Today's eye candy 
Lily Munster FFO
Helix
Plum Tuckered
Misty Blue Morning
Temples and Towers
Frozen
On the way to the pharmacy today, I pulled over on the street to take a shot of the smoke haze from Canada's arson turned wildfires. 😐😐
Probably not surprising for a great deal of you who are in or have been in the same situation. 
I am not gonna lie, this situation makes me so freaking angry! 
I have asthma, and currently, I can smell the smoke even through my N95 mask.....indoors, no less!! 
Additionally, I can't stand the smell of smoke from burning wood to begin with. Not from controlled campfires, bonfires and wood stoves, let alone these wildfires. 
The odor has been worse for me to withstand than the effect it's had on my asthma!
I went out looking like this today.....which is now acceptable in banks. 
I went to the drugstore drive through (not the bank) and I took off the shades, which I would also do at a bank, so they wouldn't think it's a stick up
Gotta hang on to humor in order to stay somewhat sane through all this. 
This is our current atmospheric smoke level: Hazardous!
Okay rant over....at least for today. 
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Daylilies...
'Wild and Wonderful' FFO 
I always look forward to the blooms on this daylily, especially her poly's. 
'Misty Blue Morning'
'Frozen'
'One Night Pollenation' Last year this daylily was stingy with her patterning. Most of last year's blooms had a solid eye. Don't know why. 
I'm so glad to see the pattern back again this year.
'My Heart Belongs to Daddy'
'Temples and Towers'
'Plum Tuckered'
'Little Maggie'
'Helix'
I found out from fellow daylily gardeners that I have an infestation of aphids on all of the daylilies in the border garden by the driveway. 
My thread pleading for help....
The thread "Help! What Is This Stuff??" in Daylilies forum
I mixed and applied insecticidal soap on Sunday. It was so windy, the solution dried rather quickly, so I gave them 3 treatments. Monday, I practiced singing since DH was at the office, and we got rain, so I haven't applied any more yet. There was a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms today. It turned out to be dry, but I still didn't bother today. Tomorrow and Thursday's weather forcasts are looking good for more insecticidal soap treatments.
I had never seen this before, but these infestations might be widespread in the country. The white stuff is exoskeletons. Zoom in on the photo to see the actual aphids.
I cut down the 'Moroccan Sapphire' daylily to treat it, because the aphid infestation was so bad they killed all of its buds.
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Photos to go with the last blog post...
Before: The daylily ghetto to the left of the arbor.....
After: The daylily ghetto got a face lift and is now the suburbs.
It's rough around the edges, but all the gardens on the property need defining, so it fits right in. There was a beautiful, mature arborvitae in the gaping space between the ornamental grass plants there, but for some reason it died this year (I suspect the trunk split from the extremely high winds in the Spring because it started leaning over very slowly), and we had to cut it down. 
Now, I gotta fill it in, and I want something that grows pretty fast!
Yesterday, we had 4 brief downpours, at least up until 10pm. I found it odd that the first downpour gave us .375" of rain, but the other 3 downpours only gave us 1/8", for a total of only .5". Then I realized that I had moved the rain guage from the front to the E garage garden, and at least 2 of the downpours were very windy so the garage must have blocked the blowing rain from getting in to the rain guage. Time to move it.
Hosta update...
'Color Festival':
Two 'Queen Josephine' hosta were located here in the E garage garden, but they outgrew the space and had to be moved. Two 'Color Festival' plants replaced them. They were purchased at Lowe's (the rain guage is on the left in the first photo ) I just love the color and pattern of this appropriately named hosta! It really brightens up this garden and offsets the blue/grey color of the garage, being that yellow and blue are opposites on the color wheel. 
I also love the extreme difference in texture of the hosta and daylily leaves. Now I just have to find a focal plant for the central space there. I do have one in mind. A 'Starry Starry Night' hardy hibiscus. Beautiful white with pink swirl blooms with a hot pink center and black/purple leaves. I just gotta come up with the funds.
'Autumn Frost':
Before, 3 'Night Before Christmas' hosta swallowing up the birdbath in the NE garage garden so they HAD to be moved:
July 2, 2021
May 16, 2023
After, New 'Autumn Frost' around the same birdbath
I planted this hosta there because it is much smaller than Night Before Christmas, in width and height of the scapes, so it won't swallow up the birdbath. The front two were split from one plant bought at Lowe's. It was $20, and I'm all about stretching my dollar. I made a "twofer"! (This is not the first time I've split a single plant I've bought at Lowe's. It's a habit, truth be told. ) The back two are 65mm plugs I bought from a mail order catalog. They were supposed to deliver in 3.5" pots. I was not happy that I got plugs, but the roots looked really good....so, zen.
'Night Before Christmas' relocation of the
3 plants from around the birdbath:
Two were moved to create an actual hosta garden under the tree at the rear of the property, and one was moved to the north side of the garage. A 'Queen Josephine' and a NOID are also in this hosta garden. The NOID on the far right, has been a lone wolf there for years. Now it has company.
The third 'Night Before Christmas' moved about 3.5 feet to the right, from the NE garage garden to the N garage garden.
Other hosta shots....
'Blue Angel'
Another NOID hosta
The second 'Queen Josephine' hosta
Both of the 'Queen Josephine' plants were located where the 'Color Festival' are now, in the E garage garden, and they outgrew the area so I had to move them. The other one moved to the hosta garden, shown above.
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Monday I picked up all purpose garden soil. Went to two places bc the first place was not pleasant. It's a local franchise hardware store, and my preference for a short and quick trip, had horrible customer service, which is not the norm for them To make it worse, it turned out to be a punk assistant manager, who I had never seen before and barely looked 20 years old, who was the cashier with the horrible customer service. My complaint to the general manager will be expressed soon. I want to make the Assistant guy sweat for the week, wondering if and when I will complain to his boss. This dude was rude to me on the phone so I returned the soil. (He was rude when I returned it too) I wound up getting garden soil at Lowe's instead, which is less convenient, but was a much more pleasant trip. I needed the soil for the area that the ghetto daylilies were planted bc it is hard clay soil there. Yes, daylilies are tough, but I really don't want them and any future additional plants, getting their start in that awful clay soil. Yesterday, I got the rest of them planted and I mixed the garden soil in with the clay soil for filling in the holes. I was worried that I might run in to more buried concrete blocks, but it was free and clear for the rest of the holes!! Big monkey off my back. It had been eating at me for two years. On a side note, even though we have been in the moderate level of smoke in the air, from the Canada fires, I could smell the smoke while outside yesterday, so I had to wear a mask bc I have asthma.
The daylilies are finally starting to bloom. Lots of scapes out there, three inches of rain last week, and they're still holding out on me. Not much to post, but celebrating the little things today.
Helix, this cultivar got me hooked on daylilies, so it's the OG in my gardens
Little Bumble Bee (not registered)
Frozen
Lots to treat, but I expected this to get to an overwhelming point, and it might take two or three years if at all to eradicate them. After all, the gardens were neglected for two seasons during and after Mom's move. Fortunately, my homemade systemic treatments have worked on the treated stems. There's just more popping up in other areas. I use a solution of bleach and dish soap in water in a spray bottle. Wearing chemical grade rubber gloves, set the spray bottle on "stream". Cut each stem down to about an inch above the ground and with the spray tip physically ON the stem spray liberally. This method prevents overspray on to any surrounding plants and soil. It runs down the stem too. It is a systemic treatment to kill the runner root which is located at least 8 inches below the soil surface. Don't leave any solution in the spray bottle bc it will burst under the pressure. I use up all of it on any other weeds (works great on dandelions!) and then rinse the bottle out and let the two pieces dry separately. I hate the idea of using such harsh chemicals in the garden, but unfortunately, every once in a while, desperate times call for desperate measures. Unfortunately, this will be a constant fight as long as the new neighbor doesn't do anything about theirs. We are down wind. They are located in an old raspberry patch on the property line. When I am working on my own thistle near there, I will cut down the stems in their patch within arm's reach. It's all I can do, since applying chemicals of any sort, dry or wet, on someone else's property is against the law. [ Permalink ]
To clarify our care of Mom before her move to Independent Living: My three brothers and I were all in agreement that we wanted to keep Mom in her home as long as possible, and as Mom's health was declining, meaning her memory, physical strength, etc., she called upon us, mostly DB#1 and I (being the only daughter) more and more, and we helped her without question. We expected she would need our help and, as her loving children, we were perfectly willing to take on everything we were capable of doing, as non-healthcare persons. She would call and we would drop what we were doing and come running. Well, after a while, and as her actual needs became more frequent, she learned she could manipulate us in to going there just to have some company. We noticed it in late 2020 and the first six months of 2021 when she would call and sometimes there would be nothing wrong when we get there. This became as frequent as when she actually needed the help. We were on to her, but we put up with it anyway. Mom sacrificed a lot for us, and she deserved no less from us. Eventually, Mom's cognitive abilities were beginning to decline (finding out a year later that Alzheimer's was setting in) and she had begun to forget to check her blood sugar and to eat. Perceiving in her mind that she really did these things, when in fact she hadn't. Also her appetite was decreasing. So, us kids knew (and were all in agreement) that the time was upon us for the step up in Mom's care.
Therefore, DB#1 started checking around for a facility for Independent Living and had actually chose one, and he had planned to have a conversation with Mom about it. We would never put Mom in a home without her consent. One Sunday evening, as usual, Mom was calling DB#1 and I relentlessly, asking to come over and help her with simple things of which she was perfectly capable of doing and using any means of guilt and manipulation in her arsenal to get one of us there. We were done with putting up with this little game, and as truly difficult as it was, that Sunday evening, DB and I left her to her own devices, again to solve a simple problem she was perfectly capable of doing on her own. We didn't come to her beck and call that night. The following day, Mom called DB#1, voluntarily requesting to move to Independent Living. So DB wasted no time (he's the POA) since his homework was already done. We took Mom there for a tour, and she agreed that she liked the facility, so she was moved in. Of course, Mom never remembered her voluntary request to my brother, and, in her mind, he became the enemy. All h$#! broke loose, and she rained down fire upon my brother (her favorite child) like never expected in a million years. He has experienced a very ugly side of Mom that none of us knew could exist in her, but knowing that most of it was not the Mom we know, and she's not realizing all that she's doing, he's forgiving and puts up with it. I'll stop here with specifics bc we will always love Mom unconditionally. ♥️
I wanted to clarify from the last post bc it reads to be very cold and harsh when in fact we have treated, and still do treat, Mom with the love and respect she deserves.
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