My Place In Space | Daylily Blog on Sharing

In some circles, some view having the same specimen plants in their garden that can be seen in another as a crime punishable by exile. I say "some circles" but maybe I just mean my own. There are 65,000+ registered daylily cultivars, so there are many to choose from when adding daylilies to your landscape. I heard a story this week about a lady who doesn’t use plant markers and won't share variety names just so people won't know what she grows in her garden and so visitors can't replicate or purchase what she grows. Really? Why have visitors at all? Why share it at all? Where is the joy in this type of "secret garden?" (those are NOT rhetorical questions, by the way, please post your answers in the comments link below this post!)

My friend Nicole and I share an eerily similar taste in daylilies. We like the unique, the eccentric, the road-less-travelled daylily introductions. Just when I think I've discovered something that is amazingly obscure…she's already heard of it. And when she sends me information on something new she found, quite often I've seen it somewhere along the way and have a picture to share. We share a lot, trade a lot, buy a lot, talk a lot and "do daylilies" a lot. She has her niche tastes and I have mine (she also collects some cool sedums and clematis and I treasure my lilium and miniature hosta) but overall, we like the diversity that the daylily brings to our gardens.

Have I shared some of my lesser-known beauties with her? Of course. (and she has done the same for me)

Do I tell her what I've found or seen on a tour? Totally.

Would I ever be so elitist to think that my garden is the end-all-be-all of daylilydom? Never.

Gardening is a hobby that quickly engrains itself in your soul and hydrates your very being. It’s a type of therapy you'd never get from Dr. Phil on a good day. Gardening is a common thread that binds some of the least likely cohorts together and makes them all the better for it. Don’t be scared to share – much like the perennials we all love, the karma created from sharing information or actual plant material is magnified and quickly replaces any sense of self-importance you may have.

No one appreciates your hard work more than a fellow gardener.

You just have to be secure enough to really let them in to your place in space.

Daylilies pictured above (from top to bottom): H.'Golden Hibiscus' , H.'Night Embers', and H.'Joan Derifield'