Hosta Maintenance Time, Daylily News and Pics

Today was a slow day – a day for a tiny bit of hosta maintenance and a whole lot of enjoying the daylilies.

Today I removed the scapes from the last two Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I think it took 5 minutes. Blue Mouse Ears hostas are super easy to maintain. The scapes don’t need cutting. They snap off.

The spent blooms tend to stick to the leaves, so pulling those by hand is a lot, but a few sprinkler cycles and they should clear.

I am seeing some heat fatigue on the plants, and the hosta by the Blue Mouse Ears pictured above is one of those. That one has been a trooper. I will probably divide and transplant it more into the shade this fall.

The daylilies continue to amaze me.

Pink Moon (one of my own seedlings) is showing some features I really like, especially the outline on the edges.

It also has an interesting look when it is opening up. A cool pattern.

I will be researching a bit more to see what the markings on the open blooms are. I’m guessing they are getting hit by the sprinklers. I may need to move Pink Moon to a better location this fall.

Hush Little Baby bloomed again today. What a welcome addition to the garden!

And what I think is Romantic Rose has an interesting feature around the eyezone today. I don’t remember seeing that in the past, but maybe I just haven’t noticed it. That is a daylily I bought many years ago and transplanted more into the sun just a few years back when we got a larger Traeger and it ended up in mostly shade and was failing. Look at it now! And it has seedlings, yes it does, with Naomi Ruth, both as a pod and pollen parent, so hopefully in 2027 we will see even more beauty!

Just Plum Happy is coming into full bloom now.

And Pink China Doll had 7 blooms today! Very nice!

And as is normal for this time of the season, we are starting to see last blooms per variety. Yesterday Red Volunteer bloomed its last in our townhome garden for the year. I had high hopes for Red Volunteer, but I put it in a bit of a tuck-in spot when I planted it two years ago, and it seemed to get kind of lost as well as be a bit sparse this year – one scape, few buds. I did cross it last year so maybe it is recovering from that, but even so, as beautiful as it is, it is not doing well where I have it. I know Red Volunteer should be more vigorous because I also planted them at the historic cemetery and they look way better there. I am definitely going to move the one at the townhome to another location, but where, I am not yet sure. (Apologies for the not awesome pic – it was a bit awkward to get the front view, as it was obstructed.)

Beyond that, the pods from this year’s successful crosses are maturing. I am going to have such an easy harvest and planting this year. There are only 3 clear successes, and then the one pending from the Pink Tirzah x Hush Little Baby cross. It will be weird compared to other years, but I am looking forward to it. I have so many seedlings in the garden to watch over the next few years I think I will thank myself for putting on the breaks.

I hope you had a great weekend and wish you a great week ahead!

Be Blessed!