And then there was one, but lots of Decisions Made for 2026

It has been a bit since my last blog. The daylily blooms have all wrapped up, except Hello Yellow, which is re-blooming. As I watch the bees, the hummingbirds, and the butterflies enjoying their journey through the hosta blooms in the garden, it occurs to me I ought to be doing the same thing – enjoying the late summer garden.

Yes, I miss the daylily blooms, but the beautiful hosta blooms and the very start of the Autumn Joy sedum color is also now on.

Since I last blogged, I have planted all of the seedlings except the seedlings that will go to the historic cemetery. The gardens are a sea of pods, very fall-ish. There are 55 pods maturing. Well, 53 as of yesterday when I harvested 2. I expect we will not have any true need to buy daylilies – for the townhome, for the historic cemetery, for anywhere – go forward. I may buy one here and there that I want for crossing, but even that is to be determined. When I was looking at my wish list from spring, I went ahead and deleted it because everything on that list was very similar to what I saw come up in our self-seed seedlings this year. I think I am good for now.

Full disclosure, another part of my decision to delete my buy list is because, sadly, a good portion of the daylilies and daffodils I bought and planted last year did not come up at all this year. It was a much worse scenario at the historic cemetery, but even in the townhome gardens I had a few “no shows”. That is very unusual for me. But so is losing 18 hostas this spring. It remains a mystery. We may never know for sure what the reason(s) were. But, I am re-doing the look of the townhome gardens due to the unplanned changes, and we are moving on. It might have been meant to be.

The new garden “look” includes continuing to transplant the Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I dug, divided, and transplanted a large clump of those hostas into their new spots, and I really like it. If there is time, I have one more clump of Blue Mouse Ears to move, but if I don’t, it can stay as is until next year. I also am seeing some purple shamrocks come up from this spring’s, shall we say, squirrel curiosity, ahem.

There are also a few daylily moves in scope. “Unknown Yellow Daylily Freebie with Order” out front does not like her current location and has only bloomed one out of the past three years. I have a spot for her out back. Yellow is not a large part of the front daylily palate, so moving it is a good decision on the color scheme, as well.

Which brings me to the Bluebells clematis out front – it is re-blooming. The hummingbirds and butterflies are loving it. I am very glad I saved the Bluebells clematis volunteers this spring and planted them out back. They are doing very well there, and I am guessing by next year the hummingbird will find those blooms too. The bees already did.

Which leads me to the changing color scheme out back.

This year with the “surprise!” of the red daylily seedling out back, I had some considering to do. I have thought a lot this year about the color scheme going forward – about what I primarily see from my favorite rocking chair on the patio, about how different times of the day are spent on the patio, and about what I want to head towards with future years of daylily crosses. These past two years of so much success with crossing the reds has been fun, and some of those, when they mature, will even be moved up front, but it was this year’s self-seed colors, and form, that was on my mind for the future of the gardens out back. The self-seed seedlings were tall, many were trumpet shaped, substantial, and I really like the colors of the ones with South Seas lineage. The front landscaping has a wave of red, but it has been on my mind to find a transition color from the front to the back gardens, where I want minimal red. I knew that one red daylily seedling surprise was part of the story. I just wasn’t coming up with the answer.

Then one recent night I was relaxing out in the back, for a while – sitting on my favorite rocker, watching the dragonflies, and a bunny, and the sunset, hearing the crickets and the tree frogs start up, and seeing the bats come for the mosquitos (farther out from the patio 🙂 ) while watching all the fireflies close to the ground. The word “quiet” popped in my head. Not the hearing sort of quiet, as the crickets and the tree frogs were singing themselves (and me) very happy. The “quiet” was a feeling. After I came in for the night, I looked up quiet gardens. Indeed, there was some good stuff, but not really a match for what was floating around in my mind – quiet color.

Over the next couple days it occurred to me – lavender is the transition color from front to back. It will soften the red impact. We have some lavender already, as part of different daylilies, and we have the Purple D’Oros that we can let self-seed again. The forget-me-nots and the Blue Mouse Ears both have the blue early on, but mid-July that color starts to fade. We need a touch of lavender that will transition the red in front, past the Marque Moons to the South Seas line out back. And with that, a lot of other decisions are now made as to where I want to go with crosses going forward.

For now, last night I harvested the first two seed pods. They were opening up quickly, and I am guessing I lost a few into the ground before I noticed. It’s OK. They are the reds, and crossed with Naomi Ruth, which did not germinate this year from last year’s seeds. I am guessing these won’t either as the seeds are only 34 days. Yes, it’s a bummer and yes, I will plant them next spring and see what happens, but decision made – next year I will trim down the number of crosses I do. I don’t need to cross the few reds out back. I already do red crosses out front. South Seas will be the dominant line out back, with both crosses and self-seed. Pink Tirzah will be the secondary line, and where I expect the lavender to come from, but we shall see. And if I just so happen to come across a Paul Voth, I might add it. Just one. I had one at the little house up north, and they draw the eye, for sure. But it would be my delight to do a cross that results in lavender.

So, what’s next, besides seed collection, enjoying the late season hosta blooms, and the Autumn Joy sedum colors? After Labor Day (US), I will plant the Mahala Felton daylily seedlings over at the historic cemetery and watch them for a week or so for water need. After that I will begin the seasonal cleanup there.

Lots of garden time left 🙂

Volunteer

Volunteer. What a wonderful concept. Freely giving time and energy to accomplish something meaningful for and with others is a noble activity. It often gives back to the volunteer every bit as much as is given to the recipient. It is very humbling, and very rewarding. I highly recommend it.

The term Volunteer when speaking of daylilies brings an equally wonderful feeling for me. That a daylily seed from a daylily I own can fall to the ground, find a suitable place to germinate, and survive to seedling and eventually bloom is a wonderful treat for me. A gift.

I have been thinking about this. 1) Why would I not want those? 2) What can I do to encourage that (as another source of daylily creations) and still track the source? 3) Is self-seed not a form of volunteering? How wonderful is that?

Today Red Volunteer, the daylily, bloomed for the second time in our townhome garden. I bought 3 Red Volunteer daylilies last year and planted two at the historic cemetery and one at the townhome. 2 of 3 bloomed this year. That in itself is awesome! Then the Red Volunteer that bloomed at the historic cemetery made – you guessed it – a self-seed. Oh yah. If that pod makes it to maturity, you can bet I will harvest it. And if the seeds are viable and go to seedling, you can bet I will plant the seedlings at the historic cemetery. Maybe even name them (all the same for the seedlings from that one pod of course). And what if it self-seeds again next year? The same? Could we run out of volunteer names? Not sure. But it would be wonderful to try!

Here at the townhome, I did deliberate crosses with the two Red Volunteer blooms this year. The first one – you guessed it – already has a pod. I am hoping the cross I did today is equally successful. Know why? Well … today I crossed Red Volunteer with Coral Majority. Coral Majority is very interesting. She is a super giver of pollen, she frequently self-seeds, and most often I cannot deliberately use her as a pod parent. She just isn’t built for that. She has very bold coloration, very often looks like she is tie-dyed, and is not a messy daylily. She drops her spent blooms pretty quickly if they don’t produce pods. Now doesn’t that have a lot of possibilities? And she is a child of South Seas, with a diploid in the parentage although both Coral Majority and Red Volunteer are tetraploids. Limitless ideas come to mind.

For this year, it only has the one chance. We shall see what is meant to be.

Fill in Friday – Decision on daylily “farm” approach

I did it! I have been talking about maybe doing this for a while. On and off for 3 years. But with the loss of the 11 hostas, I finally made the decision. The daylily “farm” can be handled with raised boxes. It can. Truly.

Now, I say “farm” very lightly. I know it is not a farm. Of course I do. And if I could, I would have a great big daylily farm. But it ain’t happening. Our land up north is for our off-grid time, and that is not changing any time soon. So, my personal townhome style daylily “farm” is going to expand, but just not in a conventional farm way. I am going to work with what I have, to do the most I can do with what is in my heart. And that is to continue to be creative, do intentional crosses, harvest those seeds, and work to bring them to seedling, plant, and something new and hopefully fun for bloom. I also am fascinated by what the birds, bees, and butterflies accomplish with the daylilies, and I am not going to count out continuing to harvest those seeds as part of my daylily “farm” effort 🙂

Hello Yellow is a self seed daylily, and it has a very special place in my garden mama heart.

So there you go. A townhome style daylily “farm”, doing intentional crosses and harvesting the bird, bee, and butterfly contributions as well. As our oldest grandson says, “Do It!” Yes, I think I will 🙂

In a previous post I fully discussed the loss of 11 hostas in the townhome gardens. Although I miss the big, beautiful hostas, I shall not be replacing them. It would be foolish. The same issues that most likely led, or at least added to their demise, remain. Fertilizer and herbicide overspray will not be going away, and growing tree roots were already expected to make part of the garden ground unusable at some point in time. We love those big beautiful trees as well! Bottom line, the time is now here. I need a new format. I can think and think and think, but I still come up with the same solution for my daylily “farm” – raised box containers. That is the only way I can see this working, long term.

So, decision one is made – raised box containers are needed. I have one, a wonderful cedar container with a wire mesh lid that my children made me for my 60th birthday. It is wunderbar! But they aren’t making me more, so I went shopping. Here were my “must haves” when shopping for the raised box container(s):

Must be secure from squirrels, bunnies, and birds who dig. (We will assess if birds try to nest there. I hope not.)
Must be low maintenance. Nothing “fussy”. No need to continually paint or stain, not flimsy.
Preferably can be left outside year-round. Maybe I will holiday decorate with them. Aw, who am I kidding? Probably not. Maybe I will put bird food in them lol
Must have drainage.
Not metal. I want a daylily “farm” but not a livestock metal trough look.
Must be raised enough to miss as much applied fertilizer and herbicide overspray as possible, and in fact, it would be great if it stopped those granules in their tracks, so they didn’t go farther into the garden.

The options available are pretty impressive! I ended up choosing an HDPE raised bed box. One at first, as a test, to see if I like that particular product. Yes, plastic. It is made of the same type of materials as my path, which is 20 years old and no problem. I get it, plastic is a dirty word, but I bought eco-friendly and sustainable. No, I did not research the company to see if it really is eco responsible … I am hoping what they claim is true, but I am not growing food, and I do not expect to need to continually replace them 🙂

The new raised box(es) will hold all daylilies in progress, from seed to season’s end seedling. (It will be an expansion of my existing seedling box.) I am keeping my tried and true one pot per harvested seed type method. The boxes will hold those pots. There may be exceptions where I use multiple pots per seed type. Right away I am thinking about the 60 seeds I harvested from the same cross type last year. But by and large, one pot per harvested seed type. I will use cloches (wire baskets) over the top of the pots that are designed to protect the seedlings from diggers and mess makers. I already have those. And, best of all, the raised bed/box is not slotted nor elevated on legs. It will make a border on the inside edge of the rock that acts as protection from granular fertilizer and herbicide overspray on the garden on the other side of the raised box. Hurray!!!

So that is my next steps plan. Nothing is perfect, but it is directionally correct, and we shall hope it is successful. Plus, it is portable, meaning I can take it if we ever do move to another home.

I will begin with the first box this weekend, and if I am pleased, I have room for another box right away this year. As mentioned above, I have 60 seeds of the same intentional cross to get planted by the beginning of June, plus all the other assorted intentional crosses and self-seeds. They all need a summer home to get started, and whatever goes to seedling will need protection once they get planted this fall. Fingers crossed, the solid raised box with cloche method takes care of all of that.

And yes, if all 60 same cross seeds germinate and go to seedling, I am fine with that. I did some significant family genealogy this past week and the results had an unbelievable tie in to the parents of that daylily seed. Almost freaky weird uncanny. So that seed is now also dedicated, and seedlings will be shared 🙂

Change, Big Change

As I looked at my photos of previous years this morning, it became crystal clear – the townhome gardens are changing. A lot.

It is a bit of a shock this year with the loss of a number of hostas. OK, 11. A large number of large hostas. The full realization is here. The edges of the gardens probably are not the safest place anymore – fertilizer and herbicide overspray and drift. And the aging of the garden by the linden, with its roots, has arrived.

I should probably be more upset. The big beautiful hostas! Why am I not very upset? Did I not really care about the hostas?

And then it occurs to me that nature is giving me cues. It is time to pivot. A pivot I have been thinking of accomplishing in other ways. Nature just beat me to it.

Likewise, a big portion of my time allocation has also pivoted this year. Again, the change outcome is something I was already working toward. It is just different timing and a different path.

So, where am I with the gardens?

At the townhome gardens, I greatly miss the 11 hostas, but I will not replace them. Something benefitted from them and they returned to nature. Their time here is done.

I am firmly on the path with the daylily propagation. I don’t expect that to change before I hang up my gardening hat, whenever that may be. I have longed for a space to daylily “farm” for a while, and my mind is reminding me words have power, be careful what you put out there, what you share as your desire for next steps, what you wish for.

So the space is now there, admittedly needing a new configuration or format. More portable if I want. But the timing. Is the timing right? It feels like nature has run ahead of me this time. I need to make the next move but I am not quite ready. I am not “for sure” on what I want as the next step format. I am going slow, checking things out, how I want them longer term.

So let’s see – What is right in front of me? What do I already have in motion?
Let’s start with the “Mahala” seedlings. What???, you say! Did some seeds go to seedling? Yes, but only two. Out of 25 seeds. Not my usual yield ratio, but ok. And maybe nature is saying that is enough. One for either side of the historic cemetery gate. But wait! Mahala was not about the historic cemetery. In fact, nothing I have read about her mentions her involvement in the acquisition or care of the historic cemetery. I wished. I was hoping it was part of her and William’s homestead, but I cannot find anything at all to support that. Everything I have found leads to an understanding that it was entirely someone else’s land before it became the historic cemetery. So then – the “Welcome” is like the welcome she extended to those who stayed at the Buckhorn. The Buckhorn was not on William and her land nor was it their building, but where they were based out of, where their presence was first established in this area. Perhaps my tiny part was to decide which harvested seed was to be dedicated and named for Mahala, and then nature decided, and will decide, how much “presence” those daylilies have. Perhaps a very simple “Welcome” duo of daylilies in Mahala Felton’s honor have been initially chosen by nature to move forward. I have done my part. Now we wait a few years and see how they develop.

And that may also be the townhome garden message overall for this time. I have done my part, I have things still to do with the daylily seeds harvested in 2024, and the seedlings from previous years. Now we see how things develop.

For sure the rest of the 2024 daylily cross seeds need to go in the seedling box by the beginning of June. That means the Mahala seeds need to get into the ground by the beginning of June, and for that I invested in cloches. I bought a set of 20 for long term planning, so I have plenty. A couple could even go to the historic cemetery. But watering there is manual, and markers for the daylilies I planted last year are also disappearing, so I may keep the seedlings here until fall. TBD.

One thing is for sure, I am done with the “one seed in a little pot” method. I have done it my last time. I should know better. There is a reason I stopped doing that. It is way too tedious and, for whatever reason, for me it yields way less results. It looks nice, little pots all lined up in a tray, with covers to start, but no. Done with that. All harvested daylily seeds, intentional crosses or volunteers, will go in a pot – one pot per type. Easy peasey lemon squeezey 😊

That I know for sure.

Crazy Good

It is the end of the gardening season, the middle of the fall, time to enjoy the turning of seasons, and time for a little reflection.

Of course, top of mind, I poured myself into two garden endeavors this year – the daylily crosses and refining and filling up the garden at the historic cemetery.
Of all the daylily crosses I did this year, a whim was the most successful – Pink Tirza X red daylily. 8 seed pods, 60 seeds! What I will do with 60 seedlings of just that cross, I have no idea. And that is just one cross of many this year. I ended up with well over a hundred viable looking seeds, “looking” being the key. The first three hurdles have been passed – successful cross, seed pod survived to maturity, and healthy looking seed. All the seeds are in storage now. But there is much more to go, and at least a few years to see what I got.

This is always a tough transition for me. Friends go south, gardens go to sleep, way more time indoors … but I could probably use a little rest.

And let’s not forget the cabin, yes the cabin. While I was crossing daylilies to make new ones, and doing year 2 at the historic cemetery, my husband was turning an Amish built shed into a cabin. What was just an idea 5 years ago – a brain child out of watching too many videos that looked way too easy, and a long time idea of “something up north” – is now a cabin. Not the Taj Mahal. Not a cabin on a lake – we are terra firma people – but nevertheless a cabin. Yes, crazy stuff. Still an outhouse. Still bears, and wolves, and coyotes, a porcupine, a bard owl, at least one bobcat, deer, bunnies, mice (sorry mice, saying buh-bye to you), red squirrels, grouse, lots of birds, even a nest on the shed porch this spring. But now also a cabin. Better be careful. Maybe a well is next. You never know the crazy stuff we might do.

And the garden at the historic cemetery! Wowsywowsywow! That changed me as a person! It renewed in me that people really do appreciate things. Not everybody – I’m talking to you dog owners lol. Cute as they are, that garden is not for Fourpeds! But by and large, the support has been INCREDIBLE!!!
And, 100% transparent, not absolutely every harvested seed is in storage. I could not resist harvesting one pod from the Stellas at the historic cemetery. For a friend. Not for me. So far. There are still pods that are maturing. Actually, there are still buds that are blooming. Probably because I removed the pods as they formed. We do have a good crop of pollinators over there so I suspect it will an ongoing discipline to remove the pods as they form so we get season-long bloom.

So onwards! No choice, right? The fall candles are being burned, the cozy home stuff is coming out, the garden is going to sleep, the shrubs are being trimmed, the hummingbird feeders are down, soon the garden pretties will come in and be stored, and the seedling box, and eventually the lawn furniture and firepit. But the pictures are available and the fireplace has already been started up, and there are adventures ahead.

For tonight, I started putting button batteries in the tea lights, and I lit a woodsy candle and drank hot cocoa. Fall is definitely here.

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!

First daylily seedling with scapes

Albeit fun, and a great challenge, it has been a multi-year process to get the first daylily seedling to produce scapes in our townhome gardens. And even so, it is pollinator created, from Marque Moon, not an intentional cross. But I am very C C pleased. It is progress. And I have learned a bunch that should help get our intentional crosses from 2023 on better footing than their predecessors.

Here was my happy discovery today

I am expecting blooms that look like Enchanted April or Admiral’s Braid, the parentage, but we shall see.

I have taken a bit of a meandering path to get to today’s happy discovery. Here is a bit of history and my personal experience so far:

Planting direct sow, into the ground, is a slow boat. My first daylily seedling attempt was doing that with pollinator created seeds from our South Seas daylily 5 years ago. Those seeds were viable, but produced a very slow growing daylily clump. Less than 6 hours/day of sun exposure probably also had a small impact. I moved it into more sun last fall and it now looks more robust, but still no scapes.

Planting daylily seedlings in a raised bed, in a sunny location, without watering beyond rain, even if it is hugelculture, does not work. Also not protecting from deer does not work. I did that combo 4 years ago. None survived. I wish I had that money back! Those frames are now disassembled and what was remaining of the hugelculture decomposing has been smoothed out.

Planting daylily seedlings in a sunny, perpetually somewhat moist area probably did work, but we sold that little house so I cannot say for certain. It looked successful when we were there.

Planting daylily seedlings into a well watered garden with less than 6 hours of sun produced slow growing seedlings that are now only turning around because they were transplanted into more sun this spring.

Transplanting daylily seedlings into a well watered and well drained very sunny location produced very robust 2nd year plants this season so far. One of those is the daylily with scapes, year 2.

Trying intentional crosses without planning and looking up ploidy doesn’t work. Nuf said there.

I stratify in Feb/March, and then after Easter, I plant the same type/species/crosses seeds together in a pot, indoors, covered with plastic. Yah, I know, unconventional. I have tried all the conventional methods without success. Can you say gross, mold, dead seeds? In May I usually put the pots out in the outdoor seedling box, covered loosely in plastic, with the screened cover over top. I have been fooled, and put them out too early (think late snow), but the seeds and seedlings seem to be smart. They just take their good sweet time, and commence growing when it is consistently warmer again.

I do need to get back to being much more diligent with my labeling and record keeping (diagrams). For labeling, I was careless this year and tucked the empty envelopes with the seed info into the seedling box. The ones written in pencil washed off in the rain. That I do regret. I also need to keep diagrams of where I plant in the garden. My record keeping workaround is going to be a printed out photo with labeling. My planting is in clumps, so that should be a satisfactorily resurrected method from my past to re-employ 😊

Hopefully more of the seedlings will produce scapes this year.

Success, Squirrels, and Pencils

Last year was my second year of trying intentional crosses to create new daylilies. This is something just for fun for me, and an opportunity to learn more and try out new challenges. I am not doing it to create anything certified. Nothing fancy. I put all the “same cross” into one pot. This is, as the old saying goes, “for kicks and giggles”.

The crosses between Marque Moon and China Doll were definitely the most successful last year. Of 38 seeds, we have eleven seedlings. We also have other seedlings – of the pencil mishap variety. I labeled some batches in pencil and it got washed away. On those I can guesstimate, but I cannot say for absolute certain what they are. Although a bummer, I’m still happy those worked, and if/when they bloom I will have fun guesstimating what they were.

And then there are the squirrel mishaps – where they seedlings were outside the box and the squirrels dug in the dirt. Those were a loss. Those very naughty squirrels!

Learning as we go here. This year I will do only two or three types of intentional crosses so that everything fits in the planter, protected by the screen.

Changes a-coming

Besides the daylilies being done for the year and the linden starting to look very fall-ish, and the sedum making me smile, I feel like yet more changes are a-coming.

Sometimes children – grown and tiny bring you along on their journey. So it is that, besides the cabin build-out up north, an enormous gardening opportunity has presented itself, one that, frankly, is even more than I would tackle alone. But the beauty is that it is not mine.

I find myself astonished that I am looking forward to NOT being the owner. What is going on?

And who was it that looked at me oh those many years ago and said, “Don’t let those daylily seeds go to waste! You know you can save them and plant them!” Yes, indeed. In addition to some going up north and maybe some to the historic garden, I think they may look beautiful in your new gardens 🥰

4 years

This is my first ever daylily seedling to have a scape. It is not our first seedling – that one is still TBD. But when I saw this today my gardener heart was happy. It is from a pollinator created seed, and it got repeatedly trampled on from the lawn maintenance, but I moved it last fall and IT SURVIVED!

So much else also going on, and I will put a post together tonight hopefully with all that.

For now, here’s pollinator created Purple D’Oro seed seedling first scape. I will follow up with progress too. Bunny better stay out!

And hopefully this is the springboard to successful intentional crosses.