Rita Bees Bee 'n Garden Blog - Rita Bees Gardens & Apiary

Oh, My Gourd, the Weather's Warming!

4/25/2021

Fingers crossed but I think the last cold snap here in Kennesaw Georgia has come and gone. A front moved through last night and the wonderful drenching it brought has knocked the pollen from the air ... at least temporarily. Azaleas and dogwoods are done ... sigh. But star jasmine smells beautiful, wild geranium is photogenic and the newest daylily additions wintered really well-the slide show shows what's been recently added to the Rita Bees website. Others were added last fall so check it out, pls.

Star Jasmine blooming now!

'H. Lava Flow' scape forming

Oh! I'd be remiss to not tell you that Rita's Bees are prolific this Spring especially the Binnie1 hive. The Heidi hive is doing OK but her progeny, the hive named Yodel, is going gangbusters! 3 other splits are queenright - that's the most I can ask of them. ('Queenright' for a split means a new mated queen is laying and the workers are producing wax and drawing comb. Oh, My Gourd! I shouldn't have started talking bee-talk. It's nearly impossible for me to stop! But I will.

Have a Safe and Productive Spring! 2021 is here!

I just submitted this essay, 'Coping with Covid' to a non-profit for whom I volunteer

3/2/2021

I survived the 2020 Covid era by making new electronic aquaintances. Through NextDoor, Facebook, my phone and website, I advertised for sale the honey my bees made and the daylilies that proliferated over the past 10 -15 years in my yard. The honey sold locally (as it should) so I would text peeps that I was delivering their order and they would often greet me from their porch.

The daylilies sold nationwide as there is a network of daylily lovers all over the world. I met through email a lady in Alabama for whom I bartered bee supplies for ‘Entwined in the Vine’, a daylily that was the only one missing from her club’s Stout Medal winner garden. She also noticed I had a cultivar named ‘Rosabelle Van Valkenburgh’ on my website and told me that Rosabelle had been a mentor to her and many others and had just passed away in her 90's. She had my condolences and I thanked her - how would I ever have known that, otherwise?

I emailed a man out West on a Sunday night last summer to find out if he wanted me to wait a few weeks before shipping so we could find out which direction the wildfire was going since it was 30 miles from him. He said, “What wildfire?” It had just started that afternoon.

I snail mailed about 30 older Daylily Journals to Edna who told me she wouldn’t be buying any daylilies this year as her hubby had a stroke and couldn’t garden anymore. But he'd be delighted to look at the gorgeous photos!

Carol, a grower in Ohio, sent me two of her daylily introductions to grow and to judge how they’d do in the South. Scott in Tennessee is sending me a book of his photos. Milton, a customer in Rhode Island, recommended me to his daughter in Tennessee. We synchronized shipping so her daylilies would arrive the day before he arrived so they could plant them together. I dropped a pound of honey in the box for Milton – he sent me a thank you note!

I could go on and on with 20 more stories but you get the picture. For an introvert like me, electronic media has been a wonderfully invigorating exercise in connecting with wonderful peeps who share my passions.

Rita Buehner, Class of 2013

Thanks to Covid . ? .

11/22/2020

THANKS to Covid.?. (Admittedly, that's a stretch.) But sequestering and working outside more at home

gave me time to add more gardens and more plants. Take a look at the NEW ADDITIONS ready for sale NOW on the website for Spring 2021 shipping.
gave me the idea to add a GIFT CARD option to the website - Christmas is coming! So are birthdays that happen all year long.
gave me gratitude for all the Daylily People I have 'met' this year through the internet.

On the left are slideshows of my collection of Siloam miniature and small blooms and a few of other daylilies for sale on www.ritabees.com .

Three RESOLUTIONs for 2021:

I will visit more gardens.
I will get recertified as a AHS/ADS Garden Judge.
I will meet more of you face-to-face.

PEACE, JOY & GOOD HEALTH FOR THE REST OF 2020 AND ALL OF 2021

August Surprises

8/23/2020

August is no bore this year! Daylilies are reblooming, a new compost bin is taking shape, a delayed shipment arrived, monarchs showed up, our honeybees are thriving . . . unsure what else will happen but I'm watching to see.

Rebloomers make my day!

PARTY GIRL

JANICE BROWN

BUMBLEBEE SPENDING NIGHT IN JANICE BROWN

EVERYBODY LOVES EARNEST

HATS OFF TO SUE

KING KAHUNA

I'm getting a new compost bin! Hubby gets to use nearly every one of his saws.
TRUE STORY: 2 years ago, I tore out an article from a 15 year old Fine Gardening mag that I got from a friend cleaning her attic. Recently saw a guy talking on a TV show about his compost bin.
Same guy:same bin. I told Hubby it was meant to be and he made it for me!
Costs about $300 if you count his time and cost of lumber now ... (smiley-face.)

FREE HOMEMADE SOIL!!!

CORNER DETAILS

We ordered a fortune (to me) in daylilies. They made it to Atlanta from Wisconsin in 2 days but then went to NJ then back to Atlanta via Philly PA! They took a beating for 7 days but were packed well and will most likely be ready to sell next fall. They're doozies! They've got big crowns & great roots and are greening up nicely after 2 weeks in the ground and plenty of watering.
(And with two hurricanes predicted to hit the Gulf at once this week, there'll be more water coming for them.)

ONLY 9 MORE MONTHS TILL THEY BLOOM!

THE BOX SAYS IT ALL!

Stay safe and well. Rita Bee signing off.

Daylilies Added to Rita Bees Gardens

4/20/2020

Less Words - More Photos
Below is a slideshow of a few daylilies that have been added for sale on the Rita Bees website.
Watch the slideshow and if you see anything you like, click here on the DAYLILIES - NEW ADDITIONS page for more info on description, pricing, etc. All are available for shipment now.

Allow me one more word, though.
Thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for making Rita Bees a growing small business.

Let the slideshow begin !

We're shipping ... USPS is delivering on time!

4/1/2020

Covid-19 aka Corona virus has impacted nearly everything but not daylilies! It's the beginning of April and here at Rita Bees gardens, daylilies started popping out of the ground a month ago. Now that the temps are warming and the sun is shining, they are getting ready to go gangbusters. As we say in the South, "Bless their little hearts!"

Afraid that the Covid-19 situation might affect the US Post Office's ability to deliver 2-day priority shipments on time, Rita Bees began shipping quite a few orders to FL, GA, AL and even WA state in two weeks ahead of the planned April 1st ship date. To get that done, we often dodged raindrops and wondered when the sun would show its face.

Our fears were unfounded! Feedback from customers is that all daylily shipments were received on time and in great condition!

From Pearland, TX: "Rita, I just got my order. They look like you dug them this morning!!!! And I am delighted with Two to Tango! Thank you so much. I’m sure this won’t be my last order. Take care and stay safe."

From West Columbia, TX: "I received your shipment this afternoon. So the USPS really did come thru with 2 day shipping."

So, it's time to give the USPS a pat on the back for coming through, not just for daylilies, but for all the other very important things they transport and deliver on time.

THANK YOU, US POSTAL SERVICE! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
YOU'RE A HUGE PART OF KEEPING BUSINESSES OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

And THANK YOU, RITA BEES CUSTOMERS. You're the REASON we're open for business.
Please, stay safe and healthy.

2019's not Over Yet . . . Add More Daylilies !

9/3/2019

Labor Day 2019 has come and gone and now its time to relax from a rewarding Spring and Summer in the gardens. Right? Wrong!

Fall is the best time of the year to start implementing your ideas for Spring 2020. Not that it's Fall here in northwest Georgia - it's 93 degrees today but low humidity (38%). Heat and low humidity means . . . close to a drought in Georgia. But, I digress.

My rewarding idea for Spring 2020 was to find more space for 20 new daylily cultivars that I purchased in August and to dedicate at least one raised bed to Miniatures & Smalls. (Word to the Wise: Not the best idea to purchase 20 new daylily cultivars in August without having space for them.)

So, in the midst of a huge allergy attack, my husband of 49 years agreed to help me empty and turn an existing raised bed 90 degrees, build and place a new raised bed, then empty and fill both with newly amended soil and . . . plants.

We did it in two days and we're tired! But, I don't have to wait until next Spring to feel the sense of accomplishment and to imagine what these new cultivars will look like in OUR garden.

If you want to see what daylily cultivars were added this fall, go to the New Additions link on the Rita Bees Garden & Apiary website and take a look.

Also added to the website is an Alphabetical List of all daylilies for sale (unless they're for DISPLAY ONLY, which means we only have a few fans left and are propagating them for future sale.

Browse away and if, by chance, you'd like to order any daylilies . . . do so! September is a great time to get daylilies in the ground and acclimated before Winter sets in and Spring returns.

D I G A W A Y ! ! !

Foliage ... it's all about Foliage right now

4/26/2019

I'm seeing some scapes peeking out! H. 'Little Orphan Annie' has the tiniest. But mostly, today it was all about foliage. H. 'Primal Scream' (left photo) won the Best Costume Award today for its deep green foliage and fan-spread. For the Tackiest Costume Award, It's a tie between H. 'Mary's Gold' (middle photo) and H. 'Pamela Williams' (right photo). Why? They've been run over at least twice by someone backing out of our driveway. And I think it was me. So both of them deserve to be divided and replanted in safer beds ... tomorrow ... or the next day. These two are 4 to 5 year old clumps and it'll be a doozie of a time to divide and replant them.

As for the Bees, they're doing fine. Should begin honey
harvest in mid-May and I sampled it straight from the
hive two days ago! It's as Mmm, Mmm, Good. I've never
stacked the hives this high before so I had to make steps
to allow me to safely access the top two - believe me,
it's safe and sturdy!

So you know, the two hive stands stacked up on the right -
I do NOT stand on them - when I take boxes off the top
of the hive, I place them there. I only stand on the single
hive stand! Whew! (It's safer than it looks ...)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Getting Started

3/15/2019

I know I'll get hammered by daylily 'afficionados' for choosing the 'H. Wild One' cultivar as my favorite. Because it was registered soooo long ago, is soooo reminiscent of ditch lily colors and is soooo Plain Jane compared to other cultivars. But . . . I can soooo identify with her for all the soooo reasons given above.
With this post, I'm launching the Rita Bees website as well as this blog.
I will try my best to educate, amuse and confuse Readers with the thoughts and exploits of an older lady as she wanders through her gardens and beehives.
As I write this it's dark outside. Not much to say about that. Yesterday, though, I got kinda excited as I looked at the daylilies starting to come into their own, the out-of-place fig tree buds, blueberry flowers that escaped the freeze. I realized that, as always, spring comes every year and it's here now! Finally!