I'm a garden geek. People who barely know me understand that pretty quickly. What goes even deeper than my love of growing things in general is the soft spot I have for the daylily. We actually don't grow any other plants that are this ornamental and non-functional. I love that it's a different bloom every day, on a different plant every day, for several months in a row. There is nothing like going outside first thing in the morning before it's so ungodly hot and seeing who is there to meet you in the garden. Sometimes it's a double, like Affair D'Amour, or a spider like Chevron Spider.
Sometimes it's a bi-color like Athlone, or one with pinched sepals like Cameroons.
This is our best year for daylilies yet. I think the cold snap really gave them a break and let them rest up so they could put on a show for us this year. Of course it wasn't in time for THE show, but still. We get a private performance every day, and will until possibly September.
I can't take any of the credit for them being this healthy and happy. Jay does all the hard work. I am generally the one who picks them out, and sometimes I point here or there, but in the last year I've been pretty 'careless' in my placement.
When we first started, I was SOOOO detailed and persnickety about making sure I didn't have two pinks together, and that I had the big ones in the back, and the earlies mixed in with the mid- and late-seasons. As the years have worn on, I've realized that the tall ones don't necessarily bloom the same time as the shorter ones, so it doesn't matter (to me) if they're in the back or not. I'm just happy to see each of them whenever and wherever they decide to come out and play. I used to be very detailed in my tags, too. At first, I noted the variety name, the hybridizer, year of introdution, height, size, season and genetic type. The last batch we came home with got the name of the variety and hybridizer and the year of introduction. I became less obsessive about the technical details and more laid back about them and just being glad they are growing and blooming. If I ever want to dabble in hybridizing, the details will be important, but for now, knowing the name and the hybridizer is probably good enough.
We have about 100 named varieties and probably half again as many unnamed/unidentified or seedlings of unknown parentage (daylily bastards) as well. Most of them are in pots over by the chicken coop because they were in the yard near or in the same spot the coop was going to be, so we moved them into a shadier area during construction. Another raised bed has only daylilies and the occasional weed. Jay is going to build raised beds for all the potted ones so they'll get the benefits of more root room like their raised bed buddies. Once all of them have permanent homes, I'll do a good inventory and get an accurate count. We're also fostering about 60 plants left over from our show and sale. With much luck, they'll be ready to sell at our booth at Greenfest next March. Every time I think we're out of room and can't possibly get more, we come home from Greenfest, or our annual show, with a few new petal-y friends. One I can't wait to meet is called Android Dreams, that one of my favorite people in the whole wide world hybridized. It looks like rainbow sherbet. Hand to God. It's got a scape on it now, so in the next few weeks, we'll get to see if it's as happy here as it was in Plant City. The spot where the recently-removed ficus trees is MUCH larger than I thought. I be we could fit another couple hundred daylilies in there, but nobody would ever get to see them.
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