Mine have been in active growth for several weeks. I thought I might be running a little late (as usual). We moved about 3 years ago, and I dug all my daylilies and brought them with me. They had to live in pots for about 9 months, and then were planted after we finished building our new house. Then, the deer promptly ate them, much to my chagrine. Last year I never did get blooms, because the deer would eat them before they would open. I have moved some of them to inside the fence, where the dogs are, and others I have planted society garlic all around them, and I am diligently spraying with Deer Off. So far so good. Maybe I can have some blooms this year.
How Is Your Weather Where You Are for the New Year pt.2
Happytail, wishing the best for you in your struggles with the deer. We got around FIVE inches of rain. More predicted a couple days from now. Lots of places flooded as rivers and creeks overflowed their banks and wreaked havoc. It was so sad to watch. I use a variety of stuff to fertilize. Milorganite, Alfalfa meal and pellets, worm castings, compost, fish emulsion, etc.
Happytail, I'll be praying that you get blooms this year, and that the deer stay away. I've only had trouble with them once. Hopefully never again.
Nice weather here today, but I got very little done. Rain last night, and into the morning, but cleared up and was mostly cloudy and cool.
Karen
40's two days below freezing tonight and last night
My visitor , really likes the Dailily salads
Oh, I'll bet he does!
Karen
Snow again today !! Not snowing hard and supposed to be no accumulation but the frost and cold air has come with it -- are we ever going to be able to start planting outside this year ???? Am beginning to wonder !
Thus far, this April is the wettest on record. Some roads are still flooded. We got some more rain over nite also. Spring flowers!!!!!
We also have gotten TONS of water -- our street and parts of our yard were like a lake for several days . Now that it has gone down substantially, I can see that I am going to loose several things -- mainly irises that have turned to mush from being under cold water so long ! Really don't want to start over again this year -- just did last year -- but it doesn't look good at this point. Even my daffodils , crocus , and tulips that were coming up look really bad right now .
Shirley I am so sorry to hear about your Iris loss and others. I have extra Irises that I can share among other things. Mike
Lots of rain here too. I'm hoping I don't loose any daylilies from crown rot.
Just enough rain for us here. Could use a bit more, actually. Stayed put chilly and damp this morning after yesterday's rain, but warmed up into the 60a later on. I would like all our spring days to be like it was this afternoon.
Karen
Good to know. Thanks.
Oh so sorry to hear you are getting too much moisture! or at least all at once! It has continued the rollercoaster here - 70s at the first part of the week. Down to 42 yesterday morning and today warming into the 60s during the day. They even had freeze warnings out of the NW corner of the state, and frost warnings for most of the western and northern part. It is crazy..... it is almost May! We will probably go from this to 90s or something......
I have a few irises, most haven't been planted long enough to multiply but I am sure I have at least a couple that I would be happy to share.
Given up hope on some of my DLs...... I have lost about 10 of the ones that I just planted last fall. No idea why. Oddly enough they are all in the same section of my foundation planting......
I just thought they had gone dormant - but no signs of life and all the other DLs are hopping so I am sure they are goners....... :(
I have a few coming in any day now so guess they will be put back in their spot.
Have a great day everyone!
Genna
genna did you used aged compost when you planted the new plants?
I had improved that part of the bed with compost and manure almost a full year before I got the plants in the ground. All I did was put my plants in that area and mulch them. Same as I did in the other areas - but it is odd that all of them in that area died. But, I do think all of them were supposed to go dormant where the majority of the others were either evergreen or semi-evergreen. Not sure if that would have anything to do with it. The other plants in that area .... azeleas seem to be doing very well so hopefully it is not something in the soil. There is a possibility moles could have eaten them - but not sure why they wouldn't have gotten the rest too. ?? There is one lone DL in that stretch that is still alive.
Some of the iris here look okay some not so good , as it goes ,it goes , mid 50's and sunny today ,freeze warning until 9am tomorrow, beginning about 2.30 to 3 am ...
At least the Daylily will grow in light freeze .. What a time of year ...
gen,
What kind of foundation do you have? If there is concrete, it may deposit too much lime and make the soil alkaline, not suitable to DL. I have read that somewhere years ago.
Evidently, there is something in the soil that is killing your plants. If moles, remember that DL have nice juicy roots. If you are sure the plants are dead, and even if not, I would dig them up to check and see what is going on under ground. I wouldn't plant any more DL in that area until you figure out the problem. No sense killing off anymore.
I haven't dug them up - but I did think about looking underneath last weekend.... was just trying to hold out hope that they might just be a little mixed up because of our crazy weather. I might have a chance to dig them up this weekend and see what I find. I do have a concrete footing, with blocks on top for my foundation, but these are actually further from the footing than almost any other DLs in the bed. Weird...... my soil is VERY sandy naturally, and there was bagged compost, bagged cow manure, etc tilled into the soil over time to try to improve it before planting. Most of the compost, manure, etc was added in that area in the fall of 2011, but we didn't get to the foundation work until Spring............ even then, the DLs didn't get planted until late summer. That might be the problem too. Those particular ones might not have gotten established good before winter - but thinking about it.... they were planted before some of the others that are doing great. Really odd. I will try to investigate. :)
I have gophers in my yard..................any suggestions on how to eliminate them? But as far as I know, I do not have moles.... but I live in the country so ANYTHING is a possibility! LOL
Hope all of you in the midwest are safe from all the flooding! They are calling for more rain here this weekend..........I sure have a LOT I need to get done this weekend and almost all of it is work outside! I am currently doing a lot of work on my parent's old house because I have a new renter moving in next week. Lots of things that need to be finished outside.......... not looking favorable for outside work.
Hope everyone stays safe!
Genna
Good morning to everyone out there in garden land ! Hoping to have another nice day to get out and do more "assessments" and adjustments as I figure out what is going to be left after the "flood" . Our dog sure loved it while the water was here -- she thought she was at the lake instead of at home -lol . I sure am not loving it at all now. The pics below are what I am dealing with -- looks like lots of my plants did not like being in standing cold water with temps dropping to 30 degrees for 5 days straight ! Still not completely dried out in some places (real muddy) but water is gone thank goodness . Real bummer is that I just purchased most of these plants last fall !! Wish me luck !!
Well , trying to get things uncovered and in the "air" to dry out and watching them turn from wet mush to dry hollow dust . Hoping that the daylilies that have turned white ( from getting frosted while standing in cold water ???? ) will still have good roots and will send up new shoots ???? Have lost lots of plants over my years of gardening due to trial and error but not fun to loose them all at once !!! Guess someone wanted me to do a garden makeover !!!! Going to try and build up this large garden area so it is not so low and hopefully that will help the water to "run off" when we get lots of rain in short periods of time ( or as in this case , for 5 days straight !)
On the brighter side , ALL was not lost !!! Looks like everything aside from the large garden will be o.k. !!!!
:( So sorry...... looks like a real mess! Most of my iris' are fairly new, but I will look to see which ones have multiplied to at least send you a small start.
I did some 'checking' into my DLs this weekend and found a myriad of things..... one - had NO growth on the top, but still had about three bulblets underneath the surface. The three that were there appeared "normal" to me (although I don't know much about DLs) but no idea what happened to the rest of the plant.... it just wasnt there. One plant had TINY piece of new growth about 1/2 long, so I left it alone. Some appeared that it had completely disappeared leaving only the plastic tagging that came on it as evidence of where it had been?? So, I am not any more enlightened than I was. Another appeared totally normal - although there was NO growth on it. One of the others has recently sprouted growth and is up a couple of inches tall. It did dawn on me that this area probably gets a LOT less sun than the other areas. It is in front of my porch, which means it gets shaded earliest in the day. But they are still getting probably at least 6 hrs of sun - and that doesn't account for why the ones on the other side of the front porch seem to be doing fine. ....... so, I still don't really know. It looks like there are 6 in question and that 2 of those MIGHT survive.
It was 86 and very muggy here yesterday afternoon, but I finally got to spend about 3 hrs working out in a bed that is overgrown yet again! :( I am tired and sore this morning, but hopefully I will be able to make some more progress on it tonight! ....
This is a picture of Rustic Royalty that got broken off as I was cleaning the bed last night.... I think one of my 4 legged "helpers" got a little too carried away...... But I had tried to take a picture of it the night before and it didn't photograph the true color in the sunshine, so this is a much better representation of its true coloration.
Crazy weather today. One minute its sunny and the next minute its raining. The daylilies are growing by leaps and bounds though.
Supposed to be 77 here today. Spring has finally arrived. It sure was a long time coming.
Well, it was 86 and muggy here the past few days! I love the warmer temps but could sure do without the high humidity.... no hope for that here though! I have spent the past few afternoons cleaning on my big round bed again that keeps reverting to jungle - can't seem to KEEP it under control. The first pic shows about 1/4 of the bed clean - only about 9 hrs of work or so to get it like that!! Now I have to get down preen and mulch before it starts again! The second pic shows the other front quarter of the bed.............. it is devoured by vetch...yuck! But hopefully it will pull up much faster than the variety of weeds and grasses that plagued the other quarter. This quarter with all the vetch was freshly mulched last summer - so that should help.... yet to see..... but I never got to the other quarter so I paid the price. Been busy with other projects and have let the vetch get too far a head start on me - and the other weeds too so now I have to pay the price and TRY to reclaim it again! I HOPE this is the last time I have to reclaim this bed from the jungle or I may just give up and let it win. The good news is that I have finally almost completely eliminated the nut grass that used to take it over, and I am hopefully eliminating the bermuda , now if I could just control the weeds and vetch! I have a circle gravel drive around this bed and I am planning to spray the entire gravel drive with roundup to try to prevent any vegitation from spreading into the bed.
I have also already found some bermuda spreading UNDERNEATH my metal border on my foundation planting - I have tried to dig it up, but I am planning on spraying a small perimeter on my metal edging as well to try to keep the bermuda from spreading under. I am not sure if this will work - but not sure what else to try.
I am not sure if I told ya'll but I found TWO scrapes already on my DLs!!! I couldn't believe that I had scrapes so early, but it was a wonderful surprise!!
6-9 inches of snow predicted between today and tomorrow.:(:(:(
Oh my................ snow in May!! An old wives tale (that I have found to be pretty true) says rain on the 1st means 15 days of rain that month........ Is that true if you get snow on the first??? Hope you get to see spring soon!!
They are calling for rain here today and tomorrow followed by cooler temps again. We have been oscillating back and forth between 40 and 85+ .... pretty crazy weather...... not raining here yet, but looks like it could pour any minute.
Woke up to 4" of wet snow. Still snowing. Typical for Wyoming. I have never seen such wet spring.
I plan on putting my daylily and iris seedlings on my stand outside to acclimate them in a week or two for planting end of May.
Gen,
Two years ago, I got behind on weeding due to surgery. My problem is that grass that spread due to long roots underground. It is thanks to my non-gardener neighbors on both sides. I sprayed along my fence and had it under control. Anyway, it grew into my garden. Can't dig them out since every piece or root would produce another plant.
I moved all the plants I wanted. Donated others to our extension service for their annual plant sale. Then used Roundup, and covered the area with black plastic and let it "cook" all summer. The following spring when I removed the cover, not a weed in sight. I did the same to another garden spot. This is where my daylily seedling are now growing. I keep watch but so far so good.
Roundup and black plastic is the only way to go.
Second day in the 80's here , bring the Marshmallows ,,, WOW!!Baby is it Hot !!!
It reached 80 here yesterday and looks like it may be near that again today. What a beautiful day!!!
The snow stayed just to the south. I only saw a few flakes yesterday.:):)
Boo hoooo........
SNOW here in central Iowa today! Maybe a couple of inches! Our last freezing day is supposed to be May 10th.....
What's the deal? So many of my daylilies are up at least 10".....I hope this doesn't hurt them for flowering....poor babies! And the hostas are just peeking through and the roses were just starting to leaf out....oh my......
Goodness that's just awful. We have had 2 nice days in a row with upper 70's. Didn't get anything done outside though. Had to grocery shop, pay bills, go to chiropractor and by late afternoon I didn't feel much like doing anything.
It has been much cooler than usual later here. I have needed a jacket the last few days.
Today, May 3rd....and it is STILL snowing! It looks like a blizzard outside......If I had wanted a blizzard on the 3rd of May, I would have gone to Dairy Queen!
I wonder how all the flower shops are doing with all their annuals/perennials sitting outside in the snow.....I bet they are covered in frost and snow....with the temps at 30 degrees.
I haven't seen such crazy weather......80's one day, a snow storm the next!
I guess ya just gotta luv Iowa....
Checking up on my "water logged" flowers and have found some that , although the rhizome is soft and mushy , they still have a little green on them -- going to leave them alone and hope that they survive !! And a few of my daylilies that had turned "white" look like they are starting to get a few green sprouts poking up also !! Really don't want any more 5 day straight downpours and definitely don't want any more snow !! This sure has been a CRAZY year weather-wise already !! Is nice , even temperature days too much to hope for ????? Instead of this up and down ???? I think so ! Such is the life of a gardener right ??? No one ever said it was going to be easy !!!! But the beautiful blooms we get in the end are worth every bit of it !!! I think , anyway - lol !!!
It was 86 here on Tuesday and Wednesday, low 50s today and we are supposed to be down to 36 tonight! I have irises and clematis in full bloom and scrapes on some of my DLs...... not sure how much stuff will be damaged from temps that low, and it is currently raining as well - calling for rain thru the weekend.............. I think I will try to gather up some sheets and see if I can at least cover the DL scrapes and the irises......... :(
I heard that Minnesota got 15" of snow!! ...... this rollercoaster has been a wild ride this spring, we keep osciallating between mid 80s and mid 30s! I know several of the nurseries have struggled to keep the ferns and things like that alive in all these wild swings! We don't normally have temps in the 30s in MAY!
Hope everyone has a great day!
Genna
Spotted my first scape this morning on Black Eyed Stella. I am hoping that this cool weather go away so that I can get some early blooms. Upper fifties expected today after a couple 80 degree days this week.