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!