Winter Hiatus

Putting the blog on hiatus for the winter. Come back in Spring 2010.

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Garden in November

We've had a pretty mild November. We're getting frost at night, but the ground is still soft, and the air warms up nicely during the day when the sun is shining. We can still get by with our light jackets.

In the garden, bare space and browns and oranges predominate where once everything was fresh and green.

Here are some photos showing November in the garden.

Camperdown Elm


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Japanese Anemone Gone to Seed


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A Bleak View


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Frosty Leaves


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Blue Bowl


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Tricolour Harlequin Honeysuckle


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

First and Last

So I went about my garden taking note of all the "last" daylilies -- plants whose blooms are all but spent for the season -- and I was amazed to discover a first bloom among them. I think this is the final one in my collection, Royal Palace Prince.


Royal Palace Prince


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I checked, and although it has bloomed as early as July 29 in earlier, drier years, last year (also wet) it bloomed on August 14, too. (A remarkably consistent plant!) Now, here are some daylilies that are just finishing up their season today.

Ice Carnival


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Lucky Catch


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Persian Ruby


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Darkside


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Africa


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Druid's Chant


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Royal Mountie


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Daveo Holman


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David Kirchoff


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And, since we're awfully close to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, I'll include a few photos of things other than daylily blooms.

Japanese Anemone


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Unknown Hosta


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Miniature Hosta 'Stiletto'


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Black-Eyed Susan


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

A Puzzle: The Daylily Mosaic

Every year I post a mosaic of daylily photos. Usually I just do a 4 by 4 square, but this year I have created the maximum size available, a 6 by 6 square.



Believe me it takes a long time and a lot of fiddling to create one of these things. I thought I was soooo careful, but it looks like I still didn't get quite the "unique" effect I was going for (as in all photos unique, and all daylilies unique).

Well then, let this post stand as a puzzle.

EASY QUESTION: Can you find the photo that appears twice?

HARDER QUESTION: Can you find the daylily that appears twice, though in different views?
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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

My Newest Seedling

My newest seedling bloomed today for the very first time ever.

I played bumblebee with my daylilies in 2006 and 2007, collected seeds and planted them. And neglected them. (But not entirely.) Some grew anyway.

I call them the strong ones.

First there was Offspring that bloomed in a forgotten corner of the garden in 2008.

My First Seedling


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Then there was another one, early on this year.

My Second Seedling


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Now, the best one of all.

My Newest Seedling


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It has the coloring of Moonlit Masquerade (or possibly Snowy Eyes) with a size and shape reminiscent of El Desperado. I did not keep track of parentage with my seedling experiments. I prefer surprises. Especially nice surprises. Aha! That will be my name for it: Nice Surprise.

Possible Parentage

For comparison, here is a look at other daylilies in my garden that might have contributed parentage.

Moonlit Masquerade


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Snowy Eyes


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El Desperado


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Robins

We've had some young robins (or maybe it's the same one?) hanging around the house and garden for the past couple of days. Thought you might like to see some photos.

Young Robin on the Birdbath


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Robins Resting Near Buddha


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And this one spent some time on our porch railing.

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A lot of time.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Three Tuesdays on Monday

The title refers to the last photo in the post.

New Blooms

Three new first blooms in the past two days (four, if you count the disappointing 'Africa'), but that might be it now for the year.

So, for first blooms we had 'Snowy Eyes' and 'David Kirchoff' on Sunday, and 'Franz Hals' today.

Snowy Eyes


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David Kirchoff


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Franz Hals


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Not sure whether to count 'Africa', which, much like 'Root Beer' had a disappointing showing this year. (And by the way 'Smith Brothers', my other rare dark daylily, did not bloom at all this year.)

Africa
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Yes, it's a beautiful dark daylily, but that is a six-inch scape and even in the blazing noonday sun, the flower did not open. So yes, for a daylily newly planted last year, it's a disappointment.

Moving on now, my echinacea and many varieties of hosta are blooming happily.

Echinacea and Hosta


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Hello Good-bye

It's time to say good-bye to the splendid daylily 'Raspberry Swirl', whose final flower I commemorated on film (er, CCD).

The Last 'Raspberry Swirl'


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Oh, and say hello to Ivory Edges, which finally produced a flower worth photographing. Its first bloom was certainly nothing special.

Ivory Edges (Finally, A Good One)


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Three-for-One Tuesday

And here is that really striking photo I wanted to show, of three blooms on Tuesday. I like how the sunlight as it hits the fence in the background looks like a halo around the bud off to the left.

Three 'Tuesday' Blooms


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Hurry Up and Wait

Well, the "new" blooms are sort of slowing down now, since we are getting into the late part of the daylily season. But I have a few from the last couple of days I can show you.

On July 29, there was Grand Masterpiece and Trahlyta. I only had time to rush around the garden with my iPhone to try and get some photos, since I was very busy that day.

Grand Masterpiece


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Trahlyta


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Also, on July 29 it rained most of the day, and that's not great for a lot of the more tender daylilies. However, the rain does bring out the dark colouring in purple daylilies, so Darkside looked great.

Another 'Darkside'


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And the overall view of the backyard daylily bed didn't suffer at all.

Daylily Bed after Rain


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July 30 was great weather, sunny and bright, a gorgeous day for a beautiful first bloom from Catherine Woodbury. I was able to get out with my camera and capture some better photos.

Catherine Woodbury


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Luckily, after an appalling first bloom from Night Beacon, I was able to get a photo of a better second bloom.

'Night Beacon' Second Bloom


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Of course "better" is a relative term. Then not far away I found that Black-Eyed Susan had bloomed with two polytepalous flowers, so I recorded that.

Two Polytepalous 'Black-Eyed Susan'


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And finally, purple coneflower (Echinacea) is just coming into its glory. Here is a very, very tall one. I'm pretty sure it's 'Magnus' (which would make sense).

Echinacea 'Magnus'


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Triumph and Disappointment

First, the triumph.

In 2004 I planted one of my first few daylily acquisitions, Scatterbrain, in the back garden in a place where it was slowly overwhelmed by periwinkle. Every year I hoped in vain to see it bloom again. Last year I finally got smart and moved it into the bed under the Deborah maple. And this year it has rewarded me by thriving and blooming.

Scatterbrain (Triumph)


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Scatterbrain is unique in that its stamens are attached to a second set of petals. So, not only is it a double daylily, but a strangely -- or delightfully -- malformed one, depending on how you look at it.

Now the disappointment.

Today there is a very disappointing first bloom from Night Beacon. This daylily has been a good performer previously. Last year its first bloom appeared on July 20. So it is about a week late.

Night Beacon (Disappointment)


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It's interesting to note that some of the same daylilies that bloomed with Night Beacon last year are also blooming with it this year. Summer Wine, for example.

Summer Wine


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And Someplace Special also had a first bloom today.

Someplace Special


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This one is on a very short scape, so it will probably have to be looked after very carefully this fall if I want it to bloom again next year.

Two other first blooms today: Stoplight and El Desperado.

Stoplight is a spiderform, something I don't have a lot of in my garden. I can't seem to lay my hands on the ones that I like.

Stoplight


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And finally, a photo of El Desperado taken early in the morning before they were fully opened.

El Desperado


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Foolishly I reached over and stuck my nose in really close to one of these flowers, trying to see how it looked inside. I'll tell you how it looked inside! It looked full of bumblebee, is how it looked. Just a warning there for others who may be like me. Be careful where you poke your nose. You don't want to get it stung.
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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.