Blooming Daylilies in Beautiful Colours

I love this time of year. Sometimes we get cooler temperatures, and sometimes I can pick up deals on fruits and berries at the roadside stands. Most importantly, my daylilies are blooming! 

Greetings fellow gardeners, 

I am in the midst of making lists and preparing what produce is available to me right now. Today I am planning to make plum jam. I haven’t made plum jam for a few years, but I miss having it on pork and spring rolls.  As I am reclaiming my previously flooded basement, I have a shelf on which to keep my jams, jellies, and pickles, which makes them much more accessible. Eventually, I hope to open up an area of cold storage for potatoes and carrots. We used to keep carrots in a box of sand in the cold cellar all winter when I was a little girl. 

Harvesting Potatoes in the Cloth Bag

Today I harvested the grey cloth bag in which I had planted some of my fingerling potatoes. I planted my father’s potatoes way over on the other side of my property and picked up some fingerling seed potatoes from the Green Thumb Garden Centre.  I am really looking forward to having new potatoes for supper. Yum. The cloth, or rather, felt-like bag, did its job, but it ripped near the bottom, so I don’t really see it as more than a one season option. I prefer using my larger regular pots. While I am very happy with this harvest, I am not happy with how few potatoes seem to be coming along in my other containers. I suspect that they were not getting enough water during their early lives.  My son watered the grey bag regularly, and I think it made a big difference. 

 Fingerling potatoes with catnip and containers in the background.

Rudbeckia laciniata hortensia

As I stand looking out of the bathroom window, the swaying, tall outhouse flowers are looking back at me. Rather ironic, I suppose. Rudbeckia laciniata hortensia is an old heritage flower that has been surrounding outhouses for years. It is tall and self-supporting. It rarely gets diseases and spreads easily, but it can be controlled with regular pruning. I get lots of small pollinators visiting the flowers, and I leave the seedheads for the birds. They look so sunny as they move back and forth in the breeze.

Beautiful colours of Daylilies

I love this time of year. Sometimes we get cooler temperatures, and sometimes I can pick up deals on fruits and berries at the roadside stands. Most importantly, my daylilies are blooming! 

I have many daylilies. Some were given to me by a wonderful person who was downsizing her garden, some were in my mum’s garden, and some I found in my travels. I love the different colours, shapes and sizes.  My brilliant large yellow daylily looks like it should be dessert, while the peachy frilly daylily is called Rilly Frilly, which is super fun.  I was so happy to find that my purchase from last year, Bela Lugosi, is blooming beautifully. Really big, dark red blooms on a very healthy plant. 

I love all the beautiful colours in my garden right now. Keep on keeping an eye on the weather. While it may be a little cooler, the wind can also dry out your garden. Enjoy your week. Judith 

(Email:  sghorticultural@gmail.com)  Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or https://gardeningcalendar.ca/category/veggie-bites/