Category: Garden

Fill in Friday -Bunnyville

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

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

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

Screenshot


Fill In Friday – Irises, Clematis, First Daylily Scape, and some shenanigans

Let’s see … where did I leave off last week? I think it was with the discovery of the first daylily scapes of the season.

Last Friday I was weeding at the historic cemetery. I was down to the end where there are some mature Stella de Oros. Full disclosure, Stella de Oros are not daylilies I would buy. I do like the color. The size is not the issue. It is just that they are everywhere – in residential gardens, commercial landscaping, everywhere. But … they are daylilies, they are improving in health since the rock was switched out to mulch, and they were gifted to the historic cemetery garden before I started in earnest, so they stay. Stella de Oros also bloom fairly early, so they are a harbinger of the start of the daylily blooms on the way. So, last Friday, as I was wrapping up weeding, I looked over and there it was – a scape, on a Stella de Oro.

Which means the scapes will soon start showing up on other daylilies. And that is my start of the daylily season. Scapes hold buds that bloom and blooms can be not only enjoyed, but crossed, by birds, bees, butterflies … and humans.
It’s almost here!!! Hurray!

While daylily gardeners everywhere await daylily season, irises are in full bloom. The iris bed I made two years ago at the historic cemetery is starting to really shine! Almost all the irises in the lower part of the bed came from a smaller overgrown old garden. They were not blooming there, so I took my chance on color. I lucked out. Last year all those that bloomed were yellow, and this year as the iris bed began to really shine, the color yellow was predominant, save for one purple iris in a line of five that I had added last year from the big old garden. That purple bud showed up late. We shall see what comes next year.

Now here is where I get to share the joys of a community, public garden. 99.5% of the experience is AWESOME. People are so kind and thankful, and it is so fun to meet them and see them over and over. But there are, shall we say, occasional shenanigans. And herein is this week’s shenanigans story. I shall say it did not make me smile and say “silly turkeys”. So here’s the story. I was all excited about the yellow irises because we have 14 veterans buried at the cemetery who came home safely from war. Think yellow ribbon for safe return. We also have a Civil War soldier, James Akers, buried at the cemetery, and he was killed at Gettysburg. I wanted at least one purple iris in remembrance of him, amidst the yellow irises. Think Purple Heart.
And one came up! But it was not meant to bloom there. You see, within the past day and a half someone/something came by and snapped off a bunch of yellow irises and the one purple iris. The yellow ones – in various stages from bud to bloom – they threw around in the mulch and even on the ground,

but the purple one was totally missing. Now what possesses an action like that, I cannot imagine. Irises don’t even smell good, and animals usually leave them alone, so … my guess is shenanigans. Now, I have been putting the best construction on missing plant markers and missing plants, thinking maybe it was squirrels or turkeys, but now I am thinking along other lines. And what is my logic? The turkeys that live inside the fence have a big old garden of irises, even one that made it to bloom. And … they aren’t touching them. Soooo …. probably shenanigans. Decision? The Mahala daylily seedlings definitely aren’t going to the historic cemetery quite yet, and I will not be purchasing any additional plants for the historic cemetery. Just out of wisdom. We shall watch and assess. No big. Just prudence.

For now, we enjoy pics, and see the one purple bud in front.

In the townhome gardens the clematis out back are blooming beautifully,

following the Bluebells clematis out front that just wrapped up.

The Weigelia has also started blooming, and, soon, like the clematis, the hummingbirds will be found enjoying those blooms.

Do you remember the variegated sedum I pulled out and then saw it had a few tiny green buds? I potted it in an old terracotta pot, and it is growing new buds. Yeay! Sedums rock!

The Ninebarks are also doing wonderfully, and, along with the Weigelia, they remind me every year why bushes do have their place.

But, there is a shenanigans story in the townhome gardens too. I suspect they are of the bird variety. After over fifteen years of birds being helpers in cleaning up the shamrocks, we might have a crop of mess makers this year. They have decided to make quite the mess of all the purple shamrocks. No worries. There are so many shamrock rhizomes. I brought them in and will restart them in the house. Sorry birds. No more purple shamrocks fun for you this year.

And that was our week. I hope yours was fun! Catch you next week!

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.

Fill in Friday – It’s Bluebells time!!!

Happy (fill in) Friday. Here’s what’s going on in the garden this week.

The Bluebells clematis is strutting her stuff. Serious strutting. And her “kid” from last year is mini strutting lol. The birds are going bonkers around mama Bluebells. Absolute bonkers. It probably doesn’t hurt that they also have a mini birdbath nearby. Hubs reports that the birdbath seems to be more noticed this spring than in years past. Now we just need to keep it filled. And yes, that is one of our hummingbird feeders. It is just about hummingbird time. We are expecting to see them any day now.

I dunno what the hostas are doing. They are almost all super sluggish this year. Did they get a telegraph from the hostas at the historic cemetery and now have mulch envy? Seriously. The Elegans are totally MIA, and a bunch of others are very diminished compared to prior years. I’m not sure what to think.

The hostas that are doing super well are the Blue Mouse Ears divisions. Yeay Blue Mouse Ears!

Only two tulips bloomed, and they are done.

And this is what crowded daylilies do 😭. I need to get them moved this year.

For comparison, this is the same type, but divided last year.

Update on the daffodils? Still no blooms. Definitely no bags of 50 this fall. Final decision. Shifting to grape hyacinth 💕 Final decision.

And lastly … dadadadahhhh! The shamrocks are all now out. The last one went out yesterday. But very naughty squirrels are digging on the smaller pots.

My thoughts are repeatedly going to – Why do I feel like the townhome gardens are shifting? They feel so different this year. Are they turning into my daylily “farm”? Do I not need a bigger space to continue my projects? We shall see.

And just like that

Two weeks ago it seemed like the gardens were on hold. This week things were full speed ahead. But today with a rain and cooler weather, I am once again spending my time indoors. No worries. It is a good time to finish this blog post. It is a longer one. I need to cut it off, wrap it up, insert the pics, add the tags and categories, and get it out there. Here goes.

Top of mind is still the prospective “Mahala” daylily seeds – With the seed planting underway, I am trying to figure out what I will do to protect the seedlings when they need to go into the ground. The seedling box is not a season-long option with the small seed starter cups I used for those seeds. I used special seedling cups for them, with little greenhouse style covers. I am hoping that will be very successful for germination, but if so, they will need to get into the ground within a month. The little cups will be too restrictive for their roots.

If they are successful and germinate and go to seedling, where I think I am heading is something called a “cloche”. It is a wire mesh cage topper that is placed over the seedlings to protect them. In our case that protection time would be the 2025 gardening season. The cloche solution would allow any seedlings a full season to grow and mature in the ground. Then in the fall the cloche would be removed and in year 2 forward the “Mahala” seedlings would be just like any other daylily in the gardens.

I like the cloche idea as a next step. It keeps with “simple”, and it looks nice. It is also a sustainable one-time purchase if I want to continue the early seedling process in future years, for future dedicated seeds. And it doesn’t add another seedling box to be stored over the winter, a definite bonus.

For right now I am still watching to see if we get seedlings. If we don’t get seedlings, we don’t need cloches. But, fingers crossed, we will need them.

In the meantime, the established gardens are popping, so there has been plenty to do.

In the townhome gardens, everything except two late daylilies, a few missing hostas, and two sedum, have popped, including the bushes. One day the ninebark bushes didn’t even look like they had buds. Two days later they were leafing out. And yesterday I noticed the weigelia bush is taking off too.


For daylilies, all the longtime daylilies, including those I divided and transplanted, are back. There are two daylilies from last fall’s order that I am still watching for. In a funny twist, they are supposed to be part of my “control” daylilies to compare against what works at the historic cemetery, and also, an easier way to do and monitor crosses. It is much easier to step out the door at the townhouse and do a cross than get in the car and drive to the historic cemetery. Not that I don’t intend to do crosses there. I do. But it will just be a little more time consuming. Full transparency, though? The historic cemetery garden is easily two weeks ahead of the townhouse gardens. It is an all-day sun, retaining wall, mulched garden. The two control daylilies that are missing from the townhome gardens are already up at the historic cemetery garden. I am kind of bumming, kind of thinking, “can you say extended crossing season?” We shall see what actually blooms. Hopefully both of the missing control daylilies will still show at the townhome gardens as well. One is a tetraploid, and one is a diploid. The tetraploid is one of my faves. It is one of the “parents” that are waning in the townhome gardens and also one of the “parents” of a cross I am watching to bloom this year. I was hoping to use the newly planted one this year, but eras change, and the torch may be passing to a new “rock steady”. Long story short, it will be a bit before I can fully say what we have to work with at each location for 2025.


Regarding daylily seedlings, awesome news … at all of the gardens the seedlings are back. I am especially excited to see one particular set of 2024 seedlings (an intentional cross), and am hoping it blooms this year. As I had also hoped, all of the 2023 seedlings are quite a bit larger. Hello Yello is three times larger! She will be a focus again this year. I think she is a tetraploid, as a tetraploid cross went to pod last year whereas a diploid cross didn’t. But that tetraploid cross pod started to fail, and then Bunimous Rex (our beloved neighborhood resident very large bunny) or a naughty squirrel got it. I know for sure it was not one of the white squirrels. Na-ah. They are very well behaved. Maybe this year some of the shorter crosses also need cloches lol. We shall see.

On the hosta scene, Blue Mouse Ears continue to amaze me. Last year’s divisions are popping up.

I think if I could only have one type of hosta, it would be Blue Mouse Ears. Yes, Rainforest Sunrise and Guacamole and Elegans and Praying Hands and Touch of Class. But goodness! Blue Mouse Ears year after year after year checks all the boxes – sun tolerant, disease free, drought hardy, and they reproduce very well. So well that they got divided and placed all over last fall. They are now coming up where we transplanted divisions – both here at the townhome, and at the historic cemetery.


The Asian lilies are also coming back.

Not terribly strong. They are quite old. But they are returning.
And … the clematis the lawn maintenance guy tried to pull last year? Back! Hahaha! I thought it was a goner, but nope. It’s back.

The daffodils I planted last fall are largely a no show. There are a few coming up at the historic cemetery, but most of the daffodils coming up there are the ones I planted in fall of 2023. And yes, I planted them correctly lol. It seems they did deter moles, as was my primary reason for planting them. They just didn’t bloom well. And that’s OK. The bags of 50 are coming to the end of an era. This fall I want to change things up a little and force grape hyacinth this coming winter. They also deter moles. And I can do smaller pots for forcing. If I want to.

And then there are the tulips. Of all the multiple (lots of) tulip bulbs in the townhome gardens that produce greens, only two have buds.

Yesterday after the greens of a few got stepped on while we cleaned the windows, I tested digging one out. I had kept my hand shovel out after digging and transplanting Blue Bells clematis volunteers.

I thought I might be able to dig the non-blooming tulips and consolidate them to one area (or bring them up north to naturalize or be deer food). Well, I probably should have gotten out the full-sized shovel. Instead of the bulb coming up, the stems broke off first. At which point I thought, “Why are you doing this? Pull the other stems and be done with it for another year.” I would like to say I did that immediately. I did for one more bulb. And then I remembered the next one I went to pull actually bloomed last year. They can fade back. Maybe next year I will feel differently.

To wrap up the afternoon yesterday, while I was in a cleanup mood, I tested to see if the variegated sedum (that it looked like we lost) was really a goner. It pulled out super easy, but wouldn’t you know it, there were little green sprouts. Dang! So, I searched around for a place where I could put it to give it one last chance. Aha! A swaparoo! A two-for. I moved the small Pink Tirza I want to use for crosses again this year to a more accessible spot,

and the variegated sedum went to a more secluded spot to R&R and hopefully come back stronger next year.

With that done, I called it quits. I was kind of still working off a crummy mood from something else. (What is it that makes normally sane drivers turn road risky on rummage sale days? Yikes!) I got myself a sweet tea and sat and looked at how nice the newly relocated Pink Tirza fit into its new home. That was a very good choice 🙂

And then, this morning on my walkabout I noticed … we did not lose the Guacamole hosta, as I feared. It is slowly coming up. The two Elegans, not looking good. Oh well. The circle of life.

Have a great weekend. I may take some time off early next week to put the finishing touches on something I will be kicking off next weekend – the Mahala Felton historical blog series. One post per week will be devoted to getting all the Mahala Felton research I have done out into the public domain. It has been a worthy endeavor, and I really want to share. The tie in is to the historic cemetery. More to come on that.

On their way

The 25 prospective “Mahala” daylily seeds are now out in the seedling box. They are one step closer to being “in the wild”. Being outside, they will now have more natural sun. It is not quite the optimal consistent temperature yet, so they get to keep their little greenhouses, for heat to germinate.
I did also protect them with a towel when the association lawn service came by with granual spreading. And I’ll protect them the same way at night until they germinate.


If it snows or freezes, they will come back in, but otherwise they get to stay outside now.

The two purple shamrock division pots also went out to stay today, as well. Unless it snows or freezes, of course.

Things are moving along.