Funny story, and good lesson.
During the very busy time of working to get my husband retired, while preparing for one son and now daughter-in-law’s wedding, and awaiting the arrival of our other son and daughter-in-law’s baby, our first grandchild, and also doing a renovation of the little house up north, I bought 10 daylilies. It was a me-to-me gift, but my timing was all off. The renovation took way longer than expected, we ended up realizing that although I love the little house up north, it is way too far from our grandbaby, and it is not a match for my husband.
Fast forward a couple years, my husband is retired, our grandson is now 1 year old, and the little house up north is finding a new owner. Life is still crazy busy, but I have more time to garden, for sure. And think … was that a Persian Market?
5 of those purchased daylilies ended up going to the little house up north. My husband put them in the ground on one of the trips up for materials to our contractor. It was a stressful trip, and I said to just put them in the ground and I would sort it out in spring. I only got to see one of those bloom, and it was partially either eaten or something else happened. Persian Market was one of the 5 that went up north. I think it was the one I saw partially bloom.
I planted the other 5 at the townhouse. 2 perished to digging squirrels 😦 but the other 3 and one bonus survived.
When we did our big garden day last Saturday, one of the smooshed daylilies I dug out in front still had a tag in the ground. It said “Tirzah”. It was then that I remembered the daylily I have been thinking was a Persian Market, and a twin to the smooshed daylily, was also a Tirzah.
It was really bugging me. So I looked in my journal – no diagram. Of course! I was way too busy. I thought I’d do that “later”. But I did think to quickly jot the daylily planting location of the 5 plus bonus I planted at the townhouse … into my notepad on my phone … which the kids replaced for me as my Christmas gift last year. But … I kept the old phone because some data did not port over. So I dug that phone out, charged it up, and Lo, and Behold, I discovered the Persian Market was never planted here. It went up north. I confirmed that with the saved tags. The tags from the 5 that went up north were stored separately from the 5 plus bonus I planted here.
So I present to you “Tirzah 1” and her two children pods, deliberately crossed from Marque Moon.
Tirzah 2 went to the seedling bed to rest and recover after many years of trauma, and Lord willing, it will stand for many years, opposite the oldest daylily in my garden, the peach daylily. Two of the original 3 of which now beautifully bloom each year in my mother-in-law’s garden.
These things matter 🙂 Especially when she is parent 1 of the first two deliberate crosses that I did that took, so far, fingers crossed.
And, angels sing, I did print out a picture of the newly carved out seedling bed, and map out where each thing was planted, including tulip bulbs and Asian lilies we dug out and I just couldn’t quite send to compost … yet. But I tell you, if they know what’s good for them, they better bloom next year 😉
Susan's Daily Garden 