Tag: Daylilies

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.

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.

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It has been a bonanza time for me in the various gardens. I have an oft-used saying – “Talk is not do”. I have soooo been in the flow of “do” I had no momentum to “talk” much. On the blog at least – lol.

The gardens at the townhouse are starting to approach their very full time. The spring blooms, even including the clematis, have wrapped up. The pine trees candled out, the linden is about to bloom, the weigelia is blooming, and the first hosta is blooming.

The “clover”, which I think is Yellow Wood Sorrel, has lived it’s usefulness as blooms for the bees, and has been plucked for the season. The bunnies do not eat those flowers like they do the white clover.

The Asian lilies are about to bloom.

There are now 20 daylily seedlings sprouted from last year’s pollinator created seed, all of which will need a home in the seedling bed this fall. The daylily seedlings from last year are all growing, and the 2-5 year daylily seedlings (that didn’t go to the little house up north we owned for a couple years) all need to go to the (camping/hunting) land up north, or to the historic cemetery fence garden. (The daylilies in the iris bed appear to be bunny food there.).

At the land up north, the camper will be moved next weekend to make way for trees to be cut, ground to be levelled, class 5 to be laid down, and the incoming shed to cabin conversion to be moved into place. Yikes! Here we go again with a build out. I am told that from the (shed) cabin I will have the view to the garden that I requested. I may have some thinking to do on a strategy to keep the ferns out. Plastic may be deployed. We shall see. One thing is for certain – the “I wish I had that money back” steel raised bed gardens with expensive black dirt on top of hugelculture turned to ferns 😂 is out. It has to be, as that is where the camper will be for a year or two while retired hubs builds out the interior of the (shed) cabin.

What else is going on?

The long fence garden at the historic cemetary is getting a rock to mulch makeover. The old rock is slowly being hand-picked and removed to a pile for donation, and bags and bags of beautiful mulch are replacing the rock. Sweaty work for all, and no lawn chair relaxing like at the townhouse, but wow! Looks awesome! Many hands are at that work through the week, which is absolutely heartwarming! We garden for fun, but also for our neighbors, and I seriously have lost track of the number of people who are complementing as they walk by. The other ladies have exactly the same types of stories.

Little by little. The hostas are all now protected, as well, and the work is beginning to finish and fill in the remainder of one side.

The iris bed at the historic cemetary will be a fall “stretch” opportunity. Those can go into the fence garden too, little by little. And we keep getting offers of divisions as donations. All in good time and proper sun/shade planting. That garden has such potential, with all the offers of divisions donations, to be a wall of beautiful season-long perennials.

We do have an unfamiliar to me weed there. I downloaded an app to try to identify it, but what the app is returning doesn’t seem right. It is a clumpy upright weed with bulblets. This coming week, on Juneteenth, a plant expert is coming to the historic mansion for the annual rain garden consultation, and I hear they can identify weeds. I plan to ask them. For now, we are plucking that harvest. I doubt they were intentional. See below for my rationale – this dandy is growing between the sidewalk and the base of the retaining wall.

What else?

We miss the front tree, kind of. The daylilies we transplanted from the shade to the sun last year are loving the full sun. We will wait to see what the association does – replace the tree or not.

And the rain gardens at the historic mansion are so full I have just put that on hold while I work on the fence garden at the historic cemetery. All that really can be done there right now is weed the perimeter, which a few of the ladies are doing when they have time. Those will be a next year and following deeper dive. They do have potential, but will be on more of a late fall and very early spring cadence for those opportunities.

The jalapenos at the townhouse had a bit of a squirrel issue which is being resolved, and I am rooting 3 wiegelia cuttings and some clematis cuttings just for kicks. We’ll see if they take.

So that is the “gardens all over” catch up.

Things may be a bit spotty as we are also on the one month watch and hang close to town ask before grandbaby two arrives. You know how that goes – grandbabies trump gardens for sure! Gotta keep our priorities straight 💓

Survival Rates

Last Saturday was a springboard to glorious garden time days. I could not resist being out in the front gardens. Sunday morning the gardens out back also got some love.

The snow melted very fast and is now gone – even the giant snow plow pile. A very odd feeling after such a LONG SNOWY winter, but it is time! We may have another snow or two, but just like early fall, they melt pretty fast.

The perennial survival rates are good so far.

All of the sedum made it through the winter, and have new leaf buds forming. The non-productive tulips out front are also up, as well as one daylily.

Out back, the Purple D’Oro and Just Plum Happy daylilies are poking up, the two areas with productive tulips, crocus, and on one side hyacinth are up, and … the Blue Mouse Ears are starting to poke up!

Under the Linden, the Marque Moon daylilies are coming up.

No asian lilies, and no big hostas yet, but that is super normal.

With the Amur Maple situation out front, whether or not they replace the tree, our shade will be compromised, so I am very glad I did not put any Blue Mouse Ears divisions in front where there used to be shade.

Look super closely. A few days ago these were the Purple D’Oro daylilies. Just a tiny sprig of green.

Here they are a few days later.

Two days ago the South Seas daylily popped up.

And the Marque Moon daylilies are starting to come up.

Things will start filling in and covering the rock quickly now.

So what about those seeds?

So much has happened in the past 6 months. We decided the little house on the north shore, although a long-term bucket list experience, was not a long-term option, we condensed all the things we had up there and let go of a lot of that as well. Soon after, my husband went hunting and came home with a really bad case of influenza A that laid him up for weeks. In Feb we went on our first ever planned “down south” vacation, had an absolutely fabulous, peaceful, relaxing time – and then came home with COVID immediately after. I have heard it said, and it seems to be true, the “stories” are in the unusual, the unplanned, the whackadoodle.

Now it is spring, and it is time, once again for outdoor time. Thoughts turn again to the gardens. I am going to try out the whackadoodle theory with the daylily seeds.

Last year I once again harvested our pollinator created daylily seeds. Hundreds are viable and have been in the refrigerator for many weeks (for stratification). At the end of April/early May I will sow them directly into soil in pots, where they will stay, and hopefully germinate and grow, for the summer, in the covered seedling planter – because we have cute little diggers with grey furry tails. In the fall, whatever did well will graduate to our tiny little seedling garden here, and whatever seedlings from last fall made it through the winter and spring and summer will go — up north.

I know, I know. But they are bird and butterfly created, and I have decided I do not want to leave them in the townhouse gardens. So up north they will go, in a sunny spot, that gets a decent amount of natural watering, and hasn’t seemed to have attracted deer munching – at least on the bulbs we have planted there so far. The deer have plenty of osier, and we also have hundreds of pictures from our trail cams of the deer eating the abundant wildflowers. They LOVE them! I do have daffodils to deter eating in that area in spring, and I will plant other deterrents as well. If I can, I will see about a fence with a gate. But that may be down the road a bit. Short-term, I am letting them go, to blossom in their natural environment with woods floor mulch.

My joy with harvesting seeds is in the activity. The seeds, if left unharvested, would have become bird or squirrel food. They are progressing farther. And if something weird, or funny, or just plain whackadoodle happens along the way, I will share 🙂

Bonus – When a bear likes your solar lights as much as you do

When a bear likes your solar lights as much as you do, but nevertheless leaves it behind, semi intact, and still working, and you discover it while clearing the ferns from the area that will house next year’s 1 year old pollinator created daylily seedlings. You use a shepherd’s hook – that wasn’t bent by said bear – and holds it (kind of), hoping you will find the hanger, somewhere.

The bird feeder was not quite so fortunate.