Today, I got a package with daylily roots from one of my favorite places –Shady Rest Gardens. Well, Doris always sends huge fans . . . and she included some extra fans of two that I ordered. Two of the ones I ordered were to thicken up some of mine that shrunk in the Southwestern garden. So, it becomes too much daylily for the pots. I divided both the new ones into two and put the existing small ones with the smaller division of the new ones.
Pink and Cream
So, now I need to make room in the front or side yard for the extras. I am giving away a couple that I have doubles of to make room. And, so it begins . . . which to keep and which to give away? Is variety better than focusing on favorites? I have a feeling this problem could get worse before it gets better. In a way, though, it is nice because you can see how the same cultivator behaves in different conditions in your yard.
Yellow Punch
So, I decided to come up with some stages of daylily obsession:
- You consider daylilies the perfect perennial enough that you favor them when you pick out nursery plants for your garden.
- You start noticing more little things about the daylilies you pick . . . like size, shape, and name.
- You decide to have daylilies as the dominant plant in at least one garden.
- You discover that roots are a cheaper way to fill the space, with more selection.
- You discover the auctions and find several reputable daylily root nurseries.
- You start to favor some type of bloom or hybridizer. In my case, it was the Southwestern names of the Ned Robert’s cultivators that caught my eye.
- You realize there are billions and billions of the type you want . . . you start collecting. You have to make fairly major garden revisions to host so many.
- A year or two later, you have all the ones you want. They need to be divided and find new homes. It seems weird to have too many.
- (I am not here yet) You become a hybridizer and/or farm them to sell.
Coral Taco
Oh, it is my mom’s 100th birthday today. I wish she could be here to see the Easter Lily Cactus blooms today. Like daylilies, they only last one day. I love all their biological features.
Easter Lily Cactus
Colorado Kid Daylilies 