Tacos, Firebirds, and Skinwalkers: Come see what is new in my drought ridden daylily garden!

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025Leave a comment

Droughts, Wildfires, and Daylilies

Droughts and wildfires go together, daylilies not so much. The smoke has cleared (mostly) from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire (<10 miles away), and they have the fire 15% contained. My last blog post talks more about the fire. Some rain has fallen on my garden since the last post, too. The drought continues, though. Keep reading to enjoy my daylilies from the past week!

Monitoring and Maintaining My Resilient Daylilies

I am surprised my daylilies have done as well as they have this year with the heat and drought. I have somewhere around 190 cultivators. I badly need to do inventory, maps, and labels this year. I love the Flower daylily software, but I struggle to keep it updated. I seem to lose a lot of the newer ones from other climates over the first winter/spring – but I am not even sure what I have lost until I do inventory because some lost tags.

Black Canyon South Rim Fire – Watch Duty from today. About 15% contained.

Honestly, though, I am limited by time and water. I may replace some cultivators if I lose them, but I won’t be adding many more to my total. I’m at capacity. I am growing ditch lilies in the desert drought. I love daylilies, and they are survivors! My time goes into keeping those I have alive and healthy. And, my money goes into city water. I can’t imagine trying to hybridize or sell in my situation.

New Blooms and Current Bloom Rate

I have had a total of 139 cultivators bloom this season (out of around 190). That is a 73% bloom rate. Last year, we only got to the mid-sixties, so I am thrilled. And, the season isn’t over. In the high desert, 80% is a huge win. I need to fertilize, but without the monsoon moisture and cooler temps, I am waiting until next month. With daylilies in pots, I find applying liquid fertilizer improves bloom rate for the following year because the plant is more resilient.

Here are my “first bloom for 2025” cultivators since my last post:

The bloom peak is now over the top and past the plateau. However, I still have 30-40 cultivators in bloom daily, with 2-3 new ones most days. My beloved Ned Roberts’ southwest names spiders are just now peaking! Life gets extremely busy during daylily season, especially with my business and volunteer work.

Which is your favorite daylily from this post? For me, Zuni Thunderbird has always been a favorite! This computer is even named Zuni Thunderbird after the daylily.

Keep flourishing, Cathy H

Eye-70

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019Leave a comment

Oh, perhaps more like aye yi yi. I woke up to 70 cultivars in bloom today. Let’s see, I had 13 the day I left on vacation on 7/5. I’ve slept in my own bed 5 going on 6 nights since then.

Thirteen is a good number of blooms. Interesting but not overwhelming. But now, just 5 days at home later, I’m at 118/180 daylilies that have bloomed. We went from 7% to 66%.

The problem is that I had trips and conferences to prepare for along with two sick dogs . . . And, work. So, I’ve been using my cellphone for daily shots. I use my Powershot, too, but haven’t edited or organized anything since June 25 or something.

Today, I got 2 days organized and played a bit with my daylily software. Here it is midnight thirty but I am more caught up. I just know that I’ve been so distracted this year that the blog in mediocre because my passion is not here yet.

Next weekend, I stay home. Hopefully, I can keep catching up. Aye yi yi, I need to stay on the Interstate of progress after I get some sleep. The daylilies are already blooming. Can you hear them?

Fine Time Lucille 7/21

Heron’s Cove 7/21

Truchas Sunrise 7/21

Best Seller 7/21

Taco Twister 7/21

Fox Ears 7/21

We will see what the dawn brings.

Dusky Daylilies: (when your plane lands at 7:50 PM)

July 21, 2019Leave a comment

What a long day. I started at 6:30 AM ET and it’s now tomorrow ET. But, I’m back on MT. And, I’ve been home since 8 PM MT. It’s the time of year where there is still a little light. So, of course, I raced to take daylily photos. Not the best photography AND the poor flowers have had a long day, too. I had 72 cultivators today – it’s another record breaker.