Donuts, Bouquets, and lots of daylily seedlings scaping all over the garden!

For the past few weeks the Asian lilies have been blooming, the remaining hostas have been scaping out, and every day I have seen more daylily scapes. The spots where we lost all the hostas have been reassigned to match our new phase of gardening here, clover has increasingly been removed, and bunny deterrents are in place.

Did you know that forget-me-nots don’t even need to bloom to deter bunnies? It is the leaves that emit a scent that the bunnies don’t like. So I am plucking away on blooms as the stems start to fall over. The flowers are pretty, and make nice little bouquets with the daylilies, but the leaves are what deter snacking bunnies.

That being said, I am also judiciously pulling the forget-me-nots where I want paths to legacy daylilies I want to use for crosses. Lots of transition in place, and the forget-me-nots are at the very top of that list. They will definitely stay, just more strategically placed.

Another fun fact – Did you know that gardens also bake donuts? Yes indeedio! Here is proof.

I have a number of layering (bouquets) in the garden, and I am embracing them more and more as I move into this next phase of the townhome gardens. Maybe the donut will get some friends. We shall see.

On the daylily scene, all daylily seeds harvested here in 2024 are now planted, and the seedling boxes are full, protecting them from the squirrels. I also still have a tray of planted seeds inside. I could make room in the current seedling boxes, but I want to give the Mahala seeds that haven’t germinated just a little more time. You never know.

Sadly, a few of our legacy daylilies don’t seem to be scaping out this year. That means it is division time for them this fall. More shifting. More adjusting to this next phase. And as the garden ages out on legacy plants and adds more daylily seedlings, eventually there will be a whole new look. Free as far as buying plants. And neat to see what is created. Kinda fun.

Fill in Friday – Did you know forget-me-nots repel rabbits?

Daylily season is definitely here. Scapes are popping up on the daylilies, and two seedlings that have never put up scapes before are sporting buds this year. Our longest seedling holdout is even looking like it will finally bloom this year. Very good!

The ninebarks and the weigelia are wrapping up their blooms (at least the first flush), the asian lilies are blooming,

and the first hosta scape appeared a few days ago.

I continue to learn about propagating daylilies in the northern United States. Recently I read that in northern states it can take up to 10 years for a seedling to produce scapes and bloom! I almost gave up on our year one (holdout) seedling! I am so glad I didn’t! Now we wait to see what our pollinators created with that one.
(I harvested daylily seeds from pollinator creations for a few years before I started to do intentional crosses.)

Regarding intentional crosses, we now have a 5th and 6th Mahala seedling. I am shocked! Those were the ones I planted in little seedling pots 8 weeks ago! I guess it just goes to show that daylily propagation really does take serious patience.

Out front, the stonecrop have reached their max height before they start to “donut”. I probably should divide them this year, but I have nowhere to put divisions. Maybe a few could go to the historic cemetery. We shall see how much energy I have in September when it is time to divide and transplant. I just transplanted 7 more irises into the cemetery garden, and it is getting pretty full. But maybe …

All of the Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions and transplants seem to be doing well, even in the sun at the historic cemetery gardens. Very good news! I will continue to monitor them. I need to divide some more of the more mature ones here again this fall. Last year I was scrambling and tucking them in as tests. But they did so well, now I know what they can handle.

Lastly, the progress on the forget-me-nots. I did a bunch of research and it turns out they are a bunny repellant. That does seem true, and that strategy lends itself to useful ideas, both for where to keep them and where to pull them. They are very pretty amongst the daylilies and hostas. A little bouquet.

Fill in Friday -Bunnyville

With the loss of so many hostas and the daylily, the area that was most affected looks pretty open. I will not replace those plants, and potted plants are not a good option with the bunnies and squirrels and some of the birds. But nature is kind of taking care of things.

I see that where the hostas used to be there is clover growing (plus some forget-me-nots). And I realize the new empty space is perhaps destined to become named “Bunnyville”. Where the bunnies occasionally munch on the sedum, there are three raspberry plants growing – that I for sure did not plant there. I think we can figure what happened lol.

I am tempted to let them grow, but I probably won’t.

Back to it

I took a couple weeks off garden work when our 2nd grandson was born. Yesterday was “get back to it” day. 4 1/2 buckets of clover and forget-me-nots left the gardens and it looks great again.

As the Asian lilies wrap up

and the Elegans hostas stand in the background

The Blue Mouse Ears are starting to steal the show

The big Just Plum Happy daylily is getting it’s scapes

The daylily seedlings are starting to outgrow the seedling box and are gradually getting exposed to the wider world

And the lavender from the old seeds is standing guard as a deterrent to bunny munching

Oh yes, it’s a thing

The coneflower in the back is completely gone, and this is what remains of the one in front.

But it is a cute little one, right?

Note to self – buy more lavender seeds next year.

TEA

Three tulips have survived the nightly TEA (Tulip Eating Association) meetings. At first glance the one on the ground looked like a “Bunimous got interrupted” incident. I scolded him, wherever he was. “Oh Bunimous! Come on!” But he and his TEA may not be responsible for that one. Notice the dirt. Could have been rain. Or a combo.

He is a funny chap. I guess it is his fair share.

Their fair share, continued

When you “contract” with the baby bunnies to start doing garden cleanup.

“Will work for food”

They are “trimming” the stalks left from the Asian lilies. The Asian lilies finished blooming a month ago. I deadhead (most) and leave the stems to build strength for next year and then die back. Hopefully the bunnies didn’t get at them too soon. Time will tell.

Winding down

The daylilies are winding down. There are less than a dozen Purple D’Oro buds left, and way less than that on almost all the others except Marque Moon. The cross I did this weekend from the Marque Moon to the South Seas did not take. But the Purple D’Oro have 17 seed pods – all created by pollinators. The (6) remaining intentional crosses we did are tbd. I think I will stop at that. I was starting to see blooms as potential crosses, and I didn’t like that path. I am in a place right now where I really, really, really just need to enjoy the small moments of peace. “Plans” keep reminding me that they are just that – plans. Gifts, on the other hand, like the pollinator creations are a special, abundant treat, at least at this particular time. I am not sure I have ever had 17 Purple D’Oro seed pods. But I will gladly accept them.

No pic today. I am going to walk out in the garden tonight without anything but a heart full of wonder at how beautiful July was, and thankfulness for what is winding up today, one day, as a gift of beautiful daylilies. And hope that the little baby bunny we have been watching will enjoy a few more patches of clover I have saved in the rock.

Hosta scapes galore!!

The hostas are really starting to come into bloom now. One of my favorites is First Frost

How it does so well in the afternoon sun is a tiny miracle to me. It took a few years to establish – years when there were four or five leaves and one scape. But is is super happy now in that spot.

It makes me wonder –

Before I started adding daylilies, I had A LOT of hostas. I seriously don’t remember them getting stomped on. Hosta scapes blown, but not stomped on. Maybe hostas, even littles ones, are more universally recognizable? I don’t know.

Another favorite is the Patriot hosta

I have one left here, one was moved to the little house up north, and one was gifted to our next door neighbor who moved this spring. Our new neighbor, to my delight, is also a gardener. Hooray! Patriot hostas grow and prosper!

We also had news this week about the townhome garden “refresh”. It is pushed to next year.

I have 7 daylilies that definitely need to move – the 4 out front that keep getting stomped on and 3 red ones that have been relatively safe all these years as they are up against the house. But this year they did not bloom. I think it is because we got a new, larger, grill, and they now have too much shade. Or they need to be divided. Either way, moving is planned. One of their offspring did bloom this year. It is a rooted offspring and very small. But beautiful.

And in Bunimous news, Bunimous has gifted us baby Bunimi (is that a word – haha!) who are adorable, and far more genteel. They are clearing a lot of the clover in the gardens. I scared one poor little one a little past dawn mid-week. I hope they begin to eat the hosta leaves as they get bigger and we move into fall. Less work for me.

In the spring the hostas get coffee grounds and ant-bunny treatment, so minimal destruction ;)A little, but tolerable.

Their Portion

I have an acceptance that I actually have come to embrace. It is called Their Portion. It goes like this –

The deer at the little house up north got to eat the hostas without me putting up a gate or fence. They brought me so much joy all year, and especially in the winter when there was no gardening (except planning).

We had a compromise – one where they set the terms, of course. They ate the hostas and they left the sedum alone. I could have claimed a planned decoy, but truly, they held all the cards.

Hey, hostas were kind of like perennial lettuce in that scenario 🙂 Acceptance.

The bunnies are more than welcome to start eating the hostas in the fall at the townhouse. Please do! Less for me to cut back! Even chomping down on a hosta bloom or too. Have at it!

Where it gets dicey is digging and chomping of new plantings.

IF we don’t find a little house in the cities where I can freely garden, AND I am relegated to townhome landscaping, I think I will need more “safe places” like this to grow things to bring to the camping/hunting land up north.

So seedlings and new plants are protected from this

Notice the soil “aeration” and the liberal “deadheading”.

Our outdoor buddies bring us joy.

They get their portion.

I wait all year for this day

I wait all year for this day – the day the first daylily blooms. Yesterday the buds looked like this:

Today:

Early this morning I also watched as a robin chased a squirrel. I think the days of that squirrel causing mischief are numbered – hahaha! There is a new sheriff in town and I suspect there are some baby robins involved.

Tonight we barely made it home from our walk, and the skies just opened up. In full disclosure – we saw it coming and we knew it was close. Afterward though – a rainbow.

And I got a trip in to the co-op to get fresh veggies and a few treats with a friend.

A good day.

Now if I could just figure out what broke off an entire daylily scape on one of my new(er) – 2nd summer – daylilies. A trailcam sort of camera may need to be trained on that area. So curious. Seems too tall for a bunny and we have never had deer at the townhouse. But maybe …