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 🙂

Bunimous has decided

Bunimous (named because he is dinosaur sized as rabbits go – haha 😂) decided which Asian lily blooms I should have in a vase. He must have started his munching but then left a broken stalk for me. Thanks Bunimous!

In the background is the daylily seeds result for this year – one for sure. I think the other two are grass – I think. Those two will go up to the camping land in a spot that gets enough sun and does not totally dry out. If they surprise me, AWESOME! If not, they will be in good company. More to come on that and change of seed soil in future blogs.

The asian lily below just bloomed. That plant is one that fell in the category of “tulip” syndrome. It bloomed strong year one, faded year two, and is now “iffy,” for blooming each year. Like the faded tulips, I leave it in the ground just to see if it will do anything. And it provides early greens when the garden is first coming up in spring.

The clematis could be trimmed, but hey! It covers the boring bare rock 🙂

January

It’s January. I’m missing my gardens. I’m missing any gardens. Off to our local gardening center I went today. This is a thing I do – wander around, maybe buy a watch ’em grow garden, and maybe something additional. I suspect, no I know, I am not unique in doing this.

Today I got both. I could not resist.

The watch ’em grow garden

And a beautiful cyclamen

So fun!

I also bought a set of seed pods for when I start my daylily seeds. Now I’m committed to that because I have all the materials. I had started down the path of saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls to cut up as soil holders, like last year, but then I saw that the pods are ok for daylilies, so I’m going to try them. This will be my first year of growing only daylily seedlings. I had a bumper crop of ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylily seeds last fall, so I’m hoping to get something from those. Plus a few from our other daylilies. I’m also hoping this is the year I see flowers on the seedlings from the daylily seeds I planted out in the ground the past couple seasons.

And I’m playing again with the idea of trying to find a way to have daylilies up north. I know! How many times will I go back and forth on this? It’s just that I dream of naturalizing them. I know, however, they are deer yummies, and our trailcams have lots of deer on them. I have the two (failed hugelkulture) raised bed gardens up there from last year. I may try a seedling or two in there – from the ‘Just Plum Happy’ abundance. I could recycle some of my chicken wire from last year here to protect them. I know – ugly! We’ll see. Lots of time to decide.