Category: Hostas

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!!!

In the moment

I just love Saturday mornings in the garden, a slow start, just relaxing and taking it all in, getting up to take a pic, making a daylily cross, letting the dog back in the house, or back out again lol, watching the birds, the squirrels, thinking about fun stuff. It’s the best!

Last Saturday morning I got to do that. No deadlines, no strict agenda. Just enjoying what is happening in the garden. There were 2 Pink Tirza blooms, the second to last Marque Moon bud bloomed, a couple Naomi Ruth blooms, a few red daylily blooms, the last mystery yellow freebie bloom of the season, and two glorious Tender Love blooms. And the beautiful hostas are continuing to bloom.
Some daylily crosses were done, some trimming and cleaning up was done, of course a whole lot of pics were taken, and a whole lot of sharing and catching up and rejuvenating.
Sunday was an historic cemetery garden morning. I love early mornings in that garden too. They are very different though. When I go over there, I have planned, I know what I want to accomplish. I don’t sit and relax and daydream. I “do”. Last Sunday I brought the 5 sedum rootings and got those planted. I watered them as I went, I discovered as I dug – where rock was still a bit under the landscape fabric, and plastic under that lol. I discovered ant colonies too, oh yeah. That was definitely “in the moment”. No snakes this time though haha!
The end product for the morning didn’t look like much, baby sedum rootings amid a sea of beautiful mulch, but this morning as I looked at my 2014 – 2023 “this day in years past” photos, it reinforced to me exactly how fast things grow. My 2014 gardens at the townhouse barely resemble my gardens there today.
So on Sunday they looked like this

but they grow fast. Next year at this time, conditions permitting, they will look much fuller and taller.
Next up for planting at the historic cemetery is the daylily seedlings. Then the one side will be done for the year, with space to grow for quite a few years. Don’t forget space to grow 😊
The other side cannot be planted until this year’s daylily order arrives, should be in September.

After I wrapped up the planting at the historic cemetery last Sunday morning, I did take time to wander, the full length of the fence garden, a few times, and when I went to empty the rock I dug out, I also took a look at the large overgrown garden that will be (hopefully) removed this September. That moment will also be very special, a transition to just the fence garden go forward. A good moment. A long planned and awaited moment.

Over the past week, the daylilies in the townhome garden areas have really wound down.

The diploids are getting some crosses with Tender Love.

But the best surprise of all in the past couple days, so far, fingers crossed, is that mystery yellow freebie might actually be a diploid. The start of a seed pod from a tetraploid cross very quickly failed, overnight literally, so the next morning I decided to cross her with Pink Tirza. That now has a seed pod that doesn’t look like it is failing, yet, fingers crossed. Lots to go but that would be very exciting.

There are so many seed pods and so many crosses and so many notes and hundreds of pictures, but the daylily season is winding down now and will soon be a wrap.
So far I am seeing a few seed pods from Purple D’Oro and some Marque Moon crosses fail, but Pink Tirza, Naomi Ruth, Just Plum Happy, Cedar Waxwing, Coral Majority, Tender Love, and the red daylilies have all been very successful. And the self seeders are Coral Majority, Just Plum Happy, a bit of the red daylilies, and one Pink China Doll. What I will do with those seeds is tbd. The historic cemetery will be full, the garden areas at the townhome are full. I think the self seeds will have to go up north.

This morning, as the dawn arrived and I took a look at what the new day had brought, I am very thankful for so many things. For the gardens here, today, in the moment, I am thankful the last Pink Tirzah bud of the 2024 season is starting her one day bloom on the same day as the last two Naomi Ruth buds of the 2024 season are beginning to bloom and a Tender Love bud has already also started to bloom. If I want to try another cross with the red daylilies, they are still blooming too. I have many choices this day, of many types of diploids.
Only one tetraploid is still blooming – Coral Majority. South Seas bloomed her last bud of the 2024 season yesterday, no crosses.

Final daylily blooms of the season, testing ploidy, long awaited latest bloom

The long awaited Tender Love bloom has started.

Fortunately, very fortunately, Pink Tirza is also blooming. It may be my only chance this season to do a cross, so cross it was.

It looks like our first daylily seedling to bloom in the townhouse gardens is a tetraploid. I crossed her with Just Plum Happy and it looks like it was successful, so far. Many more mile markers to go but she has a seed pod.

Monday morning we said Sweet Dreams to Pink China Doll. She bloomed four buds on Sunday and now she is done blooming for the year. Well deserved wind down for her.

Monday the large Just Plum Happy bloomed profusely and yesterday the sole remaining bud bloomed. The same on the medium Just Plum Happy – the last bud bloomed yesterday. So yesterday was the last day of bloom in the 2024 garden here for Just Plum Happy. She truly has been a joy again this year. We are leaving all three in place, no dividing, for next year.
And the last bloom of the medium Just Plum Happy was crossed with the mystery yellow freebie, to see if the mystery yellow freebie might be a tetraploid. I suspect so, but I am wishing for a diploid. But doubtful.

If the Just Plum Happy cross fails, there is one more mystery yellow freebie bud, and I will cross that with whatever diploid blooms on that day. If the cross with Just Plum Happy succeeds, I will have much less choice for another tetraploid cross for the last mystery yellow freebie cross – maybe Cedar Waxwing, maybe South Seas. Or maybe Coral Majority lol! Could be nothing.

The diploid cross between Pink Tirza and the red daylily succeeded, so I did two more yesterday, same scape.

And at the historic cemetery we have a wrap up plan for the excess irises and daylilies from the large overgrown garden. They will be going to the historic mansion in town. There are two rain gardens there that have room. September should be a good month for that activity.

So now we begin August. The beginning of August always feels to me like a mini version of the first week of January, when the holidays have wrapped up and we throttle back to a more “normal” routine. But there is so much more of gardening season left. 3 months 🥰 Still lots of daylilies to bloom, but not July’s intensity, all of the remaining transplanting and then new planting work, the 2024 seedlings need to be planted, the remaining hostas will go to bloom, the sedum, the seed pod work … plenty still to come. Just a bit of a slower pace again now.

Refinement

I have figured out what is “throwing” me about Coral Majority. It is in the “pastel” garden area. That area has vanillas and light pink, and even South Seas sometimes goes toward salmon. Coral Majority is bold, and almost looks frayed not ruffled and seersuckerish and approaching marbled in color. Today three bloomed together and they were nice.

It has a lot of pollen, but I really don’t have anything I want to cross it with. I did a “one time” test today with Cedar Waxwing, as I haven’t crossed anything else with Cedar Waxwing this year and it is not self seeding so it will be super easy to track. If that one-time test fails I will not try again, but I am half expecting it to work lol. Something about light pink and bright coral makes me think I won’t like the cross, but maybe …

Sadly the Naomi Ruth x Pink Tirza cross to the last bloom of the smaller Pink Tirza failed only two days after the cross. Quick answer, and not unexpected.

I have taken to notes on my phone notepad to keep quick info, and that is helping. Today I accidentally made a Pink Tirza to Naomi Ruth cross on the wrong scape – one that already has two seed pods from Purple D’Oro, but I made a note and took a bunch of pics so I have it documented if it does form a seed pod, but I am guessing no. Because of that I disciplined myself to stop for the day, a good thing.

I am really, really, really hoping for good weather on Saturday morning. I have week one of “the plan” – transplanting three South Seas self seed seedlings to the historic cemetery garden. They are from 2021 seed, 2022 seedlings, and are starting to get big enough that they are blocking the path to the hummingbird feeder. I will not replant seedlings there. I also need to do weeding over at the historic cemetery, although I will say the mulch is doing a fantastic job keeping weeds down.
And now today’s highlights:

I am getting the Blue Mouse Ears scapes trimmed, always an incremental job. The large Just Plum Happy is in the Grand Finale stage. The hosta in the far back needs to be disposed. I have tried a number of things, including moving it, but it is failing. It happens. I think it is about 18 years old. It has lived a good full life.


Time for hosta haircuts, daylily peak season

Yesterday we had 22 daylilies bloom in the gardens. Today I did my first walkabout and there are even more today than yesterday. Even with the heat and humidity, even recovering from a summer cold, the joy and beauty and magnitude of what is approaching peak bloom season for the daylilies does not escape me. It is awe inspiring!
Early morning on these warm days is the most enjoyable, and I love to capture the early morning beauty before the day heats up, when the garden’s potential is just starting to shine.

Yesterday the Naomi Ruth bloomed for the first time this year.

Today Pink China Doll bloomed for the first time.

And Just Plum Happy is incredible right now.
I love how this scape this morning shows yesterday, this morning, and (probably) tomorrow.

And even though they are the backdrop right now, the hostas also are an absolute delight. Their waves of bloom are gradually giving way to seed production so it was haircut time. I want them to save their strength for next year’s beauty.

And then there is Tirza way in the back of one of the areas. It was a slow start for her here, for multiple reasons, but now she is coming in to her own these past couple years.

In a week or so I will start trimming the Blue Mouse Ears. That is quite a job, so I do a few at a time. And I see they burned a bit in the heat of the past few days. They need dividing this fall, and some may get a new, more shade filled location, and a bit of distance from the daylilies that are starting to cover them up.

They really shouldn’t be covered up. They are far too beautiful to be covered up 🥰

Happy 4th of July!

It is a rainy, chill out sort of 4th of July (American Independence Day) here. Here’s some red, white, and “blue” from our garden.

And a hint of which daylily looks like it is right on the verge of being the first to bloom in the garden this year. It will also be the first time it has bloomed in our garden. Full disclosure, I did not mark it, so until it blooms I will not be able to say for sure, but I believe it is Delicate Design.

Flowers, Flowers, and More Flowers

A fantastic 24 hours indeed!
Tuesday I had volunteer time through work to start using up, so I scheduled 2 hours at the start of the day. Hey, calendars determine part of these decisions 😉 Tuesday was predicted sunny a few days before, but it dawned with rain. By 7:30 am it was to a drizzle and I could not stand the wait any longer. I needed my historic cemetery fence gardening fix. Off I went. And as blessings would have it, the drizzle fizzled by the time I pulled up to the cemetery, and stopped within a minute of getting out of the car and starting to work.
This was the first project of the day I wanted to complete – a removable border to keep the mulch in on the new iris bed.

It has to be removable come late fall because the snow plow/blower will suck up even pavers set on end.
Now maybe the perfectionist in some will say, “Why not right on the edge?” Well, at first I had the mulch mounded, and it was going over the top of the border if I placed it right at the edge. But as projects go, I just had to see if I could make it work right on the edge. I smoothed out the mulch, repositioned the border, and called my friend the site manager, who said “Hello crazy lady!” Hahaha! I asked her if she and her husband were coming over because pics weren’t sending and I needed a second set of eyes. You know what she said? “No, because it’s raining.” Now, first of all, in case you think that was not nice, she is my friend, so she was just having fun, but I tell you, the drive is short from our part of town, and it was not even drizzling at the cemetery when I called her. So I was being blessed for sure!!! Here is the pic I was trying to send her.

I made the decision, I liked the border farther back for now. Maybe I will plant ground cover in front. You just never know what I might do in a garden when I set my mind a-going. I might plant more irises in that bed and move the border forward yet this year even. You just never know with me 🙂

So I got done with the border, poured in my last bag of mulch to chock-a-block full top it off, micro-weeded the right side of the garden, took a few more quick pics, and went back home, to my office, and logged in, 7 minutes late. No worries. It was all good. Work knows what a crazy lady I am too, and that they will see me work way more than 7 minutes late cuz, well, you know, I am one of those weird people that like what I do for a paycheck. We are out there, right? 😉

At the end of my work day the dog got extra lovins because I was going to leave him yet again, but only for an hour or so, to go to the historical society meeting at a historic factory turned hotel, condos, pub, and event venue. So fun!!!

Here are pics of the setting. It was an absolutely beautiful night! No rain there!

Still, I couldn’t stop there. I had spotted the first daylily of my gardening season in bloom at the cemetery in the morning. But my phone was in the glove box, all the way at the other end of the fence garden, and you know, I was running late dadeedadeeda …

So I had to, I just had to, get a pic of that first daylily blooming. Yes, it is the overused Stella D’Oro, but … it is the first daylily of the year in the gardens I love and work in.

I returned home a very happy crazy lady! And our dog celebrated with the zoomies.

This morning, I was treated to a fully opened peach Asian lily and the first opened hosta blooms.

I tell ya, it was a wunderbar 24 hours!

And I think the baby bunny must have had fun too.

Dang it! Now I have to start using that cordial glass again!