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!

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!

Double-Take

July 6, 2017July 6, 2017Leave a comment

The Fourth of July came and went with no blog post, so I have three new blooms to share tonight. But, before I do, I want to share this fused Ruby Spider bloom from the 4th of July. Talk about fireworks. Mother nature gave this bloom double DNA! Some experts say that weather is a factor. It got over 100 likes on the Daylily Society page!

As for new blooms, I will start with my favorite first – its name is Indian Giver. This was a bonus plant that I put in the Southwest garden last spring. I don’t have many buds this year, but I am hoping for more fans and more productive scapes next year. I love the white border!

Another new addition is Wineberry Candy – added to one of my pots that just got a drip system. The two daylilies in the pot from previous are struggling, but hopefully will come back with water. I didn’t have any of the many “candy” named ones, so I guess I do now.

Prelude to Love showed up today for the first time this year. It is a favorite. It was this afternoon that I noticed my early AM shot was blurred, so this one is what it looks like with 6 hours of high UV in nearly 100-degree heat and probably 10% humidity. Not too bad.

It’s funny how being a daylily farmer brings you closer to the earth. Some pots that were quiet last year are thriving this year, and visa versa. I am disappointed in the Southwest garden bloom rate. I did discover another cultivator with a scape today. Last year, 10 bloomed. This year, it is 13 so far have blooms or scapes But, it is somewhat different ones that bloomed this year. Of the 5 that did not repeat a bloom this year, I still have some hope for Skinwalker because it is a late bloomer. But, what causes the shift? I would guess it is that they were newly planted from the South last spring and still are adapting. It takes time for them to get established and I can’t claim that the high desert of the Colorado Plateau is natural for them. And, the trees probably need to be trimmed, but the fact that the blooms are scattered throughout the garden says that the sun issue is not profound.

For tomorrow . . . I don’t know about new blooms. I have lots of scapes in the front garden so we will see what Mother Nature brings. Work brings a 10 hour computer day!

Glen Eyrie: Colorado Heritage in Bloom!

July 4, 2017July 4, 2017Leave a comment

So, Glen Eyrie bloomed today for the first time. I added this guy last fall. Anyone who knows Colorado can guess that he was picked partially for his name. The Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Spings is a famous tourist attraction within the state. So, this guy was hybridized close to home.

I painted a tile of him last winter from a photo on the web. What do you think?

As for tomorrow – I’m not sure how much new stuff there will be. Sort of waiting for a second wave to hit. I think my front garden needed more water earlier, but I still have lots of scapes. Maybe Wineberry Candy? Sounds good to me.

PS – I tried the Tobasco sauce for earwigs. The blooms wilted fast. Maybe I’ll just add Tobasco sauce to my soap weed spray??? Just a little.

Colorado Kid Daylilies

A Blog About My Western Colorado Daylily Adventure

Tag: Wineberry Candy