The fun has begun

It was a long off-season for the gardens, but season 2025 is here!

The daylily seeds were put into the refrigerator on February 4, and they will stay there until after Easter. Partially because my office now doubles as a part-time fill-in 3 year old’s “school” space ❤️, and turning it into a gardening nursery would be a stretch, and partially because one of the sets of the seeds may go to the historic cemetery. We shall see.

The forced daffodils also came out of the garage on February 4th. February 4th was a big day 😊 It took them a while, but the first bud is now starting to go to bloom.

Much more to come. The sedum and daylilies are starting to poke up, extra stuff is happening at the historic cemetery, and I will fill you in on additional garden projects planned for this year.
Until next time ..

Daylily order arrives

Today was a crazy day! Crazy full of gardening. Good stuff, but oh wow! Nothing like a daylily order arriving to set the weekend’s activities. Besides the weekly one side of weeding at the historic cemetery, four new holes got dug and brand new daylilies were planted – Red Volunteer (tetraploid) and Lullaby Baby (diploid, to cross with the two De Oros – Purple and Stella). Each hole also got daffodils too, to deter moles. Tomorrow it will be four Marque Moons (tetraploid, to cross with Red Volunteer). Then we shall see how much more the old muscles can tackle. I dug out two huge Blue Mouse Ears hosta clumps today at the townhouse and planted a Marque Moon and a Tender Love. Now I need to find spots for the Blue Mouse Ears divisions. I have plans for 4 at the townhouse, lining the path going to the front. I may take the rest over to the historic cemetery and see if they can handle the sun. (They got 6 hours/day here during the peak of summer.)

Finally did it!

Happy Spring, and Happy Gardening Season!

Things here have been going along at quite a clip! The gardens are back in full swing. Time to start the blog back up and share the garden activity again.
One of our first projects once we saw what had survived the winter was to do a bit of transplanting. The daylily seedling mini-bed that went from brainchild to reality to “oops that is kind of ugly and a bit shy on sun exposure” to “nah, nixing that idea” was pretty much decommissioned last year. It did, however, provide a home for some pollinator created seedlings to mature a a bit. This spring it was time to take a big, potentially risky transplant step, part of which I have been contemplating for years. The idea – swap locations for two beautiful mature Ivory Queen hostas and two daylily seedlings. The Ivory Queen hostas needed to be moved out of their sun overexposure location, and the daylily seedlings needed more sun. Further supporting the decision, one of the two hostas was fairy ringing. They had been in that location a while. It was definitely time for a swap. But would we like the look?

My husband was the digger, and I was the planter. Digging out the hostas was as tough as I thought, and nerve wracking. But the hostas as well as the 2-3 year old daylily seedlings all not only survived, they are thriving. The hostas now have more shade, and the daylilies now have the sun they need.

Good choice.

Realistically, this may be it this season

Realistically, this picture may represent the remainder of the garden enhancements this year

50 daffodils bulbs, to go into the historic cemetery fence garden (to deter moles).

Over Labor Day weekend our September calendar filled up to bursting. All good stuff but not in our gardens. (Maybe others 😉 we shall see)

And we have a milestone anniversary right among all that.

So daffodils it will be. And then just gradual clean up and beginning to get ready for the long winter.

Coral Majority

Coral Majority is a tetraploid with South Seas parentage. I would like to see what might happen from a cross with Marque Moon. Marque Moon is wrapping up, so I need to grab those chances when I can.

First Asian Lilies

The first Asian lilies of the 2023 season are blooming.

A remembrance day

In the U.S. we are celebrating Memorial Day – a day to remember those who have fallen in service to our country. At the historic cemetery is a grave for a soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the U.S. Civil War.

Being married to a historian, I know that there were many causes for that awful war. War is always awful.

I took time this morning to walk the historic cemetery. It is good and right to take time to contemplate our learned lessons, and reflect on the incredible price so many have paid for our benefit.

What do you think?

This?

or this?

This?

Or this?

Baby steps. Lots of fun. Keeps me busy 😊

And tonight I found a spot for the future iris bed. Yikes, I was thinking fall moves, but in refreshing my knowledge on best practices, after bloom is best. Judging by my memory on when we had an iris bed years ago, that should be in the next few weeks. So transplant in late June. Arggghhhh…

They do not look too bloomy yet, but I’m thinking it may have been a few years since they were divided, so they may not bloom. They also may want more sun.

In project management we call this scope creep – lol. And “talk is not do”, so we shall see!

Siberian Squill

Beautiful spring wooded area carpet

That’s cool!

I had some 2 year old lavender seeds that I planted in soil that was from a beautiful cyclamen 2 years ago. I was not sure the seeds would still be good, but I thought I may as well try. They definitely were not going to sprout in the envelope.

It worked! So far! A whole lot are coming up! I am still not overly optimistic because I have not had overwhelming success with lavender before, but if they succeed, wherever should I put them? Lots ‘o choices now 😊 and maybe early here and then plant elsewhere. I think the seeds I had are perennial to this zone.