In the Thick of It

We’re in the thick of daylily bloom season now. Every day there are quite a variety of daylilies blooming all throughout our gardens. Morning walkabouts are such a treat! And at the same time, I am butting up against my humanness. I am reminded that I can do all the intentional crosses I want and harvest all the self-seed I want and do all the organizing and labelling and storing and planting and watching I want, but at a much higher level, all of this is God’s creation. I can work with it, and work to understand it, but it is still His. Very humbling!

So I was loving the blooms, and making some new crosses, and enjoying lots of time in the gardens and then Thursday night came and I realized Pink Moon was starting to open its first bloom ever. Pink Moon is the first intentional cross to bloom in my gardens from parents I am certain of, and have replicated to seedling. I was so excited! I was watching for this!

As it began to open in the evening my first thoughts were along the lines of, “So it is another extended bloom.” And then, as it looked way more purple than pink, I went online and read that getting to pink often involves working with purple. So that was normal.

I also had a little concern about how tall it was and how the sprinkler might get it. But in the end, daylilies are plants. A very fun and challenging hobby, but not people. And I am a person 😉 and need sleep. So, I decided that was the best choice.

Friday morning, I was out in the garden, very early, very thankful it was not so tall the sprinklers got it, super excited to finally see Pink Moon. You see, I named it when it went to seedling. I thought that would be great to keep track of, never imagining it would not be pink when it first opened. As I watched it throughout the day, yes, on and off, it did color morph. Not really pink, but something like mauve. And I reminded myself that maybe it is not good to name a cross before it blooms.

Imagine my surprise this morning when a very different “Pink Moon”” bloom from that same cross welcomed me.

In fact, after quite a few hours it began to look an awful lot like the Purple D’Oro bloom right next to it, only larger, and on a sturdier scape, and with quite a different shade of green for the foliage.

Well, welcome to the garden, new daylily bunch I thought was all the same cross! We will watch what God does with Pink Moon as it matures.