Oh, yes--I forgot to mention that yesterday morning, I volunteered at a local elementary school helping second-graders plant their pollinator garden. (This class is our daylily club's "service project.") It was really fun. The teacher divided the kids into groups. Each group had a volunteer. The potted plants were already spaced in the garden. It did my heart good to see the enthusiasm of the kids, who dove in there with their bare hands, digging holes and planting their plants. I showed them how to loosen the roots first since some of the plants were quite pot-bound. After that, each child got a plastic watering can. They lined up, the teacher filled each with a hose, and the children gave their plants a drink. What fun!

Today, the 🤪 daylily guy was seen checking on the day's blooms with a 🔦 in the dark before 🌞 rise. Ya'll can see why in the bloom threads
Bought a new hosta, more bug killer spray, and stocked up on a pile of Miracle-Gro garden soil bags since Ace was selling it for $2.50/1 cu ft bag, less than half-price. There is a bed expansion in the future and I need the soil amendments. After all that was put up, the 🤪 daylily guy made a few select crosses as pollen was mostly ready enough.

Sounds like a great Daylily guy. I picked one up at the BIG nursery today in Grant Park, IL. Their prices are the lowest around here. The parking lot and the grass was full of cars when we got there. Picked up Karol Emmerich Storm Shelter under the Proven Winners band. One single fan had a scape, but I opted for the plant with two fans. Genius
The spots are ready to plant tomorrow (Saturday). They had Milorganite at a super price compared to the earlier prices that I had seen elsewhere up to $17 per bag. Paid $10.99 at said nursery. That covered part of the gas for the sixty miles plus round trip Wanted to spend more time and money, but DW wasn't feeling well.

genius indeed!

Nan, what a great service project! Sounds like fun.

Mike, not sure I wouldn't have put DW in the car and continued shopping!!! Sounds as if you had a wonderfully productive day!

I don't mind working outside in a little drizzle, but only got a little bit of a lot of things done. Removed some more rocks from a border I created years ago that is now a pathway, weeded, filled holes left by daylilies with dirt, mulched (ran out), removed one more Blue Rug Juniper. A bit muddy though not too bad, however when the drizzle turned to rain I gave up. Plan to clean porch furniture and some of the porch this afternoon.

Found another DL seedling with leaves chopped off at the crown. Potted the intact crown & roots and put in the recovery room. Replaced that seedling & another that didn't make with 2023 seedlings from potted inventory. It's hard to lower pot count when the Terminator keeps chopping off leaves & I have to put planted seedlings back into pots.

I did make a "few" more crosses not because I need seeds

I finished sprinkling castor oil pellets on all the garden beds. I still have a bag left over if it looks like critters are attacking something in particular.

Went out yesterday to deadhead, caught a glimpse of a copperhead snake slithering through the daylilies, but when I turned my head to reach for a shovel he had found a hiding place and nothing I did would entice him to move so I could see him again.
Got out early this morning and went over to the botanical garden, I was told two beds looked like they could use some fertilizer. Got the fertilizer spread pulled some grass and weeds, meant to poison some ant beds but I had taken the poison out to use on an ant bed here at the house and had not put in back.
Got home and managed to finish edging all the inside the fence daylily beds.
This afternoon I decided it was time to break out all the hybridizing gear. I started a new notebook, hunted up my tweezers, found my ice trays and my new container that holds 31 different types of pollen. I managed to collect 30 different types. Put that in the fridge so if nothing is open in the morning I will still have pollen to work with. I logged all the pollen in the notebook, and labeled each little container.
Instead of assigning bead colors to cultivars before I start pollinating, this year I plan to do it as I use the pollen from a cultivar. I will need a lot less bead colors that way. I want to plan on using less pollen parents this year and just be more particular about the ones I select.
Here is my setup ready to spread some pollen in the morning.

Since the rain forecast was off by hours today I was able to get a lot of weeding done this morning in the Dog Yard Big Bed. I cheated and started at the narrowest point at the front of the bed, worked back and forth across the bed and filled up a large wheelbarrow without making that much of a dent in the weeds! I planted most of my marigolds in the area I had weeded, and watered them since I wasn't sure about the rain prediction. Naturally, as soon as I finished there was a good shower and it is raining again now. Also cleaned more porch furniture and another section of the porch. Our porch is quite large, goes all the way across the front and down one side of the house. I divide the cleaning into four or five sections so it doesn't feel like such a chore. Probably take parts of two more days to completely finish.

Weeded and then watered all the beds in the front yard. Found a few more scapes while doing so.

So far so good on the potted leaf-chopped daylilies. The potted remnants are turning green
Cleanup up some tree trimmings after I found a 3" dead limb had fallen in front. More tree work ALWAYS needed here. Otherwise, it's all I can do to keep up with the blooming daylilies, do a little weeding and limited {Hey I'm being way more selective] crossing.

I dug Daylilies for the NEDS club sale on Saturday. Now I have to get photos made and label all my pots!

It looks like we are at the end of planting daylilies for this season, so now it is weeding and watering and waiting for blooms to open. We have had little rain, so it is more watering than weeding. I have had 2 workdays where Master Gardeners have come over and helped with the weeding and watering in preparation for the May 18 Master Gardeners Garden Walk. I appreciate the help, but I take a deep breath when I see them climbing into the garden with daylily buds close by. I myself have knocked the buds off 2 scapes while reaching in the garden. The emerging buds seem particularly fragile.

So have I, Lori. I can understand your concern. I hope the buds made it!

Yesterday I had a vet appointment for Maverick in the morning, thinking it was just the prelim for a dental. He has had a problem somewhere in his mouth for a couple of weeks and I thought it was a piece of stick he'd been chewing stuck in his teeth, though couldn't find anything. During the check of his mouth, the vet quite by accident found a piece of wood stuck in the roof of Maverick's mouth. She tried to numb the area and pull it carefully but it broke off. He had to be sedated so she could get the rest of it out. Poor Maverick, he's had that stuck in his mouth for two weeks and really hasn't complained at all. So that ended up taking the entire morning.

After lunch I scrubbed our gas grill, then resumed weeding, however we found that the lawn needed to be mowed and it was dry enough to do, so weeding didn't get done. Nothing will be going on out there today, I fear, as the chance of rain is very high and I have several things to do indoors so the house isn't a total wreck when company arrives on Saturday. Floyd has a colonoscopy scheduled (what fun!) on Friday; prep tomorrow is not going to be fun for either one of us.

Poor Maverick. Poor Donna and Floyd!

DeweyRooter said: Poor Maverick. Poor Donna and Floyd!

Thanks, Nan; I feel worse for Maverick than for us.

The colonoscopy is routine and is likely to be the last one he'll ever need. I had the last one in 2016 and said then it really was my "last" one. Doctors don't recommend them for folks 80+ (Floyd is 80 but thought it should be done). In 2016, doctor told me I was good for ten years which would make me 82 by then, so no more for me!

Well, there's something to look forward to! No more colonoscopies!

Got a lot done today. Repotted several proliferations from last year. Continued preparing my raised beds for vegetables. Got to get those in. Watered everything in a pot. Watered the Grow Boxes. Staked the Easter lilies. Removed roots from the new extension of one of my beds so I can get those last potted daylilies in the ground. It will probably take several days of work to get that done, but I feel encouraged.

It was pretty hot today, so after that I came in.

Trying to get out a little earlier now, so much more enjoyable to be able to work in the cool of the morning and late afternoon than in the hot mid-day sun.
I have to be careful with the deadheading now that I am spreading pollen around. I seem to pretty much be on top of the weeds, with almost no rain in a month even they seem to be struggling to grow.
It is great to have a slight haze in the mornings before the sun gets up too high,
makes the photos look so much better. I just can't get a decent photo after the sun gets up high.
I like weeding and taking photos early, that gives me a chance to see what is open and what I might want to cross. Most of the pollen here in my garden is not ready before 9:30 or 10:00 am, so unless I have pollen stored I can't get an early start.
So that means I should do some planning the afternoon before, but I seldom get around to that. I did use a little refrigerated pollen the other day, I was pleased to see the start of some pods on a few I crossed.
So far the way my morning goes, I have only had time to use three or four different pollens in the morning before it gets too hot. But that is plenty, I know I will still end up with more seeds than I will ever have room for.