Tag: seeds

Transitioning Toward the Fall Garden

The daylilies are wrapping up.

The pods are being watched for condition.

Decisions are being made on moves.

This daylily has gone from a seedling to a normal sized Autumn Red daylily.

Although that is wonderful, it is a taking a beating from the sprinklers. I am finding blooms on the ground.

The daylilies in that little corner will be transplanted, and shorter daylilies, probably the Marque Moons that need to be transplanted, will go into that space.

The seedlings are growing, and even the seeds that did not germinate in pots, when given a last chance through direct sowing (in the ground), rose to the call.

And now the Sedum will take over. Soon the green will turn to pink, and then to red. If the birds don’t eat them all.

It will probably be a busy transplant season, as always, but way less seeds to harvest and get into storage.

I have really enjoyed narrowing my work on daylily crosses this year. It was, for sure, a discipline, but a good one. From what I can tell I will have 3 maybe 4 intentional cross varieties go to seed, and 6, maybe 7 self-seed varieties go to seed. Two of the self-seed varieties are super exciting to me as they are new this year. One is with Hush Little Baby, a promising historic daylily (diploid) that bloomed in our garden for the first time this year, and one is Pink Moon, one of my own (tetraploid) seedlings that bloomed for the first time this year. But the seed from both of those, if viable, and if it germinates next spring, will not be a blooming daylily for at least 3 years.

Next year my daylily focus will be even more specific. After many years of being the queen of tetraploid hybridization in our gardens, South Seas seems to be waning. I will probably not replace it as I have so many of my own South Seas seedlings now. I plan to turn my focus to working exclusively with my own tetraploid seedlings and then, hopefully, if the three bare root Hyperion I planted this spring bloom next year, Hyperion will be the focus of my diploid work. Hyperion is also the oldest historic daylily in our gardens. Fingers crossed for bloom next year.

And with that, I want to give a heads up that we have some family needs and I will probably not be posting as much. Prayers are always welcome.

Blessings to you all!

“Making Me Think” Monday – Hit My Threshold

Direct sow daylily seedlings like this are popping up when they refused to germinate in pots – Go figure

Well … I now have all of the daylily seedlings out of the seedling boxes, and most of the daylily seedlings planted. There are some seedlings that are still kind of small, so they are still in pots, under cloches, and awaiting a future planting day. But most of the seedlings are in the ground now. I cannot tell you how glad I am. And how much I got really tired of planting. I learned my threshold. One or two seedling boxes full were fun, even cute. 4 boxes taking up a corner of my relaxation place – reminding me of all the work I still needed to do – no. Just no. Too much.

And simultaneously, my most stubborn seeds this year, the ones that didn’t germinate in pots, the ones I tossed into open spots in the garden – seeds and soil and loosely put rocks over the top, not even covering them with cloches – are germinating. Even, it seems, one I would have given very minor odds – a cross with Hello Yellow. That got my attention big time, because Hello Yellow seed has been hard to make, and has never germinated.

So, everything smooshed all together. I started seeing direct sow seedlings popping up, I saw my Hello Yellow seed germinate, I was wrist deep in mucky mud, seedlings flopping over in holes, and I was running out of my 20 cloches to cover up my newly planted batches of new varieties of seedlings.

I seriously, seriously love to garden. I seriously, seriously love daylilies. I seriously, seriously love propagating dayliles, And I am seriously, seriously, seriously thinking about downsizing the whole practice of germinating daylily seedlings in pots. It might be time. 2027 might be the perfect time.

  • The townhome gardens are full, full, full now. Like really, really full. So full that I am removing the Autumn Reds in back this fall to make room for new crosses that succeed next spring.
  • I am doing very few new crosses this year – only four new ones, and two of those are a reverse of a success, just for giggles.
  • I am doing one replication, in case I ever want to register it, and
  • I am retrying four failures, just in case they would finally work.
  • Any other daylily seed harvest will be self-seed.

My previous fails at direct sow germination of daylily seeds did not include stratification or planting them with good soil. This year’s successes included those practices. By accident, admittedly, but worth considering. And the new and replication crosses would hit my enjoyment threshold for germinating in pots (5). Anything after that could be direct sow.

So, I am thinking, seriously thinking. Life in daylily planting-ville was a lot this year. My threshold is now very known. Using wisdom 😉

And what of the extra planters? Well, someone I know and love is trying his hand at growing hot peppers again, and enjoying it, so far. He really likes to cook, and he likes hot sauces. We have some canning jars from when I thought they were adorable and could be made into little candle holders lol (never did). Homemade hot sauce? It could be a project. For him. I don’t eat that stuff. No siree. And maybe just one planter full of peppers to start 😉

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!

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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!

What a difference a week makes!

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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!

Turning the Corner

After months of watching and waiting, we are finally into outdoor gardening season 🙂

Top of mind this week in our gardens:

The Hyperion daylilies arrived and have been added to the garden

  • The Hyperion daylily shipment arrived, and they are now planted in one of our garden areas. I am hoping they do well in their new home here, and live good long lives as our most historic daylilies.
  • Hyperions are one of two diploid forms I am looking to work with. In addition, their cheery yellow color will definitely be welcome, and their hardiness and deer resistance is something I plan to test up north. That they are fragrant is also a bonus.
  • In researching how Hyperion daylilies do best, and look best, I found that waves, or groupings, were the recommendation. I did consider alternating them with the Autumn Red daylilies but ultimately decided against that idea in favor of a solid Hyperion wave.

The daylily seedlings in the townhome gardens are all up

This week brought excellent news on the daylily and daylily seedling front. We did not lose any of our daylily seedling varieties. Every variety that I planted in 2025 from our 2024 harvested seed is now up in the 2026 gardens. Additionally, all of the previous years’ seedlings (that have not yet bloomed) and the daylilies from seed (that have bloomed) are also all up.

The realization that the propagation work I started in 2017 is now an annual rolling new creation was … beyond a minor moment. I am very excited to be at this point. Besides personally enjoying the daylily creations, I am looking forward to sharing the resulting blooms in a variety of ways – blogging, caring for them in our gardens, and starting the daylily work up north.

The scope of this year’s daylily crosses in the townhome gardens

  • With all of the South Seas self-seed daylilies back up, and with Hello Yellow back up, my propagation plan for 2026 is waiting on one thing – 2026 blooms. That will be a few months out.
  • I would like to say this year will be the first year my propagation work will be exclusively with daylilies created from seed harvested in our townhome gardens, but alas, I will still be using one purchased daylily for this year’s crosses.
  • I will use one AHS registered daylily for crosses this year, and that will be Marque Moon. Marque Moon has been in our gardens for almost 20 years. It has successfully crossed with our South Seas daylily and now I want to see what it can do with the South Seas self-seed daylilies.

The daylily seedlings at the historic cemetery

While the established daylilies at the historic cemetery overwintered very well, the seedlings, sadly, did not. That, coupled with what happened with the purchased daylilies I planted in 2024 (very few came up in 2025), tells me the historic cemetery garden needs a more restrictive palate with primarily divisions from things that already do well there. It will take longer to fill the empty spaces with that approach, but that’s ok. Community gardens are a unique challenge, and different sites need different things. Go with the flow.

And with that, it’s a wrap for this week.

Here’s a few more early greens pics around the townhome gardens.

South Seas self-seed daylily back up
One of the Stonecrop
The Bluebells clematis is greening up
In with the daylilies is a clematis volunteer

And last of all, our mystery volunteer bush is probably a currant of some type. I will keep watching to see what it does.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Be Blessed!

Brunch, and then time to get the seedling mini greenhouses set up

It is time to start getting ready to plant daylily seeds. But first, the chef made brunch. Lots of vegies, and cheese, of course.

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After that delicious sustenance, it was time to start putting the new seedling mini greenhouses together.

I have decided to decorate lightly for Easter this year. I remember all the work it was to put away the full “everything out” Christmas decorations in January, and I am just not in the mood for an Easter version repeat. Seedling trays will make an early appearance this year, where the ceramic Easter eggs would normally go. But don’t worry, we still celebrate the actual meaning of Easter, every day, in our hearts 🙂

One last look before planting wave one of the daylily seeds. These seedling planters will never be this clean again 😉

I will share as we go.

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Happy Spring!

The temperatures are rising, the snow from the blizzard is melting big time, and soon, very soon, seeds will start to get planted. Sadly, I don’t think the old Malva Zebrina Hollyhock seeds are going to germinate, but that’s ok. I supected they were too old.

For now, we wait. But not much longer. And then we will be very busy indeed.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Be blessed!

Good belly laugh

The topic of decluttering and use it or lose it is always something I give attention to. Simplifying is very freeing. In addition to physical space, it also frees up mind space.

As I look back at old garden pictures and documentation it is fun to remember the different things we have had in our gardens AND it is nice to be where we are. I remember the days of fighting aphids on huge hibiscus, trying to get forced bulbs to keep from falling over, starting shipments of seeds that looked awesome in catalogues and never gave us one single vegetable, and worse, some flower seeds never even germinated. I am glad to have simplified and to be done with all of that. And I will be comfortable to finally make the call after Easter that the Malva Zebrina Hollyhock seeds were stored too long and were not viable. It is time to get to just daylily seeds. Not just this year but going forward.

I am also very happy I had time this week to make a totally new, much more simplified configuration of my garden tracking spreadsheet. Everything that needs action is in there and I can pull from the one data sheet to make pivots for specific views. That is nice, and a long time coming. Lots of data, lots of iterations.

And after a dozen hours poring over old notes and old labels and packets and photos, the only unknown left is the parentage of Hello Yellow. Something tells me that Hello Yellow is having a good belly laugh and that I will ultimately find out it was a Purple D’Oro self-seed that went to its parentage of … Stella De Oro. We shall see. That would not make sense, as it has created seed with a cross with Just Plum Happy, a tetraploid. But, I guess, it would be belly laugh funny. Given that I am not a Stella gardener.

We are forecasted to have a pretty substantial snowfall this weekend. I am thankful it seems the mass arrival of robins has not yet occurred, and I am thankful I disciplined myself to not start daylily seeds in trays. It’s not time yet.

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Have a wonderful weekend!