“Last” daylilies (for the season) are starting to occur. Purple D’Oro bloomed her last today (for the 2023 season here).
She has been cavorting with China Doll, with some good initial results. Amazing what happens when a diploid gets together with a diploid 😉
We shall see.
South Seas also bloomed her last for the season here today.
She has been hanging around with Marque Moon lately.
We shall see how that goes.
Where do I separate daylily seeds from pods?
Outside on the Traeger of course 😉
Well, most recently, that is.
Because if I don’t, the pod will sit on our clutter hot spot, the dining room table, for maybe days, and then I will deliberate – Save the pod? Or just the seeds? Is this thought related to save the clothes tags until you wash up the clothes the first time? Should I save the pod until the seeds germinate? Oh, the things I do!
Discipline, GF!
Separate the seeds from the pod, gather the seeds, put them in the envelope that is already labeled, put the envelope back in the safe storage space (not the dining room table ;)), where they will be joined by siblings until all seeds are gathered, and put the pod (which you, on purpose, out of discipline, left outside on the Treager) in an enticing place in the garden, to be eaten by – whatever eats empty seed pods. Bugs?
Clutter prevention 101, or is it 2 by 2? Or 19 by 19? Because that’s how many viable Purple D’Oro seed pods we got this year.
And now there are 5
Plus 1
Because a plus 1 is fun. Right?
OK, I will stop 😊
Oh boy! I was afraid of this! My garden blog ideas got together for lunch with my decluttering thoughts, and collaboratively raised a question. A very small one in the grand scheme of things, but nevertheless …
“Are these seeds worth putting in an envelope and saving for next spring’s planting?”
There – it’s out there.
These are seeds from a 2 year old, first year blooming daylily that enticed pollinators, and then enticed the bunny, probably “Gigantus Bunimous”, to try it’s luck at midnight dinner, and, alas, must have been driven away, or preferred something better. It was left on the ground 5 feet away from the daylily, but I knew where it came from because I was watching, hoping, the pod would produce viable seeds.
Remember, I am a gardener, not a landscaper. I rescued that seed pod from being breakfast for the squirrels, and put it in the seedling box, on the off chance it was mature enough to somehow produce viable seeds. And seed it did produce. But they do not look viable. And they are sitting, where? On my clutter hot spot – the dining room table.
Discipline!
Will they go in an envelope, or out to the garden for critter enjoyment?
Look closely.
One of my favorite times of the day is the first look outside at the gardens in the morning. The sun catching the colors. The dew still on the leaves and pine branches. So beautiful!
Summer in the garden is incredible, but fall is still pretty doggone good.
This morning I ventured outside and what did I see? A ripened South Seas seed pod! I suspect I would have more seeds had I gone out yesterday, as one chamber was already empty, but 4 is still good. Thank you pollinators! I stand in awe of your skills! Enjoy the Autumn Joy sedum!
A beautiful sight – a ripened daylily seed pod. The spiders seem to like it too. Hopefully, the seeds are viable.
Funny story, and good lesson.
During the very busy time of working to get my husband retired, while preparing for one son and now daughter-in-law’s wedding, and awaiting the arrival of our other son and daughter-in-law’s baby, our first grandchild, and also doing a renovation of the little house up north, I bought 10 daylilies. It was a me-to-me gift, but my timing was all off. The renovation took way longer than expected, we ended up realizing that although I love the little house up north, it is way too far from our grandbaby, and it is not a match for my husband.
Fast forward a couple years, my husband is retired, our grandson is now 1 year old, and the little house up north is finding a new owner. Life is still crazy busy, but I have more time to garden, for sure. And think … was that a Persian Market?
5 of those purchased daylilies ended up going to the little house up north. My husband put them in the ground on one of the trips up for materials to our contractor. It was a stressful trip, and I said to just put them in the ground and I would sort it out in spring. I only got to see one of those bloom, and it was partially either eaten or something else happened. Persian Market was one of the 5 that went up north. I think it was the one I saw partially bloom.
I planted the other 5 at the townhouse. 2 perished to digging squirrels 😦 but the other 3 and one bonus survived.
When we did our big garden day last Saturday, one of the smooshed daylilies I dug out in front still had a tag in the ground. It said “Tirzah”. It was then that I remembered the daylily I have been thinking was a Persian Market, and a twin to the smooshed daylily, was also a Tirzah.
It was really bugging me. So I looked in my journal – no diagram. Of course! I was way too busy. I thought I’d do that “later”. But I did think to quickly jot the daylily planting location of the 5 plus bonus I planted at the townhouse … into my notepad on my phone … which the kids replaced for me as my Christmas gift last year. But … I kept the old phone because some data did not port over. So I dug that phone out, charged it up, and Lo, and Behold, I discovered the Persian Market was never planted here. It went up north. I confirmed that with the saved tags. The tags from the 5 that went up north were stored separately from the 5 plus bonus I planted here.
So I present to you “Tirzah 1” and her two children pods, deliberately crossed from Marque Moon.
Tirzah 2 went to the seedling bed to rest and recover after many years of trauma, and Lord willing, it will stand for many years, opposite the oldest daylily in my garden, the peach daylily. Two of the original 3 of which now beautifully bloom each year in my mother-in-law’s garden.
These things matter 🙂 Especially when she is parent 1 of the first two deliberate crosses that I did that took, so far, fingers crossed.
And, angels sing, I did print out a picture of the newly carved out seedling bed, and map out where each thing was planted, including tulip bulbs and Asian lilies we dug out and I just couldn’t quite send to compost … yet. But I tell you, if they know what’s good for them, they better bloom next year 😉
Yes, I crossed it – from Marque Moon. No, it did not take. But there are a couple dozen pollinator created pods between the three Purple D’Oro, so lots to work with again next spring.
VERY busy day today, that started with rain in the garden this morning until noon, but …
It looks like the last two crosses from Marque Moon to Persian Market took. The doubles. Now whether it was the crosses or if the pollinators made it there first, I cannot say. But it is promising. If it holds. I have already seen a pod fall off that lily 😦 So fingers crossed. 2 for 30 something attempts.
What do the Marque Moon and the Persian Market have in common? The both have sparkles you can see in the sun.
Note, the Marque Moons are representative. I don’t remember/can’t tell which ones I took pollen from that day. But these were from that day.
If they hold, it will be extra special because this is the daylily where I stood and watched the landscape guy blow on the buds until the most mature one flew off.
Fingers crossed.
And the winner of the First Seed Pod of 2022 award is – the South Seas daylily!!!
My favorite!
Coincidentally, the South Seas seeds from 2021 did the best at germination and survival this year. Thanks, in part, to my milestone birthday creation from the kids. Notice the evidence of it’s effectiveness 🙂
Not so fantastically, the South Seas “seedling”, if you can call it that, did not have any scapes again this year. Maybe year 5 will be the charm? No worries! I have a plan for daylilies like that. They will get lots of space to stretch out and show their potential too. Similar to irises that didn’t bloom at the townhouse, they will go to the camping/hunting land. The iris that never bloomed, and the watch ’em grow garden (forced) daffodils are doing great there! The key is they need to be mature, not babies. But more on that in another blog.
Today I will just enjoy the appearance of the first seed pod of 2022.
Susan's Daily Garden 