my yard and by golly, she does look a bit like the New Mexico State flag.

Land of Enchantment daylily – 2019

She was one of my early bloomers last year. She doesn’t have scapes yet – but I do have 15 cultivators with their weird claw hands being raised to the heavens in prep for a bloom.

Land of Enchantment daylily – 2019

I am nervous because drought years tend to bring early blooming but poor bloom rates. I try to keep up with watering, but I am not the same as a good monsoon. And, the monsoons are too late – it is really the March-May water that matters.

Land of Enchantment daylily 2019

I did put in a new drip system out in the walkway garden and the plants are bigger. So, I guess we will wait to see how enchanting this summer is in the garden. 2020 has brought my 65th birthday, a dead furnace, a broken sewer mainline and COVID-19. I could use a little enchantment.

Show Me Your Stethoscope!

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I am a nurse and a midwife.  Remember the “show me your stethoscope” incident on The View a few years back?  It took over my Facebook feed for a few weeks – nurses united!  During that time, I was pretty active on the American Daylily Society Facebook page.  I had an idea – they should name a daylily Nurse’s Stethoscope.  Well, one of the hybridizers who was also in healthcare picked-up on the suggestion and registered a daylily with that name.

It was a pretty daylily – beautiful, I thought.  Except it was new on the market so out of my price range.  Summer before last, I finally caved and bought it.  It thrived last summer and gave me quite a show of blooms.  But, she was one of the ones who struggled because of the cold, wet spring.  Her scapes died back after sprouting.  I put her in a smaller pot and moved her to the front yard for the summer.   I crossed my fingers.  She is coming back enough to have a couple buds.  Once she blooms, I will fertilize.  Glad to have her as one of my premiers today!  My little daylily legacy!

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Nurse’s Stethoscope 7/27

Another Premier was Kachina Firecracker, another Ned Roberts spider.  I was putting her in my new daylily garden three years ago when I adopted my rescue dog, Kachina.  There were two daylilies – Kachina Firecracker and Kachina Dancer.  Kachina was a stray before going to the sanctuary, so they gave her the name Tina due to her small size (7 pounds of anxiety!)  I was trying to think of a name for her that rhymed with Tina.  It was the daylilies named Kachina that synapsed my choice of names for my mutt.

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Kachina Firecracker 7/27

Last Premier is Baja – an old favorite.  One of my early daylilies that just keeps coming back every summer.

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Baja 7/27

I do find the taking photos of 70+ flowers every day for a few weeks is exhausting on top of the blogging.  I start to dream of fall hikes in the canyon and watching Call the Midwife.  For now, we will see what tomorrow brings.  We had another gusher monsoon today, so I will see what is up when I awaken from much-needed sleep.