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.

Just Enjoy

Today is a rain day. It is also the first day of bloom for three much awaited daylilies at the townhome gardens: the Purple D’Oro (which was transplanted in fall of 2024 so was skimpy on blooms in 2025), the Cedar Waxwing (which I overtaxed in 2024 and did not send up scapes in 2025), and the Red Volunteer (which had success as both a pod and pollen parent in 2025 and will rest except self-seed this year). Hello Yellow, Equal Opportunity, and Pink Tirzah are also blooming, so there were a few planned crosses in the mix. But it is a very nice long rain, and I’m sure the pollen is ruined, so today the message is, “Just Enjoy”.

That I will.

This poor bloom either had a malfunction, or it had a run-in with the sprinkler.

Pink Tirzah

The garden was exceptionally wonderful this morning. One of those days where a hummingbird comes in, squirrels come through, a bunny stops by, the sun breaks through. Absolutely beautiful. There were definitely other daylilies blooming today and even crosses with those daylilies, but Pink Tirzah gets the limelight today. The pictures of Pink Tirzah best capture the early morning today, and then later full bloom.

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:

I have capacity within the four new crosses.
Equal Opportunity is one of my own seedlings, a self-seed from South Seas.
I am definitely within the timeline.

So that was decision one. If I get a pod, it will be counted as #1 of 4 new crosses this year.

Here’s a couple additional pics of what’s going on in the gardens.

Pink Tirzah is gorgeous, and prolific again this year.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Until next time,

Be Blessed!

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

And Pink Tirzah chose today to bloom its firsts of 2026.

Blessings to you on this wonderful day of celebration! And God may God continue to Bless America as we walk in faith with Him!

Fantastic Friday Find and Lots of Pics from Today

This new bloom at the historic cemetery was a wonderful treat as I walked the gardens before beginning to putz (deadhead, weed, trim). I believe it is one of the Lullaby Baby daylilies I planted in fall of 2024, but I am not absolutely certain. Either way, it was definitely a Fantastic Find.

We have a lot of Stella De Oro daylilies in the historic cemetery gardens. They bloom profusely and look very cheerful.

Stella De Oro daylilies at the historic ccemetery

The cloches are gradually coming off the seedlings 🙂

Blessings to you and, in America, wishing you a fantastic 4th of July celebration – 250th Birthday!

Thankful Thursday – The Beauty of an Early July Morning

One of our oldest hostas. I love the look, the expanse, and, of course, the gorgeous white blooms.

Two of our most mature Blue Mouse Ears hosta bunches, beginning to hit their bloom stride

Another of our oldest hostas. My Dad bought this one for me from a local hosta and daylily master, many years ago.

Hush Little Baby is sporting its first scape in our garden.

Equal Opportunity (one of my own South Seas self-seed daylilies) is getting ready to bloom.

At the historic cemetery, the Stella De Oros are shining. This little one needs to be moved. The iris bed was not my best choice for it 😉

This duo – Stella De Oro and Figwort need to be moved to a new garden we are making inside the cemetery.
The pollinators will be sure to find and enjoy them there, along with some milkwood and yarrow.

On this very pretty, and humid, and warm, morning, I finally finished deadheading the irises at the historic cemetery.
A few of them look ready for division this year.
Maybe they will find a home in the new garden. Just not too close to the Stella this time 😉

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Be Blessed, All!

Weeding (and Trimming) Wednesday. How are the daylilies doing? What about those Blue Mouse Ears Hostas?

Today was Weeding Wednesday. It also ended up being shrub trimming day.

After two days of very warm weather, and very little garden activity, I was tired of just looking out the windows. I wanted to get more than just occasional fresh air. I wanted to get things done. This morning the weather was a tiny bit cooler. I rationalized 1) I had nothing on my schedule that was to be done away from home, so 2) Even though it was going to be warm and humid, I could just poke around – work outside a bit and then cool down inside, and do that as many times as I wanted today. Outside I went. It was time to pull forget-me-nots and trim the bushes.

I love the end of those types of days, where I can just putz, still see a nice difference. It was a warm day, uncomfortable to work for very long, but the gardens look they are spruced up and ready for the daylilies to start blooming.

Last night I also noticed Hello Yellow was starting to bloom again.

Early this morning it was already open.

And it stayed open all day.

It is so fun to have that extended bloom daylily.

I checked it a little before 10pm and it was still open 🙂 The fireflies had been out for quite some time, and Hello Yellow was still blooming. Such a treat!

And one of the two remaining daylilies I was watching for scapes (Tender Love) is starting to get at least one scape. (I am guessing there will be more starting soon.) Tender Love is a key daylily in my planned crosses this year, so I was very happy to see that. (Regrettably, Marque Moon is still holding out on scapes, so the crosses I had planned with it are probably not going to happen this year.)

There is also a daylily (Hush Little Baby) that I planted in fall of 2024 that had greens last year but no scapes. This year it looked like it was going to be a repeat, but later this evening I looked over and did a double take. A scape! I am looking forward to that addition!

On the hosta front, the Blue Mouse Ears are looking great.

I definitely have plans to divide and transplant the remaining couple clumps this fall that are in their old location. With the addition of daylily seedlings along the path, they are overdue for a better spot.

Which leads me to something I have been noticing quite a bit.

When I started building out our gardens here, I had an idea that it would be fun to have them look nice from both outside and from inside. I have really enjoyed that for over two decades. But lately I realized one particular garden is looking especially nice from the inside – Sandy’s Corner. Over the past five years or so I have been reversing the locations of the daylilies and hostas in that garden, way before I named it Sandy’s Corners. It is getting quite full now with daylilies at various stages, and now when I look outside from inside, the daylilies are the backdrop, and the hostas are increasingly back to my earliest configuration, closest to the house. I like it! Not only does it make more sense for sun exposure, but it showcases the hostas that were gradually getting hidden. It has taken time to carefully do the divisions and transplants, but I think that this fall we will be there.

And with that, I will wrap up with one final reality – gardening is very iterative. The littlest things make a difference, it doesn’t have to be fast, and even favorites might not last forever. This week, as we were sitting out on the patio, my husband tested the waters on a subject that could have gone south. Could have. But I had been thinking about the same thing. My approach to replacing some of my oldest, favorite daylilies that are fading. Am I OK with replacing them with new ones I have hybridized from those older daylilies. A couple years ago I tried to add another Marque Moon, and it failed. South Seas is starting to fail. I will be dividing it this fall and transplanting, but if it doesn’t do well I am questioning if I will be OK with not having a South Seas daylily is the garden. Do I work with what is already doing well and let those old favorites go? I am reminded that I didn’t replace all those hostas we lost a couple years ago …

Just something to think about. Gardens are definitely iterative.

Hollyhocks rejoin the garden

These Malva Zebrina Hollyhocks were grown from 20+ year old harvested seed from the gardens at the house we raised our kids in. I kept on passing them up to try for germination. This year they got their chance. When they didn’t look like they were doing anything, I wasn’t surprised. It was a long shot.

I reused the soil when I planted the 2025 harvested daylily seeds and didn’t give any thought to the possibility that they would germinate along with the daylily seeds. Imagine my surprise!

I planted them in the garden as tiny seedlings, and they are doing very well!

Welcome Malva Zebrina Hollyhocks to our garden!

July Heat is Here. The Daylily Seedlings are All Now Planted. Space is the Operational Word Going Forward.

Yesterday, when it looked pretty certain the forecast for today would hold for mid 90 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index well over 100 degrees, I got at planting the last two new varieties of daylily seedlings. All the daylily seedlings for the townhome gardens for this year are now planted. All 🙂

So, where did we land with the seedlings finding homes?

Well, the gardens are at capacity, for absolute sure. I like the look right now, and I know I will like it even more in a couple weeks as color from our mature daylilies starts to pop, but I was struggling towards the end of the planting to make it look nice, both now and hopefully for the longer term.

Tucking seedlings in to very accessible planting spots was tempting. Thinking about 3 years from now – a bit more of a challenge. I reminded myself I don’t like to move things around a lot. I thought about things quite extensively, especially for those last two pots of seedlings. And although I originally had planned to put them in another spot, the far corner of this pic is where they landed. That corner needed love that I hope the pair will provide. They have the same parents, just in reverse.

Then, with all the daylily seedlings planted, I turned my attention to cutting back the Asian lilies that wrapped up, so they don’t go to seed. And after that I relaxed for the day.

Today I am still doing gardening work. It is just indoors – going through the spreadsheet, finishing the 2026 seedling planting documentation, and getting straight on the next steps for 2026. The bird baths need some love, the shrubs need haircuts, and the forget-me-nots need their annual reduction. The forget-me-not reduction process is always painful, but if I pull them before they go to seed, as they are winding down, things stay manageable.

And, manageable is a key word for the daylilies too. Space is the new key now. The days of smorgasbord crossing is done for me. Space planning within my wishlist is essential. But I seem to have help this year. In a kind of funny plot twist, two of my key varieties for this year’s plans don’t have scapes, at least yet. Scapes hold blooms and blooms are needed for crosses. The blooms need to coincide, the same day, unless one saves pollen, and that is way beyond my current level of skill. So, with no scapes on two of the key varieties, half of the plan is probably off the table due to timing. I could be super bummed, or I could take that as direction. I am taking it as direction 😉 We not in any way at a shortage of seedling or daylilies. We will be fine.

(Pay no attention to the seedlings in large pots. Those need to go to the historic cemetery this fall, when they don’t look like grass to be weeded lol.)

I am I am being thankful. I have a seedling with first year scapes, and a whole lot of other daylilies with lots of scapes. Those are, mostly, to enjoy. Yep, a theme 🙂

I am also at the time where I am planning fall divisions and transplants. The second daylily in on the right is #1 in that category. It is an Autumn Red. And way too big for that space. (We like to use the path ;))