Mozart

You all have probably seen enough daylilies by now, so you are lucky enough that one of my calla lilies bloomed this past week. This one is called "Mozart" and is an apricot/peach color with red streaks. When it first bloomed on the plant, it was a light yellow color and since I cut it and put it in water it has darkened. It is pretty neat how some of the callas will change like that. So in a few days it may look different from these pictures! Unfortunately, after "Mozart" bloomed I had to dig it up because some of the leaves started yellowing and falling over, which meant the tuber/bulb was rotting. I think I saved it just in time though; it didn't hit the large part of the tuber. This isn't the first one of the callas that I have almost lost though. Last month the same thing happened to one called "Akela." I didn't notice it as early though and now only have two little tubers of "Akela" now. So sad. You may ask, "Why are they rotting?" Well, the soil here in our yard really sucks! It is just a nasty red clay! Even though we built up where the callas are planted, they are still sitting on the clay and it has rained so much here lately that the dirt isn't able to dry out. I just need to keep an eye on them. But here are the pictures of "Mozart" and the callas. Enjoy!

Mozart

Mozart

Mozart before cutting

All the calla lilies

Lake Country Sunshine

Good morning! Since it is raining here again, which means we are not working, I thought I'd go ahead and post more pictures from the weekend and today. Luckily, I was able to get out there this morning and take pictures before the rain ruins them. I think my favorite daylily for today's post is "Lake Country Sunshine." It is a small solid yellow one, about 4", with ruffles. To me, it is just so cheerful! Another favorite of mine, which is not a daylily, is a pinkish-purple zinnia. They are just so vibrant! It seems like we have seen a lot of the daylilies so far, but we counted today and there are still 41 new ones to come. Woo hoo!

Lake Country Sunshine

The Zinnias

Here are all the new daylilies for this post...I think "Sassy Sally" looks a lot like "Sea Swept Dreams" from last week, but it is supposed to be more pink.

Eyelashes

Mystic Mariner

Tar and Feather

Marilyn Siwik

Destined to See

Sassy Sally

And here are some repeats from before..."Seaside Sunrise" looked a lot more bronze today and "Clueless" doesn't look so deformed as a double.

Seaside Sunrise

Clueless

That's all for now! Enjoy!!

Good Old Boy

Now that we have multiple new daylilies blooming daily, I will be posting more frequently to keep on top of the pictures. Also, it's hard for me to come up with a new name for each post every other day, so I decided that the name will be of my favorite bloom for the post. So for today, my favorite bloom is of the daylily "Good Old Boy." This daylily is yellow-gold with a black-purple center, which also outlines its ruffles. It is very unique!

Good Old Boy

A funny thing happened to us today...we went out to see all the daylilies this morning and was expecting to see a bloom from "Copernicus," a light purple daylily. Once we saw it, it was definitely not the right one. We double-checked our list to make sure we had it in order, but came to the conclusion that the company that we bought the daylilies from sent us the wrong one. Instead, we now have a pastel apricot-peach with a red center daylily that produces double blooms. We believe we found the right one online and think its name is "Clueless." I'm not sure how I feel about the double ones, but it is very interesting looking.

Clueless

Another one that I really liked is called "Mister Lucky." I like this one just because it is such a deep red color.

Mister Lucky

Next up is one that we actually got to see last year, but I thought I would share it with you all now. It is called "Showmanship."

Showmanship

Another large bloom that we have and very similar to "Sea Swept Dreams" is a yellow daylily with bronze petals called "Seaside Sunrise."

Seaside Sunrise

One on the lighter side is "Southern Exposure." It is just a small one, about 4.5", but the center is purple and slightly silver.

Southern Exposure

"New Perspective" joins us with two different petal colors. The first of its kind that we've seen so far.

New Perspective

Lastly, I'd like to share another picture of "Festive Fall." It bloomed again today with two flowers and it just looks so pretty! I really like the bright orange.

Festive Fall

I am caught up with all of the new pictures (for now). I truly hope you all are enjoying the pictures as much as I am! However, I must say that the pictures don't do much justice for them as they are pretty remarkable in person.

A Daylily and Some Knitting

Today we woke up to the bloom of the Pat Garrity daylily. It produces 5.5" flowers that are bright yellow with a dark red center. We shall see what it looks like later in the day though...

I have also included a picture of my knitting project (that has been on hold for a little while), 22 Little Clouds. The yarn is very pretty and so soft!

Pat Garrity in the morning.

My first shawl.

The Daylily Craze Begins!

Even though I already posted about one daylily blooming, that was just a warm-up. This morning we woke up to not only one, but three new blooms among the daylilies! These ones are called Festive Fall, Killer Instinct and Sea Swept Dreams. Festive Fall's bloom was not up to par, so I need to capture another one. Killer Instinct's bloom is around 7" and it may look like two different flowers in the pictures, but it is just how much it faded during the day. My favorite from today is Sea Swept Dreams. Its bloom is almost bigger than my hand! Plus I like its ruffles and pearlescent petals, so romantic looking. Tomorrow there will probably be only one blooming, but not to worry, almost every daylily has a flower spike. So exciting!! We also had a few zinnias and cosmos bloom, but they're not as showy as the daylilies. Enjoy all the pictures!

Killer Instinct in the morning.

Killer Instinct in the afternoon.

Festive Fall

Sea Swept Dreams in the morning.

Sea Swept Dreams compared to my hand.

Sea Swept Dreams in the afternoon.

A Cosmos

The lime Zinnia

Moonlit Masquerade

The first daylily bloomed today! This one is called "Moonlit Masquerade" and produces 5.5" flowers. It is the first of many to come as almost every daylily we have has flower spikes growing. We also had another hollyhock bloom, it's a darker pink compared to the first one. Soon enough we should have some zinnias! And I replanted my hanging baskets for the summer and this year I used two kinds of sweet potato vine (light and dark), a coral verbena and a white calibrachoa or million bells. I can't wait until they fill in!

Moonlit Masquerade daylily in the morning; still had some dew on it.

Moonlit Masquerade in the evening.

Yesterday just wasn't our day with flowers...two of our dahlia tubers bit the dust. It's been raining too much for them and they just turned to mush. However, we did cut off the soggy part and repotted them to see if they will come back. Also...sadly to say, one of my orchids might croak. It's my dark yellow and pink, tiger looking one. About three of its leaves fell off yesterday and we took it out of its pot and a bunch of roots were rotted. So I had to cut off the rotten roots and repotted it into some different potting media. As of right now, it's still living and the flowers are still perky, so we'll see what happens. I think the humidity rose too quickly and I loved it too much (aka I over watered). For my other orchids, I've put them back in front of the living room window and now have a fan blowing over them to combat the humidity. I hope this helps!

My hanging baskets

The new hollyhock

More blooms on the old hollyhock.

Spring Update

The Hollyhock bloom. Unsure of which type it is right now.

Ahh yes, time to cue the generic "it's been way too long since I've posted" blog post. But I must say lots has happened since the last post. The garden is almost completely planted and everything seems to be settling into their new homes fairly well. Some of the annual seeds are sprouting, we have flowers on some tomato plants and we have our first bloom of the season on a hollyhock. As of this week, there were 42/45 dahlias and 8/12 calla lilies sprouting. Now that it has officially heated up down here, it's only a matter of time for everything to start blooming. Next week we may even see the first daylilies of the season. All of this growing just gets me excited to see all the color in the yard!

My February Sweater being blocked.

As for the knitting....I did finish my February Sweater, however, I still need to find buttons for it. I am pleased with how it turned out, but it ended up too long after blocking. A few weeks ago I started my first shawl; it is a free pattern on Ravelry called 22 Little Clouds. I am using some of my Malabrigo yarn, Rastita, for it and it is super soft! Too bad I won't be able to wear it until the fall now.

Most recently, I started a new job as a part-time cashier with a local garden center. It doesn't sound too difficult, but man it can be pretty stressful. The phone rings off the hook, lots of customers and too many plants to learn!  It is apparently their "busy season" right now, so I'm hoping it will get a little easier. One last bit of news, I have a new orchid! It is a beautiful all white one that Brendan's mom bought me last weekend when she was here. Quite a surprise!

 

Now I think I'm caught up! I will definitely try to keep up as the flowers start blooming! Here is one last picture I'd like to share with you all....this bird was absolutely stunning!

A visitor at our bird feeder, an Indigo Bunting.