Gone fishin' | Daylily Haiku Thursday

<posted June 13, 2013>  This is my favorite pic of H. 'Siloam Olin Frazer.'

I had to let the sun set on this haiku today.  I am checking out of blogging deep thoughts for the next couple of weeks.  Daylily season is about to kick in to high gear and I don't want to spend it behind a keyboard!

I will still share a haiku each Thursday and will also post pics of my upcoming adventures quite often, but as for mind-blowing thought starters, don't count on it til at least August.

Please email me if you need anything...I'll be outside.

Dig deep, inhale even deeper and enjoy the summer!!  

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“We’ll stop when it looks cool.” | Daylily Blog on GOING.

<posted June 10, 2013>  Roads trips are a part of my DNA.  My reckless restless spirit loves to run.   Daylilies give me the chance to travel away from places I cherish to places unknown and to people I love.

(photo) This is one view of Daylily World- literally.  The gardens of the incomparable David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss.

As a an only child of young, hippy parents we camped a lot, we went to friends farms for weekend trips and we sometimes spent the night in our own  basement just to have an adventure.  I learned how to read an atlas early and loved the free road maps you could get at the service stations from the stern man who would pump your gas.  My parents and I took random road trips to places like Colorado with no planned agenda.  No Internet.  No GPS.  No Expedia.  Definitely no cell phone.  Just the knowledge that Interstate 70 heads west, hits Colorado and our car takes regular gas - not unleaded.  I made blanket forts in the backseat, never wore a seat belt and my parents puffed Marlboro's from the front seat with the windows barely cracked.  Surprised I survived. Ah, capricious youth.

“We’ll stop when it looks cool.”

Throughout high school I relished debate team overnights, cheerleading events, and far away marching band competitions.  For college I went 1000 miles away to Florida to make some memorable moments that I revisit often.  After college I saw 46 states by car over three summers; those desert sunsets changed me forever.  My husband and I enjoy Mexico often, and we are trying to be less rigid about an agenda, thanks to a happenstance meeting and a perceived Haitian invasion while visiting the Dominican Republic.  Here's two shots of our recent trip to the east side of Mexico...

(Don't worry, the trip was pretty blurry to me, too!)

To kick off daylily season for 2013, I was a guest of the Cobb County Daylily Society and the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta as a judge for their combined daylily show last weekend.  It was a pleasure to be invited back and they put on quite a show!  Over 300 scapes colored the atrium on the Cobb Galleria and I was thrilled to be a part of it.

The show boasted over 300 scapes and the two clubs did a great job once again of coming together to put on a joint show.  There were five panels of three judges, and I was honored to judge with Dr. Scott Elliott (who is producing some of the best-scaped doubles I have EVER seen) and my sweet friend Rosemary Dixon.  We had great discussions, many laughs and enjoyed our time together.  I also got to meet Scott's charming wife and got to kid around with Joann Stewart, who I don't see often enough.

Here are two exhibits of Heidi Douglas' H. 'Papa Goose.'  First time Ive seen it exhibited!

I was most impressed by the color shown on the section winners.  Often, darker color flowers are harder to exhibit and you don't see head tables that are so "dark."  This was impressive.  I was also thrilled to see two Region 2 cultivars among the highest winners in this deep south show.  Jamie Gossard's introduction (large photo below) was stunning.  Love this one, Jamie - it has amazing masculine structure and is so intentionally white.  

Here are the winning faces from the head table at this show. 

(H.'Santa's Little Helper' and H. 'Blooming Beauty')

(H.'Free Wheelin'' and H. 'Everybody Loves Earnest')

(H.'Hats off to Sue' and the seedling winner from Bill Waldrop)

The height, branching and bud count on the winning seedling was spectacular (above, right).  I can only hope Bill Waldrop chooses to introduce that one.  I thought of some possible names for it on the flight home - finally settling on one inspired by a recent culinary adventure, "Pickled Blackberry Sorbet."   Maybe Bill will see this suggestion and consider adding it to his expanding line of sorbet-named daylilies.  LOL!

(H.'Virgil's Suspenders' and H. 'Grapesicle')

(H.'Brookwood Ojo Poco' and the head table of all winners)

The adventures I have travelling the country participating in gardening symposiums, daylily exhibition shows and daylily-centric garden tours are priceless.  My garden itself is becoming a living history of what I’ve seen and where I’ve been.  It’s like that for most romantic gardeners, I hear.  

H. 'Heavenly Snow White', hybridized by Jamie Gossard and expertly exhibited by Bill Waldrop.  This one has little purple highlights on the buds and bracts.  Very interesting!

So now I’m the parent of son who has an app to identify every constellation in the sky at the tip of his fingers; a boy who can ask Siri how far away Jupiter is from his location at any given moment.  One night when my husband was out of town I took our sleeping bags and pillows out on the back deck, where the view of the stars takes my breath away every night.  My son and I laid on our backs and used our SkyView apps to find all the planets (yes, Pluto is still a planet in my book) and even saw some satellites.  

He loves going.  Living.  Certainly his mother's son.

Thanks for another soul-feeding trip, Atlanta.  I always look forward to the next time I can run to you.

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What's happening? | Daylily Blog about The Now.

<posted June 6, 2013>  I am trying to contain my excitement.  I am really trying to not take note of each new scape I see in the garden.  BUT IT IS NO USE!  

I have waited a year for this single gardening month and I cannot believe it's here.  For me here in west/central Illinois, peak bloom seems explode in June.  I have spent each day since last June having an internal conversation about "Next year..."  

"Next season I will be sure to get the Milorganite down earlier."

"Next year I'm planting that whole bed with zinnias."

"Next spring I've got to get those sages in peony cages earlier."

NEXT YEAR IS HERE RIGHT NOW!!!

No daylilies are blooming yet, but they are coming.  I expect peak bloom on near 400 cultivars to happen the last week of this month.  

I feel good about the 2013 bloom season.  Many tasks and projects that have been on the dream list since we moved in have been completed.  The pergola is finally up and the fire pit is down.

All the water features are reinstalled and are in perfect working order.  The water iris are even blooming in the front pond!

The hummingbirds have returned; they seem to especially love sitting on a piece of art that Dan Bachman made for me!  See?  They only sit on this spoke.  They'll fight over who gets it before they will sit on another.  Funny things.

The largest bed (seen below) only lost three daylilies and one "hardy" hibiscus.  I've given up on H. 'Pink Lacquer', H. 'Nicole's Plum Crazy' and H. 'Mapping Michigan.'  These never came up past an inch this year and their corpses are taking up some valuable real estate - out they go!

A robin decided that a great place for a home would be on top of the birdhouse that Duane Nickel made.  I planted the roof of it with sedum/succulents and set it on a potting bench this spring.  This nest was built and laid before I even saw it.  I thought they would go IN the house, not build on TOP of it.  It has been very interesting to have a bird's eye view of these eggs.  They have hatched now, and we enjoy watching them learn how to live from their fierce guardians.  

Life is beautifully strange.  

And fast.  

Hold on tight...next stop?  Summer!

P.S.  I'll be in Atlanta this Saturday, June 8, at The Galleria judging their daylily show.  From the Cobb County Daylily Society website, "More than 500 blooms of several hundred different cultivars will be on display for morning judging and afternoon viewing by the public.  At the same time, bareroot daylilies will be on sale at bargain prices, a great way to add these hardy plants to a garden.  A design competition using daylilies is always a must-see, also.  Experts from both clubs will be on hand to share what they know and love.  The show and sale is free and open to the public from 12:30 to 4:00 PM."   Get more details here.  Do come by and say hello!

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Great color in daylilies! | Defining what IT is...

<posted May 23, 2013>  I swear the daylily foliage in my garden this year is the best it has ever looked.  Or could it be that my eyes are just so sore for green, lush sights that I am imagining it?  Either way, it is awesome out there.  I'm dreaming of the days when the clumps of leaves are covered in an umbrella of bloom.  Dreaming of the days when I search for the sight of the day that takes my breath away - something in the daylilies that makes me whisper an "ah" upon discovering it.  If you need a chart to feel what I'm describing, here:

Its usually color that does it for me first.  Saturated, sunfast and sexy color.  Like Bill Waldrop's 'Red Sapphire.'  It means to be pink and it is PINK - not a muddy mauve - but PINK.  Here it is:

Sometimes its clarity of color that strikes me.  Below in Kimberly McCutcheon's 'Baby Pinwheels' or the classic 'Julie Newmar' I see clarity and cleanliness of color.

And again with another Bill Waldrop introduction, 'Kennesaw Mountain Hayride' there is a deep saturation that looks like wet paint.  I find that when I go on garden tours of other daylily-centric gardens, if I happen to "connect" or "have a moment" with a particular cultivar, I seek it out to grow in my own yard so I can relive that moment of excitement - that blip on my heart chart.

What I love about Tim Bell's 'Valdosta Again' (below) is not just the dependable pattern, but the chartreuse beacon at the center of the flower.  If that were more dull, if it weren't so wide and repeated on the sepals, that pattern would not be so fantastic.  This one was my gift plant for attending the 2010 AHS Convention in Valdosta.  What an amazing time that was...

And it doesn't have to be complicated color to be amazing....look at Barrie Matthie's 'Bonibrae The Freak.'  This has Richard Norris' 'Substantial Evidence' in its pedigree.  LOOK AT THAT GREEN!  This photo was taken outside at 1pm in Georgia heat when I visited Kennesaw Mountain Daylilies last summer.

Enough of this...I could go on forever.  But you should go now and think about what it is in your garden that makes your heart chart BLIP!  I'm going to continue to enjoy the hummingbirds feeding today during a light rain...

hummingbirds drinking-

the soft rain coating their backs.

they don't seem to mind.

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Daylily Haiku Thursday | Daylily Blog on The Gardening Gospel!

<posted May 16, 2013> In one of the daylily groups on Facebook I recently posted about my reading this back issue of the fabulous HORTICULTURE magazine (2011).  If you don't subscribe, you should.  I am always inspired by the writing.  The final page in this particular issue has a great story about eccentric gardeners that I could read 1000 times.

As you can see, this 2011 issue features daylilies on the cover, so I have it saved with other magazines which highlight daylilies.  I quite often set this stack of magazines out when garden tours come through, or when groups visit that aren't daylily-centric.  

Now, answer this question for me:

I often wonder why so many people who "discover" daylilies for the first time are so astounded with the forms and diversity in the flower.  Looking at the cover of HORTICULTURE, such prime real estate features basically a dark burgundy fulva-ish face.  

"They" have left us in 1950.   

Why would such a magazine leave such a diverse flower so mid-century?  It's not like VOGUE or TIME look so far in the past for cover photos.  They feature today's look and feel and influence the buying patterns of people who subscribe.  They feature today's fashion.

Today's issues.  Today's "prime stuff."  

Why would HORTICULTURE choose to put such a safe face on the cover?  I'm sending a package to its editor, complete with back issues of our amazing Daylily Journal and the Region 2 Newsletter.  They will be so excited.

God Bless the historic cultivars and their place in our space, but its time more general-gardening fanatic folks understand that it's not your grandmother's daylily anymore.

What do you think?  Would a cover be better with something like this?

Let's discuss.

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