Spring Rain, and updates on the Seedling Boxes and Sandy’s Corner

This morning the forecast said rain. I was sincerely hoping it would hold, as the first wave of seeds are now going outside and some natural watering is always a bonus.

I was not disappointed.

Starting seeds indoors this year reminded me of why I don’t do that. It was sooo time for them to go outside.

Sandy’s Corner

The gardens are missing one little chihuahua terrier this spring and that is definitely sad for us. It is a little extra poignant because Sandy was our last dog. We have decided after 30 years of being rescue dog owners that it is time for that chapter to end. A new chapter is upon us, but our memories of Sandy’s long life with us remain.

We have such wonderful memories of Sandy in the gardens. Specifically, “Sandy’s Corner” is where he liked to sunbathe – on the path, on the grass right outside the garden, or, in his later years, in a dog bed outside the garden on the patio.

That garden area has also changed a lot over the years with the Linden growing and casting different shade patterns. And it is where our successive Traeger shadow has grown.

The area closest to the house gets the least amount of morning sun, and I used to, many years ago, have big hostas back there. Gradually over the years I moved those big hostas out and did more with tulips. But tulips around here only bloom a few years, and then they just come up as greens each year. Nowadays the tulip greens are primarily early season bunny food.

When I want to reclaim a space with tulip greens, I simply dig them out. Such will be the case with the tulip greens in Sandy’s Corner this year. I know the hostas work in that area, and I have a large hosta I need to move. It will be a nice backdrop to the daylily seedlings that do exceptionally well with the longer sun exposure farther out.

And the little garden accents, as whimsical as they are, will also move out soon. Their short-term job is to remind me not to put anything there. That is the corridor to the hummingbird feeder, and, for that reason, last fall I removed some daylily seedlings from that area. My husband maintains the hummingbird feeders – that we both love to watch, and which should not cause “fear of stepping on daylily seedlings” stress 😉 And no worries, the seedlings I moved are doing very well in their new location.

This sweet tulip is in another area, and it will stay. Hopefully the bunnies leave it alone 🙂

One spot that will not change is this corner. This is the corner in which Sandy most often sat on the path. There used to be hostas there, but when they began to fail, we moved them, and I reclaimed the space for daylily seedlings. Those daylily seedlings bloomed last year and are back stronger than ever this year (way more fans). They are in the right exposure.

There are also forget-me-nots in that area. I like a smattering of those, but not a mat. Last year I began selectively weeding those out after they bloomed (not letting them go to seed). A little seed is the perfect amount.

I will never tire of this. Daylilies coming up in Spring

And with that, it is Friday, and I am ready to relax. My husband tells me he is going to make his signature smoked nachos on the grill. My stomach is already growling 🙂

I hope you have a great weekend!

Be Blessed!

Sandy’s Corner

I have been thinking about how many daylily seedlings from the 2025 harvest I can realistically fit in the various gardens. High level, I am looking for space for whatever low volume seedlings I get from the seeds from last year’s harvest. Practically, I am looking for a way to enjoy groupings of the different daylily lines I have going.

Perhaps a 30,000 foot description on how I designed the gardens at the townhome would be a good idea to begin with.

In front, it is very much “landscape garden” style. Neat rows, lots of repetition. Not very creative, but it looks nice and uniform. And I don’t allow forget-me-nots out front. I keep it more formal. Increasingly I have also considered curtailing the number of crosses I do out front. It gets warm out front in the afternoons, and I much prefer to be out back at that time of day. I also have those same daylilies out back now, so in reality I don’t need to be out front doing any crosses.

Out back is where I have my actual “garden” areas. It is where I relax, where I have my coffee in the morning sun and where we sit out and chat as the shade begins to cover part of the patio. It is way more creative, and daydreamy. It is often where neighbors stop by to chat. And it is also where our dog Sandy used to sit with us, basking in warmth until the shade arrived. He so loved that. We will definitely miss having him with us there.

I have been considering naming the part of the gardens where Sandy most often sat, “Sandy’s Corner”. I am thinking “Sandy’s Corner” will be where the South Seas and Coral Majority self-seed and crosses will be planted go forward. Coral Majority is outrageously fun, and South Seas is very relaxing to look at. I like the idea of that combo.

I have a sneaking suspicion “Sandy’s Corner” will be my favorite look, and I will allow that to be the predominant results that remain in the townhome gardens, but we shall see.

As for the historic work, I am hoping to have those results primarily up north. Maybe some at the historic cemetery. Time will tell.

And the rest of the crosses, I think they can go by their parents. The forget-me-nots will be greatly reduced, but that is ok.

Take care! Be Blessed!

What about Hello Yellow in 2026?

Hello Yellow is a daylily that has bloomed the past few years in our garden at the townhouse. It is from seed I harvested but suspect I mislabeled. Despite multiple attempts to replicate that cross, I have been unsuccessful. I may continue to try to do that in the future, but I need to move forward. Hello Yellow will become ‘sdlg’ (for seedling) for now.

The Hello Yellow daylilies are the first to bloom in our gardens, and the last. It will stay. Absolutely will stay. And it needs some “puppies”. Hopefully 5. And a “Mom” for those puppies. You know where this is going, right? South Seas self-seed anyone? And a little story time.

Alert – Now this gets sentimental. In January we lost our last dog, Sandy. He was a terrier mix, probably mostly with chihuahua. We adopted him at 1 1/2 years old as a rescue. We were told someone(s) moved and left him and his girlfriend (April), who was a couple weeks away from delivering 5 of their puppies, roaming around the halls of the apartment. They were picked up by animal control and put into a foster facility with the intention of making them available as rescues. I had worked with someone who also worked with that rescue and told her that if they ever got a border terrier to let me know. I kid you not, we had a planned trip to go adopt another dog, and I got an email from my colleague about Sandy. Sandy came home with me the next day. He was very sad to leave April and the pups, but they were also ready for adoption and went very quickly. And Sandy bonded with me within hours of bringing him to our home. We had Sandy for 14 years. He was 15 1/2 when he passed. He had a very good, interesting life where he was very loved, and, of course, pampered.

Sandy was a very endearing dog. Super cuddly to his peeps, but very spunky with other dogs. It took a bit to get him socialized with our Irish Terrier mix. I ended up between them one day and got a tetanus shot booster as a reward. They eventually made peace, and when our Irish Terrier mix passed, Sandy became an “only”. Sandy had a short stay with our son and DIL where he regained his doggy manners through being reminded of normal doggy protocol by living with their dogs. Eventually he came back to our home and was our beloved constant companion until he passed this January. He spent a lot of time in the gardens with me, and I am certain this Spring I will feel that loss intensely for a while. Time does heal, but it is a bit rocky.

Sandy was a blond dog with Apricot ears. Recently when I was looking through my latest daylily catalogue, I was oh so tempted to order at least one ‘Apricot Sparkles’ daylily and plant it where he used to fall asleep in the sun. I have had ‘Apricot Sparkles’ on and off my wish list for a while. But I held off, not quite sure. And it finally came to me. I want to work with what we have here, from when he was here, and see what I can get with crosses between Hello Yellow and all the South Seas self-seed (peach/apricot) blooms.

I fully realize this is risky. Hello Yellow is an extended bloom daylily, and the pollen is often not cooperative. The blooms open in the evening. But this is a rest and heal year. 2025 was very intense and pivotal. A nothing burger year for hybridizing would be fine. So, I am going to give it a try, crossing Hello Yellow with our apricot/peach blooms from South Seas self-seed. With any luck, in 3-7 years, we will have an area called “Sandy’s garden” where he used to sunbathe – and maybe have 5 new yellow and apricot/peach crosses in that garden. THAT would be fun! And, if not, ‘Apricot Sparkles’ will probably still be around in the daylily catalogues.

Now, about that Hyperion? Historical. Fragrant. Matching the aesthetic I am more and more drawn to. Do we have a peach diploid to cross to? Why yes. Yes, we do! Hmmm. Getting closer to making that call. Setting the components for 2027 and beyond.

Have I mentioned daylily propagation is a long game? I think so 😉

Be Blessed!

Reassess

At the end of January, after almost a year of significant health challenges, we lost our 15 1/2-year-old dog. We knew that outcome was coming, and we were pretty aware of how much we would miss him. But it has been hard. He was our constant sidekick, and that included in the gardens. He was also our last dog. We have had dogs for 30 years as a family, and we do rescue, so they often come from tough past care and experiences. We loved every dog, dearly, but it is time to wrap up that part of our life.

2025 year was a pivotal year in other ways as well, and we are assessing other things now too.

In 2025 I went a tad much on daylily crosses. It is a lot of creative fun to plan the crosses, to see what blooms each day and do the available crosses, to see the crosses form pods and mature to harvest readiness. But mid-September last year it switched to “too much”. Last year I harvested 521 seeds, with 19 successful intentional (not pollinator) cross types, 17 of which were new. There was a lot of harvest related work, including storage work that went way too far into fall for my preference. And now, in Spring, I have 521 seeds in dry cold stratification. (More on that below.) Every single one of those seeds will require planting, monitoring to seedling, hopefully making it to seedling, and then planting in its 3-year home (to bloom). I loved previous years when I did much less. Last year was too much. So, we reassess.

As part of the assessment, I considered that, yes, gardening is my primary hobby, but it is my – hobby. And true, I added garden blogging 8 years ago, and last year I added historical research, but those are also hobbies. To keep at that scope, I am solidifying my decision, for 2026, to pare way back on doing daylily crosses. I will probably do 5-7 intentional cross types, as I did in pre-2025 years, but I want to spend a boatload of time just enjoying the gardens, including watching the pollinators enjoy the gardens. From there we will see where it goes. I do want to head farther down the historic path of daylily gardening, and I am still working on getting Flava (historic) daylilies, but if I can’t get them this year, that’s ok too.

Now for actionable info – As I mentioned above. I do dry cold stratification for my harvested daylily seeds. Yes, I am seeing that is not the currently documented best practice, but again, I am a hobbyist, and I am aiming for minimal complexity. Here’s my timing this year. On Feb 7 I put the 521 harvested (stored by cross, type and date) daylily seeds, in envelopes, in plastic bags, into the side door of our refrigerator. Super high-tech stratification 😉 In April I will plant some seeds indoors in trays, just because in April I get impatient for garden activity. However, the vast majority of my harvested daylily seeds will get planted in May, in multiples, by type, into medium pots, and the medium pots will go into protected seedling boxes where they will “sink or swim” outside. I know. Blasphemy! But this is the method I arrived at quite a few years back, and how I do this every year. Last year I had about an 80% seed to seedling success ratio.

More to come. As always, I will share as we go along 🙂

A White Squirrel, Our Dog Having Fun, Very Full Hosta Garden, and Asian Lillies in Bud

For many years we have had white squirrels in our neighborhood. True albino. We even took pics in the beginning and sent them in to some sort of tracking site.

This pic dates back to Jan 9, 2019

And for our June in January pics today I have a few. The first is our dog mid-stride, front paw tucked, up north last June 9. WAY in the back is the outhouse. The lanterns mark the way at night 😉

This next pic will not be a view we see again. It was the very full hosta garden under the linden on June 9, 2024. Mysteriously we lost 18 hostas between fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. We shall not focus on theories, but rather, enjoy the picture, and know that the empty spaces, where the hostas were, found new occupants in 2025.

And this pic is quintessential early June (June 9, 2024) in our back townhome garden – the peach Asian lilies still in bud, a set of tulip leaves fading (one looks like it may have provided a bunny meal at one point – nothing left where the tulip bloom was), and I also remember that hosta, where a leaf looks a bit eaten, was actually from being stepped on and crushed. Stuff happens.

Enjoy!

I hope you have a good evening!

Be Blessed!

Lazy weekend

We’re planning a lazy Labor Day weekend. Sometimes those are THE BEST! Our Gueat in the Garden (Sandy the dog) is here, I went to the store and got a whole bunch of questionably healthy food items, got him some treats, got my garden clippers handy for the Saturday morning trimming, queued up a book for the thunderstorm times that are forecasted Sunday and Monday, and we are just going to chill.

If we don’t post until Tuesday, have a wonderful weekend!