Just Right

Last year I was in a very transitional year.  As part of that, my mind was full of new thoughts regarding the gardens.  And yet … my mind was particularly quiet when enjoying a specific palate – peach and salmon and coral and melon.  Pink, yes.  Purple, yes.  Cream, yes.  Red as waves of landscaping out front.  But something about that melon, peach, salmon, coral look was most peaceful.  I saw it in the self-seed blooms from South Seed.  It made my decision on what I would work with for crosses this year.  Just Right.

This morning I was reflecting on how very much the gardens have come into themselves.   And how much I did last year that I am seeing come together this year.  And how little there is to do now that the plethora of seeds that resulted from my exceptionally active and creative mind last year are all planted.  The gardens are Just Right. 

And, quietly, I am wondering – did that big harvest of red pollen parent seeds that only produced one seedling – lol – turn out that way because, for me, one red pollen parent seedling this year will be Just Right?

Right now, the daylily seedlings from prior years are abundant, like wrapped presents, beautiful before the full “gift” is revealed.  And the hostas and sedum and even the tiny amount of forget-me-nots I allowed to remain last year are Just Right as accents.

Absolutely true that my gardens are not static.  Ideas are abundant.  But the peaceful place is worth preserving, at least in large part.  I think that is where the gardens have landed.  Just Right, but open to a few exceptional additions.

Finally, it does occur to me that sharing will remain as a part of this new Just Right.  As always, in pictures and in thoughts, but I am guessing this Just Right will continue to have bandwidth for dedicated results.  And that seems very good to me as well.

This is what Sandy’s Corner looks like right now.  I will continue to share that garden as the weeks go on 😊

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

Til next time – Be Blessed!

Screenshot

A Very Satisfying Accomplishment, Time Now to Enjoy

Today I finished planting the 2025 harvested daylily seeds. It was so incredibly satisfying to refresh my pivot table after entering today’s accomplishments and see … no lines left. Hooray!!! It was an experience. A shall not be repeated experience. Way, way, way too much “fun”. But everything is accounted for and reconciled. Now we wait to see what nature does.

First fun story – After planting all the daylily seeds, I realized I have four labels/tags left. They were from a very welcome discovery today. I thought I was out of labels. And I was not going to buy anything more for the 2025 harvested seeds. I was cutting up the flat side of the plastic trays from the 4 pks of cream cheese danish, cutting strips, and using that for labels! So today, after finding the forgotten stack of labels, and using them, there were four left. A confirmation to stick with the “only four” crosses I have planned this year? I think so 😉

Second fun story – About 1/2 hour after I finished planting the rest of the daylily seeds and had put away all the supplies, we were sitting outside relaxing. In hummed … the first hummingbird to visit this year! It looked big and healthy. It hummed in, looked around, and hummed back out. It is May! The hummingbirds are back! You can bet the first of the feeders has food cooling down right now and will go out shortly.

And for beauty – The gardens look awesome. They are filling out so nicely. It should be a few more weeks and the Asian lilies will start to bud out. And the clematis out back are starting to vine so they should have blooms to share in a few weeks.

Time now for patio time – for long morning coffees, or a beverage of choice in the afternoon. Just sitting, chatting with neighbors, and relaxing as much as a gardener can. We can. With some occasional “let me check one thing” moments 😉

I leave you with another picture of one of the white squirrels, from this morning.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Decisions, Decisions

This blog has been a bit in coming. But today I made the decision.

There have been many days lately where I wrote a blog, went “blech”, erased it and started over. There have been others where I started on one topic and thought “blech” and rewrote until it ended up being another thing all together. Lots of time flew by, and that was ok. I was getting to where I needed to be today.

When I started this blog 8 years ago, topics flowed freely. It was fun. I had ideas stacked up for weeks. Words flowed so fast I was writing the blogs on my phone on the patio. But I feel like I have blogged about all the “fun, easy” garden stuff and although I have rounded a corner now into the deep of my daylily propagation interest, that is a bit in the weeds for a generic garden blog.

I did think about starting another new blog, with just daylily stuff. Sharing what I am learning, successes and failures and things in between … Unfortunately, I am also finding myself NOT doing things that are also on my path.

So, to today. We are in the book of Luke with our Bible studying, and today it was on Martha and Mary. And attitudes, and, even more importantly, priorities with our time and giftings and callings. Ouch! Gardening used to be a fun share, a blessing to share. I need to get back to that with the blog and reprioritize my time. Get back on my path.

So here’s the cool thing in the garden right now. The Bluebells Clematis is budding. Soon the buds will open, and I will share those too 🙂

And the one tulip? I fear Bunimous Rex saw it the same day. The next morning it was gone, with a few smooshed petals strewn about. Bunimous!!! 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Can’t Win ‘Em All

These trays were planted indoors on March 23rd and went outdoors on April 12th. On April 24 I saw the one seedling (in the shadow of the cross bar) and since then nothing else has come up.

Here’s reasons I can think of for the failure:

  • The seeds need more time out in warmer weather. (Maybe. I will give them a couple more weeks.)
  • The trays are horrible (I’m going with this one. These trays are not staying. Way too putzy for me, and so far, the results stink.)
  • The one seed that did germinate was the only viable seed. (They all looked good when I planted them.)

Here’s some positives:

  • Even though these may be a 98% bust, there is one seedling, so far. It only takes one.
  • This batch was a test of a reverse cross of a wildly successful cross from last year. The pod parent is one of my favorite daylilies, Pink Tirzah, but the data available is a bit scant. Most of what I know about Pink Tirzah is what I have proven out myself, including even ploidy. Now I am working on fertility. The pollen from Pink Tirzah has been awesome, but as a pod parent, not so much. I have only had one other cross that went to seedling with Pink Tirzah as the pod parent. I am hoping for bloom on that one this year. I do love Pink Tirzah, so the work continues. This year, besides seeing how this cross goes, I am hoping to get Pink Tirzah self-seed, as I will not be doing intentional crosses with Pink Tirzah this year.
  • And there is still hope. I have a medium pot of seeds of this same (reverse) cross I planted and put out a few days ago, using my usual very successful, albeit quite lazy, method 😉

We shall see how things proceed.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Just one – tulip

I have planted lots of tulips over the years. They bloom a variety of successive years and then fizzle out. This year only one bloomed. That is down from two last year.

Part of me says I could dig out the old greens to tidy up. Currently unproductive tulip bulbs only get removed when I want the space, and nowadays that is exclusively for daylily seedlings. Unfortunately, I have tried daylily seedlings in this area, and they get stepped on:( But, wheels turning … Maybe a certain Pink Tirza and Autumn Red cross will bloom this year and be the first seedlings turned daylilies to move to this area. To join their parents? It’s a thought.

In the meantime, we will enjoy our one tulip bloom 🙂

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

What a difference a week makes!

Screenshot

We are at the end of April now, and what a difference the last week has made!

Sandy’s Corner is really filling out.

  • The daylilies look great.
  • Last year’s seedlings are much farther along than in previous years when I was still working at finding out what they liked best.
  • The hostas are even looking much fuller this year.
  • And our volunteer shrub does indeed look like a currant. It can stay, at least for now. The birds will probably love it.

On the flip side, I could kick myself for buying those tiny little 6 cell seed planting setups. They definitely fit perfectly into the grey seedling boxes, but the seeds are not germinating like they do when I plant medium pots of up to 20 “same” seeds together. I think I know someone who might appreciate them for starting veggie seeds next year 😉

Overall, I am finding that I really like what I have going on in the townhome gardens this year. It has been fun to see the new look and focus come up, and I am more convinced than ever that scaling way back on the crosses this year is the right plan. I can always scope up if I want to, but I am definitely not enjoying that I have so much work yet to go on getting last year’s seeds going. A lighter scope next year continues to sound fabulous.

The historic cemetery gardens are really filling out as well.

This past weekend my husband and I went over and did some spring cleanup at the historic cemetery gardens. They are really looking good! I do suspect our phantom weeders have been helping as well, because I kind of remember it being a little messier a week or so ago. So, thanks to them!

There is one sad thing. Over the past couple years, I have added purchased bare root daylilies to the historic cemetery gardens, as well as added seedlings from crosses I did at the townhome gardens. When I walked though a week or so ago, it looked like they were not there. This past weekend that was confirmed. There are moles or gophers over there, but the markers are almost all missing too, so that is odd. At any rate, I do have the seeds I harvested from there last fall, and I will direct sow those to do one final try with seeds and seedlings, but I think I have my answer. Bare root planting is a no go there. And probably seed and seedling planting as well.

On the upside, the daylily from South Seas self-seed that I planted at the historic cemetery last fall is thriving, so additions like that may be an option, go forward.

That’s the gardens updates for the week.

I hope you have a great week ahead!

White Squirrel – and we still need protection for the seedlings

Screenshot

Oh yes, the white squirrels are super fun. And they, like their grey buddies, would love to dig in whatever it is that I have in the seedling boxes.

And we have our first Autumn Red cross seedling up. And screen will be going on the seedling box shortly 🙂

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Be Blessed!

A retrospective, restful morning

Screenshot

This morning as I was reviewing my pictures from years past, I realized it was a milestone day. That milestone day eventually prompted me to start this blog. And, I realized, I am starting my 9th year of blogging. That is crazy pants.

Some days I think I should call it quits on the blogging. Goodness gracious, I have shared and shared and shared. Down to tiny garden details. I’m not sure there is a lot more to share. But the daylilies …

I wrote a detailed blog today – and deleted it. Much more fun to share that Sandy’s Corner is continuing to be a very enjoyable place to look out over that portion of the daylilies and daylily seedlings as the continue on their Spring growth. That I am hoping for more first-time blooms from seedlings again this year. That I am looking forward to more blooms from our prior years’ seedlings turned daylilies. And that the robins were very trusting this morning.

Be Blessed!