Howdy, Pressers! I thought I’d better get back online after over a month off 🙂
It has been a very different fall experience this year. Some of that was planned, and a large portion was not. It has been good to take the time to reflect, adjust, and plan forward.
As I have shared, in 2025 I fulfilled a bucket list item. I pretty much exhausted the opportunities that presented for propagation work with my daylilies. I researched and planned and did a boatload of daylily crosses. I also harvested every daylily pod from the work the pollinators accomplished. The result was a lot of seed. Hundreds and hundreds of seeds. I was not ready for that, and I did not enjoy what followed – a lot of time storing the seeds and then starter planting and finally transplanting them into the garden. That full experience taught me that I had exceeded my threshold for where I wanted to go with annual propagation work. I knew that volume was not going to be for me. I made a decision to cut way back this year, and I did. WAY back. The result was very good. Save one pod, all of my seeds from this year’s harvest were collected and in storage by the Autumnal Equinox. The last pod was a self-seed (pollinator created) on an Autumn Red (our oldest historic daylily in the garden). It was definitely worth harvesting, and I did that on the day after the Autumnal Equinox. All seeds are now in storage.
So, on the daylily side, the revised scope of my daylily propagation work this year was very manageable, and definitely the way forward for me. I set my goal of not spending time harvesting and storing daylily seeds when I really wanted to be out and enjoying our Minnesota fall, and I accomplished that goal.
This year I also made some pretty transformative changes to the townhome garden areas. Quite a few of my recent posts chronicled the townhome garden reno. And, by mid-September, with that done and all but the Autumn Joy sedum rootings planted, it was such a blessing to just “be” during this beautiful, and this year, unique, time.
Additionally, with the garden at the historic cemetery wrapping up its 4th year since the reno, nice and full now, with a known, established cycle of needs, my work there is also changing. The community has embraced that garden, and often when I go to weed, there is very little to do. Replacing the heaving rock with mulch was pivotal for that garden, and a large part of why weeding it so much easier, but not all. We are definitely getting unenlisted help 🙂 So my more intense work there is winding down. I expect next year I will still do the spring mulch topper, periodic weeding, and the fall cutbacks that are needed, but that garden is established now and has multiple caring, attentive, hands tending it 🙂
But, as I mentioned, this year, fall is unique.
In August I shared that my Mom passed. My Mom was not the person we were intensely praying for on New Year’s Eve of 2025. That was another close family member. Praise God that He is blessing that family member with healing. We are extremely grateful! So grateful!
My Mother’s passing was unexpected. My Mom was 85. Of course, I knew she was aging. But when Mom passed, my world kind of tilted, and I had to work hard to find new footing. I did find that, and it is definitely very new footing. God allowed a very different plan than what I could have ever imagined, and some of my efforts have shifted to new things. I’m not sure how much I will share about that. Still praying.
For all who have gone through loss, you know it is not linear. There are a lot of ups and downs, and they can be very unpredictable. But I am confident God’s plan is good, and I am listening and working what He shares. Another hint – Often we only get direction for our part, not the whole plan 😉 Faith.
So, back to the gardens – The townhome garden reno was very influenced by my Mom’s passing. I was already feeling a need to refresh those garden areas, spiff them up a bit, but with my Mom’s passing, and having spent so much intense time in prayer sitting looking at the garden in its old configuration, I knew it had to substantially change. Emotional triggers are real, and I did not want to encourage them come next spring. I knew I needed a new “go forward” look for where I spend so much time. And I went about it.
I had a number of ideas for dividing and transplanting. I ended up pulling out the entire path and doing a renovation of the look. I went slowly. The plan changed daily. And I love the new townhome garden look! It takes previous looks and melds them with what I like best, plus where I want to head next (focusing my future work on historic daylilies and self-seed daylilies and returning a bit more to the hostaville I had in the past).
And now we are half-way through October.
The hostas are starting to put on a show.
The shamrocks that the squirrels were having fun with are now moved closer to the house. They will stay there until we consistently have nights under 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Then they will come in for the winter.
Sandy’s corner is moving closer to cutback time.
The Autumn Red daylilies are also moving toward cutback time.
And the Sedum are wrapping up their magnificent fall color morph.
We have quite a bit of fall left, but the color show is definitely winding down.
Next year will be very different. The gardens are different. My efforts are different. And my focus is slightly different now too. But I feel good about the plan, and we will see how it goes.
I will leave you with this: My Mom knew I had earmarked some daylilies to “name” for specific people. I did not tell her I had done a daylily cross in 2025 with her in mind, and that it made a lot of seed. A lot. I also did not tell her only one seed of that cross went to seedling. That “1” message seemed to be a theme with the 2025 harvested seeds, but I knew it was probably just for me. Maybe like “slow down” lol. Maybe “It only takes one”. Anyway, that cross I made with my Mom in mind, with only one seedling from all of those seeds, is in my garden doing very well. And the pod parent was way overdue for a move. It does not escape me that I moved it to a much better place the day before my Mom passed.
Now, do not think I am saying my Mom is in those daylilies. I definitely do not believe people become plants.
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9: 27-28
I don’t even talk to my Mom. I pray to God and thank Him for my Mom.
I am excited, however, to see the first blooms from that daylily cross I made with Mom in mind.
And so, as I consider the past few months, what always comes to mind is that God has His plan, and it may be very different from our plan. We can accept that He is in control and watch and cooperate with His work. And we have the opportunity to choose wisely. If God tells us to do things, we can do that confidently, absolutely with love, but also boldly. He will provide.
For now, for this fall season, I am giving myself a lot of grace. Enjoying friendships, old and new. And enjoying the beauty of our Minnesota nature.
Be Blessed!
