Daylily Haiku Thursday | Daylily Blog on Sexy

the swollen outsides

open with slow, steady moves-

revealing beauty.

Regardless how you measure your personal level of conservatism, gardening is sexy.  After all, everything we do in the garden pretty much contributes to and facilitates our plants reproductive needs.  But, when I say sexy, I use the term in an artsy and direct way.  Daylilies are a feast for the senses, and the buds that mature into gorgeous 24-hour jewels are quite appealing to me.

I like their coyness.  I like their tease - the come-hitherness of the swollen bud.  Some are plump, some are long, some are curved and knobbed.  Some are small, some are big and some are more distinct than the flower they unveil.

Many daylilies are specifically known for their bud shape, size, coloration or structure.  And remember, the daylily bloom is truly only open for one day - you have to try to enjoy other qualities the daylily has to offer.  I noticed buds this year more so than in the past.  I noticed that some buds open more than others on the day before bloom.  I noticed some buds carry the coloration of the flower or exhibit signs of a glorious edged bloom to come.

I like how some buds crack and unfurl at the tip, teasing pollinating insects into its depths.  See above buds from H. 'Fourth Rock' and H. 'Big Sur.'

Below on the left is a bud from H. 'Abilene Crab Claws.'  Although I do not know for sure, I think its name must have been based on its suggestive bud shape.  I adore the blushed edges and the green tip of this bud.  The outside "layer" of this bud ends up being the sepals of the bloom, and on this daylily, the sepals maintain this claw shape.  It is very distinctive.

 

The daylily buds for the most part are gone from my garden already.  The bloom season has passed here in southeastern Michigan, and I am left with my photos, notes and dreams of what once recently was. 

I already miss the scapes topped with these sexy beauties.  Can I already be counting the days until next summer when this one isn't quite over?  Say it ain't so!

H. 'Old San Juan' exhibits a long, smooth bud. 

Starting something new... | Daylily Blog on Fairy Gardens

Fads do not greatly influence me - they tend to do just the opposite.   If something happens to hit a tipping point where "everyone" seems to be doing something, I want to get as far away from it as I can and ignore its existence.  If "everyone" is wearing large, floppy hats in the garden, I want a compact, svelte bamboo fedora to shade me from the sun.  Bandwagons aren't my thing.  I do not always think that imitation is the best form of flattery, and I am a champion of people doing their "own thing." 

But.  I cannot resist any longer.

I am about to jump on a bandwagon that has been parading through my gardening life for a decade without attention from me and that is a miniature Fairy Garden.

Jot this date down, folks.  Nikki is doing something everyone else seems to be doing.

Several gardens on the recent AHS Region 2 Summer Meeting Tour had some form of a miniature fairy garden.  Some were in containers, some in re purposed bird baths, some under trees, some on a grand scale and some just starting out - but they were all intriguing and interesting and innovative.  A fairy garden creates the impression of a tiny world, of the sort and size that fairies might inhabit.  I'm getting the sense that it's an art combining dollhouses, fantasy role-playing, rock gardens and growing bonsai.  Four things I currently have no experience in doing well.  Not a good start.  Maybe I should just stick to daylilies and photography.

Seeing several really good examples of mini wonderlands this past weekend really changed my mind and energized me to embark on something new.  There will be lots of research and lots of shopping and lots of talking to others before I get to installing anything, but I already have a dry shade spot that has been screaming for purpose for about a year.  It is a space under a Box Elder tree and is the perfect spot to build a tiny world.  This requires me to return to my childlike beliefs for a spell and be enchanted in the dirt with my son.  (This also requires me to 'think small,' which, for those of you who know me, know that I rarely do anything small.) 

A new project in a completely new vein is exciting and scary.  I want to do it right the first time, so I will now kick in full research-o girl mode (miss you, ellen...) and discover what style is mine and in which direction this new inspiration will take me.  I turned to Google, of course.  A Google search for "fairy garden design" returns 2.9 million+ results. 

Gulp. 

Apparently the plants I use are important because the fairies need clothes and often use the blooms as clothing, adornments and bedding.  I also must provide water and gold for the wee folk.  Fairies also apparently get naughty if they are bored, so I need tiny entertainment, too.  And I musn't forget a mirror for good luck and chimes for them to dance to...  Wow.  This is complicated already.  I wonder if there is an Ikea for fairy furniture.

Knowing that there are as many ways to do a fairy garden as there are fairies in the world is enough to give me the creative courage to dive right in with my inquisitive five year old to build a playground for garden fairies. 

I am sure that my son's Lego mini-men will invade the tiny fairy playground now and again, but that's just adding diversity, right?

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Daylily Designs Redux

There are no limits

which cannot be overcome

by creative minds.

The two designs I entered in the Metropolitan Columbus Daylily Show on July 11, 2010.
The one on the left was "Big Top" (a design viewed from all sides with a circus theme) and
on the right is a miniature design, not measuring more than 8" in all directions.
Click on the photos to enlarge!

I love LOVE! | Daylily Blog about things I love...

I love love.  This time of year I start to get happy inside about how the season is turning out, and my heart is always full of warm feelings about gardening.  Last week I had about 100 people come to the house over 3 days to tour my little green piece of the universe.  Just before the first garden club showed up on Monday, I had a few minutes of quiet reflection in the garden alone and I started thinking of some things I love.  (Please click on the photos to enjoy them full screen.)

        
(L-R) My grreat-grandmother's bowl, H. 'Enchanting Esmerelda,' and a shot of the front border bed.

I love using my great-grandmothers 125+ year old bowl to serve sinfully summerful Jolly Ranchers.  The sweet/tart taste of my favorite watermelon flavored Jolly Rancher takes me back to my childhood, sucking on them incessantly while pedaling against the wind on my equally pink and sweet Huffy bike. 

Both the bowl and the Jolly Ranchers are pieces of the me who was once a child in someone else's garden.  I am eternally grateful to have those memories.

(L-R) H. 'Northern Fancy,' a vase of six kinds of lilies on my patio table, H. 'Ron Valente.'

I love using formal, meant-for-the-inside vases OUTSIDE in floral arrangements.

I love serving cream cake (from my grandma Sucich's recipe) and fresh berries to visitors in the garden.

I love using the simple cake server I picked up at our summer haunt, The Inn at Bay Harbor.  It reminds me of the chef there, and reminds me that my soul really does ache for the northern Michigan coast.

   
(L-R) H. 'Dyna Girl,' H. ' Sandra's Smile,' and H. 'Bare Necessities.'

I love my husband and son for evacuating the house for a couple of days while

I prepared for the tours.  The greatest gift they gave me this year was "the month of July" to do with as my gardening heart desired.  I owe you, boys.

I love having the courage to open up my little green space to strangers who want to hear about my passion for gardening.  I especially loved noticing that after all my guests had left, all of the watermelon Jolly Ranchers were picked out of the bowl.  I guess my guests love them as much as I do, and I love that, too!

Daylily Haiku Thursday | My old garden friend...

you must keep patching!    despite the holes in your path-  work is never done.

My favorite garden gloves are close to being retired.  My darling husband bought these for me about five years ago and I am sad to see them go.  I have worn holes through all the fingers in the right glove and the wrist fastener is gone on the left, but I just can't let them go.  I looked to replace them with the exact pair, but of course it's discontinued.  I'll have to find a new pair of gloves to wear out.

They have seen so much, hauled so much, traveled in other people's gardens so much and heard so much...

Edge-ucation | Daylily Blog on noticing the finer details...

I walk on the edge.  It is the best place to be if I have to evacuate quickly, but it is also the place with the best view.  The edge is often breathtaking and dangerous and most often always beautiful.  Out on the edge I can see all kinds of things that I cannot see from the safe center of life.
Edges in daylilies are not much different than the edges in life, and I thought I'd give you an "edge-ucation" on daylily edges.
It's the fringe. 
It's the ruffle.
It's the undulating wave of interest on the edges of petals and sepals that draws you in for a closer look and sometimes even a touch.

The throat area first catches your attention, the eyezone keeps the viewer's attention and the edges finishes off the look in amazing fashion.  Punctuating the visual experience is the elusive smell and the color saturation...but the edge is what I have been remembering on strolls of late.

Take your visual daylily experience all the way to the edge of the petals and sepals and see what you find there.  After all, if you are not living on the edge, you are surely taking up too much room.

Stay on the edge, I say. 

Signs of another seasons end... | Daylily Blog on today's smiles!

Oh, the atrocity of already having spent scapes in the garden!
Last Friday I cut the first of many, many daylily scapes that have already bloomed all their flowers.  The scapes do nothing for the plant once they have provided a pedestal for those blooms all summer, so I cut them all back to the crown to keep the garden looking as neat as possible. 

Like most of the country, my garden was about two weeks early than in past years.  I usually don't start cutting scapes until the first weekend in August.  But, alas, the bloom came early and so does the clean up.  I have a few garden clubs coming this week to see the daylilies, and I am hoping to have a ton to show.  All winter I travel around speaking to non-daylily groups about daylilies and then in the summer they come to visit to see the wonders for themselves. 

I have hundreds of photos from the past two weeks to wade through and show you.  I'm working on getting them organized and have about twenty blogs started in my head to accompany them.  Ill get it out of my head sooner or later.  Here are a few I took this morning that made me smile.
On the right here is H. 'Purple Eyed Pirate.'  It's new to the garden this year, I just planted it in May.  It immediately put up two scapes and has its last bloom open this morning.  I love this flower, I love its hybridizer and if that isn't enough, my husband even commented on how HE liked it, so I know it must be a looker!  He doesn't comment on individual daylilies often, but its cool when he does.  Behind it is my favorite garden art in my yard - my water feature!  More on that later...

Here is the deliciously-saturated H. 'Butterscotch and Ginger.'  This is another great offering from hybridizer Roy Klehm.  It's a departure from the typical Klehm toothy edge, but just as hardy and worthwhile.  The AHS defines the coloring of this one as a "self,' which basically means you don't see any other colors in it.  It is not a blend, doesn't have an eye, has no distinct throat colorings...its all one color. 

It also has great branching and has multiple blooms open each day.  The two fans I bought last summer from Roy multiplied to five this year and they are husky ones!  I recommend checking out the website and picking up a couple of their introductions.  He is having a big 20% off sale now, so check it out.  I added H. 'Angelique Fringes' and H. 'Charlies Dream' this year.  Hopefully they will be amazing, too.

I visited Bob Faulkner last summer and picked up a few of his seedlings.  Here is one of my favorites.  I have two other seedlings of his in my collection that are equally as amazing, but this one isn't like anything else Ive seen.  I love how the throat and sepals seem to be the same color, along with the tips of the petals.  Its a really bright screaming neon-greenish-yellow, too!  The purple band fades in the sun, but the yellow-green does not - its still neon in the evening.  Love it.  Thanks, Bob. 
Bob is introducing his first collection next year.  Check him out on the cool website, Daylily Trader.  Its a cool collaborative website of midwest/AHS Region 2 hybridizers and a great source to buy some northern-bred plants!

There are more tales to tell, more stories to hear, and hundreds more photos to see, but this is all for now.  I must get a batch of fresh blueberry lemonade ready for my garden guests!   Enjoy your Monday!

Two by two they came... | Daylily Blog on Photographing Twinning

Photographing flowers is an easy sport.  The flowers sit nicely without coaxing as you practice getting just the right shot.  A good flower photo gives you the feeling you are actually looking at the flowers in real life and not in your digital file folders on a cold afternoon in February. 

My two favorite daylily shots are the ultra-macro of a glistening throat and what I like to call "the twin shot."

A "twin shot" is a photograph that includes two blooms.  Taking a great twin shot is not as easy as it may sound.  The plant actually has to cooperate by opening two blooms that are spaced to allow both blossoms to open without interference from one another, but close enough to fill your lens with daylily goodness.  The above left photo is of H. 'Worthy One.' The center of this photo to me is the throat area of the bloom on the bottom. It is looking right at me. The bloom above it is facing in another direction and provides a different view of the bloom. The second bloom also provides depth to the photo. Even the little bit of purple petal peeking in the lower right of the shot gives me the impression that this is a plant with lots of blooms open today.

The best tip I ever got on photographing flowers was to "think like a flower."  That includes getting on their level and taking the photo from a plane even with their center.  Do not hulk above it and shoot down at it.  Get down and put the camera on its level.  Shoot with it, not at it.  I consider two centers when taking a daylily photo - the center of my viewfinder (or LED screen in modern terms) and the center of the motion or direction of the flower.  Below is H. 'Alpine Ruffles.'  The center of this photo is the point where these two blooms come together, but the emotion of the photo is their opposing directions, punctuated with the fluffy pollen facing off into the edges of the photo.  It's interesting.  It's movement.

When I approach a daylily to take its picture, I find its center of motion or direction - not just its physical center as in its throat, but the center of what its doing, which direction is it facing and from which direction its movement begins.  I start there because there are too many "daylily mug shots" out there of just the flower face looking straight into the camera.  Now, I love those too, but I think a great photograph has more personality, more movement and more ooomph than just a face on shot. 

The photo on the right is H. 'Brookwood Lee Causey.'  Its primary focal bloom fills the photo, but the one in the background, facing another way complements it nicely and shows that the bloom actually has a tightly ruffled edge not seen in the front bloom.  There is also a bud showing, which gives the photo more interest.

For those who are beginners at photographing flowers, check out your camera for a little setting called MACRO.  It is most often illustrated by an icon that is - get this- a flower!  Perfect for shooting our floral friends.  Use it.  Get to know it.  Love it!

Below are several more examples.  First is H. 'Inidan Giver.'  Notice the complementary phlox in the background of the twins.  In the middle is a great photo of a Bob Faulkner seedling.  The radiating throat in the bottom bloom is the center, and much like the Boorkwood example above, the background bloom offers a new direction of movement.  The third photo is a shot of two sets of twins in one photo.  In the foreground is H. 'Destined to See' and H. 'Pick of the Litter' is behind it, filling out the shot.  The intended focal point of the photo is the bloom on the lower right.  Did you see it that way, or did you focus on the pink flowers in the back first?  There is no wrong answer, just another perspective of the same photo.

         

I also take into consideration the time of day, the size of the flower and the complementary colors when composing a shot.  There are as many things to consider as there are flowers to photograph, but once you get a few sweet photos under your belt, you'll "see" the photos before you are even holding a camera. 

Photographing flowers isn’t just about documenting the fact that they once existed, if for only a day. It is about telling the flower’s story to immortalize it long after it has been composted.

capturing beauty

of just one fleeting moment-

is worth the trouble!