Drought Impact on Daylilies: Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire & Garden Update

July 12, 2025Leave a comment

Hi Daylily Lovers,

The South Rim Fire, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

I want to start by saying a few words about the drought that has been growing in Western Colorado all season. Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, a “dry lightning” storm came through and set off multiple fires in our region. This is like striking a match to dry kindling.

Now, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is evacuated because of an active fire on the South Rim – about 15 miles away on the road – maybe 10 miles as the crow flies. The smoke and air quality are bad. The South Rim Fire is one of three very active fires in my county – the others are the Sow Belly Fire and the Deer Creek Fire. I can hear the aircraft humming almost constantly from my garden, about 2 miles from our airport.

Watch Duty screen shot 7.11.24 Montrose County, CO

So many daylily farmers live in places that get regular rain. Here, the daylilies often get their only water from my City water hose. But, beyond the daylilies, please keep our firefighters in your thoughts as they battle these blazes in 90+ degree weather and single-digit humidity.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park photo (credit Facebook) 7.11.25

Garden Update: First Blooms for 2025 Since July 4th

I’ve had a lot of bloomers since I last posted on July 4th. It’s hot now, too uncomfortable to garden. And, now there is smoke. But, I still manage to get out everyday for my photos and a jog around the neighborhood.

I hit peak bloom 2 days ago, with 60+ in bloom that day. As of today, I have had 113 total cultivators in bloom this season for a bloom rate of 60%. I am hoping to make it to 80% this season. If I keep all the current buds and add a few more, I’ll be OK. Bud blast happens in these conditions, thought. I need 39 more!

I continue with my community volunteer work. I feel that is my priority this summer, but I miss my more frequent and in-depth posts about daylily gardening. Fortunately, it has been a better bloom year than I expected with the drought. And, I am getting a couple of hours on my porch editing my photos every day. It is a joyful escape (even in the heat) from today’s politics. I am grateful for my daily daylily escape!

Until next week, keep blooming! Cathy H

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

One and Only

August 14, 2020Leave a comment

My goodness, I can’t believe it’s been 5 days since I posted! Fortunately, I’ve had time to take photos. But, on top of school starting amidst a pandemic, I’m also having a Grave’s flair.

Golden Eclipse – the sole bloomer 8.13.20

I have had nice bloomers, several with finale blooms this week. It hot, dry, and wildfires rage nearby. I don’t anticipate reblooms outside of maybe my yellow trumpets. I’ll start my improved buried pot project this weekend.

Enchantment in the Garden

May 27, 2020May 27, 2020Leave a comment

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.

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.

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.

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.

My Last Ned Roberts Spider :-(

August 12, 2016August 12, 2016Leave a comment

Skinwalker adorned my yard with its last bloom for 2016. My Ned Roberts and Southwestern named daylily garden is off to a good start. I had 10 blooms out of that garden this year. There are 50 or so cultivators out there. More on that in a minute.

Other late bloomers were Apache Uprising. I think I have one more bud to go.

And, Yella Stella. She has a brand new scape, so I am still hopeful to make it to freeze. Plus, Red Hot Returns (sounds like a political statement to me) and Heirloom Heaven have still not bloomed. Heirloom Heaven is a ways off, too, from the scape size. September?

OK, so back to my Ned Roberts garden. I carefully built it over spring break, moving buckets of rocks and pebbles that had been there for decades. Then, I dug down deeper, a few inches down into the clay soil. And, I added the brick border. I then filled it with good soil and water crystals. Then, I planted the daylilies.

Now, the earth has settled and the roots are too close to the clay for best production, me thinks. Tomorrow, I gently lift each cultivator up, hopefully without totally dislodging roots, and I fill in with compost, manure, peat, and more good dirt. Back up to the top of the bricks. And, then re-mulch it. Optimistically, that boosts the year two bloom. I think garden spaces take a while to be fertile. It took my garlic patch a few seasons. Good dirt rocks!

Tigers, Skinwalkers, Apaches, and Princes. Oh My!

August 10, 2016August 10, 20164 Comments

Yesterday was my first no bloom day since early June. Today brought several blooms, including my very first Tiger Kitten.

Tiger Kitten – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, after a few weeks of deformed Skinwalkers, today comes a picture perfect bloom. I think the early blooms were premature. What a great Ned Roberts bloom!

Skinwalker – Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Apache Uprising made a huge show with three blooms.

Apache Uprising – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, how awesome it is to see my last two Royal Palace Princes in full bloom.

Royal Palace Prince – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Stella also showed up to meet this crowd in the garden – both my golden and yella Stella.

Yella Stella – Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Golden Stella – Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, calm little Orange Flurry was present in the background.

Orange Stella – Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

That leaves only two unbloomed cultivators . . . Heirloom Heaven and Red Hot Returns. However, that is not bad for mid-August. And, nine total have unbloomed buds. Will I make it until freeze?

This weekend, I start the work of fall mulching. I’m learning more about promoting my rebloomers. And, so more improvements in store for the future.

The Fruit Doesn’t Fall that Far from the Daylily

July 26, 2016Leave a comment

Today, I got the coolest bouquet from Mother Nature. And, while I am a little sorry to be cutting so many finished scapes, I welcome some great fall bloomers. Today, a favorite that joined my yard last year – El Desperado.

I bought this one last year because it still had unbloomed scapes when I walked through the nursery one Sunday. I wasn’t sure where to put it, so I potted it and put it in the center of the yucca garden. That was the beginning of my idea to make a southwestern garden out of that space. I love the yucca, but the space needed more color, more inspiration. And, from there I got into Ned Robert’s blooms.

El Desperado – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

I obviously love daylilies. But, I don’t know if I could ever be a hybridizer. I do, however, sometimes looking at the genetic similarities of the blooms. And, El Desperado is the parent to another bloom that showed up today, Autumn Jewels.

Autumn Jewels – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

It doesn’t take much imagination to see the genetics at work. So, for fun, I looked up the other parent, Calico Jack, and found this picture. What do you think, does baby look like its parents?

Calico Jack – Google Image

The other eye-catching blooms in my yard today where Primal Scream (amidst the Potentilla).

Primal Scream – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, Zuni Thunderbird. Break out the paint brush. The buds are getting used up . . . one left?

Zuni Thunderbird – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

So, here is the collage. I’m at 13 today. Without the additions of last fall and this spring, I believe I would be at two. I can live with that. Viva La Daylilies!

L to R: Top Row – Marque Moon, Soco Gap, Isaac. Second Row – Prelude to Love, El Desperado, Primal Scream, Autumn Jewels, Zuni Thunderbird. Bottom Row – Skinwalker, Mini Pearl, Orange Vols, Melon Balls, Lime Frost.

First Frost! (and 26 daylilies)

July 23, 2016July 23, 2016Leave a comment

No, it’s really 88 degrees. It would be warmer if the monsoon clouds weren’t providing some shade. No real rain yet, but cooler than the last few weeks. In fact, cool enough for frost. Well, Lime Frost.

When I arranged daylilies last summer, I put plant labels and entered each location in my software. However, it doesn’t really sink in what is where until they bloom and then you remember to color. So, when I was checking for buds last night, I was surprised that Lime Frost looked full-term. This is booked as a very late season bloomer, but it is still mid-July. Oh, well, we had Desert Icicles so welcome to our delusion of cold weather.

Lime Frost – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Another brand new face is Autumn Jewel. This was a gift plant – this spring. A later gift plant, even. I love the bloom. It is a relative of El Desperado. It’s slated as another late bloomer. But, here it is anyway.

Autumn Jewel – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Fine Time Lucille is another brand new face today. I ordered her last summer when I was first learning the online order thing. The name sold this one . . . I have been humming the song all day.

Fine Time Lucille (with Primal Scream) – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

And, Skinwalker showed up in my Southwestern garden today . . . these first blooms are sometimes a little rough looking. Hoping for more soon from this one!

Skinwalker – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Of mention is that Electric Lizard, having been fertilized, put in another pale bloom. I now wonder if it has too much sun. I am getting some more fans at a summer sale, as I think it would look better a little fuller.

Electric Lizard – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

So, here is the collage with all 26 blooms. I tried for rainbow order, as I had both a near-blue and a green in bloom today.

From L to R: Top Row – Baja, Indian Love Call, Ruby Spider, Thin Man, Soco Gap. Second Row – Orange Vols, Primal Scream, Aztec Firebird, South Seas. Third Row – Mini Pearl, Mayan Poppy, Pick of the Litter. Fourth Row – Skinwalker, Electric Lizard, Dream Catcher, Lullaby Baby. Fifth Row – Lime Frost. Sixth Row – Blue Beat. Seventh Row – Stephanie Returns, Prairie Blue Eyes, Return A Smile, Fine Time Lucille. Eighth Row – Blackthorne, Zuni Thunderbird, Purple de Oro, Autumn Jewel.

As peak lingers, I begin to think of next year. I want to do more work with the Southwest garden. Maybe some compost or manure around each plant. Loosen the soil around the roots and add the amendments. That area has been sterile of plants so long, it probably could use some bio additives. Pots, yes, some need to be relocated. Others need pebbles in the bottoms. It will be fun moving them inside the porch this winter – the evergreens. I have had 57 different cultivators bloom so far this year. Next year, 100 by this time! Let’s do it!

The Monarch Has Landed!

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016Leave a comment

Today, I continue the wait for news. I worry some, and know that my daylilies will pull me back into the moment. I step outside, with camera in hand (and a queezy stomach) to admire my days blooms. I work it from the porch to the west edge of the walkway garden. Then out to check some of my pots and the xeriscaped area before going out to check on my Southwest named Ned Roberts garden. I am almost done, but decide to stop for one more shot of South Seas next to Primal Scream. Routine.

And, then, I spot it . . . a large Monarch butterfly on Thin Man. I quickly take my PowerShot out of close-up mode and attempt to focus on the distant flower. The Monarch was flower-hopping. From one to the next. I got a few good shots . . . in others, she seemed intent in hiding from me. Here are my favorites.

Monarch on an old Orange Vols bloom – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Monarch in the South Seas – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

Monarch on the Orange Vols – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C. Hartt

The only new bloom for 2016 today is Baja. For some reason, this is one of my favorites each year.

Baja – Photo by Colorado Kid Daylilies – C Hartt

Of note, my other Primal Scream bloomed. The one that was labeled Primal Scream (and not Desert Flame). This was one of my <$5 fall sale daylilies. It struggled with insects when I planted it. I was unsure if it would come back in the spring, let alone bloom. But, her it is. The bloom is smaller than on the new nursery-bought plant that I thought was Desert Flame. But it is a different location and year one for a smaller fan. What do you think, same flower? (Today’s bloom is on the left.)

Today’s collage is by garden area. The top blooms are in my walkway garden. The middle ones are in the xeriscaped area of my front lawn. And, the last ones are in my Southwest named daylily (mostly Ned Roberts) to the West of my house. Sadly, I believe we have seen the last Ruby Spider for the year 😦

From L to R: Top Row: Mini Pearl, Chorus Line, Prelude to Love, Primal Scream. Second Row – Baja, South Seas, Thin Man. Third Row – Indian Love Call, Lady Fingers, Fooled Me. Bottom Row – Dream Catcher, Zuni Thunderbird, Aztec Firebird.

I wonder what blooms today’s monsoon will bring tomorrow? Hopefully blooms of news!

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: western colorado