Well that is just crazy!

I have successfully rooted a weigelia cutting from our garden, as well as a Blue Bells clematis cutting – both are firsts for me. I tried rooting wiegelia cuttings last year but they failed. There is another Blue Bells clematis cutting in the pot too, but it was ripped out in a bad storm we had. I found it and put it back, but that one looks doubtful.

Now to find homes for the rootings. All in good time.

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.

Move candidates

The hostas under the linden tree are at the mature stage, and are now covering up portions, or sometimes all, of the Purple D’Oro daylilies. That was an error in planning on my part. When I planted those hostas a decade ago I truly did not believe they would get that big. I think they look great in that area, dancing in the breezes, but the daylilies do not care for the new developments one bit. I will need to move at least this one this fall. I have a spot for it. There is a hosta that used to have more shade from a clematis on a trellis but now needs to get out of the sun. A little reorganizing this fall after a good rain softens the soil should do them both good.

The historic cemetery fence garden

The historical cemetery fence garden continues to come along. As you look into the entrance, the right side of the rock to mulch conversion of the fence garden is done – as far as we are going to take it, until fall. That is the longest side, and will eventually also be, at the farthest end, the home of some iris transplants from the shaded garden that is inside the fence. The shaded garden inside the fence is high maintenance due to it’s location – in the grass, with no border, lots of weeding, and very low hanging tree branches.

It would be a fair assessment to say I have pretty much decided that historic cemetery site is where I feel most called as a volunteer. I do so love the historic mansion site as well, but I am so much more drawn to what can be done for the historic cemetery, how the neighborhood is appreciating it, how other volunteers for the historic society are contributing, and the long-term impact and potential for slow, thoughtful preservative, sustainable projects and improvements. I am NOT a high maintenance girl, in any area of my life, and that is how I like to garden too. There is good (reasonably healthy plants, ok view), better (robust plants, clean view), and best (thriving, blooming plants, tidy well cared for view). Any of those is fully achievable long term with the updates being done at the historic cemetery gardens. And people on daily walks are also contributing by weeding. Community! Love!

There has also been no shortage of plant donations for the site. The communication is that if you plant it, you water it. And the fence garden is filling in beautifully!

It will be a week and a half until I can start on the left side, and it will be in more of the heat because it is all day full sun. (The leadership for the site calls that the “field side”.) I envision lots of daylilies there, a particular joy for me to imagine! But first it needs the rock to mulch conversion.

Back to it

I took a couple weeks off garden work when our 2nd grandson was born. Yesterday was “get back to it” day. 4 1/2 buckets of clover and forget-me-nots left the gardens and it looks great again.

As the Asian lilies wrap up

and the Elegans hostas stand in the background

The Blue Mouse Ears are starting to steal the show

The big Just Plum Happy daylily is getting it’s scapes

The daylily seedlings are starting to outgrow the seedling box and are gradually getting exposed to the wider world

And the lavender from the old seeds is standing guard as a deterrent to bunny munching

Oh yes, it’s a thing

The coneflower in the back is completely gone, and this is what remains of the one in front.

But it is a cute little one, right?

Note to self – buy more lavender seeds next year.

While We Were “Out”

Our second grandson was born last Friday! That whole week was a non-gardening week. We absolutely were in the gardens, but with our two year old grandson. I watched with sheer joy as he followed the garden path wearing his cute little camo Crocs, pausing to pick up rocks, and dump them on other plants. Wait!!! What is happening here? Has my brain turned to Grandma mush? Perhaps.

While we were “out”, the daylilies got scapes. The South Seas is the one that first caught my eye,

but the Purple D’Oro and the Just Plum Happy are not far behind

We are getting some bonus clematis blooms.

And the Asian lilies are already in mid-seaon.

The hostas deserve a blog post of their own (coming up).

Baby is doing very well, 2 year old grandson already has our next “date” on our calendar, and somewhere in between work, building out the cabin up north, and grandchildren time, I need to pull all the forget-me-nots that are done blooming and are going to seed.

If I catch them early on in the seed casting process, I get just the right amount to bloom two years out (they are biennial).