Tag: Hostas

photo fatigue

Around about this time every year I get photo fatigue. I know – horror! But this is how it goes – The first daylily of the season has been so long anticipated I want to take a dozen photos, from every angle, to preserve it for “daylilyless” season. And to share.

The first set of multiples is like a bouquet – it is so wonderful together, and each daylily also has to be remembered for it’s individual joy.

The wide swaths of daylilies also absolutely have to be captured.

But then … I just want to enjoy them.

Yesterday I was in my office, and my husband said to me, “Do you smell that?” “Oh no!” I thought. “That doesn’t sound good!” But you know what? He was out on the patio relaxing, with our dog also relaxing, and the breeze was perfect. He was catching the scent of one of our few fragrant daylilies – his favorite, the “Just Plum Happy” daylilies. My husband doesn’t try to capture the daylilies in pictures. I don’t think he has ever taken a picture of a daylily. He just enjoys them.

And that is where I get about this time each year. There are so many, they are so wonderful, the camera just can’t capture the beauty. Time to stop thinking, “Oh, I need to take more pictures!” Time to throttle back and just enjoy.

In the front, the Blue Mouse Ears got their annual haircut today. I snapped off all the scapes, as they are done blooming for the year. 2 dozen Blue Mouse Ears hostas would be just fine by me – they require very little maintenance, and in fact, in the fall after they beautifully yellow, the leaves can be pulled out just like the undercoat of a chow chow when it is shedding. Believe me, I know that too!!!

That black lab puppy we adopted oh those many years ago??? Yah. But I digress. (She still has a super special place in my heart.)

Back to the picture –

The Just Plum Happy daylilies in the center are the ones that make my husband Just Plum Happy. And on landscape maintenance days he now sits out and greats the guys as they come through with their blowers. He says it is for me, which I partially believe … 🙂

The Touch of Class hosta (to the left) is, sadly, one of three remaining. Two died suddenly maybe five years ago??? One year they were huge, the next – gone. I can only guess it was the sunflower seed casings from the bird feeder we had there for about a month and a half at the end of winter.

The empty space is from things that have been moved up north or gifted.

Then behind there are the daylilies that need a new location – probably up at the camping land, but tbd.

Oh, and the Pink China Dolls to the right? They came to live here when the Touch of Class hostas disappeared. They have been cavorting with the Marque Moon daylilies. We introduced them to each other, and we hope they really hit it off. But more on that this week.

Hosta scapes galore!!

The hostas are really starting to come into bloom now. One of my favorites is First Frost

How it does so well in the afternoon sun is a tiny miracle to me. It took a few years to establish – years when there were four or five leaves and one scape. But is is super happy now in that spot.

It makes me wonder –

Before I started adding daylilies, I had A LOT of hostas. I seriously don’t remember them getting stomped on. Hosta scapes blown, but not stomped on. Maybe hostas, even littles ones, are more universally recognizable? I don’t know.

Another favorite is the Patriot hosta

I have one left here, one was moved to the little house up north, and one was gifted to our next door neighbor who moved this spring. Our new neighbor, to my delight, is also a gardener. Hooray! Patriot hostas grow and prosper!

We also had news this week about the townhome garden “refresh”. It is pushed to next year.

I have 7 daylilies that definitely need to move – the 4 out front that keep getting stomped on and 3 red ones that have been relatively safe all these years as they are up against the house. But this year they did not bloom. I think it is because we got a new, larger, grill, and they now have too much shade. Or they need to be divided. Either way, moving is planned. One of their offspring did bloom this year. It is a rooted offspring and very small. But beautiful.

And in Bunimous news, Bunimous has gifted us baby Bunimi (is that a word – haha!) who are adorable, and far more genteel. They are clearing a lot of the clover in the gardens. I scared one poor little one a little past dawn mid-week. I hope they begin to eat the hosta leaves as they get bigger and we move into fall. Less work for me.

In the spring the hostas get coffee grounds and ant-bunny treatment, so minimal destruction ;)A little, but tolerable.

So …

So, the little house up north can boast a new homeowner. She was a delight and a dream, but so much changed in such a short time – for great – that it no longer made sense. We never ever ever intended to have three places. Something had to give, and it was the little house up north.

So I am back, for now, until we find an alternative, at “what can I creatively do at the camping/hunting land up north?” Clearly some things at the townhouse need a new home.

Poor things! They are 3-4 years and they just keep getting stepped on, cut, blown, and pulled out. Time for new digs.

The “garden” up north looks like this (cringe/avert gaze at the raised bed garden area).

The good news is … the asparagus I planted 3 years ago survived!!! 😉 Even the deer left it alone. And the non-blooming iris and the forced daffodils from a “watch em grow” garden are thriving in a depression just to the left, outside of the raised bed area. We think the deer might have enough food with the dandelions, and then the wildflowers, until they can browse on new shrub growth. The bears have raspberry bushes way down the trail… WAY down the trail, and they will stay WAY down the trail. Because we don’t need them up at the campsite, at least when we’re there.

It will take some work, and some investment in something like a protective area, but I could, at least, have an area for reasonably mature seedlings that need safety and protection from their current situation.

For two years of a detour, it also feels good to have left some garden creations at the little house up north. 7 of 12 pollinator created daylily seedlings survived, and 3 of 4 Blue Mouse Ears divisions survived. Plus some more mature daylilies and the sedum divisions of course. Given some love, in a couple years it should start to fill those spaces very nicely.

Their Portion

I have an acceptance that I actually have come to embrace. It is called Their Portion. It goes like this –

The deer at the little house up north got to eat the hostas without me putting up a gate or fence. They brought me so much joy all year, and especially in the winter when there was no gardening (except planning).

We had a compromise – one where they set the terms, of course. They ate the hostas and they left the sedum alone. I could have claimed a planned decoy, but truly, they held all the cards.

Hey, hostas were kind of like perennial lettuce in that scenario 🙂 Acceptance.

The bunnies are more than welcome to start eating the hostas in the fall at the townhouse. Please do! Less for me to cut back! Even chomping down on a hosta bloom or too. Have at it!

Where it gets dicey is digging and chomping of new plantings.

IF we don’t find a little house in the cities where I can freely garden, AND I am relegated to townhome landscaping, I think I will need more “safe places” like this to grow things to bring to the camping/hunting land up north.

So seedlings and new plants are protected from this

Notice the soil “aeration” and the liberal “deadheading”.

Our outdoor buddies bring us joy.

They get their portion.

oh yeah!

Yesterday I walked out to the start of Just Plum Happy season. True, my husband’s favorite daylily, “Just Plum Happy” had it’s first blooms Tuesday. But yesterday …

Persian Market opened

That is the one who’s sister bud got blown off by the landscape maintenance. She shined bright today. Even at 9:45 at night she was still gorgeous.

Tuesday the peach daylily wrapped up the season

and yesterday was saying goodbye til next year

wherever that may be. I am hoping what this picture also shows is the first day of a pollinator created seed pod. If possible. Her season was only three blooms long because her sister scape was one of the very few scapes damaged during the roofing project. We are thankful for the three blooms we got.

The South Seas daylily was taking the day off after a magnificent display Tuesday.

And the Blue Mouse Ears hostas have reached their crescendo and are winding down for the season. They, like us, are not fans of the heat, and are settling in to be a lovely green/blue backdrop for the rest of the season.

The spiders love to use them for web making, and when they are blooming the spiders get their way. All bets are off when they start to go to seed.

Finally, one of my dozen 2 year old daylilies also bloomed yesterday. I have to look up the name. For now it is Beautiful, Early Morning Tulip Shaped before it opens, Gorgeous Peachy Pink daylily.

Yah, that’s it. For now 🙂

oh, okay …

The forget-me-nots continue to co-exist with the clover, continues to co-exist at the base of the daylilies, and next to the Blue Mouse Ears hostas.

So much prettier than just landscape rock. Reminds me of old English gardens. Depth.

Hats off. Weekend fun.

The buckets and plant pots that protected the daylilies, hostas, and sedum during the roofing project are off, but will have one more appearance in the next couple weeks when the gutter and fascia work is going on.

After that very long, hard to wait but dreading the potential collateral damage May, it was great to get back in the garden.

First up was removing the remainder of the tree seedlings. That got done yesterday. The total of buckets this year was down from the past few years – 5, compared to the usual 7. Hurray!

The dying tulip greens that got smooshd also got pulled. They were done anyway.
sadly, also a daylily piece from the project smoosh, but next year …

Then the pollinator created, harvested daylily seeds from 2021 finally got planted. Another post on that coming soon.

The sunflower seedlings also all got pulled. They were an experiment, but the rolling roofing dumpster made that decision for me. My husband was very happy – hahaha!!!

Today my thoughts turned to the front entry garden. It needs love.

One of the Blue Mouse Ears hostas out back also got a little smooshed with the roofing project. That was ok because it needed to be divided anyway, and the flowers get hit by the sprinkler, so moving the whole plant is probably a good idea. Blue Mouse Ears are the perfect size for the entryway area, and with dappled sun due to the Amur Maple they will look great for years to come. That area also had the remnant of a Rainforest Sunrise hosta I mostly moved up north, but it got a bit smooshed too so this will not be it’s shining year. I had to cut away the smooshed leaves. No worries, it will pop back next year. But besides a center hosta and the few Blue Mouse Ears divisions, and the low growing sedum, what to put in that area for color? No to annuals I think. Daily watering – ugghhh. That is for bird baths – haha! No to sedum divisions – the two low growing sedum are enough. Asian lilies seem to die out there, and the stems are not great after bloom either. They require layering to cover those up. So it may be daylilies. I am concerned about the dappled sun, but maybe. Still contemplating.

Finally, the center of one of the back garden areas was pretty bare. Plenty of baby forget-me-nots that will bloom next year, but it needs something additional. I pulled a nice daylily from there to go up north last year, and right afterward I saw how bare that area was and regretted it. Bummer. So that area needs love. But low investment. Trying out the green shamrock. Not sure. Might need a trip to the garden store.

So that was the weekend garden fun. Super enjoyed it.

Talk is not DO

As a student, I was definitely not drawn to history. Seemed like an awful lot of talk that may or may not be factual. Math, now there you have something! My love of math turned into a love of data. I am an analyst at heart, and by trade, with a whole lot of love for data driven project planning and implementation (“DO”) in the mix. Analysis is for a purpose – to inform on a course for future “DO”. And, yes, at the root, we analyze data based on history.

I fell in love with a history and political science guy, oh so many years ago. What a pair we have made all these years. Me wanting to dig deeper, find patterns, analyze trends, and him exposing me to things in history and politics which, to me, often make absolutely no logical sense.

Along the way I got interested in gardening and was particularly interested in the gardens at historic forts we visited. Those made sense – food, beauty, for the family, for the community. I used my love of data to study what would work in different areas of our yard. I started building out gardens. I found I liked plants with history, plants with a story to tell.

Alas! The kids grew up, we made the bumpy transition to townhome living, and my sprawling, sometimes out of control gardens came to an end. Townhome bylaws. But my analytical mind said why not petition the board to put in our own landscaping? What’s the worst they can say? No? They said yes – three times – initial plantings to augment the shrubs, and two expansions.

I have pretty decent gardens now at the townhouse – ones that kept my gardening mind busy for 18 years, gave me 9 months per year of exercise, and one that neighbors and friends say they enjoy. Remember we garden as much for others as ourselves. Wherever we may be.

We have also spent a couple decades now of time in northern Minnesota, and it is me who digs into the history there. It gives me perspective, appreciation of a much more rugged, challenging time, and really makes me appreciate all the incredibly hard work, personal sacrifice, and an attitude of resourcefulness that was exemplified in that time. It is a thing of beauty that explorers can come to areas that are maintained for them, purely enjoy, spend little to no money, experience time away from the stress of the city, and then drive away with no committment to better, or even maintain it. The “right” to enjoy all that now is because of all the “DO” respecting nature, yet making that beauty accessible, that was forged by those before us, and is done on a continual basis on our behalf . I am grateful.

And now we come to my latest thoughts. On my micro scale, I always wonder what positive, lasting, move forward “DO” I can contribute to continue what others before us have accomplished. I like to do that through gardening. I love to leave tiny trails of garden love and share abundance. I am reasonable with what can be used, and cognizant of what I can physically accomplish, but I still love to share and “DO”.

So I have a friend who quietly goes about this. She researches history, she shares her findings, and she and her husband have maintained the grounds of a historic cemetary when others walked away, when there is little money for “DO”. There is money for supplies, but “DO”, like cut the grass, trim the trees – that is volunteer. They fight for preservation of that history in a beautiful way that honors those interred there. Those that gave their lives to country, those that gave generously and served community selflessly, those whose place of interment would be left unmaintained because there is no money attached. And those whose contributions and life lessons would be lost as part of history informing further “DO”.

My friend and her husband challenge me. I have things to give. I have more plants to divide. Plants I won’t use at the little house gardens up north. They might look nice at the cemetary. A little trail of positive contributions. We garden just as much for others as ourselves.

The hosta pictured below can go to the cemetary in the spring, if they want it. It is an “Elegans” hosta. It could be divided into 3 pieces and form a lovely start to a woodland edge garden, away from the beaten path and not adding to any mowing complexity. Some cardboard, three hostas, some mulch. A little “DO”. We’ll see what spring brings as far as additional ideas and “DO”.