Category: Daylily seedlings

Inching Closer

It is about this time of year that I start to see the daylily seedlings visibly emerge from the soil. The well-established “parent” plants emerge first. But then, inevitably, I will see something that really jazzes me. A couple weeks ago it was the re-emergence of last year’s Hello Yellow. Hello Yellow was our first seedling that progressed from harvested seed to seedling to bloom, and in record time (year 2). Coincidentally, I find it quite fun that our oldest grandson, who knows nothing of my daylily work, has made it quite clear that his favorite color is yellow. Grandmas notice these things.


In the past couple weeks, my most promising seedlings from 2024 (2023 harvested seed from crosses) emerged. They are what I hope will be “Pink Moon”, an intentional cross that yielded 11 seedlings, and it looks like 7 winter survivors. Potential “Pink Moon” is on watch for bloom this year, but daylily propagation from seed is a long game. It may be a few years yet until bloom. I hope we see “Pink Moon” bloom this year, but it may be longer, or never. For reference, I have a South Seas self-seed that is on year 6 with no bloom. I keep saying if it doesn’t bloom “this year”, it’s going up north to feed the deer, but … I just can’t seem to do it. Maybe this fall, but doubtful. I have my 2, 3, and 4 year seedling beds established, and it is nowhere near where the 6-year-old non-blooming South Seas self-seed plant is located. Maybe it will surprise me. Please surprise me 6 year old South Seas self seed daylily.

Now to 2025. This year’s seedling project is what I hope will be “Mahala”. The Mahala Project is named for a history making pioneer woman for this area. Mahala Felton was the first white woman settler in our area. She and her husband William and one of their sons came to our area when there was no hotel, no railroad, not really any way of getting anything substantial across the Mississippi in our area. She was well respected by native and settler alike as she and her husband ran the first “hotel” (which was a converted, multiple purpose trading post). I began my research as what I thought would be a 15–20 hour endeavor to write a facebook post for our local historical society. But there was so much history that kept unfolding. So much that I went on a discovery that kept me happily busy for a great portion of the deep of winter. The more I discovered, the more questions I had. Eventually though, my project management skills turbo-charged and I realized I was having scope creep. I was amazed and impressed with all I had discovered about Mahala Felton, but it was time to stop the research. I had dozens of resource citations, and what will probably be at least a dozen pages of excerpts when I finally write it all up. We shall see. But along the way, I decided to name a daylily seedling “Mahala Felton” and plant it in the historic cemetery garden. Full transparency, I had entertained the daylily dedication idea previously, but now I had more pieces to the puzzle. Funny how things unfold, all in good timing, if you listen to your gut, and your heart.

This past week I took 25 of the 28 harvested (and now proposed as “Mahala”) daylily seeds and planted them to seedling pots. This is a huge (and probably not to be oft repeated) departure from my normal process of putting all of a type of cross’s seeds in one pot and seeing what comes up. I try to keep things simple, but for this one I decided to give conventional practices one more try before I abandon it all together. I have my doubts as to its efficacy, so, just in case, I kept three of the seeds aside and will plant them with my normal process when it is warm enough to do that. With that process I have a seedling box that protects them from bunnies and squirrels and all those types of dangers, a necessity around here, and I will need to employ that with whatever comes up from the 25 as well. I hope at least a few seeds are successful, as I would like to plant one on each side of the gates, as a nod to the hospitality Mahala shared with all. A “welcome” of sorts. And I would like to plant one in the garden down by their marker.

We shall see how it goes. All 28 seeds could decide not to go to seedling. In that case, I have another cross from last year that produced 60 seeds (yes, 60) and maybe that is destined to be named “Mahala”. You never know. You do the crosses and you see what happens. It’s an adventure.

The good, the sad, and the work to do

The long wait is now over. Things are popping all over the gardens, and I am starting to see what made it, what didn’t, and what work there is to do.

At the townhome gardens, sadly, it looks like we lost two sedum. How that happened for one of them is a mystery to me. That one was our only variegated sedum, and I will miss it. It had been there for a long time, maybe over 10 years, so I am a bit surprised. I won’t replace it with another sedum, but I may put a daylily there this fall. Potentially a seedling. But first I want to refresh my memory on how strongly the sprinklers hit that area. I don’t think the variegated sedum died from sprinkler damage, but I want to make sure it is a safe place.
The other sedum that didn’t come back was under the linden. That one never did well. It just never took off. I won’t put anything in that spot to replace it because the daylilies are also starting to underperform there. There are a lot of linden roots. It is a spot I will leave as “rock only” as things fail.

On the flip side, we have a bumper crop of Bluebells clematis volunteers, and those are in the “work” category. I need to transplant them to another area. This area is not optimal 😂

The volunteers are from our large Bluebells clematis that always performs very well, and I suspect I will continue to have volunteers over the years now that it is well established. Last year I allowed one to grow around the red daylilies, and this past weekend I dug that out and transplanted it into the spot where another clematis volunteer (different type) was way underperforming. Hopefully this volunteer does well. So far so good.

And then there are the missing hostas. There are three in particular that have no sign of anything, and that is a bit concerning. Two I was going to give to my Dad, but the third was one of my long-time faves, and if it doesn’t come back, I will miss it. BUT I have made a decision. If it doesn’t come back, I will convert that real estate to daylily space. That hosta really always amazed me because it should never have done so well there for so many years. That spot really is more of a … daylily sunny spot. But I put it there in my early years of creating our gardens, and it went to town for well over a decade. Probably 15 years. So if that hosta is gone, I will greatly miss it, but it will be replaced by a purchased daylily this fall. (Yes, I have my sites on a few candidates.) Then that entire area will be daylilies, with a few remaining Asian lilies, a few remaining tulips, and a legacy Autumn Joy Sedum.
For the other two “missing” hostas, if they do not come back, I will not replace them. The area where they were was getting way overcrowded, hence why they were going to find a new home with my Dad. And, my Dad just had a bunch of trees removed so they may have not done well there anyway.

Which leads me to story time. When I started our gardens at the townhouse many many years ago, I was head over heels in love with hostas. I planted boatloads of different hostas. I visited hosta gardens. I bought “hosta of the year” varieties I liked. I was gifted hostas. My Dad even bought me hostas from a neighborhood gardener he called the “hosta masta” (master, that is 😊). I have grown and divided all kinds of hostas for over two decades. I even tried my hand at harvesting hosta seeds and seeing if I could grow hostas from seed. (Not for me.) I love hostas. And I will keep the hostas I have that are still doing well. But that era was that era, and the garden “container” is the garden “container” (not getting any larger), and I am not getting any younger. So … in a finite space garden … hosta attrition makes way for daylilies, if the space is sunny. (Amazingly, I did have some huge hostas that did very well in relatively sunny spots. Go figure).
In this new era, I have my daylily seedling beds, and they are doing well. Those were solidified as the plan last fall. I also have one 6th year non-blooming daylily seedling in a different area, and I just can’t seem to move that one out, but we shan’t dwell on that. I figure at some point when the garden “container” is full, I will know it is time to stop doing daylily crosses, and then I will sit in my patio rocker, with a beverage of choice, and just enjoy. Haha, I can hear family and friends alike laughing uproariously. But that will be a few years yet. Hopefully quite a few. Because goodness! I have 60 “same cross”seeds I still need to get into pots in the seedling planter, and if even half of those go to seedling, oof! Realistically, experience tells me “probably not” and I will most likely end up with optimistically, 10 seedlings from that 60, to be planted in the 2025 seedling bed this fall, and watched for bloom starting next year.

At the historic cemetery, I am gonzo in love with what I see so far – legacy plants are doing so much better in year 3 of the mulch bed. The iris bed is in year 3 now, year 2 for watch to bloom, and I already see multiplication. Daylily seedlings I planted last year from here look great. Daylily purchases I planted last fall are coming up. Even the Blue Mouse Ears hostas made it.

Overall, so far, so very good.

Weeding time at the historic cemetery is down to an hour per week – amazing what the mulch bed tamps down. The only thing I want to work on is the aging creeping thyme. It needs some cleanup, and I may grab some irises from the old garden bed and do some fill in there. Otherwise, one hour per week weeding, watch for the garden to do its thing, and maybe, optimistically, try a few crosses.

Hello Yellow

Hello Yellow, our first seedling from harvested seed to bloom in our garden, is up for the third year. Year one she was a seedling, year two (last year) she bloomed – amazing for year two! And now she is up a third year.

My notes are she successfully crossed with Just Plum Happy to form a seed pod (so as a tetraploid) but then the pod started to fail and then a bunny got it.

Hello Yellow is of unknown parentage. Nevertheless, she has a special place in my heart, and will remain in our garden.

Harvesting daylily seeds, planting last two pots of seedlings, starting the fall cutback, migrations

The daylily seed harvest is wrapping up. This year I have eight different types that survived the bunnies, squirrels, and sprinklers. Two are self seed and one is an “unknown” after a save from critter curiosity. That leaves five, and the daylily seedling box fits five pots, so, whew! we probably don’t need to put an addition on the daylily seedling “inn” next spring. After discovering what looks like a self seed, self plant, seedling bloom (more on that at the end), I now have a much greater level of confidence that the self seeds and unknowns can go straight into the ground in May. Where they will go, I have no idea. We are choc-a-block full. Time will tell.

The “countdown to season end” planting and transplanting list is also done, and early at that, as the daylily shipment came earlier than I expected. That sprint was something else! Very rewarding, but very exhausting.

After the linden trimming brought a previously shaded area back into the sun, there was no more room for Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I ended up planting the two remaining Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions into the historic cemetery garden. A little worse for wear after sitting in the garage for a week and a half, but better than to the compost pile.

I hope they make it. They are such a beautiful hosta, and it would be nice to have them in that garden.

All of the other plantings I have put into the historical cemetery, save the clematis that never bloomed and eventually died, are doing well. The sedum rootings are even blooming pink. And the baby daylily pieces are sprouting new fans. For all of that, I am thankful. They love the sun, and the mulch seems to keep them in enough moisture.

I also started the fall cutback at the historic cemetery – the largest patch of Black-Eyed-Susans, the remainder of the milkweed, some irises, and more hosta scapes.

At the townhome gardens, the garden is starting to look more like fall. I decided the little scarecrows would be fun to be put out again this year. I almost feel like they could use some little hay bales. But I don’t do hay (achoo!!!) so … Blue Mouse Ears will have to do.

Sadly, the hummingbirds are pretty much done coming through and we will soon take down the feeders. There are enough flowers for late travelers. They have really loved the second bloom of the Weigelia this year (below) as well as the late blooming Rainforest Sunrise hosta.

The huge flocks of small migrating birds have also wound down. We have been seeing quite a few butterflies now, so we are assuming that is also migration. And seagulls! I wonder if we just never noticed them before here. We had flocks of them at our little house in the mining town on Lake Superior, but never here.
I am thinking that soon the dark eyed juncos will arrive for the winter.

So time is marching on. But for today, on this beautiful fall day, a day of PTO from work, I will just putz in the garden, enjoy what looks like our last week before the cooler weather, and look at our newest addition – totally unplanned, unplanted, a full on surprise until I saw the buds last week and the bloom today – “Panache”. We are calling her Panache because she appears to be a reversion to the grandparents of Just Plum Happy, the daylily in that space. Welcome to our garden, Panache! You are the new latest blooming daylily here!

Panache?


We have multiple Just Plum Happy daylilies in our gardens. Not once have we had a seedling from Just Plum Happy, much less a flowering seedling. In fact, the self seed pods usually fail. If any self seed pods open and the seed doesn’t look good, I just put it back into the area of the daylily, food for birds or whatever. But somehow either one of the pods let a self seed out before I saw the open pod, or one of the seeds I didn’t think was viable actually was. Or maybe a bunny or squirrel or sprinkler got the pod before I did and it made a seedling some time in the past few years and now this year it bloomed. In late September. What??? Crazy pants!!!

I seriously doubt it is a rebloom, as I don’t deadhead them, our Just Plum Happy daylilies have never rebloomed, and – it looks so different from Just Plum Happy.

It looks like a grandparent of Just Plum Happy, named Panache. So it shall be called Panache in our garden. And it shall stay, and be the new latest bloomer. Panache is a late bloomer, so …

The Semi-Finals

All the daylilies are done blooming here, and we are going into the Semi-Finals for seed production. In first place by a long shot is Pink Tirza X red daylily with 8 healthy pods. Woohoo! Now I have to go back into my records to figure out that red daylily type. Or not. If the seeds pods are viable to seed, and the seeds are viable to seedling and they bloom (2-3 years out) they will still just be an “enjoy” scenario. A whole lotta “enjoy” scenario. Maybe a go to the historic cemetery “enjoy” scenario. If all of that happens, I will probably just give them a fun name for our use and conversations 😊 Just like Hello Yellow.

So Pink Tirza is the new Purple D’Oro here. And that is a good thing because the “deer” we were guessing was eating her pods turns out, we are pretty sure, to be due to a sprinkler haha! Either way, even if it was something else, good experience and knowledge gained this year. In addition to her coming in first place for bloom start, she blooms a LONG time, and is gorgeous. Her new working role is to be a pollen producer.

In second place, yep, you guessed it Coral Majority. It would have taken 1st place but I only crossed it a bit, with Cedar Waxwing, with excellent success. And Coral Majority is a self seeder too, although I expected that. The bees love that area and Coral Majority tends to have a lot of pollen and the pistil, or stigma, I guess, is often uncrossable. I seriously don’t know what to do with Coral Majority. It is a wild child. Of one of my faves, South Seas, no less. I hope its children are pretty, and well behaved lol. Because there will be A LOT of them if the pods are all viable. They are all still green and it will be a while that they still need to stay on the scape to mature the seeds. Hopefully the bunnies, squirrels and sprinklers let that happen. I have had pods come off too early in the past and tried to save them to seed but to no avail.

Marque Moon X South Seas was in 3rd place with two green pods and a third that was starting to dry but the bunnies and/or squirrels got those. The squirrels and bunnies have had a lot of fun with South Seas. And also with Naomi Ruth. I think I also over-taxed them. Pods were failing. Next year they get a rest.
Only one Pink Tirza pod survived. “Sprinkler deer” got her pods lol. And Mystery Yellow Freebie has a drying pod but it looks not too viable. I will be surprised if it has seeds.
And that’s it. Crazy good results from one diploid and one tetraploid this year. But we have a very long way to go. We shall see.


The transplants from two weekends ago are doing phenomenally.

No losses. I did make one mistake, I realized, and I put a daffodil bulb UNDER a Blue Mouse Ears division transplant. So I will have a daffo-mouse. Should be interesting, but fine. If the daffodil does bloom it will be done when the Blue Mouse Ears (hosta) starts to come up. Still … silly of me. Keep daffodils to the daylilies. Oh well.
And last of all, sadly, I have a sedum and a hosta that I think need to come out. They just look like they are struggling. The hosta is quite old and never been divided. The sedum is a cutting. Stuff happens. I’d rather be safe. I can put Blue Mouse Ears divisions over there, and maybe a daylily.




Did it – with big help from hubs

Weekend four on the ten week countdown dawned rainy, but the forecast correctly predicted clear up by mid morning. Good thing, because the week four list was the heftiest list by far. Some coffee, the word from hubs that he was ready, and we were off and running.

First up was a dig out. This is an at least 7 year old Purple D’Oro daylily clump that has been languishing in the increasing shade of hostas under the linden. The hosta garden is a look I love, but that daylily definitely needed new digs. The past 2 years it did not bloom at all and the few years before that its bloom was sparse. It deserves more love – a bit of dividing (into three clumps) and full sun. It may miss its sibs but it is just moving across town to hang out with some Stellas in the historic cemetery garden. Maybe make some new little D’Oros. And be amongst other sun lovers like daffodils and sedum.

So – daffodils … I know I said probably no more daffodils at the historic cemetery, and no more buying for the townhouse gardens. But, well …. You see …. We have Sir Bunimous Rex (a gigantic bunny) who roams the neighborhood at all hours of the night, and baby squirrels with voracious appetites and zero manners, and maybe a deer, although we haven’t seen it yet (but what else eats seed pods without even slightly bending the scape?) Anyway, the assumed trifecta that we actually do enjoy are having a field day with my seed pods, which, ok, is fine. They have mostly eaten failing pods. And the process this year has been beyond fun, I am building quite a knowledge base just from trial and error, plus it is free. Additionally, I actually would like to see a deer roam through here. I miss them from our little house up north, and their nighly parades. My husband probably is relieved, near term, that the assumed trifecta probably has eaten enough seed pods now that I probably don’t need to add on to the inn (the daylily seedling box) next year. If I ever got super serious about this hobby, we could get a well up north. But, here and now, given we know the munching issue, we need a bit ‘o prevention, and protection, for new plantings. So daffodils and coffee grounds go around all new plantings here and at the historic cemetery (where there are moles), and then ongoing peppermint oil is also being used as a deterrent at the townhouse. I HAVE found infrared deterrents, but, sigh, they also deter dogs, and sigh, I need my dog to go outside …

So back to the Purple D’Oro – my husband dug it out, I divided it, and it went in a bag to the historic cemetery, along with the 2024 Purple D’Oro self seed seedlings (from 2023 harvested seed), where I planted them, and some languishing Asian lilies, along with daffodils, today.

And with that, the left side of the historic cemetery garden is a wrap. That just makes my heart so happy – even though there is no rain in the forecast for the next week, and that means daily trips to water them. The next 90 degree day in the forecast looks like a week out. A daily trip over there will be fine, short term.

What’s left at the historic cemetery garden? Waiting for the (right side) daylily order to arrive in September. And weed and trim each side alternately. Have I mentioned how AWESOME the mulch is? Sooooo easy to weed. Not necessarily so fun in heat and humidity, but way easier than the rock and heaving plastic that was there before. And people absolutely love it! A couple stopped to talk again today when I was there. They said they can really see the passion for gardening that we all are putting in there. Wowee Wow! Very humbling, and rewarding.

You may also notice I am not saying “fence garden” anymore. The large overgrown garden has been donated to the rain gardens at the historic mansion in town. They needed things that were budget friendly and would come back every year. Yes, and yes. So the only garden at the historic cemetery will be the formerly known as “fence” garden. Woo Hoo! Now if this “crazy lady” can stop coming up with new projects! Hahaha! I think I’d better. The current state is “just right”.

But wait! Why was weekend four so hard? Dig out a daylily at the townhouse and go dig and plant four holes at the historic cemetery? Big honking deal! Oh no, no, no, no! That was just the cemetery part.
Back to yesterday, I had other daylilies and seedlings, and fairy ringed hostas to dig and divide and find new locations for. Swapping locations for sun scorched Blue Mouse Ears and sun starved Purple D’Oros. And moving a failing set of Asian Lilies (they went in with the daylily divisions and the daffodils-layering-to the cemetery). And then last was moving a regularly stepped on Praying Hands hosta. I’m thinking the stepper-oner is four pawed and goes by the name of Bunimous Rex. That Bun does not eat it, I am amazed.

So today wraps up weekend four of the townhome side of the 10 week countdown. We did it! Hallelujah!!! So glad that is now done! And so thankful for ibuprofen and a nap!

I leave you with some end state pics at the townhome.

More to come, and yes that is chicken wire around Tender Love. Bun broke off and ate the scape with the cross from Pink Tirza. No more for you, Bun!

What is the data telling me?

I am a (relevant) data junkie. And I admit, yes, I am one of those people that have to bite my tongue when I need answers and I am being fed baloney sausage. Thankfully, there is no baloney sausage in the garden. Oh I love it so 😊

The data from 2024 is telling me the hostas under the linden are healthier than ever. They are giving me that woodland garden backdrop I so love, with mostly shade and dappled sun.

They are a bit affected by the Japanese beetle bugs about this time of year, but I can’t do anything about that.

The data is telling me the Purple D’Oro daylilies under the linden don’t have enough sun any more. The ones that can be dug out are on the 10 week countdown.

The data is telling me the Blue Mouse Ears hostas need dividing, and they would probably be happier with more shade. They will start to do a swap-a-roo with the daylilies under the linden and are on the 10 week countdown.

The data is telling me that, although some daylily crosses were initially looking successful, some daylily type’s pods consistently failed. I soooo feel a delightful spreadsheet coming on to identify all the patterns. Notes and verbiage are great, but this girlfriend likes to plan intelligently too. All those crosses deserve analysis. For sure, I know I can can cross Marque Moon X South Seas and Marque Moon X Just Plum Happy off the list. The pods get to a point, and then start to deteriorate, and it is like a beacon to whatever is eating the pods to pull the whole scape down. But the healthy pods seem more chomp safe. Go figure. Still, the data says so.

The data says I need to put chicken wire around shorter, late season bloomers. Because the data says the baby squirrels seem to think they are gourmet.
And the data says Pink Tirza and Coral Majority (yes, intense Coral Majority) have crazy good pollen.
And the data says, even though I thought I had successfully typed Hello Yellow, it started to look a bit like it was dying off after a couple weeks, and then something got the pod. I tell you, failing pods are like a munchie beacon.

So, the data also says I need to buy myself some reference info that gives me a deeper dive, and maybe join an organization to knowledge share. Nothing too intense. But better than unfruitful internet searches.

It’s all good. Next July will bring another level. Who knows what crazy crosses I might try in 2025. Hello Yellow x Coral Majority? Egads!!!

It’s a wrap!

This morning I have a half day of PTO, so I got a chance to putz around a bit and take inventory after a sleepover weekend with the oldest grandson. No gardening when he is here, yet. But he does show potential. Mama is a gardener and he helps her dig lol.

So this morning after grandchild-ville got packed up and tucked back into storage until next time, I went out and did the last crosses of the season – Tender Love x red dailies.

I was thinking the two would not bloom together and that mid-last week was going to be the last crosses, but I got one last chance. We shall call it an opportunity to compensate for a bit ‘o damage the squirrels/bunnies/potential deer have done to the seed pods. Not too bad, but eyes on you now squirels/bunnies/potential deer in the format of trail cams to figure it out.

And now also starts transplanting. Next up on the 10 week countdown is planting seedlings at the historic cemetery – and one division has been added. There are boatloads of Stella D’Oros over there, and we are planning on a low profile, so I have thoughts on crossing Purple D’Oro and Stella D’Oro. But that means I have to bring Purple D’Oro over there, because there are none. I’ll bring one transplant and some Purple D’Oro seedlings to start and see how it goes. It also means the taller daylilies (like the South Seas seedlings) are out as options over there, so I’m adjusting that plan for which seedlings go where.

See? If you wait a bit, the plan always refines.