Daylily Display Garden Plan | Daylily Blog on Travelling

One of my short-term goals is to obtain "Display Garden" status for my new gardens here in Illinois.  The American Hemerocallis Society bestows this designation on gardens that exhibit the daylily in its various forms in wonderful ways.  Specific criteria can be found here.

Carter (my precocious six-year-old) made the announcement at our New Years Eve Dinner that he wanted to do some daylily traveling with me in 2012.  There was never a more obvious opportunity to instill the love of gardens and gardening people than this one!  Carter and I decided we would plan a set of trips this summer to see all the AHS Display Gardens in Illinois - just he and I.  

There are over 70 in our region, and about 15 in Illinois, so I think we can see all the ones in our state this year.  

Will he have good garden etiquette?  

Will he be patient in the gardens?  

Will he enjoy the sights?  

Maybe he will take his own camera and capture the journey...

I'm already excited.

Here are some memories of my visits to other daylily gardens in our region.  The large picture below is Daylilies by the Pond, which is a great mail-order source and a family owned business in Ohio.  I visited there on tour in 2010 and they have an amazing website with tons of information and reasonable prices.  I placed my spring order today for 4 FAB daylilies I saw there when I visited.

  

So, Carter and I will set out together this summer on a two-person journey to see Illinois' daylilies.  I hope that in the future someday he will remember this trip and have good stories to tell his own kids about how he and his mom hit the road and invaded other peoples gardens.

Its bound to be a trip full of stories and texture.  I will post our proposed route soon- maybe you want to caravan along!

I love the "big-picture" I find on these trips into someone else's green universe.  I like to see how established clumps contribute to the landscape, how hardscapes are used to accent the daylilies, how mono-cultures are kept interesting and beautiful and how these garden jewels shine in others lives.

Here is a list of all the display gardens in Region 2.  We have lots of good stuff to see in this part of the heartland, and I hope you'll find someone near you to share the sights!

going, going gone!

silky petals wither too soon -

making way for new.

A Tale of Two 'Bella Sera' clumps... | Daylily Blog on Experiments...

mysteries abound!

unraveling in the dirt -

twisting our green thumbs.

This is a tale of two H. 'Bella Sera' clumps.  One clump bought four years ago and raised in Michigan and the other raised in Illinois for the same amount of time. Now they both live in the same garden.  They were both transplanted from their original homes in August of 2011 and planted in one of my new beds in early September.  Both clumps contain at least four fans and are guaranteed true-to-name.  I planted the two small clumps about 8" apart and kept the crowns and root systems intact.  

That was four months ago.

Those are the details you will need to help with this mystery.  You'll also need this photo and the following definition of foliage habit...

H. 'Bella Sera' is registered as an evergreen daylily, which, by definition means: 

The foliage habit of daylilies that retain their foliage throughout the year. In cold winter climates, evergreen daylilies over-winter as a mound of frozen pale green foliage. Evergreens may resume growth during a mid-winter thaw in mild climates. Evergreen daylilies do not set resting buds.

(That definition comes from the Daylily Dictionary on the American Hemerocallis Society website.  Check it out if you want to learn a few new vocabulary words today!)

This week - yes, it IS January - I was out in the garden on a sunny 50 degree day and noticed something peculiar about the two clumps.  One looks dormant and one looks evergreen.

I'm betting that the one on the right comes back as thin, puny fans and will not produce flowers.  I'm guessing the one on the left will look as though it was never disturbed and will bloom fine.  However it turns out, I do not think they will bloom or grow the same this year.    What do you think?

I wonder if their blooms will be as different as their foliage.  Can you guess which one has lived in Michigan for the past four years and which one was already here in Illinois?  Can't wait to see the blooms.

Here is H. 'Bella Sera' in all her glory... A Google Image Search for more turns up some good ones, too.  This daylily is widely used as a parent and its easy to see why.

I love the white edges and bright halo.  I enjoy this flower best early in the morning, when the halo is almost silver against the royal purple segments.

It just glows...

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Daylily Blog of Great Garden Tour Memories

I miss Long Island.  In 2006, they hosted about 500 daylily fanatics for the AHS National Convention and my mind has not let go of the images I encountered while visiting those unforgettable gardens.  What I remember most, especially at this time of year when the night sky is so many stirring shades of blue and purple, are the hydrangeas....

revealing color-

heavy heads flop gracefully.

you're full of promise!

There were at least twenty different hydrangeas seen on the Long Island Garden Tour - different leaf shapes and configurations, each one more fabulous than the next.  The flower heads burst with color not seen in such volume before!  Purples, pinks, magenta, blues, and even turquoise heads bobbed in the breeze off the Atlantic that weekend and I was mesmerized.  Wow.  That was six years ago.  So much has changed since then...some of those gardens no longer exist, some of those people have passed on, and some of those families do not live as one anymore.  I've been to four National Conventions since that one on Long Island and each one has different memories, but from this one, I remember the gardens the most.   

The relevant point about hydrangeas is that their form and structure wonderfully contrast the daylily in many ways. The hydrangeas are loosely "round" in growing habit, leaf shape, flower structure - which sets off the sword-like, arching foliage and tall, erect scapes on the daylily.  I think the two are an unlikely yin and yang in the garden.  The daylily blooms pop against the lush, green foliage of the hydrangea and their bloom times (depending on variety) are complementary as well.

It felt good to remember my Long Island friends today - the people and the hydrangeas!