Transitioning Toward the Fall Garden

The daylilies are wrapping up.

The pods are being watched for condition.

Decisions are being made on moves.

This daylily has gone from a seedling to a normal sized Autumn Red daylily.

Although that is wonderful, it is a taking a beating from the sprinklers. I am finding blooms on the ground.

The daylilies in that little corner will be transplanted, and shorter daylilies, probably the Marque Moons that need to be transplanted, will go into that space.

The seedlings are growing, and even the seeds that did not germinate in pots, when given a last chance through direct sowing (in the ground), rose to the call.

And now the Sedum will take over. Soon the green will turn to pink, and then to red. If the birds don’t eat them all.

It will probably be a busy transplant season, as always, but way less seeds to harvest and get into storage.

I have really enjoyed narrowing my work on daylily crosses this year. It was, for sure, a discipline, but a good one. From what I can tell I will have 3 maybe 4 intentional cross varieties go to seed, and 6, maybe 7 self-seed varieties go to seed. Two of the self-seed varieties are super exciting to me as they are new this year. One is with Hush Little Baby, a promising historic daylily (diploid) that bloomed in our garden for the first time this year, and one is Pink Moon, one of my own (tetraploid) seedlings that bloomed for the first time this year. But the seed from both of those, if viable, and if it germinates next spring, will not be a blooming daylily for at least 3 years.

Next year my daylily focus will be even more specific. After many years of being the queen of tetraploid hybridization in our gardens, South Seas seems to be waning. I will probably not replace it as I have so many of my own South Seas seedlings now. I plan to turn my focus to working exclusively with my own tetraploid seedlings and then, hopefully, if the three bare root Hyperion I planted this spring bloom next year, Hyperion will be the focus of my diploid work. Hyperion is also the oldest historic daylily in our gardens. Fingers crossed for bloom next year.

And with that, I want to give a heads up that we have some family needs and I will probably not be posting as much. Prayers are always welcome.

Blessings to you all!

Historic Daylily – Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing is another of our historic daylilies in the townhome gardens.

Like Naomi Ruth, I’m not sure I would plant Cedar Waxwing for naturalizing, but it is an absolute beauty in our Worker Bee garden at the townhome.

Cedar Waxwing was registered in 1979. Its parentage is sdlg x sdlg, so there is not much information on Cedar Waxwing’s parentage that could aid in choosing parentage features for crosses. There is also no info that I can find on its fertility, but it is registered as a tetraploid and I have proved out it is pod fertile with a cross I did with Coral Majority.

Cedar Waxwing may also be pollen fertile, but that has only been proved out with one year’s self-seed in our garden, and I am not even sure it went to seedling. And that Cedar Waxwing self-seed is where the intersection and mystery with Hello Yellow lies.

Hello Yellow is one of my own seedlings.

I have been working hard at identifying Hello Yellow’s parentage. It is a bit of a mystery because back in 2022 and 2023 when Hello Yellow was “born” in our gardens, I was still doing minimal record-keeping. Basically, writing parentage on the envelopes when I stored the seed, and then taking pictures at planting times. Yah. Life was simpler then haha! Luckily, I do have a picture of the envelopes atop the planted pots. So, I kind of know the varieties. More on that in a minute.

When Hello Yellow bloomed only one year after planting, I was delighted. That was uncharacteristically fast for our gardens. When I went to identify what would yield a small yellow bloom, I discovered it was time to get more serious about record-keeping.

Through process of elimination, including ploidy testing and bloom recognition from other known crosses, I think I have narrowed down to two reasonable possibilities. It is either a wacky chance that my early recording practice was not in error, and Hello Yellow is a very rare tetraploid x diploid cross that slipped through, or it is a Cedar Waxwing self-seed seedling. I doubt that I successfully got seed from a Marque Moon (tetraploid) x Pink Tirzah (diploid) cross. I definitely have not been able to replicate it. And I really tried. But maybe. You never know. I have, however successfully crossed Marque Moon x Pink China Doll. It is purple. Turning to Mauve in the strong sun of a long summer day. And kind of tall. Definitely not short. Definitely not yellow.

So, this year I did a Cedar Waxwing x Cedar Waxwing intentional cross. One try. It worked. It has a pod. Now I will see if the pod goes to seed and if the seed germinates (next year). Then if it blooms in 2+ years and it looks like Hello Yellow, by golly, the mystery will be solved. It will go into my personal records as Cedar Waxwing x Cedar Waxwing. If not, I am out of ideas lol and it will remain a mystery.

And that is it for my info on Cedar Waxwing, and for my mini-series on historic daylilies in our gardens. I do have others, and I have done crosses with them, that went to seed and seedling, and they are in our gardens, but the daylilies themselves have either waned or underperformed in our gardens, and, because I have so many seedlings in progress, I am going to just allow those daylilies to live out their natural lives in parts of the garden that I rarely go into for crosses. They can just “be”. Lucky daylilies 😉

Historic Daylilies – Tender Love and Naomi Ruth

This is historic daylily ‘Tender Love’. Tender Love is our third oldest historic daylily in the townhome gardens, and I am not at all hesitant to say I wish I had more than one. With time and patience, they will multiply and need dividing.

Registered in 1970, ‘Tender Love’ is 56 years “old” this year. Remember, though, that registration does not reflect the actual age of the daylily variety. It takes years to get to registration – making the cross, harvesting the seed, bringing it to seedling, then waiting for bloom, and after that waiting to see how it matures (determining consistent characteristics and features it displays).

I purchased ‘Tender Love’ from Oakes Daylilies in 2020. It took a few years to establish. Back then I was planting in fall. I had a number of failures with that approach in our Minnesota gardens and have since shifted to spring planting when I do purchase, which is now pretty uncommon. (I have 29 new seedling varieties due to have first bloom within the next couple years, and that will keep me at capacity for this thing I am calling a “hobby”.)

This year ‘Tender Love’ is looking exceptionally beautiful. It is much more mature than previous years, with four scapes and multiple buds going to bloom per scape.

‘Tender Love’ is a diploid, a late season bloomer, has a beautiful form I very much appreciate, and is nicely fragrant.

On the hybridizing scene, ‘Tender Love’ is both a pod and pollen parent in our gardens. Last year I had two successful crosses that went to seedling – one with ‘Autumn Red’ (yesterday’s featured historic daylily) and one with ‘Pink Tirzah’. Both of those seedling varieties are awaiting bloom in the next couple years. This year I did a re-try of a “Tender Love’ cross that has failed in previous years, with ‘Naomi Ruth’, our fourth oldest daylily in our townhome gardens. TBD on that result.

‘Naomi Ruth’ was registered in 1972. It has one of my favorite forms, it is a diploid, and it is also late blooming. It would not be a daylily I would think of for naturalizing, but it was an excellent pod and pollen parent with ‘Romantic Rose’ and with “Pink Tirzah’ last year producing a plethora of seeds that went to seedling this year. Those blooms should debut in 2027-2028.

‘Romantic Rose’ is not an historic daylily, but it is a long-time part of our gardens.

‘Pink Tirzah’, from what I can gather, is also not an historic daylily. In fact, I cannot find it on garden.org or the AHS site. I bought “Pink Tirzah’ from Park’s many years ago, as a 1-year-old bare-root. ‘Pink Tirzah’ is also pod and pollen parent to multiple years of crosses, including ‘Autumn Red’, yesterday’s featured historic daylily.

Tomorrow we will be on to Cedar Waxwing, and Oh, the story of that one! Just a sneak peek – Cedar Waxwing may hold the key to the Hello Yello mystery.

Moving Day

The squirrels have spoken. It is time to get the seedlings for the historic cemetery out of pots and into the ground.

Move It Monday – Marque Moon has Moved Back into the Garden. A Bit of Maintenaance. Fall Move Planning in Progress.

It is Move it Monday, so a bit of re-moval was planned. Not Weeding Wednesday because the Forget-Me-Not are working plants in our gardens, but for sure, when they start to fade, it is time to remove, before they set a lot of seed.

That type of work goes pretty fast, a good thing in the heat we’ve been getting. I think that took about 10 minutes and then I took about 5 minutes more to pull some others in other areas and wrapped it up. I put away the bucket and gloves and grabbed a peach tea 🙂 Oh yeah, and took the after picture 😉

Far more exciting is that Marque Moon bloom has moved back into the garden. More accurately, Marque Moon self-seedling bloom.

In 2022 amid a very busy year, I harvested the seed that made this Marque Moon self-seed daylily. It has gone through a journey, and a move within our townhome gardens, but today it bloomed its first.

The return of Marque Moon bloom is a very nice development. Our legacy Marque Moon daylilies are fading and did not send up scapes this year, so no blooms. In addition, a new Marque Moon I planted in fall of 2024 did not come up the following spring and has not shown since then. I am going to try to move the old Marque Moon daylilies this fall, but I am not optimistic. They are amongst the Linden roots.

So, imagine the wonderful surprise I had this morning when I looked out and saw what looked like a white bloom. As soon as the thunderstorm abated, I just had to get a peek. There it was! A bloom from Marque Moon self-seed! And a first for our gardens as well. Marque Moon self-seed has never made it to bloom in our garden until now.

It usually takes a few blooms or even until the next year to get an idea of what we have in a new daylily. What I am noticing right away, besides the visual similarity, is that it is an Early Morning Opener. That feature is consistent with one of Marque Moon’s parents, Enchanted April. It will be interesting to see how it progresses.

And, on to seed, my test cross with Hush Little Baby (Pink Tirzah x Hush Little Baby) succeeded. There’s a lot of steps that need to go well between pod formation and bloom, but hopefully it will all work and we will be able to enjoy another new variety.

And then, on a fall planning note, I have my first “need to” move for one of my seedlings. Equal Opportunity has gotten pretty big, which is great, but now it is consistently getting hit by the sprinkler. It needs to be moved this fall.

And so, the seedling migration will begin. Significant thinking will be going on. What will look best where? Where do I want things longer term? And what do I want accessible for occassional crosses versus enjoying and just maintaining?

I will share come fall when the moves are done.

I hope you have a great week!

Be Blessed!

Hosta Maintenance Time, Daylily News and Pics

Today was a slow day – a day for a tiny bit of hosta maintenance and a whole lot of enjoying the daylilies.

Today I removed the scapes from the last two Blue Mouse Ears hostas. I think it took 5 minutes. Blue Mouse Ears hostas are super easy to maintain. The scapes don’t need cutting. They snap off.

The spent blooms tend to stick to the leaves, so pulling those by hand is a lot, but a few sprinkler cycles and they should clear.

I am seeing some heat fatigue on the plants, and the hosta by the Blue Mouse Ears pictured above is one of those. That one has been a trooper. I will probably divide and transplant it more into the shade this fall.

The daylilies continue to amaze me.

Pink Moon (one of my own seedlings) is showing some features I really like, especially the outline on the edges.

It also has an interesting look when it is opening up. A cool pattern.

I will be researching a bit more to see what the markings on the open blooms are. I’m guessing they are getting hit by the sprinklers. I may need to move Pink Moon to a better location this fall.

Hush Little Baby bloomed again today. What a welcome addition to the garden!

And what I think is Romantic Rose has an interesting feature around the eyezone today. I don’t remember seeing that in the past, but maybe I just haven’t noticed it. That is a daylily I bought many years ago and transplanted more into the sun just a few years back when we got a larger Traeger and it ended up in mostly shade and was failing. Look at it now! And it has seedlings, yes it does, with Naomi Ruth, both as a pod and pollen parent, so hopefully in 2027 we will see even more beauty!

Just Plum Happy is coming into full bloom now.

And Pink China Doll had 7 blooms today! Very nice!

And as is normal for this time of the season, we are starting to see last blooms per variety. Yesterday Red Volunteer bloomed its last in our townhome garden for the year. I had high hopes for Red Volunteer, but I put it in a bit of a tuck-in spot when I planted it two years ago, and it seemed to get kind of lost as well as be a bit sparse this year – one scape, few buds. I did cross it last year so maybe it is recovering from that, but even so, as beautiful as it is, it is not doing well where I have it. I know Red Volunteer should be more vigorous because I also planted them at the historic cemetery and they look way better there. I am definitely going to move the one at the townhome to another location, but where, I am not yet sure. (Apologies for the not awesome pic – it was a bit awkward to get the front view, as it was obstructed.)

Beyond that, the pods from this year’s successful crosses are maturing. I am going to have such an easy harvest and planting this year. There are only 3 clear successes, and then the one pending from the Pink Tirzah x Hush Little Baby cross. It will be weird compared to other years, but I am looking forward to it. I have so many seedlings in the garden to watch over the next few years I think I will thank myself for putting on the breaks.

I hope you had a great weekend and wish you a great week ahead!

Be Blessed!

Quite the Path

The dog days of summer are upon us, and the wildfires up north are making being outside suboptimal. Our time outside has been minimized. But I am optimizing the time and paying attention to something that has been on my mind for a while – how the Autumn Red daylilies seem to be rising up as my historic focus next year.

I have tried to put my thoughts about this into words but it has been long. It is not about the features and crossing to try to keep the curls on the sepals while keeping the trumpet shape without going spidery, and it is not about getting to a different color. It’s that I have been on a path with those daylilies for a few years, and, as much as I have put them into the Steady Eddy category, there is continuously more to them.

It is time to address the plan for them out back. It is probably going to be a bit more than I thought.

The daylilies out back are heading into the second half of the season, and the look is changing. Although the look includes quite a variety of colors, heights, and interest, admittedly, it is also a bit of a mix mash. That is the annual norm. I enjoy every bloom.

Out front where the Autumn Red daylilies have been blooming for over a week, things look nice and uniform. There is a long line of Autumn Red daylilies with occasional recessed Autumn Joy Sedum. And the Ninebarks. Soon the Autumn Red daylilies will swap focus from the one Pink Tirzah that is wrapping up at the front door. It has been in bloom for weeks, and is exceptionally prolific this year. Every year it keeps the entryway interesting after the Bluebells Clematis is done blooming. It is gorgeous and I will be sad when Pink Tirzah, once again, wraps up for the season.

And yet, as WOW as the Pink Tirzah is, the Autumn Red daylilies also look great out front. They are even more full this year than last. They are the perfect height, a great little pop of color, and they span a nice stretch to the front door and then following the path, they lead out to the back. They are wonderful. And I have crossed them, a lot. So far, they only like Pink Tirzah. They don’t care if they are pollen or pod parent. They just want to be paired up with Pink Tirzah. So far.

Autumn Red has been in my gardens for a long time – probably 15 years. I bought them in a bag at a big box store. I planted them at the back of one of my gardens, and they were there until 4-5 years ago when I saw they weren’t blooming very much anymore. That fall my husband helped me dig and divide them, and I planted them in a wave out front. 6 clumps, 2 areas. I was going for a red, white, and blue theme with the Bluebells Clematis and the Marque Moon daylilies. And of course, the Autumn Reds started thriving again. I have been delighted that they have done so well.

But that’s not the end of the Autumn Red history in our gardens.

I am fascinated with how daylilies naturalize and how they can be found at historic sites long after structures are gone. Last year I started digging deeper on the history of daylilies, specifically how long daylilies have been around the US, and in what form. I started to research more seriously on the daylilies I have and where I want to go with them at an intersection with history. I found that Autumn Red is a historic daylily. It was registered 85 years ago. It was my most senior historic daylily until I intentionally added Hyperion this year. But that is as far as I went on the topic for months. I let those efforts rest while I planted all my seedlings from all the daylily crosses I did last year, and while I intentionally spent time just enjoying the gardens.

Last week Autumn Red came up again in an unrelated conversation. Someone asked my opinion on a daylily, and how it might have gotten at a site. It was, it looked to me, a patch of naturalized Autumn Red daylilies.

Now, to be fully transparent, I had seen what looked like a large patch of naturalized daylily greens at that site before. I even briefly asked about it. It just wasn’t top of mind, though, so it slid way back in my “backlog”, and I didn’t pursue anything more about it.

Well, when things come back to the front like that, but are not a priority, sometimes I still let it sit in my mind until I can give it proper bandwidth. Sometimes it sits for a while. This time it was about a week. Until the Autumn Red in the front row of Sandy’s Corner started blooming. That clump also has a story.

There was a little daylily seedling I moved 3 years ago that I thought was one of the Purple D’Oro self-seed seedlings. Last year as it got the sun it needed it bloomed its first. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was an Autumn Red. (I am guessing it stayed in the ground when we dug and divided the Autumn Reds and put them out front.) This year, very happy in its new location, it is now much larger and starting to bloom. It has quite a lot of scapes and quite a lot of buds on each scape. It is right at the entrance to Sandy’s corner, at the start of the path. In fact, it is overarching the path. I planned to move it. Red is not even the right color for that front area lol. But the height, the size, the form, the little curls on the sepals. And, best of all, the sprinkler is not hitting it.

“Well”, I thought. “That Autumn Red might stay right there.” Might. For one year. As a worker. Crossing with Hyperion.

I bought three Hyperion daylilies this spring. They are historically even more senior to Autumn Red. I planned to cross them when Hyperion starts to bloom, hopefully next year. I would only use the Hyperion pollen next year, and only do a few crosses so I don’t overwork the Autumn Red. It would be great to have it so convenient, and out back.

And so, I guess that backlog idea of Autumn Red has now become front row.

I have done crosses with every one of my historic daylilies except Hush Little Baby, which will bloom its first in our garden soon. And I have done all the crosses I was interested in and even retried fails year over year. Maybe it really is time to start focusing on crosses with the seedlings of our historic daylilies, starting with the oldest ones.

I have yet to have self-seed germinate from Autumn Red. It has produced self-seed, but it did not germinate. Self-seed would be something I would like to try again.

There should also be a cross available next year. Hopefully.

We shall see..

The Experts Have Spoken, Well Chosen Collaboration Wins

The experts (the pollinators) have spoken. And they definitely have a “voice”. And bragging rights.

For example, Equal Opportunity (one of my own seedlings, but from South Seas self-seed) has three different looks from three different scapes this year. Last year was similar. The seedlings all come from the same year’s South Seas self-seed, yet the variety is amazing. And I didn’t do anything to get that variety, or the beauty per bloom. I just let the self-seed pods mature and then at harvest started my normal process.

On this pic the differences are very pronounced.

Doing a cross between Equal Opportunity and Hello Yellow was on my list this year.

Hello Yellow is one of my own seedlings as well. It is an extended bloom, absolutely gorgeous, tetraploid (so no it is not a Stella De Oro) and it has been very stingy with pollen and very stubborn with being a pod parent. But it crossed with Equal Opportunity and has a pod. And another same cross pending results.

This morning I got to thinking. I really like what the pollinators accomplish. And I have a garden full of seedlings from new (intentional) crosses I did last year. Full. And the crosses I wanted to do this year are already done. And I don’t want to tax those daylilies with too much drain going into a volume of pods I really don’t “need”. I can be a good collaborator with the pollinators. I can stop getting in their way. And I can be done doing crosses for this year. One (week of crosses) and done.

I made the decision, even though today was crazy good for options, that enough is definitely enough, and I’m done doing crosses for 2026. Now I can sit back, watch the pollinators, enjoy the very full garden, and relax. Just do maintenance. Until harvest time. Crazy good thought 😉

Today is an exceptional day for the daylily blooms.

Enjoy!

In the Thick of It

We’re in the thick of daylily bloom season now. Every day there are quite a variety of daylilies blooming all throughout our gardens. Morning walkabouts are such a treat! And at the same time, I am butting up against my humanness. I am reminded that I can do all the intentional crosses I want and harvest all the self-seed I want and do all the organizing and labelling and storing and planting and watching I want, but at a much higher level, all of this is God’s creation. I can work with it, and work to understand it, but it is still His. Very humbling!

So I was loving the blooms, and making some new crosses, and enjoying lots of time in the gardens and then Thursday night came and I realized Pink Moon was starting to open its first bloom ever. Pink Moon is the first intentional cross to bloom in my gardens from parents I am certain of, and have replicated to seedling. I was so excited! I was watching for this!

As it began to open in the evening my first thoughts were along the lines of, “So it is another extended bloom.” And then, as it looked way more purple than pink, I went online and read that getting to pink often involves working with purple. So that was normal.

I also had a little concern about how tall it was and how the sprinkler might get it. But in the end, daylilies are plants. A very fun and challenging hobby, but not people. And I am a person 😉 and need sleep. So, I decided that was the best choice.

Friday morning, I was out in the garden, very early, very thankful it was not so tall the sprinklers got it, super excited to finally see Pink Moon. You see, I named it when it went to seedling. I thought that would be great to keep track of, never imagining it would not be pink when it first opened. As I watched it throughout the day, yes, on and off, it did color morph. Not really pink, but something like mauve. And I reminded myself that maybe it is not good to name a cross before it blooms.

Imagine my surprise this morning when a very different “Pink Moon”” bloom from that same cross welcomed me.

In fact, after quite a few hours it began to look an awful lot like the Purple D’Oro bloom right next to it, only larger, and on a sturdier scape, and with quite a different shade of green for the foliage.

Well, welcome to the garden, new daylily bunch I thought was all the same cross! We will watch what God does with Pink Moon as it matures.

Move It Monday and How I am Keeping Myself Out of Daylily Scope Creep This Year

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was great!

Today is Move It Monday in the townhome gardens. Now that it is daylily bloom season, I want full and easy access to the daylilies that I hope to use for crosses. Cloches are off of all the seedlings now and today it was moving day for the remaining two pots of seedlings – the ones that will eventually go to the historic cemetery. The pots are now on the patio, and I am considering when they should be planted at the historic cemetery.

My original plan with the seeds in those two pots was to direct sow them, but last year I noticed seedlings did not do well at the historic cemetery. I am thinking that maybe they will be ok to plant soon but there is no sprinkler there so anything that is planted needs to be watered by hand, daily, and call me lazy, but that is not my favorite. Not talking hose here, but rather, carrying gallon containers of water in the heat. So, the seedlings will stay on the patio, probably until fall planting.

I also want to pull more of the forget-me-nots in that area, but not too many. Besides liking their look, in moderation, I have noticed the bunnies and squirrels do not seem to like Forget-me-Nots. If I were to venture a guess, I would say it is because they have a habit of sticking to things. I don’t like that, and I can imagine they don’t either. So, some Forget-Me-Nots will stay, but a lot will be pulled.

Back to the historic cemetery topic, it has been a fun season so far to see things that were planted a few years ago start to shine. One of those is the Purple D’Oro divisions. Yesterday Purple D’Oro bloomed for the first time there. I had a feeling it would. So glad I got to see it!

Purple D’Oro bloomed for the first time ever in the garden at the historic cemetery.

So, with the daylilies in bloom in all the gardens, and opportunities for crosses beginning, I am reminding myself of my self-imposed limits. Here’s the story:

Last year I way overdid it with daylily crosses. I was doing a bucket list experience, and doing the crosses was incredibly fun. I was imagining wonderful gardens down the road – chockablock full of gorgeous daylilies in the years ahead. I was even toying with the idea of something beyond that, but I wasn’t decided on anything for sure. Without a serious plan, and having a wonderful time, I got myself ahead of my skis. I knew the process to cross the daylilies, and I had just enough years under my belt to get a lot of crosses successfully to pod and then to harvest. A lot. The crosses were very successful – in variety and volume. Pods were abundant, and the harvest went well into October. It bit into my planned fall activities and then kept on biting through to labelling and recordkeeping and proper storage and most of all planting (x 2 because I did not do direct sow). I learned my lessons. I have parameters this year.

I can do four new varieties of crosses that go to pod this year, but with the additional requirement that it has to have at least one parent that is one of my own seedlings. A little extra challenge.
I can do one repeat cross that was successful in the past.
I can do retries of previous fails. There are only a few this year because two of my legacy daylilies are either aging out or just taking a rest this year.
I can only do crosses until July 23 this year.

And that’s it.

Enter the first opportunity for a cross this year.

This is Carpenter’s Choice.

I like the colors. The raspberry is what I originally bought it for. And although it does kind of color morph as the day goes on, which is normal, it starts the day way more to red. That gave me pause yesterday as I considered a cross with the other available tetraploid – Equal Opportunity.

As I pondered the decision, I considered some additional attributes I like about Carpenter’s Choice:

I like the way the back petals (I should say sepals 😉 ) increasingly curl as the day goes on, similar to Autumn Red’s habit.
One of Carpenter’s Choice’s parents is lavender, which I would like to see in a cross with Equal Opportunity.

It did take me a bit, but I eventually decided yes to the Equal Opportunity x Carpenter’s Choice cross. Something about the lavender was the deciding factor. And: