Fortunately, very fortunately, Pink Tirza is also blooming. It may be my only chance this season to do a cross, so cross it was.
It looks like our first daylily seedling to bloom in the townhouse gardens is a tetraploid. I crossed her with Just Plum Happy and it looks like it was successful, so far. Many more mile markers to go but she has a seed pod.
Monday morning we said Sweet Dreams to Pink China Doll. She bloomed four buds on Sunday and now she is done blooming for the year. Well deserved wind down for her.
Monday the large Just Plum Happy bloomed profusely and yesterday the sole remaining bud bloomed. The same on the medium Just Plum Happy – the last bud bloomed yesterday. So yesterday was the last day of bloom in the 2024 garden here for Just Plum Happy. She truly has been a joy again this year. We are leaving all three in place, no dividing, for next year. And the last bloom of the medium Just Plum Happy was crossed with the mystery yellow freebie, to see if the mystery yellow freebie might be a tetraploid. I suspect so, but I am wishing for a diploid. But doubtful.
If the Just Plum Happy cross fails, there is one more mystery yellow freebie bud, and I will cross that with whatever diploid blooms on that day. If the cross with Just Plum Happy succeeds, I will have much less choice for another tetraploid cross for the last mystery yellow freebie cross – maybe Cedar Waxwing, maybe South Seas. Or maybe Coral Majority lol! Could be nothing.
The diploid cross between Pink Tirza and the red daylily succeeded, so I did two more yesterday, same scape.
And at the historic cemetery we have a wrap up plan for the excess irises and daylilies from the large overgrown garden. They will be going to the historic mansion in town. There are two rain gardens there that have room. September should be a good month for that activity.
So now we begin August. The beginning of August always feels to me like a mini version of the first week of January, when the holidays have wrapped up and we throttle back to a more “normal” routine. But there is so much more of gardening season left. 3 months 🥰 Still lots of daylilies to bloom, but not July’s intensity, all of the remaining transplanting and then new planting work, the 2024 seedlings need to be planted, the remaining hostas will go to bloom, the sedum, the seed pod work … plenty still to come. Just a bit of a slower pace again now.
In addition to normal maintenance – trimming, weeding – I am now working on my 10 week countdown checklist. That is my planned garden adjustments, broken down into bite sized pieces. That list is bold. Digging things out, moving them around, even some disposing. Some annual adjustments are easier than others, for a number of reasons. So week(end) 1 was to dig out three self seed daylily seedlings from 2022 and plant them at the historic cemetery fence garden. I put this as week 1 because they are getting bigger and are now in my husband’s direct path to the hummingbird feeder.
Oops! And oops again. Too hot to move seedlings this weekend. That clover companion would never survive. (Just kidding! About the clover 😉) I was optimistic with some nice weather we had been having, but carting water to the cemetery at least once per day so I could check that item off the list? Heat wimp here. Aina-gonna happen. And then I will feel bad they didn’t do well or even died (like up north with only rain). Nope. They can stay in the ground with their clover buddies while I keep an eye on them here. Move that to week 6 and move week 2 up.
Week 2 was pulling out stuff. This was another wimp week because I knew I would hem and haw and feel bad tossing them out. The items were a failing hosta and a failing clematis. I was going to “feel better” by transplanting a clematis without a trellis into that spot. Here’s how that went. My husband had a theory that the issue causing the failure was lack of rain getting in that spot due to the roof and gutter overhang. I doubted that because I had a huge (5’) Aureomarginata (hosta) in that spot years ago and it had gotten that big from a very small plant bought at the garden store. Apples and Apples, right? Those Aeromarginatas moved out of my gardens as a donation to some other gardens in the association. I have gone through a variety of plants in that spot since then. Some were mildly successful. But in thinking about it, the Aureomarginata was more forward, and the sprinkler range at that time was hitting the windows (since then adjusted). So, back to the list. Pulling out the failing part of the current hosta was not bad, and pulling out the failing clematis was not bad, but the clematis I was going to transplant into that spot – not so much. Dead-a-ronio. I know how that happened too. But we shall not rehash that trauma. Cross that transplant off the list.
Told you today was a bold day lol
So week 2 is now done and I get a free week because it looks like we are in for heat for another week at least. Transplanting other things will resume after this hot spell subsides.
On to another bold thing. Hello Yello, the year 2, first year to bloom, yellow self seed seedling bloomed its last bud for this season. Right next to it, the smallest Just Plum Happy, the one I used for the Marque Moon x Just Plum Happy crosses that were so successful (100% so far), was just smiling away, sporting its last bloom of the season, happy as could be. They looked so cute together. I am assuming Hello Yellow (her name so far) is a tetraploid, but I need to test that. So – Just Plum Happy x Hello Yellow today.
Both are their last blooms of the season, no crosses with Hello Yellow so far, super easy to track. I hope it is as successful as my other crossing whims. Still laughing about Coral Majority x Cedar Waxwing. Just watch! That will surpass expectations, be way nicer than the other planned crosses …. Hahaha!
No Marque Moon blooms today. But Pink Tirzah keeps blooming away and today there were two Naomi Ruth blooms so I made those crosses. At this point Naomi Ruth has so many seed pods – x Purple d’Oro on one scape and x Pink Tirza on the other. Hopefully the seed is good. So many points still to pass.
And for a final boldness. Pink China Doll is blooming her last four blooms of this season today. No self seeding on either plant, with multiple scapes and a plethora of blooms. I deadheaded her spent blooms this morning, and one was particularly strong. I cringed. “Maybe it was going to self seed”, I thought. But last year I had 38 seeds from various seed pods after Marque Moon x Pink China Doll crosses, and 11 of those made it to seedling. I am hoping to see the results in 2025 or 2026. All that to say, I probably don’t need Pink China Doll self seeds. I can probably let that idea go. And then, having done my week (2) project, in addition to trimming, weeding, and cleaning up, as I was sitting sipping my tea in the shade, I saw I missed deadheading a Pink China Doll bloom. I did not get up off the reclined chair. “That one gets a chance to survive in case it happened to self seed”, I thought. You never know. Here is that view I was enjoying, minus the spent bloom that has since fallen off 😂
Today, garden wise, is a JEG day – Just Enjoy the Gardens day. No crosses because Marque Moon does not have any blooms today and only one diploid is blooming. Super nice!
I have figured out what is “throwing” me about Coral Majority. It is in the “pastel” garden area. That area has vanillas and light pink, and even South Seas sometimes goes toward salmon. Coral Majority is bold, and almost looks frayed not ruffled and seersuckerish and approaching marbled in color. Today three bloomed together and they were nice.
It has a lot of pollen, but I really don’t have anything I want to cross it with. I did a “one time” test today with Cedar Waxwing, as I haven’t crossed anything else with Cedar Waxwing this year and it is not self seeding so it will be super easy to track. If that one-time test fails I will not try again, but I am half expecting it to work lol. Something about light pink and bright coral makes me think I won’t like the cross, but maybe …
Sadly the Naomi Ruth x Pink Tirza cross to the last bloom of the smaller Pink Tirza failed only two days after the cross. Quick answer, and not unexpected.
I have taken to notes on my phone notepad to keep quick info, and that is helping. Today I accidentally made a Pink Tirza to Naomi Ruth cross on the wrong scape – one that already has two seed pods from Purple D’Oro, but I made a note and took a bunch of pics so I have it documented if it does form a seed pod, but I am guessing no. Because of that I disciplined myself to stop for the day, a good thing.
I am really, really, really hoping for good weather on Saturday morning. I have week one of “the plan” – transplanting three South Seas self seed seedlings to the historic cemetery garden. They are from 2021 seed, 2022 seedlings, and are starting to get big enough that they are blocking the path to the hummingbird feeder. I will not replant seedlings there. I also need to do weeding over at the historic cemetery, although I will say the mulch is doing a fantastic job keeping weeds down. And now today’s highlights:
I am getting the Blue Mouse Ears scapes trimmed, always an incremental job. The large Just Plum Happy is in the Grand Finale stage. The hosta in the far back needs to be disposed. I have tried a number of things, including moving it, but it is failing. It happens. I think it is about 18 years old. It has lived a good full life.
Pink Tirza out front does not seem to be a great seed producer. Seeds look like they are forming, and then disappear. I am not surprised, as this has also happened the past two years. It is GORGEOUS!!! It just may not naturally be a good seed producer, or it could be that it is too close to the sprinkler, or it could be something I don’t yet understand. I may get a viable seed pod and maybe some seed, but I think, with its track record, and with Purple D’Oro now confirmed wrapped up for at least this year, a strategy change might be worth a test. An idea is forming in my mind – Could Pink Tirza be the interim Purple D’Oro? I see Tender Love will be blooming soon. I would love to see if a cross between Pink Tirza and Tender Love would work. Yesterday, on a whim, I crossed Naomi Ruth with the smaller Pink Tirza. What would happen if I did the opposite cross? We shall see. I tried today. I will say, this is getting a tich carayzee. All the rooms at the inn (the seedling box capacity) are already reserved for 2025, and I will need to start adding on if I don’t stop. I may need to start a seedling resort! Well, there could be worse things I suppose.
Yesterday and today brought the first blooms of Coral Majority.
I don’t know … I can’t remember if I liked it last year. Maybe blooming next to Cedar Waxwing it has an unfair comparison. (I would take 10 Cedar Waxwings.) But I just am not “in love” with Coral Majority so far, 2 blooms in, this year. I should be. Its parentage includes South Seas, one of my faves, but I just don’t know. It is pretty, kind of like someone else’s cute baby, but it might not be “mine”. We shall see. Maybe if I cross it back with South Seas, or with Marque Moon …. Stop! Just stop! 🤪
The first daylily “done for the year” inevitably comes about this time in July. This year it was a bit early because the Purple D’Oro really need new digs. There is one bud left but it doesn’t look viable, and then that is it. A total of potentially 3 self seed pods. I should pull them, but I know I won’t. If they produce seed I might even start them indoors in a pot next spring, but they would go up north as soon as the thaw went out.
It will probably be a few years now until the Purple D’Oro bloom here again. Transplantation shock is real. I will so miss them. But they live on in a plethora of pics, and they will make their comeback. Just look at these beauties. 3 years ago they had stopped blooming. They got a new, sunnier location and look at them now!!!
Today I broke the rules AGAIN and added another diploid cross – Naomi Ruth x Pink Tirza. It is not a combo I can say I would have chosen as a primary or even a secondary option, but what the hey! It might turn out fun. And it will be easy to keep track of – the Pink Tirza bloom was the last one on the scape, and all the other spent blooms had come off, so …
But that has to be it now. I can only fit five pots in the squirrel and bunny proof box, so if the five different types of crosses I have made “take”, the seed “inn” is full for 2025.
It is usually about this time of year that I start to put all my garden observations for the year together into a plan for late summer/early fall adjustments. There are, of course, the seedlings in pots that need to get into the ground, there are usually some plans for additions somewhere, there are often swaps or transplants, and sometimes there are even things that get pulled and disposed. This year there are a bunch, and some in each category. Yesterday was an absolutely glorious day, and I spent 5 hours just putzing and thinking and planning in the townhouse gardens. I love those days. They challenge me in a variety of ways. And they evoke both discipline and hope. By noon I had a full, but realistic list.
Today dawned rainy, and kept on that way, even adding periods of heavy rain and some periods of thunderstorms. I had been out early during a break in the action and even determined there was no pollen source for my designated crosses today, so “let it rain”. Indoors, I took the time to putz, unpack some deliveries, do some laundry, have multiple cups of tea (after one cup of coffee 🥰) and … put together a week by week garden adjustments/additions plan. Now, remember I still work a very full time job, and we have lots of life stuff, so this 10 week plan is really just 2-5 hours per week. Sometimes it is expected to be relaxing and slow – remove a failing hosta and clematis for disposal and transplant another clematis and 3 smaller, groundcover hostas into that space. Sometimes it is expected to be kinda exhausting and dirty and sweaty, like dig out remaining daylilies in big overgrown garden at the historic cemetery and transplant them into the fence garden there. Both examples are “one week”. They may even be broken up into separate segments or even days, but they are “one week” of work. It takes a little thinking and adjusting to get that plan firmed up. I go through a lot of iterations. But in the end I have a plan that I know I can work, that I have both time and energy for, and that is timed to match the usual temperatures – for both my sake and for the plants’ sake 😉 That plan is now firm, and pics are even taken of those notes on my phone so I could potentially reference them from multiple devices. Uh-huh. For real. Now I can rest and enjoy the various gardens and also just “work the plan”. Something this very analytical mind does well with lol.
So, about enjoying those gardens. The Purple D’Oros are starting to wane, both this year, and in relationship to its lifetime in its current locations. It definitely needs to be dug, divided, moved out of what has become an increasingly shady filled location under the linden, and moved into much sunnier digs. And it has already got those locations, thanks to the plan discussed above. But I expect it will need to reestablish, so I added a second cross this year to my list for Purple D’Oro pollen – Pink Tirza. Naomi Ruth wasn’t blooming one day Purple D’Oro and Pink Tirza were so …. I am also happy to say it seems both Naomi Ruth and Pink Tirza have seed pods from those crosses. Now we wait to see if anything happens beyond that. I have had LOTS of Purple D’Oro self seeding and even some crosses, but never had a seedling from Purple D’Oro that produced a bloom, in 4 years of trying. Admittedly, some of that was neglect (up north with no water but rain, and here with too little sun). Some is also unknown (they may be blooming at the little house we sold). But here they have not bloomed. So we shall see. It will be interesting, that is for sure.
And I may need to do more researching this winter on pollen. This has been a very iterative process for me. I am loving it now that I have a few years in, and a much nicer, simpler organization system. And oh, by the way, nature has had mercy. I have not had to dead head. I have had either one or both of my diploid chosen crosses available or the spent blooms have fallen off the Naomi Ruth and the Pink Tirza pretty quickly. That was going to be hard for me because I also like the self seeds. I know, I’m working on it. Also, oddly, the Purple D’Oros only have one seed pod formed so far this year, and they are almost done blooming. There are usually at least a dozen between them, sometimes more. Another indicator, they are ready for division and new digs. The Marque Moons had two scapes survive the squirrels, bunnies, (deer?) and they have started blooming so I have started two crosses. So two diploid, two tetraploid. I did allow a little scope creep, but I may not save harvested self seed this year. If I do harvest those, I think I may just plant them right into the ground in spring, up north. TBD on that. A no weeding daylily space? Would be interesting I suppose. Free, and that part is good. Not sure yet. We shall see. One of these years I probably should cure myself of allowing self seeding here, but I don’t think this is the year. It is at the historic cemetery though. I trimmed all those dayliles. I want them to preserve all their energy for a number of reasons – 1) they are not watered so they do sometimes have to go through drought, and 2) I just bought a bunch of diploids to match the diploids that are there so eventually, maybe when I semi-retire, I can spend more time in those gardens, and maybe even do crosses there. But for now I mainly need them as beautiful soil and mulch holders for this space.
Yah, I know. But that is only after a super rainy and lots of downpours season. Still, I decided daylilies were much nicer, way easier, and way cheaper than more border. Fingers crossed, it works long term. For now, we cope. Now on to this weeks bountiful beauty
Above: Third bloom from self-seed 2 year old seedling. It even held up to the thunderstorms and absolute downpours this morning – a very good sign.
Above: ”Free” Autumn Joy sedum rootings! Lemonade out of lemons. When they get broken off I root them. So far I have quite a few. I will plant them at the historic cemetery.
I have done this sedum rooting for well over a decade – super easy. Here is a sedum that looked like the small rootings just two summers ago
Above: Purple D’Oro
Above: Marque Moon
Above: I need to reach out to the breeder and find out what this freebie is. It is not anything I ordered nor a match to what the two freebie tags said.
Above: Just Plum Happy
Above: The Bluebells clematis reblooms all summer. Love this one. It blooms on old vines so super easy and full.
Yesterday we had 31 daylily blooms, this morning we have 40. You know, I think en masse is so much better than specimen! Waves of color. Today I literally have an all day meeting for work. But I can still look out and see all the bloom. That “works”.
This is Pink China Doll. I have never seen that white edging before. It has been super rainy all season, and, then, because we have lots of grass here (don’t even get me going on that …) the sprinklers were recently also turned on – ugghhh. Isn’t perfectly manicured grass for places where people have competitions moving balls around with sticks? Ok, I will stop. Anyway, I will have to research if that white edging is a sign of duress. I have two of those and one will probably move this fall.
Yesterday we had 22 daylilies bloom in the gardens. Today I did my first walkabout and there are even more today than yesterday. Even with the heat and humidity, even recovering from a summer cold, the joy and beauty and magnitude of what is approaching peak bloom season for the daylilies does not escape me. It is awe inspiring! Early morning on these warm days is the most enjoyable, and I love to capture the early morning beauty before the day heats up, when the garden’s potential is just starting to shine.
Yesterday the Naomi Ruth bloomed for the first time this year.
Today Pink China Doll bloomed for the first time.
And Just Plum Happy is incredible right now. I love how this scape this morning shows yesterday, this morning, and (probably) tomorrow.
And even though they are the backdrop right now, the hostas also are an absolute delight. Their waves of bloom are gradually giving way to seed production so it was haircut time. I want them to save their strength for next year’s beauty.
And then there is Tirza way in the back of one of the areas. It was a slow start for her here, for multiple reasons, but now she is coming in to her own these past couple years.
In a week or so I will start trimming the Blue Mouse Ears. That is quite a job, so I do a few at a time. And I see they burned a bit in the heat of the past few days. They need dividing this fall, and some may get a new, more shade filled location, and a bit of distance from the daylilies that are starting to cover them up.
They really shouldn’t be covered up. They are far too beautiful to be covered up 🥰
This weekend my gardening time opportunities got chosen for me. It is very warm and humid and we have also had some thunderstorms. I also have a summer cold. Doing long amounts of time outside or doing heavy gardening was not going to be a smart choice. Sometimes making lemonade out of lemons is the path forward. And so, this weekend was a perfect time to putz, and to analyze and plan a path forward for this small scope hobby of mine called daylily propagation from seed. I have held it loosely, so loosely that I have seedlings where the source information, written in pencil, washed off with no backup record, and this past week I had a first bloom on a seedling that, although beautiful, left me wondering if I had correct data. Not that any of that is super important, this is after all a hobby, but it was a thinking moment. And I have put off doing crosses this year due to no plan. It was nice to have dream time, to think more deeply and more forward on what I really want to do with this hobby.
My journey with harvesting different types of daylily seeds here and growing the seedlings to finally, this year, bloom, started over 5 years ago. A lot has changed since then. When I started harvesting our daylily seeds here, my record keeping was a garden binder and a flip top bin to hold the tags from what I bought. Nowadays the garden is abundant. I do not buy any new plants or infrastructure of any type to put in the ground at the townhouse. My garden buys nowadays are super simple – bulbs and mulch for the historic cemetery ♥️- and then any leftover bulbs I force for indoor winter blooming go up north. Sidebar – the deer resistant of those forced bulbs are blooming and not being eaten each spring. Another success. Anyway, back to topic, my old garden record keeping strategy no longer applies.
Now to be clear – I (and many others I am told 🥰 yeay!) still very much ENJOY what I have invested in the gardens at the townhouse. I UTILIZE my investments in the gardens at the townhouse to create new things. I OPTIMIZE my investments in the gardens at the townhouse through maintenance. I even laugh at the bunny antics eating my investments in the townhouse gardens, but I am no longer monetarily investing anything additional in the gardens at the townhouse. So garden record keeping via saving tags from purchases doesn’t work. Harvested seeds don’t come with tags 😉 The need has shifted to a new system.
A primary consideration for my new record keeping is that the planting system I use is pretty simple. The daylily seedlings I grow from harvested seed here don’t go into the ground for quite a while – often until the fall – because I plant the harvested seeds in pots and have a mobile seedling screened planter. If I didn’t protect the tiny seedlings, the squirrels would dig them out. On a whim I tried not protecting some annual seedlings this spring. The result was we have no annual seedlings that survived the squirrel antics. It’s ok. Lesson confirmed. A secondary consideration is that there is no more room at the inn. New mature seedlings are only planted in the ground at the townhouse if something else moves out of that spot. So what would work? Without a crazy complex or expensive setup?
I have thought about it long and hard.
First, the scope. I have already decided I only want to do 2-3 crosses here this year. Since this is at minimum a 3 year rotation system, I have already bumped up against surplus seedlings, where they have not yet bloomed. Part of that is sun exposure, and I have now corrected for that. But I can’t process boatloads of “started” projects. I don’t enjoy being in September and trying to figure out where to put surplus “unknown” daylilies, and I would like to see the bloom color at least before planting the seedlings in a longer term location, like the historic cemetery. So the scope is small, quite small.
I have 3 “for sure” diploids, and one “I think” diploid. Only three of those bloom at the same time, and of those only two have a coloring combination I am looking for. The diploid crossing choice is easy, and I have started to make that cross. Since I want to keep it simple, every time that diploid blooms, if the other diploid has a bloom that day, I will do a cross. If not, I will deadhead that bloom the next day. That way it will not go to self seed and there will be no confusion as to what was crossed and what was not, on that daylily clump. Also, I made a mistake with my tetraploid “go to” for crosses, and let it self seed. I think it may have affected the plant strength, and, sadly, those daylilies are in tree roots now and not able to be divided and restarted. My mistake. And since I am not buying, they will not be replaced. It is what it is. On that topic, the tetraploid cross is a little more “tbd”. My “go to” cross for tetraploid is is Marque Moon. It is also, unfortunately, besides being the daylilies enmeshed in tree roots, also either a big bunny or a wandering deer’s favorite. If the Marque Moon buds all get eaten, I may forego the tetraploid cross. I am going for more toward light colored and creamy pastel and I don’t have matches I am looking for ie I’m not looking to cross deep salmon or deep orange with pink or purple.
For the question of letting the rest self seed – deep breath – I know I should deadhead. My gardens here are small enough to do that. And believe me, I am swimming this season in self seed seedlings from 2023 seed. Logically, rationally, I do not leave our other plants to self seed. I trim the hostas when they are done blooming for sure. And I don’t have any trouble at all trimming the Asian lilies. Goodness! What would I do with all those seeds! Out of control lol 😂 We shall see what discipline I can muster. Even incremental would be progress.
For markers I’m going super low tech here. Store bought large craft sized (popsicle) sticks, daily close up photos to monitor seedling development, and printed photos labeled with planted seedling bunch location info. When I do an intentional cross I am going to write the cross information on both sides of a craft stick, put the stick in an envelope (so when I am busy both in harvesting and in seed planting season, I have the labeling at the ready), and write the same cross information on the envelope, with the cross dates so I can look up the pics for reference if needed. The marker writing on the craft stick and the envelope will be done with a sharpie, not a pencil. Made that mistake and shall not repeat 😉 Then if seed pods form and seeds mature:
All seeds that get harvested will go into a marked envelope with a marked craft stick already included.
The envelope will go into storage.
The seeds will go to stratification in Feb with the craft stick still in the envelope.
The seeds will get planted in pots indoors after Easter with the already marked craft stick.
When the seedlings get planted into the ground they will already have a proper label 😂
So the craft sticks are already bought and they are with my garden bin. Next up is a new printer. (Ours finally printed it’s last). And I already have a garden binder and plastic sleeves for photos to rotate in and out. I am hoping it is that easy. We shall see.
Susan's Daily Garden 