By Lynn (admin),on December 17th,2011 It’s time again to update our friends and family of the happenings of 2011 at our Illinois home. It is possible that by next year at this time we could have a new address. We decided this year that taking care of this property is getting to be too much for us. Twice last year we had to hire help to shovel our driveway. By the end of the summer we also had to hire help to help with the weeds in our garden. I have gotten rid of over 125 of my daylilies and will donate more to the Master Gardeners next Spring. We have been looking at Independent Living Centers and have our name on one waiting list in Sherman,Illinois and are also looking into a retirement Village in Florida run by the Air Force. We have contacted a realtor who has made some suggestions about things we need to do to make this home more saleable. In this economy who knows how long it will take us to sell. One of our biggest concerns now is that we don’t want to leave our Shih Tzu,Cocoa behind. We lost his sister,Rosie this past March and time has not healed that heart break. We still talk about her often. This move we are planning could take years and then again it could happen quickly. In July Mike and I flew to North Dakota to visit my family for a week,to see my sister’s new home and to attend my 50th High School reunion. The worst part of the reunion was the list of obituaries. When I saw the names,I could only remember these classmates as I last saw them and we were all very young…too young to be on an obit list! In July,David finished his 3 year online college course and now has a Bachelors Degree in science specializing in Game Art and Design. He and his wife both work at the corporate office of State Farm and he is applying for new positions relating to his degree. In mid October granddaughter,Kate married Anthony in Hawaii. Anthony is in the Navy and stationed on a submarine based there. In January,Kate hopes to move into government housing in Hawaii so she can be closer when the sub returns to home port. The sunset photos of their wedding are awesome! In October we went to Kentucky for 5 days to spend time with Mike’s family. Some of them we had not seen in 5 years. We rented a large home on Lake Barkley with the most gorgeous fall scenery. Those 3 great grandsons are growing up so fast. One never wants to admit that they are getting older but it’s a daily fact of life for everyone. Discovering that our energy level is not what it used to be,catching ourselves napping during the day,attending a 50th reunion,and knowing that we have great grand kids in our lives,all are realities that we are not as young as we used to be. Even though we are still reasonably healthy,we are still wondering at what age those “golden years” begin. We send our love and wishes for only good things in 2012! Mike, Lynn and Cocoa
By Lynn (admin),on September 30th,2011  ISLAND BED Mother Nature has thrown us some bad curves this year. We had temps in the 80′s in March with plenty of rain in March,April and May. The daylilies came up with lots of increase in fans. The temps were hot one week and cold the next. With the fluctuating temps and rainfall the daylilies developed a lot of horrible looking yellow foliage. By the end of June,the rains quit and central Illinois was declared in a severe drought. We watered as much as possible,doubling our water bill. It kept the flowers and lawn alive but stressed and not healthy to look at. Daylilies are very drought tolerant and the blooms were mostly gorgeous,even if the foliage looked bad. With over 400 different varieties and lots of increase over the winter,I had a hard time keeping up with the weeding (weeds aren’t bothered by drought conditions) and the deadheading. I have thought for years that my garden was getting too big and often talked about the need to down size but the gardens kept getting bigger. As of today I have finally been successful at some serious down sizing and have my inventory down to 308. I had two big sales this year and donated many plants to our local daylily club,some to a church and some to the Master Gardeners. We have completely eliminated the “Island Bed”in the center of our back yard. Hopefully next year Mother Nature will be kinder and with less to take care of,I will again feel at peace in my garden and less stressed tending to too many plants. Every year our ages are taking their toll on how much we are able to do. This Summer we admitted that our yard is really too much for us to be responsible for. We even resorted to paying for help with the weeding. We have spent some time looking at Independent Living Cottages in North Dakota and here in Illinois. We have our name on one waiting list so far. We will continue our search thru the Winter for a retirement village. By Lynn (admin),on May 14th,2011   The past two days was the annual Route 66 Rummage Sale. I have participated in this the past 4 years,mostly selling daylilies and other plants from my garden. I’ve made many friends who have learned to trust me to sell them healthy plants. Yesterday was a great selling day for us. This morning when I went out to start my sale there were already people waiting for me to open my garage door. For almost two hours there was steady traffic. Once I finally got the chance to take a breath,my husband commented that the daylilies didn’t look very nice. We started checking each plant and I was fairly sure that the daylilies did indeed not look as healthy as I would like them to look. I got a real sick feeling in my stomach that I had been selling plants that might not be healthy. I couldn’t put my finger on it ,but as long as I had any doubts,I could not sell any more. We closed our doors and destroyed over a hundred plants. I have inserted images of the plants as they were this morning.
I am a member of a Daylily email Robin that consists of over a thousand members….many a lot more knowledgeable than I am about Daylily diseases. I contacted them and sent them images of my problem. I hated to open my email account today for fear of what they were going to tell me. It seems my plants have a good fungus case of Leaf Streak. It happens to some plants when there is a period of very warm temps and the plants try to mature too fast and then are set back as a late frost occurs. It looks horrid but does not kill the plant. It seems that Mother Nature is causing chaos in a lot of states this Spring. In the last two hours I’ve had 6 replies to my email saying that my pictures look just like the leaves in their garden. I am not alone with this. Looks like I needlessly destroyed a lot of plants this morning. I think I did the right thing anyway.
By Lynn (admin),on March 30th,2011 In one more day it will be April;how can that be? It has been a long,cold and snowy winter. We had to hire someone with a tractor to shovel us out after one of the storms. In the 15 years that we have lived here that is only the second time we had . . . →Read More:SPRING 2011 By Lynn (admin),on January 18th,2011 Time seems to be on a very fast roller coaster. Here we are already into 2011 and are more than half way thru January. I decided to put my Christmas 2010 letter on my blog. Perhaps it will tell you a bit more about this crazy lady besides her addiction to daylilies. CHRISTMAS SEASON 2010 . . . →Read More:A NEW YEAR By Lynn (admin),on October 30th,2010 This is a gardening year for the record books. We have had high winds for several days this past week and while I was picking up limbs,I found a daylily (CURLY PINK RIBBONS) with an open bloom and about 8 more buds. It is unfortunate that on that same night we were forecast . . . →Read More:A RECORD YEAR By Lynn (admin),on October 10th,2010 Here it is the 10th of October and only very slowly the garden is going to sleep. We had two days of frost a week ago and highs in the 50′s,even had to turn on the furnace. Now we are having 3 days of highs in the mid 80′s which is more than 10 degrees . . . →Read More:THE GARDEN BLOOMS SOME MORE By Lynn,on September 27th,2010 Here it is the 26th of September and I have a daylily blooming for the first time in my garden. It is really unheard of. But there is a good reason for this. I had ordered several daylilies from a grower in California and because of the climate there,they do not start shipping . . . →Read More:SURPRISE! SURPRISE!!! By Lynn,on September 20th,2010 [SinglePic not found]Lately there has been a thread on the Daylily Robin about daylily names. Several folks talked about the plant INDIAN GIVER,one of my all time favorite daylilies. It was stated that the hybridizer of that plant gave it away as a seedling but asked for it back years later when she saw . . . →Read More:WHAT’S IN A NAME By Lynn,on September 11th,2010 I don’t like talking about end of the season chores. It means no more beautiful colors in the yard and I better get used to the earthy brown and tan tones for the next 6 months. Yesterday I received my last shipment for the 2010 growing season. It came from a garden in Georgia where . . . →Read More:SEASON CLEAN-UP | Welcome to Hidden Hems Half Acre!Daylilies can be addicting. With more than 60 thousand registered varieties,your green lawn will be disappearing quickly. Comments!I love comments! Please take a minute to click on the "Comment" link under your favorite posting here. It only takes a second. |
