Discounts for AHS Members! |...and Daylily Haiku Thursday

Everyone has their own way of "paying it forward" and building relationships with their customers.  The American Hemerocallis Society (a great big society of daylily lovers) has a membership portal for its members online that contains a ton of great information to help build these relationships.  You can check out the portal here to see the coolness!  Not all of us are "joiners" but this society publishes a full-color glossy magazine focusing on daylilies several times a year and that alone is worth the price of membership.  The Daylily Journal is a world-class publication that no one who loves daylilies should be without.

If you aren't an AHS member, you can become one here.  You can even pay your membership with PayPal and you will get a voucher for at least $25 in daylilies when you join!  Brilliant.

This daylily on the left is H. 'Angelique Fringes' by Klehm.  You might be able to get it from Song Sparrow Gardens in Wisconsin.  I have shown it before, but its hairy edge is worth seeing again.  I don't grow anything more "fringy" in my garden and I can't wait to see how it does here in Illinois.  This photo was taken in Michigan in summer 2011.  I will also use this one quite heavily this summer to make some daylily seed.  I plan to cross it on some very deep purple daylily seedlings I have to see what happens!  Stay tuned.  

Here are three that I am planning to use with H. 'Angelique Fringes' this summer:

the first two are seedlings of mine and the last one is Kimberly McCutcheon's H. 'Blushing Leopard'  

When I say "I'm planning to use them" I mean that I'll take the pollen from these flowers and put it on the pistil of the others and hope that germination takes place and seeds are produced.  If there are seeds produced, I'll plant those in the spring of 2013 and hope for flowers in the summer of 2014.  That is how long I'll wait to see blooms on plants I grow from seed that I helped to make.  It's a looooong process for those of us who don't have a greenhouse, but its worth it.  Those two seedlings you see above are from seeds I made in the summer of 2007.  They are now big clumps and I am thinking of registering them with the AHS and selling them as my own introductions.  How exciting!

As Spring approaches, we are thinking of the daylilies we want to add to our gardens in the 2012 season - and where we will be spending our hard earned money.  On the portal, I recently found that some growers have even taken their relationship building with their customers a step further and offered AHS members a discount on orders!

I've visited many of these gardens in person and recommend you at least visit the websites to see what people are doing with their pieces of the daylily world.  The following growers offer a 10% discount to any AHS Member on orders of at least $100. This offer effective January 1, 2011, and this list was copied directly from the portal.  

Bayou Bend Gardens	59 Bayou Clear Road, Woodworth, LA 71485	(318) 613-7618	www.bayoubenddaylilies.com
Beau Basin Gardens	5237 Moss Street, Lafayette, LA 70507	(337) 896-5502	www.beaubasingardens.com
Cedarthorn Gardens	P.O. Box 869, Sherryville, IN 46176	(317) 512-1664	www.cedarthorn.com
Celesial Gardens	6900 Foxworth Dr, Charlotte, NC 28226	(704) 367-0442	www.celestialdaylilies.com
Daylilies Etc	11754 Blackwater Road, Central, LA 70714	(225) 933-4911	www.dayliliesetc.com
Dickerson Daylilies	P.O. Box 451, Ark, VA 23003	(804) 693-5240	www.mercergarden.com
E and B Farms	541 J. C. Sullivan Road, Louisville, MS 39339	(662) 779-0186	www.eandbfarm.com
Frank Smith Daylilies	2815 W. Ponkan Road, Apopka, FL 32712	(407) 886-4134	www.franksmithdaylilies.com
Lily House	15 Kellocks Run, Hummelstown, PA 17036	(717) 220-1918	www.lilyhouseonline.com
Newbury Daylilies	1152 East 1600 North Road, Monticello, IL 61856	(217) 762-2792	www.newburydaylilies.com
Sharon's Daylilies	1375 Holliday Road, Vernon, AL 35592	(205) 695-9804	www.sharonsdaylilies.com
Singing Oaks Garden	1019 Blythwood, SC 29016-8129	(803) 786-1351	www.singingoakesdaylilies.com
Tangled Vine Garden	2950 State Road, Morrow Ohio 45152	(513) 252-7403	www.tangledvinegarden.com
Valley of the Daylilies	1850 S. State Route 123, Lebanon, Ohio 45036	(513) 934-1273	www.thevalleyofthedaylilies.com (excluding collections and new introductions)

I have been sneaking out onto the back deck and staring off into the gardens lately.  It's that weird time of year when its still too cold to be outside, but just warm enough to make you long for bare feet.  

Cold feet.  Warm Spring thoughts

swirl in sleet and bright white snow

takes me back inside.

Looking out over the beds I just put in last summer and fall...I am so content.  I do not miss the feeling of looking at my gardens in a "what if" sort of way; I've finally created gardens that are exactly how I dream they could be.  They don't lack.  They aren't missing anything.  I don't look at them with an overlay of how I could make them better.  That's a great feeling.

Now.  Go accelerate spring and buy some daylilies!  ;)

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Waves of Light...

"It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought."  

(From James Douglas - Down Shoe Lane)

To study a flower is to surrender to the moment.  Even taking a minute to study this photo of Sandy Holmes' H. 'Flat Face' shows so many reasons why I love daylilies.

The folds, twists and turns of a bloom shows us what its like to savor the briefness of a single moment.  To temporarily lose the bustle around us and just stop.  

To breathe.
I don't breathe enough- this I know.  Quite often I'll find my chest light for air and Ill gasp- wondering how long its been since I've filled my lungs.  I get lost in "things" - a project for work, a personal problem of a dear friend, finances, school volunteering, just everyday stuff.  Gardening for me provides air and light, both literally and metaphorically.

Daylilies bring perspective to fleeting time and force me to stop.  I know that what is here today will not be here tomorrow, so I must enjoy it right now or I will miss this moment.

waves of light travel

from sun to flower to soul-

briefly stopping time!

People always ask - "Why Daylilies?"  I tell them its because every day is different in volume, color, light, balance, and movement.  What the garden looked like today will not be what it shows tomorrow.  Today it vibrates with purples and tall yellows, while tomorrow it will sing with hot oranges, too.  Its that explanation that usually wins over the "I hate ditch lilies" gardener and allows them to see daylilies for what they are - diverse.  I get lost in those moments of "suspended thought" while enjoying the blooms of today.

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Diversity in Daylilies

One of the greatest contributions that daylilies make to the garden is diversity.  Although the foliage generally stays the same, the size and display of the flower changes from one cultivar to the next.  There are daylilies registered at under 1" and some that stretch to 12" or more.  That's quite a range of bloom size!

Of the 70,000 registered daylily cultivars, only about 2% of them are registered as miniature daylilies.  The official definition of a miniature daylily is one that has a bloom that is less than 3" in size.  Miniatures are different from small daylilies, which are registered at 3" and up to 4.5".  Between the two of them, they encompass about 10% of all registered daylilies.
I love small and minis, and I think this is a great area of concentration for someone looking to find their own niche in the daylily world.  These size daylilies often have foliage that is smaller and more compact, which makes them a great addition to rock gardens, container plantings, front-of-the-bed positioning, and focal plantings in fairy gardens.  In my experience these small powerhouses also usually generate a large number of scapes loaded with buds.
Some hybridizers focus on this size, and others think the tiny ones are a waste of space - but thats the beauty of daylilies!  There is something for everyone.  The current AHS President, Julie Covington did an amazing presentation on Smalls and Minis at the recent daylily symposium in Nashville.  Her stunning photography showed probably 100 good examples of these types.  I was inspired by her presentation to go back through my photos and enjoy the petite pretties in my own collection.  The first photo is the mammoth H. 'Mojave Sunset' (registered at 9") and the petite H. 'Siloam Grace Stamile' (registered at 2.12".)  This photo shows the great contrast and diversity available in daylilies.  The two blooms evoke different moods and serve different purposes in the garden.   

These three shown above are workhorses in the front of the border.  From left we have H. 'All Gods Children' (3.25"), H. 'Brookwood Black Kitten' (2.75") and H. 'Mary Ethel Anderson.' (2.5")  

Tiny, tiny, tiny!

I also love these three.  Above is H. 'Magician's Apprentice' (2.75"), H. 'Madeline Nettles Eyes' (2.25"), and H. 'Mystic Vision' (3.5".)

When I think of miniature daylilies, a few specific hybridizers come to mind that I believe are experts in the area of smalls and minis.  Grace Stamile and Elizabeth Salter have a deep legacy of introducing stellar daylilies in this size range.  Recently, Jane Trimmer has introduced a line of "popcorn" doubles that are as entertaining as they are tiny.  (Ironically, I hear that she has abandoned her tiny line for the great big ones - and if her H. 'Tusk' is any indication, shes going to hit those out of the park, too.)  Tim Herrington also has produced some very distinct miniature and small daylilies.  I have commented about his diversity before.

spring is marching near

with brighter evenings - warm nights

soothing away winter.

The good news about daylilies is that there is something for everyone.  Mini, small, huge, extra huge, spider, unusual...the possibilities are endless, which is why they will always be in my garden as a source of both color and structure.