The daylilies I have ordered over my "Winter of discontent" have been arriving! Two online orders and two small auctions have been delivered... ooh, remind me: I have to leave some feedback on the two auctions. They arrived in fine shape, BTW.
So, everything's a bit stressed from being dug, wrapped up, shipped, and unpacked, but though they look a bit sad, they'll recover. Many are still sitting in water because I have had to move established daylily clumps from the places where the new ones will go. I have sort of given up on dividing those, at least for awhile. They'll take up far less space in the holding beds I've put them in, if they're still clumped. The important thing now is to get the babies settled in to their new homes!
Almost all of the Stout Silver Medalists that have arrived are planted in the SSM area. Nine out of eleven, to be precise. Most of the others have a general area to go to, but if I'm to do the right things by height and colors, I have to take awhile to research those factors, and maybe move an existing plant or two. Or more. Some move easily; some put up a fight. "Cara Mia" was wrapped around an important wire! The biggest part of it was moved yesterday, but I left the wire wrapped part in place; that will take some careful surgery to finish. And it's raining this morning! Everything that hasn't got an immediate or "pretty soon" place to go will have to be potted up until I can resolve the space issues.
"Cara Mia," by Lester, 1955; about 14" tall, EM. This photo is a bit blue-shifted. The real blooms are warmer in color than this.
So far, I've unpacked 71 plants that were expected, and two bonuses, one of which was a repeat of something I have too much of anyway, so I gave it away. The rest of the orders will be much smaller. I asked that the plants not be shipped until mid-May (I really thought I had instructed ALL of them thus, but could I have missed one or two?). Let's see, half of 31 is 15.5, or 16. So, the mid-point of May was YESTERDAY! By yesterday afternoon, I'd received four shipments, already. OK, enough grousing... I'm basically a happy camper just to have some new daylilies. I shudder to think if the sale had actually gone through for me, though. By the way, that sale is tomorrow -- I won't be going, even as a customer. Too much to do right here! But if I had had to dig, clean, etc. everything for a sale, all the while prepping the newbies for planting too, I'd have been twice as exhausted this week as I already was. Next year, I'll make a specific note in my own records of whether or not I gave those instructions. And hopefully, next year I won't go quite so crazy over the winter.
One more thing -- my "Elizabeth" daylilies, always the earliest of the extra-earlies to bloom, have a few scapes with tiny buds on them! Last year, their FFO date ("First Flower Open") was May 20th. It was a lovely, early spring, last year. This year has been the opposite: cold, clammy, and horribly late after a hideously LONG winter. It doesn't bother me that these are a bit later than last year. In fact, I'm surprised they have come along so quickly as they have! Have I ever shown you a photo of "Elizabeth" in bloom? Well, just in case I haven't, I'll post one now, from last year. This is one of the plants I want to take to my brother's house soon. I got it to commemorate our Mom, whose name was obviously Elizabeth. I also have a bit of my "Charlie's White" peony (Dad) and I think I'll slip a few more relatives in there, because they need dividing anyway.
"Elizabeth" by Norton, 1942; Tinker's Garden's database says this grows to 36" tall! I'll have to measure mine when it blooms, but I doubt that it gets THAT big! A cultivar this old doesn't give the flower width in the registry, but I'd say her blossoms are about 2.5 to 3" wide.
Like my mom, she's kind of small and truly lovely, and always makes me smile when I see her. Wish I could see Mom again!
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