Things here have been going along at quite a clip! The gardens are back in full swing. Time to start the blog back up and share the garden activity again. One of our first projects once we saw what had survived the winter was to do a bit of transplanting. The daylily seedling mini-bed that went from brainchild to reality to “oops that is kind of ugly and a bit shy on sun exposure” to “nah, nixing that idea” was pretty much decommissioned last year. It did, however, provide a home for some pollinator created seedlings to mature a a bit. This spring it was time to take a big, potentially risky transplant step, part of which I have been contemplating for years. The idea – swap locations for two beautiful mature Ivory Queen hostas and two daylily seedlings. The Ivory Queen hostas needed to be moved out of their sun overexposure location, and the daylily seedlings needed more sun. Further supporting the decision, one of the two hostas was fairy ringing. They had been in that location a while. It was definitely time for a swap. But would we like the look?
My husband was the digger, and I was the planter. Digging out the hostas was as tough as I thought, and nerve wracking. But the hostas as well as the 2-3 year old daylily seedlings all not only survived, they are thriving. The hostas now have more shade, and the daylilies now have the sun they need.
She is Tender Love, and has been added to my absolute favorites list. I would like a few more, but I am going to stay steadfast on my “no buy for the townhouse” decision. Things are far too unsettled. Maybe in the future.
Yesterday I also planted the new daylily seedlings bed. I have to tell you, it was a grunt it out experience and after it was done, I did not feel exhuberant. I felt a bit down. It was weird.
But this morning after it weathered a night (notice the hot pepper piece to deter diggers 😂) I am feeling much better about it. I planted the stunted coneflower in the middle to give it a year to grow. Then it can move, or not. (We have gotten a lot of donations for the historic cemetary fence garden. It is almost full.). But more on that in an upcoming post. Hint: I bought a bag of 50 daffodils to deter the moles.
I have one more potted transplant to get into the ground. It is a piece of one of the Elegans. I accidentally pulled it off when I was cleaning up a few weeks ago.
The two giant Elegans I was looking for a home for are eventually going to my Dad who is already making plans for them. Remember it is my Dad who got me into hostas? So I am feeling super good about them going to a loving home. He has space, and shade.
And I now have my plan to get more hostas more into the shade and more daylilies more into the sun. Next weekend. Because we are headed to 100°F this weekend. This girl has her water and watch hat on.
Today was transplanting day. I had thought about it long enough. It was time for “Do”.
First up, this beauty moved. Poor thing. Believe it or not, she is a coneflower. She needs more sun.
She will either go to the historic cemetery garden (pending approval) or to the new daylily seedling bed. (More on that later). In her place, initially, went the Praying Hands hosta, but later the Praying Hands hosta moved and the Patriot hosta went in the old coneflower spot. I didn’t think I would get to moving the Patriot hosta today, but Yeay! Now the Patriot hosta is in the shade most of the day, tucked in by the Weigelia and up front with the red daylilies, white-ish Marque Moon daylilies, and Bluebells clematis (which, by the way, do rebloom). Pulling out that Patriot hosta was very hard. I am probably going to feel it tomorrow, but It was burning up in the sun year over year, and, recently someone’s dog was finding it interesting 😞
Here she is in her new location.
Next up was an un-named hosta. I used to know the name but I can’t remember it off the top of my head, so it shall be named “un-named”. It was one of my very first purchased hostas. I bought it from a lady who was having a plant sale out of her yard. It has been in the spot I pulled it from today for at least 15 years, and probably longer. It was fading. It needed new digs, and some dividing. She went to the middle back of one of the patio area gardens, in back of the old seedling bed.
The Praying Hands hosta was there for a year, but did not thrive in that spot. Last fall, we moved the Praying Hands hosta back from the little house up north (that we sold) and plopped her there. Poor thing. She will do much better quietly going about her business in a less visible role, in the spot where the peach daylily used to be.
The peach daylily, poor thing, languished in the shade when we had our smaller Traeger, and this year she did not bloom at all in the shade of the bigger Traeger. She needed to get back in the sun. She got to go to the spot where “un-named” hosta was. I’m thinking she will think that is “just right”.
And … 5 year old South Seas daylily seedlings got her chance to have more sun. She now sits between South Seas and tall cream colored daylily, in the spot where Patriot hosta used to be. I hope she blooms next year. If not, up north she goes, where she runs the very high risk of being deer yummies. Just sayin’. Bloom please.
Still left is the potential new seedling bed. It would be here.
That area was supposed to be the pepper bed but believe it or not, the peppers didn’t like it. So daylily seedling bed it might be.
The other option is to put them in with mature daylilies. And give them one year to bloom.
(They are unintentional crosses, so that is less likely. Now that my intentional crosses are going to seed I may stop harvesting any other seeds, to keep the daylilies from expending extra energy. All up in the air this fall. First I need to see how the intentionally crossed seeds perform.)
And last year’s seedlings? They will be tucked into the front of the old seedling bed to see if they can get a bit bigger with more sun. They are still pretty small.
But that is for another day. I am being wise. I have to work tomorrow. The seedlings bed decisions can wait for another day, or week.
A few weekends ago I had time to sit on the patio, look at the garden areas, relax in the shade, and think. Our small pine tree, the one with the bird feeders, has become a little ecosystem. Finches and chickadees and cardinals and doves, squirrels of different colorings and even a mama squirrel comes by. Our garden had humingbirds and monarchs and bumble bees and dragonflies. All coming to feed and some stopping for quite a while. It is peaceful. I need that time, sometimes even with no phone to take pictures. Yes, that was very healthy.
During those few weeks, it seemed as if the stores were sometimes quite successful in getting fall merchandise out the door – in 92° weather! Scarecrows were showing up down the street!
But now fall is definitely here. Our linden is shedding yellow leaves, one or two at a time, but there is a growing pile on the lawn. I have gotten out my boxes of tea for hot beverages. The sweatshirts that sat in the closet over the summer are starting to come out.
In the garden, the daylilies and hostas are all done blooming.
The sedum are in full bloom.
But our little tomato plant, although looking quite tired, is still bearing fruit. It had five waves of blooms!
Now my mind is beginning to consider plant moves – like the sedum that didn’t get much sun this year because the ‘Aureomarginata’ hostas have gotten so big.
Poor thing! It needs much more spacious accommodations.
Some things have been fading, too, like the beautiful pink asian lilies that are getting crowded by hostas and sedum out front. We have had them for probably a dozen years. I don’t want to lose them, if possible.
It’s not quite scarecrow picks in the ground time at our house yet, but I’m thinking … What do I want to move around so next year is even better?
Fall was also starting on the north shore when we were there last week. One of the days we were up there we took a gondola ride. Check out the start of fall color!
Susan's Daily Garden 