LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR…

June 21 is the longest day of this year. As I dig out daylilies and daffodils at 8:30 in the evening. I don’t need my miner’s headlamp to see what I am doing. My bags have paper labels on the ends so all I need is a sharpie and a little more strength. Fireflies are out, drifting in the breeze as they blink to find a mate. I can already hear crickets and have seen monarchs feeding on my cone flowers. Almost like autumn with the unusual spring we had. Time to call it a day, even if it was the longest one. Summer will be here soon with its hot, humid, sweaty days, but for now light breezes with scattered thundershowers make gardening bearable. Was it just two months ago that we had the big freeze?

We had a great time at Shaw’s Nature Reserve, and many bags of bulbs have been dried and cleaned on my front porch, waiting for the fall sale. Many other bags have been promised as well, so our sale is starting off well!

John Reed’s dig gave us several bags of pink and red cupped seedlings for our sale, as well as small bags of named cultivars for the sale or exchange. Since there were 23 people there from 6 different clubs, we don’t have as many as usual, but we do have named varieties. I encourage all of our members to think about digging and donating bulbs from their gardens as well. The sale is the event that allows us to have the wonderful exchange day.

P.S. This newsletter got stalled and it is now officially summer – hot and dry. Digging has become a challenge as I dig through the hard packed crust of my garden and other places. Bags of bulbs are hanging waiting to be cleaned. I try to take as much dirt off as possible before bringing them to the cleaning party before the sale. Even though MOBOT is a garden, they don’t appreciate dirt and daffodil dust on their floors! A pre-cleaning is always a good idea. I don’t use white gloves to shine them like the early members of the ADS have done. Things are more casual on my front porch…..

Beth