Signs, signs, everywhere signs! | Daylily Blog on timing...


Signs that peak bloom season is here:

1.  I fill at least three grocery bags with spent blooms each night.

2.  I have lost track of what has bloomed and what has not.

3.  Although most daylilies are not fragrant, when you get 300 of them exploding with bloom in close proximity, the scent is heavenly.

4.  H. 'Raspberry Goosebumps' has at least 15 open blooms per day. EVERY DAY. (seen in foreground of the above photo...and it does this for at least three weeks!)

5.  My hands are stained from deadheading and I don't bother to scrub them totally clean each day - in 12 hours they will be purple again, anyway.

6.  The batteries in my headlamp are dead from overuse. (Don't ask.)

7.  My camera lens is treated to lots of "twinning" pictures.

H. 'Carolina Pink Pinwheel' (Gene Tanner, Browns Ferry Gardens)

A couple years ago I complained about the "automatic" $100 price tag on new introductions.  I expressed my opinion that the $100 should not be a given if hybridizers expected the larger daylily community to embrace their efforts more quickly.  That year, unrelated to my rant, Gene Tanner offered several of his new introductions for below $100 and I ordered H. 'Carolina Pink Pinwheel.'  I am so glad I did.  4-way branching on something that was divided and replanted late last fall is a good thing!  It has an amazing show scape.  I'll overlook the occasionally moddled sepals for that clear bubble-gum pink and large flower that does not hang up when opening. 

Here are a few others worth drooling over today... 

H. 'Curtis Montgomery' (Mort Morss, Daylily World)

H. 'Hippie Crash Pad' (Tim Tassin, DaybyDaylilies)

H. 'Megs Pick' (Joe Goudeau, Daylilies, Etc.)

H. 'Pictoee Magic' (Martin Kamensky, Michigan)

Although many have noted that this is their worst daylily season ever (due to weather, drought, etc) I must sheepishly say that it has been my best.  Once this bloom is over, it is back to garden construction season for me...building a second, massive mixed perennial bed.  I am also in talks with a local landscape architect on the plans for our front foundation gardens.  Let's just say there will be boulders.  Lots of big, Illinois-farmed boulders.  More on that this fall...

I'm off to Kansas City this weekend to take in the Region 11 Garden Tours and Summer Meeting.  The tour will take me to places of the US where I have not seen daylilies grow in person before, so I am excited to see how they "do daylilies" on the plains - even if it will reach 100 degrees on tour day.  I have packed my large white umbrella and plan to use it a lot!

Have a wonderful day, even without this weeks Daylily Haiku Thursday.  I'm still giving my brain a break from creating haiku during bloom season.  In the meantime, write your own inspired haiku.  Simply make the first line five syllables, the second seven and the third five.  Let's hear some creativity inspired by daylilies blooming today!


5 comments:

Nell said...

Old proven winners
buried by honeysuckle.
Once freed, what a show.

Bethany Benton Art said...

I'm definitely drooling over these, Nikki! They are all beautiful! I know you're having a blast with your peak season "garden party." Thanks for sharing ... enjoyed your lovely post. :-)

patchesandpeachs said...

I always love your blogs and pics, Nikki. My peak season has not quite arrived yet, but things are starting to heat up here, and it's always exciting to see new blooms open every day. I had to share this blog with my friends on Facebook.

lowell said...

What is the wine-colored lily (quite dark in the shadows) with the gold edge in the first pic?

Nikki Schmith said...

That's RASPBERRY GOOSEBUMPS! Thanks for stopping by, Lowell!

 

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