Tag: Blue Mouse Ears hostas

Harvesting daylily seeds, planting last two pots of seedlings, starting the fall cutback, migrations

The daylily seed harvest is wrapping up. This year I have eight different types that survived the bunnies, squirrels, and sprinklers. Two are self seed and one is an “unknown” after a save from critter curiosity. That leaves five, and the daylily seedling box fits five pots, so, whew! we probably don’t need to put an addition on the daylily seedling “inn” next spring. After discovering what looks like a self seed, self plant, seedling bloom (more on that at the end), I now have a much greater level of confidence that the self seeds and unknowns can go straight into the ground in May. Where they will go, I have no idea. We are choc-a-block full. Time will tell.

The “countdown to season end” planting and transplanting list is also done, and early at that, as the daylily shipment came earlier than I expected. That sprint was something else! Very rewarding, but very exhausting.

After the linden trimming brought a previously shaded area back into the sun, there was no more room for Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I ended up planting the two remaining Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions into the historic cemetery garden. A little worse for wear after sitting in the garage for a week and a half, but better than to the compost pile.

I hope they make it. They are such a beautiful hosta, and it would be nice to have them in that garden.

All of the other plantings I have put into the historical cemetery, save the clematis that never bloomed and eventually died, are doing well. The sedum rootings are even blooming pink. And the baby daylily pieces are sprouting new fans. For all of that, I am thankful. They love the sun, and the mulch seems to keep them in enough moisture.

I also started the fall cutback at the historic cemetery – the largest patch of Black-Eyed-Susans, the remainder of the milkweed, some irises, and more hosta scapes.

At the townhome gardens, the garden is starting to look more like fall. I decided the little scarecrows would be fun to be put out again this year. I almost feel like they could use some little hay bales. But I don’t do hay (achoo!!!) so … Blue Mouse Ears will have to do.

Sadly, the hummingbirds are pretty much done coming through and we will soon take down the feeders. There are enough flowers for late travelers. They have really loved the second bloom of the Weigelia this year (below) as well as the late blooming Rainforest Sunrise hosta.

The huge flocks of small migrating birds have also wound down. We have been seeing quite a few butterflies now, so we are assuming that is also migration. And seagulls! I wonder if we just never noticed them before here. We had flocks of them at our little house in the mining town on Lake Superior, but never here.
I am thinking that soon the dark eyed juncos will arrive for the winter.

So time is marching on. But for today, on this beautiful fall day, a day of PTO from work, I will just putz in the garden, enjoy what looks like our last week before the cooler weather, and look at our newest addition – totally unplanned, unplanted, a full on surprise until I saw the buds last week and the bloom today – “Panache”. We are calling her Panache because she appears to be a reversion to the grandparents of Just Plum Happy, the daylily in that space. Welcome to our garden, Panache! You are the new latest blooming daylily here!

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.

Tender Love daylily – first year bloom

Last fall I bought a dozen daylilies to start the garden at the small house up north. Only five, however, got planted there. We were swamped with interior work and my creativity was just not flowing for the garden. I need think time sitting outside looking at an area for my garden ideas to gel. We were barely having any time out in the potential garden areas. And I was a bit nervous about the deer. So, the other 7 new daylilies got planted at the townhouse. A few came up in the townhouse gardens this year, the most exciting being the very late blooming, fragrant Tender Love.

I can already tell I will buy more. They feel like they will be like Blue Mouse Ears hostas to me. Each year I added more until I literally ran out of room in the area. I think Tender Love daylilies will be the perfect companion to the Blue Mouse Ears hostas, each shining at their own time, in the front of the garden.

An aside – Yes, that is clover in the garden. I left some for the bees and bunnies in the early years and it stayed. I pull it when it gets too much.

Back to the Tender Love daylilies Blue Mouse Ears pairing 🙂 Soon a bunch of the Blue Mouse Ears hostas will make the transfer up north. Not all, but some that need dividing and are crowded. Dare I move the Tender Love daylily too? Or splurge and order a few for up north?

The cheap in me says move it. The tender heart in me says it bloomed so perfectly right where it is, leave it. It is quite dainty. We’ll see how the remaining bud survives the landscape maintenance. That will probably be the decider.

What’s going – #3

I have 8 Blue Mouse Ears hostas. You might say I am a bit fond of them. They are, well, blue. One of my favorite types of hostas. And they have lavender flowers. And they are disease resistant. And not once has a mammal eaten even one leaf. The leaves are tough.

They have been in my garden for a long time, and they need dividing. So 3-5 will go up north.

I want to put them along the sidewalk to the back yard, but that area needs love as well, so for now they will go along the gutter extensions of the new gutters we needed to put in this past spring. Hint, there were no gutter extensions on the old gutters. Bonus, I don’t think the deer like the new gutter extensions. Hoping to keep it that way.