Itâs that time of year again – Butt (kinda) In The Air, looking really close at the ground – are we there, are we there? I am looking for daylilies.
So far, the Purple DâOro were up first, then the Tender Love, then the red Daylilies in the sunniest area, and today ⊠dadadadahhh ⊠potential future âMahalaâs parents are now both popping up. So there is potential for more âMahalaâ seeds to be made this year if the seeds from last year germinate. An encouraging development for this gardener on this cool and windy April day.
In addition, Pink Tirza, South Seas, Marque Moon, and unidentified Yellow Double freebie are all also popping up (I did look it up last year.  I just donât remember it.  And I am too lazy to go back and look right now  haha). Unidentified Yellow Freebie Double was, I am certain, an error in freebie-ness.  I donât buy doubles, or choose them as freebies, and it was not particularly encouraging for crosses, but it is yellow. It can stay. Â
So, so far, I know I will be crossing for âMahalaâ seeds, and I will be crossing for âRed Tirzaâ seeds. They were both great seed makers last year. Unless I donât get blooms from the parents (highly unlikely) I will do a repeat. Probably even if the seeds donât germinate super well. But I know they will, I just know they will đ
South Seas gets to rest this year.  I crossed her hard last year and the bunnies got most of those results.
I am also looking for a cross for our oldest grandson. He already loves to garden, and if that continues I will be thrilled, and teaching him to do crosses. Hey, my favorites daylily source comes from three generations of guy daylily gardeners!
Today was kickoff day for my 2025 gardening season at the historic cemetery. I arrived soooo ready! I pulled up with my new green folding wagon with the telescoping handle, front pivoting wheels, room for a full sized bin to hold trimmings and plucked weeds with room to spare for my trimming tools and my gloves, plus a mesh pouch on the side to hold water bottles and stuff a hat when I start to warm up. I was all set!!! I also gave myself permission to wear a new pair of tennis shoes. Comes a day when worn out, beat up shoes donât do you any favors. I am at that age. This is the cleanest these two will ever be, because they are both awesome and will be used like crazy. They made my work so much more pleasant!
My goal for today was to get the black-eyed Susans cut back. Instead, I did all the cutback for the things I left for the birds (and bunnies) – the sedums, black-eyed susans, daylilies that still had seed pods – it all got cut back to make way for 2025 growth. And almost all the ground cover got cleaned up. All except a taller version that needs to be seriously cut back. Underneath is already new growth, but the rest was dead, dead, dead. This is the new growth on one I trimmed.
I usually put coffee grounds on the townhouse garden as each plant comes up, especially the hostas, so I may do that at the historic cemetery garden to keep the slugs down again this year. But it shouldnât need a boost like the townhouse plants. The mulch should be far superior.
Tomorrow is sedum cutback day at the townhouse. And then the watching begins.
Tomorrow is our spring equinox. Yahoo! True, that actually means very little regarding the gardens. We could still have a big snowstorm. But it is time to start doing garden cleanup, both here at the townhome, and at the historic cemetery.
Every spring, after I reconnect, and fall in love with the gardens all over again, my mind goes all Product Manager. At the historic cemetery, the fence garden is the Product. I have an analysis, and it is time for an action plan. And, frankly, to be the most efficient, I put a plan together so I donât get over there and go into a dreamy state, which, of course, is the joy of every gardener ~ just looking at whatâs going on, right? But there is work to be done so a plan is needed. Dreamy can happen at the end of a work session.
So what is the data telling me?
The ground cover needs to be under observation. I didnât put it in so I am still learning its features and growth cycles. It does look like quite a bit of winter kill on the ground cover, but hopefully it will revive.
The birds did not do much with the black-eyed Susans I left for seed food. The stems just bent and broke and fell over, and are just laying in the garden. Black-eyed Susans set seed so easily, and although they are definitely a fan fave over there with those who walk by, as the Product Manager (the volunteer help lol) I am the one who has to maintain them, and they are ⊠a lot. Yah, we will just say it that way. So, if the birds want some black eyed Susan seed next winter, it will all be in a pile in our compost area and they are welcome to it. đ For now, what I left stand for the winter needs to be cut back right away, and I need to watch for volunteer seedlings (scope creep).
The bunnies seem to have enjoyed most of the sedum I left stand, but there are some tall sedum they didnât eat, and I need to cut that back to make way for new growth.
The last part of cleanup will be the iris bed, and any other remnants.
Then it will be time for the mulch topper. The mulch bed was GORGEOUS last year, very healthy, and rewarding me with much less weeding. Annual toppings should do it from here on out.
Here are some pics of early greens already popping up
Farther out ~
We do have the old overgrown weedy garden inside the gate to contend with this year. It is possible that garden will be dug up and moved to a historic estate in town. If not, this is the year it goes. It gets pretty nasty with bugs (think tall grass and wood ticks), and even snakes. I donât mind snakes, they are beneficial, but I prefer not to cultivate an environment where they hide. Come out and sun yourselves, no problem. I will steer clear. But bottom line, maybe younger, more flexible, hiding bug and snake loving volunteers could do it, but this grandma? Nope. There is a better way. Lawn mowers đ This is the year it goes. Yeay!
Additionally, last year was the major planting year. The garden is fully planted, with no room left for additions. Another yeay! The space that looks like emptiness right now needs to be there for the new plantings to establish and expand. However ⊠if things die off, new things can be put in, like daylily seedlings from crosses lol. OK, and maybe some carefullly chosen new daylilies. Yah, high probability stuff that dies will give their space to new daylilies. Already have a buying list. Just in case.
So that is the kick off point for the historic cemetery garden this year. There are also other projects there too, like removing a plastic border and putting in bricks, but that will be down the road, maybe in May when the wooded area ground dries out a bit so the bricks can be retrieved, as they are the remains of the vault. But that is another dayâs blog. Hint – very little hardscaping gets wasted.
Join me this year as I start the Mahala project, an effort to bring a daylily cross, from seed to bloom, that personifies the historic accounts of the bold, yet incredibly hospitable first white woman settler to our area, who, with her husband ran a lodge that was frequented by a variety of common people – trappers, travelers, and Sioux alike. A woman who not only cooked a hog for her guests, but harvested it. Whose lodge was a log cabin with a hot kitchen that leaked.
The seed from the cross below will be the first attempt. It is from a 2024 cross at the townhome gardens. It will be at least a three year wait til bloom. A long game to be sure.
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 âunknownâ after a save from critter curiosity. That leaves five, and the daylily seedling box fits five pots, so, whew! we probably donât need to put an addition on the daylily seedling âinnâ 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 âcountdown to season endâ 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 donât 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 – âPanacheâ. 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!
I remember the âmostly rock in the gardensâ years – in the distant past, but nevertheless, they were exciting. Two times we had the gardens updated at the townhouse, back in the years when the lawn maintenance people were chewing up the bases of our very young deciduous trees while weed whipping, and we were coming up with âsave the treesâ solutions. Those were the blank slate days – trying out different things to see what worked – with partial/full sun/shade, with grow patterns, with what the birds and bees and butterflies liked. We built out a pretty robust garden, and then shared the template. Hint – templates for rolling out lush gardens to all in a townhome community do not work. Itâs kind of like me at 11 years old watching competition ice skaters and thinking âhow hard can it be?â Yah. Not so simple. Anyway, I digress. We continued our journey as the property matured. We adjusted to arriving squirrels and bunnies and the effect sprinklers have on growing plants. And then went whoa! Time to divide! And then whoa! This is fun to propagate and share! And then whoa! An abundance beyond what we can find homes for (where I was last weekend). And then the âdeep thinkingâ (more like maneuvering) starts. Maybe those daylilies SHOULD be moved farther into the sun, so maybe I COULD squeeze those last two spare hosta divisions in under the increasing shade the linden is providing âŠ
And then the tree trimmers come, a bit of a surprise because they were already here this year, in late winter, but alright âŠ. And suddenly, sun back into what was becoming a more shaded area.
Cross those daylily moves off the scope creep list.
I see a pattern here. The historic cemetery garden renovation has rounded the corner to maintenance, the townhome gardens are full and the sun/shade patterns are not requiring transplanting after all. We live in a townhome community where we pay for services and they get automagically scheduled and completed. Not really, but we have already done our board time served so yah, it kinda does đ
I do kinda remember that thing called relaxation. I suppose I could see how that works out again. As husband laughs and says, âYah, never in a million years.â
See those beautiful, newly planted Blue Mouse Ears divisions đ„° And the shamrock that needs dividing this fall đ
I am having some mixed feeling tonight -happy that the two year renovation project at the historic cemetery is done, and it will mainly be maintenance and replacements going forward, but also a little sad. It has been very creative, and iterative, and the challenge was also invigorating. But the past two weeks have been very sprint-y in nature, so to have it wrap up feels weird, like the week after New Years.
Today I planted six more daylilies, each with a daffodil bulb to protect against moles.
I also planted some loose daylily roots (they look like tubers) that were at the bottom of the box from my order last week. I donât know it they will do anything. We shall see.
Tomorrow I need to go put in markers. I have notes, but markers are also nice. Even if the writing fades, they remind me âsomething is there, donât weedâ. Next year when things start coming up, that will be very helpful.
I also trimmed some of the perennials at the historic cemetery today. I like to trim after bloom so the plants donât spend energy on seed, and also to keep up, so the fall cutback is easier.
At the townhouse, I was tempted to put off the planting of the Blue Mouse Ears hosta divisions. I really am having to get creative to find places for them. So far it has been along the path. Today I planted one large division and two medium divisions. I have two medium sized divisions left that still need a home. I suppose tomorrow I will do that.
Then I only have to get two pots of 2024 unknown seedlings into their temporary 2025 growing space, and transplant a Bluebells clematis volunteer (very healthy), and I will be DONE for the year, minus weekly fall cutback, of course. Any leftover daffodils (there will be very few) will go into a pot of dirt in the garage for forcing. That is always fun to have that spring prelude indoors.
I have to say, I am tired of planting and transplanting, which is not normal for me. But I had the sprints from the order arrival, and I had a lot of digging, dividing, and transplanting at the townhouse in the past few weeks. I think those types of planting will be done now for quite a few years again, and I will go back to just planting and transplanting daylily seedlings.
On the daylily propagation topic, I harvested 5 Purple DâOro X Pink Tirza seeds this week, from the only productive Pink Tirza pod.
The other pods are still ripening. The Mystery Yellow Freebie pod was not productive. I need to research that one this winter.
So, planting has been fun, but exhausting with the urgency and volume. Wrapping up the two year renovation project at the historic cemetery feels a bit funny, but still very joyful, and seeds are just now starting to come into harvest time.
I should probably rest a bit. Fall cutback is up next.
Saturday morning dawned unseasonably cool, a bit of a treat, as, had it been warmer, the pleasantness factor for the weekendâs activities would have been greatly diminished. The daylily order arrived on Friday, and the instructions reinforced what I knew well – the plants needed to get in the ground right away. Not right right away but definitely within a few days. But rewind, on Friday, or even Wednesday, when I got notification the order was on the way, my great big appetite back a few months ago started to get real. As I reminded myself of what I had bought, not even having opened the box yet, I had this nagging feeling – âthis is going to be way more than you thoughtâ. And, as all good iterative things do, the plan for the historic cemetery plantings had also been refined a bit since I placed the order. So, as I sat with my hot coffee Saturday morning, I purposefully, thankful for the extra time to think, to calm and organize my final thoughts before starting the physical work, enjoyed the cool morning, the hummingbird parade, the squirrel antics, multiple chickadees and finches on the hanging bird bath, hopping down the chain, sitting on the edge, taking sips of the water, making song, the crisp air and the dramatically different light filtering patterns added to the experience. Finally I was ready, plan on phone, hoping on hope that it would be easier than I thought.
It wasnât. I overbought, again. As the reality dawned, and the clock ticked against the instructions that reminded me to get the order planted right away, I chided myself. What was I thinking? I am not 40 years old anymore! But, thatâs ok. Fast forward to Sunday night, it all worked out, it was still an awesome weekend, and now the order is planted. I bumped right up against sunset last night, but the feeling of being done was pretty awesome.
Some of the daylilies ended up in the townhouse gardens, and that meant some overgrown things had to be pulled out of the townhouse gardens. But save a few small daylily pieces, three kitchen garbage bags full of Blue Mouse Ears hostas, and some daffodil bulbs that can go in with the few dailylily pieces over at the historic cemetery, the shovels can rest. Soon.
I will say that, for sure, nothing more can fit in the townhouse gardens. NOTHING. There are roots galore from the surrounding trees and besides that challenge, things are FULL. It will be hard for weeds to find space! And at the the historic cemetery that is exactly the plan! It is set up to be nice and full a few years from now as it matures, keeping the weeds down with plenty of plants and that beautiful bed of mulch. That means any buying, for either place, going forward, has to be a one in, one out. Seedling additions need to be well planned, and seedlings that donât bloom need to go up north. The deer will not protest. I, on the other hand, may need some reminding from hubs and some very dear friends. After the aching muscles and rock bruised knees subside and the emails with âpotential additionsâ start to look more enticing, I will need to remember – âNothing. Nooooo thinnngggg!â đ„°
Oh yah, I still have to get two pots of unknown daylily seedlings planted this week. And a clematis volunteer transplanted, but after that, nooothing!
All the daylilies are done blooming here, and we are going into the Semi-Finals for seed production. In first place by a long shot is Pink Tirza X red daylily with 8 healthy pods. Woohoo! Now I have to go back into my records to figure out that red daylily type. Or not. If the seeds pods are viable to seed, and the seeds are viable to seedling and they bloom (2-3 years out) they will still just be an âenjoyâ scenario. A whole lotta âenjoyâ scenario. Maybe a go to the historic cemetery âenjoyâ scenario. If all of that happens, I will probably just give them a fun name for our use and conversations đ Just like Hello Yellow.
So Pink Tirza is the new Purple DâOro here. And that is a good thing because the âdeerâ we were guessing was eating her pods turns out, we are pretty sure, to be due to a sprinkler haha! Either way, even if it was something else, good experience and knowledge gained this year. In addition to her coming in first place for bloom start, she blooms a LONG time, and is gorgeous. Her new working role is to be a pollen producer.
In second place, yep, you guessed it Coral Majority. It would have taken 1st place but I only crossed it a bit, with Cedar Waxwing, with excellent success. And Coral Majority is a self seeder too, although I expected that. The bees love that area and Coral Majority tends to have a lot of pollen and the pistil, or stigma, I guess, is often uncrossable. I seriously donât know what to do with Coral Majority. It is a wild child. Of one of my faves, South Seas, no less. I hope its children are pretty, and well behaved lol. Because there will be A LOT of them if the pods are all viable. They are all still green and it will be a while that they still need to stay on the scape to mature the seeds. Hopefully the bunnies, squirrels and sprinklers let that happen. I have had pods come off too early in the past and tried to save them to seed but to no avail.
Marque Moon X South Seas was in 3rd place with two green pods and a third that was starting to dry but the bunnies and/or squirrels got those. The squirrels and bunnies have had a lot of fun with South Seas. And also with Naomi Ruth. I think I also over-taxed them. Pods were failing. Next year they get a rest. Only one Pink Tirza pod survived. âSprinkler deerâ got her pods lol. And Mystery Yellow Freebie has a drying pod but it looks not too viable. I will be surprised if it has seeds. And thatâs it. Crazy good results from one diploid and one tetraploid this year. But we have a very long way to go. We shall see.
The transplants from two weekends ago are doing phenomenally.
No losses. I did make one mistake, I realized, and I put a daffodil bulb UNDER a Blue Mouse Ears division transplant. So I will have a daffo-mouse. Should be interesting, but fine. If the daffodil does bloom it will be done when the Blue Mouse Ears (hosta) starts to come up. Still ⊠silly of me. Keep daffodils to the daylilies. Oh well. And last of all, sadly, I have a sedum and a hosta that I think need to come out. They just look like they are struggling. The hosta is quite old and never been divided. The sedum is a cutting. Stuff happens. Iâd rather be safe. I can put Blue Mouse Ears divisions over there, and maybe a daylily.
Susan's Daily Garden 