Day Lily #2

Here is the other day lily we bought last year that has decided to finally bloom.  This one is an orange flower with a little darker center, a more common flower.  This cluster has quite a few blooms on it though.

Day lily flowers only stay open for a day but the presence of so many buds means that it will have flowers for several days even if each individual flower is fleeting.

Next spring I'm going to have to amend the soil and divide up the root system.  It can get really crowded and dividing give the plants plenty of room to divide and thrive.

Again I'd like to try cross pollinating these guys.  This kind of flower is perfect for toning down or possibly a splash of contrast, depending on what the genes decide to do when crossing.

It's been a while but when I was a kid, back in the day, my grandfather had a grant to cross breed hibiscus plants.  I don't recall how many varieties he produced but I remember him making charts and reports on the resulting plants. We had so many pots of them inside and outside of the house.  The den would have them lining the wall in winter if it was going to get too cold.  I still remember the flagstone path that led to the sitting area out back and the flowers that surrounded it.  At the time I thought of it like my own little jungle.

Office ivy Growth

Since last time I posted about the ivy it's grown quite a bit.  It used to be in front of the wire sculpture and has since grown into it, around it, and back down the other side.  Some impressive growth here.  Our office manager said she'd like to repot it so it keeps growing well.  It doesn't seem to have complained so far though so I'm not sure if that's needed.

One of the reasons ivy plants trail out so much is to have more room to put out air roots.  These take the moisture out of the air and help the plant to keep going.  If you feel along the ivy you can find these little root bumps all along it.  These also help the plant cling onto anything it comes in contact with.  They will form those webbing out roots and grab hold of buildings, trees, rocks, anything they can find.  Apparently they don't seem to like the wire metal though.  It has avoided clinging to it.  Not sure if it's because it's metal, too thin, or what.

The white planter it's in has gone through some changes too.  Currently it's sporting sun glasses and a beard.  At one time there was an ear ring but it didn't last long.  I have one of these pots at home too.  It's made to hold your glasses and be a place to put a plant on your desk.  I don't think they though about an ivy though.

Local Bees

Finally saw a bee in the area.  I figured there would be some bees or something that pollinates since this area used to be mostly farming.  I didn't see him at first since he was so small but here he is.  Nice to see we aren't entirely pollinated by wasps, which are also a common pollinator.

The big sunflower is still forming seeds.  The head has drooped entirely and the petals are brown and mostly fallen off.  Just waiting for the stem to start turning colors, which indicates the seeds are about done forming and ready for harvest.

Something I still think it amazing is the color in the petals of the sunflower.  This specific flower has been blooming for about a week now and the colors are still this bright and vibrant.  And as I said about the other flower, the petals will lose their colors and drain out completely once they are done.  Reminds me of red glass.  A lot of red glass turns quickly in the sun and fades but there are some recipes that keep the deep red color.  Every pottery and glass company either has to inherit the recipe from previous generations or reinvent the red.  I have yet to find a readily available recipe for this. 

More Day Lilies

This is the second planting of day lilies from last year.  They are in the ground which is pretty hard due to the high clay content of the area.  Even in the bed which was intended to grow things besides grass, it's having a hard time with it.  So much of what I have has to be grown in pots still until I can afford to spend the cash and time to upgrade the areas.  I think time is more rare still since I live so far out now.  

Timing is a tricky situation.  You have to know when to go places.  Not if they're open or not but how traffic will be in the direction you're wanting to go.  There's usually only a heavy traffic flow in one direction. Unfortunately if you're going and coming back along the same route you want it clear, so avoiding rush hours.

On a happier note we got some more unique day lilies last week from some friends.  I was admiring their lilies and they told me to dig up a clump.  It ended up being about eight plants after dividing the roots.

These specific lilies have a double flower. That is to say a flower nested in a flower, the petals at least.  So it has twice the petals of a normal day lily.  I will have to wait until next year to see if I can cross pollinate them though, unless I can get them to flower again.  Some of the previous lily plants we've had would bloom more than once a year but they would have to have the same blooming times for them to cross pollinate.