Hard Frost, Garden Cutback, Decision on daylily scope

Well … the gardens are done for the year. I knew it was coming. Our DIL had the end of their harvest up north, and I knew our second hard frost was coming here.

It did. Late last week we dipped to 28F.

The next morning, I saw the frost. I watched as the trees rained leaves. I enjoyed the beauty, the crisp air … and eventually I started at the cutback work. I have a 60 degree-ish high temperature threshold for the cutback timing. When I see the extended forecast high temperatures start to dip below that, it is time. A little can remain, things that aren’t quite ready, but it is not my favorite thing to cut the gardens back with freezing fingers. So with that, I hit it hard.

It’s a bummer that we are done for 2025.

At the same time, however, there is a “happy” bubbling up. My winter activities ideas list is full – enough that I have a comfort level I will have both fun and challenging things to keep me good. And I have started to bring out the hygge for the next six months. The (battery operated) window candles with timers are up, the few strong scented (windows open) candles are being replaced with my favorite white unscented candles, and we have already enjoyed the gentle scent of few rauchers (German incense “smokers”). Bratapfelduft (baked apple) is my personal favorite.

I have also made a pivotal daylily scope decision. I reached out to a provider of the 1762 daylily I want, and they ship in late April/May. I am adding that daylily in 2026 and starting to pivot toward the intersection of historical with my daylilies. This will be a significant change in my daylily work. I think it will be a fun challenge.

To be fully transparent, this decision all started this year with falling in love with a number of daylilies I grew from self-seed to flowering. I loved their form and simplicity. I seriously started to wonder what might happen if I ditched all the busy-ness of hybrid crossing and noting and tracking and giving up early fall freedom due to late harvesting. What would happen if I went back to just letting the pollinators and the wind and the daylilies anatomical tendencies create seeds? I analyzed my spreadsheet for exactly what space my 2025 hybridized seedlings will need in 2026 and what the 2025 seeds would need as 2026 seedlings. A LOT! I listened while my family started to call the cabin up north the hunting shack. (By now I was grumpy.) My idea of a daylily “farm” up north was fading. And I saw the tide turn. What exactly was I doing expanding my daylily work so exponentially? I was already pretty sure I didn’t want to do farmer’s markets to sell my excess plants. I knew for sure I didn’t want to ship stuff around. And the fam was increasingly sending “not really that interested in the daylily farm idea, but hey, if you want to do it, good luck” vibes. 😉 Love them!
My conclusion – my life could be so much simpler!

I slowly, and yes sadly, and sometimes crankily (is that a word?), but rationally assessed the scope of daylily hobby work I LIKE to do, year-round, and I decided – “2026 goes to a historic daylily focus” – researching, gardening, and planning included.

Now, I am not trashing the work I have already started. I think that will be fun to see unfold. These things take years. The 2025 seeds, if they germinate, if they go to full seedling, if they survive the first winter, will, at earliest, here in Minnesota USA, bloom for the first time in 2027, probably longer. But I am shaping, refining, what I already have as I weave things together between the seasons and our reality. I am part of a family. And in a marriage. And hobby daylilies were starting to suck planned time and create problems. Not cool. No desire to repeat.

So that’s it. That’s why I’ve been quiet. I was enjoying early fall after the extended seed harvest debacle pushed our fall plans way too close to our family’s hunting season. I was delaying the garden cutback. And I was ultimately deciding how to move forward with the daylilies.

Here’s some fun cloud pictures to words.
I was figuring out how to work with the volcano, ‘er fountain 😉

and I was deciding what needed to move out.