A Very Satisfying Accomplishment, Time Now to Enjoy

Today I finished planting the 2025 harvested daylily seeds. It was so incredibly satisfying to refresh my pivot table after entering today’s accomplishments and see … no lines left. Hooray!!! It was an experience. A shall not be repeated experience. Way, way, way too much “fun”. But everything is accounted for and reconciled. Now we wait to see what nature does.

First fun story – After planting all the daylily seeds, I realized I have four labels/tags left. They were from a very welcome discovery today. I thought I was out of labels. And I was not going to buy anything more for the 2025 harvested seeds. I was cutting up the flat side of the plastic trays from the 4 pks of cream cheese danish, cutting strips, and using that for labels! So today, after finding the forgotten stack of labels, and using them, there were four left. A confirmation to stick with the “only four” crosses I have planned this year? I think so 😉

Second fun story – About 1/2 hour after I finished planting the rest of the daylily seeds and had put away all the supplies, we were sitting outside relaxing. In hummed … the first hummingbird to visit this year! It looked big and healthy. It hummed in, looked around, and hummed back out. It is May! The hummingbirds are back! You can bet the first of the feeders has food cooling down right now and will go out shortly.

And for beauty – The gardens look awesome. They are filling out so nicely. It should be a few more weeks and the Asian lilies will start to bud out. And the clematis out back are starting to vine so they should have blooms to share in a few weeks.

Time now for patio time – for long morning coffees, or a beverage of choice in the afternoon. Just sitting, chatting with neighbors, and relaxing as much as a gardener can. We can. With some occasional “let me check one thing” moments 😉

I leave you with another picture of one of the white squirrels, from this morning.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Decisions, Decisions

This blog has been a bit in coming. But today I made the decision.

There have been many days lately where I wrote a blog, went “blech”, erased it and started over. There have been others where I started on one topic and thought “blech” and rewrote until it ended up being another thing all together. Lots of time flew by, and that was ok. I was getting to where I needed to be today.

When I started this blog 8 years ago, topics flowed freely. It was fun. I had ideas stacked up for weeks. Words flowed so fast I was writing the blogs on my phone on the patio. But I feel like I have blogged about all the “fun, easy” garden stuff and although I have rounded a corner now into the deep of my daylily propagation interest, that is a bit in the weeds for a generic garden blog.

I did think about starting another new blog, with just daylily stuff. Sharing what I am learning, successes and failures and things in between … Unfortunately, I am also finding myself NOT doing things that are also on my path.

So, to today. We are in the book of Luke with our Bible studying, and today it was on Martha and Mary. And attitudes, and, even more importantly, priorities with our time and giftings and callings. Ouch! Gardening used to be a fun share, a blessing to share. I need to get back to that with the blog and reprioritize my time. Get back on my path.

So here’s the cool thing in the garden right now. The Bluebells Clematis is budding. Soon the buds will open, and I will share those too 🙂

And the one tulip? I fear Bunimous Rex saw it the same day. The next morning it was gone, with a few smooshed petals strewn about. Bunimous!!! 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Can’t Win ‘Em All

These trays were planted indoors on March 23rd and went outdoors on April 12th. On April 24 I saw the one seedling (in the shadow of the cross bar) and since then nothing else has come up.

Here’s reasons I can think of for the failure:

The seeds need more time out in warmer weather. (Maybe. I will give them a couple more weeks.)
The trays are horrible (I’m going with this one. These trays are not staying. Way too putzy for me, and so far, the results stink.)
The one seed that did germinate was the only viable seed. (They all looked good when I planted them.)

Here’s some positives:

Even though these may be a 98% bust, there is one seedling, so far. It only takes one.
This batch was a test of a reverse cross of a wildly successful cross from last year. The pod parent is one of my favorite daylilies, Pink Tirzah, but the data available is a bit scant. Most of what I know about Pink Tirzah is what I have proven out myself, including even ploidy. Now I am working on fertility. The pollen from Pink Tirzah has been awesome, but as a pod parent, not so much. I have only had one other cross that went to seedling with Pink Tirzah as the pod parent. I am hoping for bloom on that one this year. I do love Pink Tirzah, so the work continues. This year, besides seeing how this cross goes, I am hoping to get Pink Tirzah self-seed, as I will not be doing intentional crosses with Pink Tirzah this year.
And there is still hope. I have a medium pot of seeds of this same (reverse) cross I planted and put out a few days ago, using my usual very successful, albeit quite lazy, method 😉

We shall see how things proceed.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Just one – tulip

I have planted lots of tulips over the years. They bloom a variety of successive years and then fizzle out. This year only one bloomed. That is down from two last year.

Part of me says I could dig out the old greens to tidy up. Currently unproductive tulip bulbs only get removed when I want the space, and nowadays that is exclusively for daylily seedlings. Unfortunately, I have tried daylily seedlings in this area, and they get stepped on:( But, wheels turning … Maybe a certain Pink Tirza and Autumn Red cross will bloom this year and be the first seedlings turned daylilies to move to this area. To join their parents? It’s a thought.

In the meantime, we will enjoy our one tulip bloom 🙂

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

What a difference a week makes!

We are at the end of April now, and what a difference the last week has made!

Sandy’s Corner is really filling out.

The daylilies look great.
Last year’s seedlings are much farther along than in previous years when I was still working at finding out what they liked best.
The hostas are even looking much fuller this year.
And our volunteer shrub does indeed look like a currant. It can stay, at least for now. The birds will probably love it.

On the flip side, I could kick myself for buying those tiny little 6 cell seed planting setups. They definitely fit perfectly into the grey seedling boxes, but the seeds are not germinating like they do when I plant medium pots of up to 20 “same” seeds together. I think I know someone who might appreciate them for starting veggie seeds next year 😉

Overall, I am finding that I really like what I have going on in the townhome gardens this year. It has been fun to see the new look and focus come up, and I am more convinced than ever that scaling way back on the crosses this year is the right plan. I can always scope up if I want to, but I am definitely not enjoying that I have so much work yet to go on getting last year’s seeds going. A lighter scope next year continues to sound fabulous.

The historic cemetery gardens are really filling out as well.

This past weekend my husband and I went over and did some spring cleanup at the historic cemetery gardens. They are really looking good! I do suspect our phantom weeders have been helping as well, because I kind of remember it being a little messier a week or so ago. So, thanks to them!

There is one sad thing. Over the past couple years, I have added purchased bare root daylilies to the historic cemetery gardens, as well as added seedlings from crosses I did at the townhome gardens. When I walked though a week or so ago, it looked like they were not there. This past weekend that was confirmed. There are moles or gophers over there, but the markers are almost all missing too, so that is odd. At any rate, I do have the seeds I harvested from there last fall, and I will direct sow those to do one final try with seeds and seedlings, but I think I have my answer. Bare root planting is a no go there. And probably seed and seedling planting as well.

On the upside, the daylily from South Seas self-seed that I planted at the historic cemetery last fall is thriving, so additions like that may be an option, go forward.

That’s the gardens updates for the week.

I hope you have a great week ahead!

White Squirrel – and we still need protection for the seedlings

Oh yes, the white squirrels are super fun. And they, like their grey buddies, would love to dig in whatever it is that I have in the seedling boxes.

And we have our first Autumn Red cross seedling up. And screen will be going on the seedling box shortly 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Be Blessed!

It’s Coming Along

Sandy’s Corner is coming along. Each morning it looks greener and fuller. A majority of the daylilies in that area are daylilies or seedlings from self-seed or from crosses I did. And each day we get closer to scape and then bloom.

For now, I relax and enjoy the end of April.

A retrospective, restful morning

This morning as I was reviewing my pictures from years past, I realized it was a milestone day. That milestone day eventually prompted me to start this blog. And, I realized, I am starting my 9th year of blogging. That is crazy pants.

Some days I think I should call it quits on the blogging. Goodness gracious, I have shared and shared and shared. Down to tiny garden details. I’m not sure there is a lot more to share. But the daylilies …

I wrote a detailed blog today – and deleted it. Much more fun to share that Sandy’s Corner is continuing to be a very enjoyable place to look out over that portion of the daylilies and daylily seedlings as the continue on their Spring growth. That I am hoping for more first-time blooms from seedlings again this year. That I am looking forward to more blooms from our prior years’ seedlings turned daylilies. And that the robins were very trusting this morning.

Be Blessed!

Spring Rain, and updates on the Seedling Boxes and Sandy’s Corner

This morning the forecast said rain. I was sincerely hoping it would hold, as the first wave of seeds are now going outside and some natural watering is always a bonus.

I was not disappointed.

Starting seeds indoors this year reminded me of why I don’t do that. It was sooo time for them to go outside.

Sandy’s Corner

The gardens are missing one little chihuahua terrier this spring and that is definitely sad for us. It is a little extra poignant because Sandy was our last dog. We have decided after 30 years of being rescue dog owners that it is time for that chapter to end. A new chapter is upon us, but our memories of Sandy’s long life with us remain.

We have such wonderful memories of Sandy in the gardens. Specifically, “Sandy’s Corner” is where he liked to sunbathe – on the path, on the grass right outside the garden, or, in his later years, in a dog bed outside the garden on the patio.

That garden area has also changed a lot over the years with the Linden growing and casting different shade patterns. And it is where our successive Traeger shadow has grown.

The area closest to the house gets the least amount of morning sun, and I used to, many years ago, have big hostas back there. Gradually over the years I moved those big hostas out and did more with tulips. But tulips around here only bloom a few years, and then they just come up as greens each year. Nowadays the tulip greens are primarily early season bunny food.

When I want to reclaim a space with tulip greens, I simply dig them out. Such will be the case with the tulip greens in Sandy’s Corner this year. I know the hostas work in that area, and I have a large hosta I need to move. It will be a nice backdrop to the daylily seedlings that do exceptionally well with the longer sun exposure farther out.

And the little garden accents, as whimsical as they are, will also move out soon. Their short-term job is to remind me not to put anything there. That is the corridor to the hummingbird feeder, and, for that reason, last fall I removed some daylily seedlings from that area. My husband maintains the hummingbird feeders – that we both love to watch, and which should not cause “fear of stepping on daylily seedlings” stress 😉 And no worries, the seedlings I moved are doing very well in their new location.

This sweet tulip is in another area, and it will stay. Hopefully the bunnies leave it alone 🙂

One spot that will not change is this corner. This is the corner in which Sandy most often sat on the path. There used to be hostas there, but when they began to fail, we moved them, and I reclaimed the space for daylily seedlings. Those daylily seedlings bloomed last year and are back stronger than ever this year (way more fans). They are in the right exposure.

There are also forget-me-nots in that area. I like a smattering of those, but not a mat. Last year I began selectively weeding those out after they bloomed (not letting them go to seed). A little seed is the perfect amount.

I will never tire of this. Daylilies coming up in Spring

And with that, it is Friday, and I am ready to relax. My husband tells me he is going to make his signature smoked nachos on the grill. My stomach is already growling 🙂

I hope you have a great weekend!

Be Blessed!

Turning the Corner

After months of watching and waiting, we are finally into outdoor gardening season 🙂

Top of mind this week in our gardens:

The Hyperion daylilies arrived and have been added to the garden

The Hyperion daylily shipment arrived, and they are now planted in one of our garden areas. I am hoping they do well in their new home here, and live good long lives as our most historic daylilies.
Hyperions are one of two diploid forms I am looking to work with. In addition, their cheery yellow color will definitely be welcome, and their hardiness and deer resistance is something I plan to test up north. That they are fragrant is also a bonus.
In researching how Hyperion daylilies do best, and look best, I found that waves, or groupings, were the recommendation. I did consider alternating them with the Autumn Red daylilies but ultimately decided against that idea in favor of a solid Hyperion wave.

The daylily seedlings in the townhome gardens are all up

This week brought excellent news on the daylily and daylily seedling front. We did not lose any of our daylily seedling varieties. Every variety that I planted in 2025 from our 2024 harvested seed is now up in the 2026 gardens. Additionally, all of the previous years’ seedlings (that have not yet bloomed) and the daylilies from seed (that have bloomed) are also all up.

The realization that the propagation work I started in 2017 is now an annual rolling new creation was … beyond a minor moment. I am very excited to be at this point. Besides personally enjoying the daylily creations, I am looking forward to sharing the resulting blooms in a variety of ways – blogging, caring for them in our gardens, and starting the daylily work up north.

The scope of this year’s daylily crosses in the townhome gardens

With all of the South Seas self-seed daylilies back up, and with Hello Yellow back up, my propagation plan for 2026 is waiting on one thing – 2026 blooms. That will be a few months out.
I would like to say this year will be the first year my propagation work will be exclusively with daylilies created from seed harvested in our townhome gardens, but alas, I will still be using one purchased daylily for this year’s crosses.
I will use one AHS registered daylily for crosses this year, and that will be Marque Moon. Marque Moon has been in our gardens for almost 20 years. It has successfully crossed with our South Seas daylily and now I want to see what it can do with the South Seas self-seed daylilies.

The daylily seedlings at the historic cemetery

While the established daylilies at the historic cemetery overwintered very well, the seedlings, sadly, did not. That, coupled with what happened with the purchased daylilies I planted in 2024 (very few came up in 2025), tells me the historic cemetery garden needs a more restrictive palate with primarily divisions from things that already do well there. It will take longer to fill the empty spaces with that approach, but that’s ok. Community gardens are a unique challenge, and different sites need different things. Go with the flow.

And with that, it’s a wrap for this week.

Here’s a few more early greens pics around the townhome gardens.