Monacan Trail~A Super Daylily

Jim Murphy's recent work in daylilies has been to create late and very late flowers, as well as tall and very tall plants. However, it is this plant, MONACAN TRAIL, an introduction from 2005 that I have decided to place in a "Super" category. There are several reasons, but the primary one is its bloom season. It started blooming on June 27th, and is still blooming today, September 9th! It is entering its twelfth week of bloom, and even STELLA DE ORO, the famous rebloomer, is absent blooms at times during the season. To me MONACAN TRAIL has a bloom season that could be described as early-early, early, early-mid, mid, mid-late, late and very late! Some icing on the cake: every bloom has been perfect (the photo shows a sample of several), and the scapes are tall and erect. This flower would seem to be a prime candidate for a hybridizing program.

Flying Jewels~Opus Two

Adult male hummers have a brilliant red throat and black chin. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the sex of our fall visitors, but juvenile males often begin to show red spotting on the throat by early fall. If you look closely, you can see a small red spot at the base of the throat of this male who is very interested in a Cleome blossom. While we like to think Momma visits us each year with a new brood of young 'uns, there's no guarantee it's the same mother each year. She and her young make a ridiculously long and hazardous round trip to Central America, and she may not survive the trip. However, her offspring will return as adults as they have imprinted this location in their memory bank.

Flying Jewels

Each Fall these "Flying Jewels"...Ruby throated Hummingbirds..stop and visit with us for a few weeks. Since adult males travel separately from the females and fly south earlier, our guests are usually mothers with offspring. Hummers are insectivores, but also drink lots of nectar from various flowers and from feeders put out by us humans. They will also drink tree sap after woodpeckers have drilled holes in the trees.

Their amazing acrobatics and super rapid flight can keep us mesmerized for hours. Truly nature's miniature marvels!