I had two things on my todo list today: Finish the fist round of spraying and start another round of watering. I set out to try and get the spraying done before the wind picked up. I finished at nine thirty, took about an hour an a half. It is easier on me when I break the spraying down into three days like this, but I do wish I could get it all done in one day. But no more spraying now for two weeks.
I will start watering this afternoon.
I looked around the garden after I finished spraying and saw no new registered cultivars blooming down in the bog, but when I walked inside the gate and looked down to the back daylily beds I saw a bright yellow bloom I did not recognize, it was on 'Riot on the Kindergarten Bus'. I walked down to get a better look and take a photo, I noticed immediately that it sure seemed to have a lot of buds, then I noticed it seemed to have a lot of branches also, then I looked even closer and noticed it had so many buds because it had a fused scape or fasciated scape. I just got this plant back in August of last year, but it is really doing great and has impressed me so far. Not the most formal shaped bloom a little dishevelled looking to me, but interesting.
'Riot on the Kindergarten Bus':

Cool photos, Larry. I remember you had a fasciated scape last year, and I had never heard of that.

Today was a busy day in the garden. I started out by using my stirrup weeder in my raised vegetable beds and cleared out most of last winter's chickweed. Not quite done with that. I got most of it out but now have to do some handweeding in there before planting my beans, etc.

Next up was trimming rusty leaves. I can do this without crying now as I expect each new daylily, no matter what its reputation for rust resistance, is more likely than not to show some rust. Some surprised me: they had much more rust than I was expecting. A couple, like J.T. Davis, had rust after being clean last year. Bummer. Some plants had a little rust, and most are still clean. After I trimmed the rusty leaves and disposed of them in the trash, I sprayed the affected plants with Green Magic. I don't know if this really helps, but it's something I can do, and it doesn't seem to hurt the plants at all. I have decided that one plant in particular, an evergreen I got as a bonus last year, may have to go. It had a lot of rust and spread it to the surrounding plants. It has scapes, so I will probably let it bloom and then dig it up. Another really rusty one was Smiling Cobra, also with a scape. This is a real disappointment. I may cross it with something with excellent rust resistance before getting rid of it.

Next I did some weeding--I weeded all around the border of one bed. Tomorrow I will tackle the interior of the bed and then on to the next one.

Watered the potted daylilies.

While working with the plants, I found a lot more scapes.

Finally I ground up some dead leaves. I use these for mulch, and I mix them with commercial potting mix for my potted perennials.

Yesterday I finished mulching the front bed, need to put out the sprinkler this evening after the blazing sun goes behind the mountain. Spread Milorganite on several of the beds, mowed grass, and then DH and I worked to replant the remainder of the areas in the lawn damaged by the tree removal folks last Fall. I distinctly recall them saying they wouldn't leave any damage; guess I needed that in writing as they left quite a bit of lawn damage.

Added: Forgot I also potted up my geraniums in baskets and hung them up on the porch. I'm hoping they'll fill the baskets without any fillers.

Nan,
I see you as Julius Caesar. Thumbs up or thumbs down for daylilies with regard to rust. I can imagine hybridizers will live in fear of your judgements.

Orion.

I wish. I don't think very many hybridizers breed flowers with any regard to rust resistance. I think features like bloom (of course), branching, height are the important ones for most hybridizers, at least according to my observation.

Some do breed for rust resistance, and even their plants sometimes get rust here. I usually inform the hybridizers when that happens, but they are philosophical. They know that their plants will be exposed to new strains of rust when they mail them to other gardens. But I think it is helpful for them to know.

Here in the South, serious daylily people just accept that in order to have a nice garden, you have to spray fungicides regularly. At our last daylily meeting, we were discussing fertilizers and spraying for rust came up. After the discussion, a couple of newbies, who had been very quiet, asked, "What does rust look like?" I thought to myself, "Oh, you poor people. What a headache is in store for you."

Just wanted to chime in on potting soil. I get Sunshine brand potting soil at Lowes. I discovered it late season last year. Its $35.00, compressed soil. Says 3 cf but "expands up to 6 cf". The bag is big and heavy though but the potting soil is great IMO.





Last pic, the bag is open from the top.

To stay on topic, I managed to pot up all of 5 daylily seedlings today but it was just too cold to continue.

My wife went on a trip to North Carolina for a week with my oldest daughter and my middle granddaughter and her to kids.They went to visit my youngest granddaughter who had just recently found out she is going to have a baby girl. So they returned Wednesday and I was to pick my wife up this morning. When I got to my daughter's house they asked if I wanted any of the plants in the beds she was clearing out Monday. So not only did I bring my wife home but I brought home a car load of plants also.
I got several different hostas, several different amaryllis, and some Iris which I have no idea what kind they are, pretty, tall, and they have small bulbs.
Can any daylily people tell me what these are called ? Any advice on growing them?


I brought back this red double Amaryllis, the first double I have ever had, so happy.

Plus my wife had to have some mint and some other unknown ground cover, they are definitely going into pots.

Nice haul, Larry!

I spent all day in the yard, I won't have another chance like that again until May Day. So, I buckled down and finished weeding and fertilizing Middle, Back and Upper Daylily Hill. I finished all my alfalfa pellets, Moorganite and Lobster Compost and it was just exactly enough.

Agree with Zoia, nice haul. If you were asking about the second photo it looks to me like Crocosmia, though which one I couldn't say. It sure is a beauty, though!

Larry....I see you bringing your plants home in an Aldi bag. 😉💓

Looks like you have some great shade there for your new hostas!

Today I took a break and mowed /edged the back where most of the DLs are. So, at least it doesn't look like we're squatters now. Mostly organized the information to date I have recorded on my phone notes and found I have 45 registered cultivars with scapes already. Of course, a few were bought in scape 2 hrs south so that's cheating bit. Scapes are popping up every day whenever you aren't looking...there are more new ones in the p.m. garden tour. I see a problem coming as I found the first little-bitty bud eating grasshopper today .
GS soccer tomorrow so that'll wipe out the morning.

The purple ones look like flag iris, Larry. They have the little bulbs rather than rhizomes. Mine are blooming now.

Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

I just dug out some flag iris today. It's a bit of a weed and will spread, if you don't control it. It is pretty when it blooms though.

Seedfork said: My wife went on a trip to North Carolina for a week with my oldest daughter and my middle granddaughter and her to kids.They went to visit my youngest granddaughter who had just recently found out she is going to have a baby girl. So they returned Wednesday and I was to pick my wife up this morning. When I got to my daughter's house they asked if I wanted any of the plants in the beds she was clearing out Monday. So not only did I bring my wife home but I brought home a car load of plants also.
I got several different hostas, several different amaryllis, and some Iris which I have no idea what kind they are, pretty, tall, and they have small bulbs.
Can any daylily people tell me what these are called ? Any advice on growing them?


I brought back this red double Amaryllis, the first double I have ever had, so happy.

Plus my wife had to have some mint and some other unknown ground cover, they are definitely going into pots.

I agree with Zoia about the iris. No special care is needed, but they can be invasive, so give them their own spot where they can't mess things up by spreading underground.
The second photo looks more like slightly wilted hardy Gladiolus. Whether that, or Crocosmia, they don't need much. Just full sun and well drained soil.

2Dogsmother
I agree that in the photo those blooms do look a lot like crocosmia, they are pretty much closed up due to being dug and dry on the trip back home, but when the blooms are opened I do agree that they are actually flag iris. Thanks DeweyRooter for the ID, and I did plant them in pots.

DraDiana
Thanks so much for that reply, I just assumed being the foliage and the tiny bulbs looked so much alike that the lighter colored plant blooms were just a different color. Now I have to go back out and really look close and see exactly what those blooms look like.

So I went back out and took closeups of the blooms, and I could also see the leaves were much wider on the lighter colored plant, more like a gladiolus or crosomia than an iris.

I may have to get some master gardeners over oneday and see if any of them can tell me exactly what this is.

"Gladiolus Italicus" is one Google suggests (all results seemed to be Gladiolus). Very pretty!

Since it's raining again this morning I went to the Farmers' Market and came home with plants.
Shooting Star at the top of the group, two Regal Geraniums on the right, Heuchera 'Forever Purple', and XHeucherella 'Sweet Tea'.



Next week the seller is bringing me two Fothergilla Major shrubs. I love Fothergilla and was excited to find a plant (already sold) there AND find that he has more.

Rain all day long. So, I spent a good part of the day working on my NGA plant list. It has been interesting researching old hybridizer websites on archive.org and digging out the original bloom descriptions from the year or very close to the year of introduction. Some introductions are just too old to have any flowery internet advertising. Part of the day was watching the Spring Football game