Daylily Haiku Thursday!

posted 2/28/2013 - this is the daylily H. 'See Me Feel Me Touch Me' by Mike Holmes.  I could not love this daylily more...you can find his daylilies at the Riverbend Gardens website.

Field of Dreams | Daylily Blog on Crazy Adventures

This summer, we will celebrate two years of living in Worden, Illinois- a small village of 900, nestled in a place that the surrounding population/commerce boom seems to have luckily overlooked.  It's just under one square mile in total area, and we just adore it.  The village even has its own Facebook page!    Our life today is so much different than our last 12 years living the very urban Detroit experience.

Driving through the village about two months ago, I happened to look to my left just at the right time and caught the sight of some white plastic blowing in the wind.

What was that?

Did I just see what I think I saw?

I turned the car around.

Yep.

Abandoned hoop houses.

I just happened to have my camera and took these shots to share with you and to use on my ever-growing inspiration board.

My mind has raced with thoughts of me - and them - becoming fast friends since seeing them for the first time.  The possibility of having a dedicated space for seedlings of all types and a place for gardening friends to gather.  

Click here to read this post from the past, which shared more of my vision to create a place to bring daylilies and FUN to the general gardening community...

I drove my husband and son over to see the new discovery.  I took my mom by to see the fabulousness the last time she was over.  I made a friend drive over last week to show her the possibilities.  Everyone has been  enthusiatically underwhelmed.

I'm a "Field of Dreams" type of gal.  ("If you build it, they will come.")  I am full of ideas and on paper the plans for my quaint, fun, colorful, bustling garden destination make the little pitter-patter in my chest race with green excitement.  This is a big project.  An expensive one.  An exhausting one.  Maybe even an impossibly stupid one, but then again - I have always run toward the fire, not away from it.

These long-forgotten and overgrown hoops just two miles from my house are absolutely my happiness-waiting-to-happen.

Now I just have to find out who owns them and stalk approach them for a conversation...

What do you think my first steps should be in turning this space into Awesome-ville?  Email me and let me know your thoughts.

Here is a great view from the Taunton garden in Georgia for your weary Wednesday.  I visited there in 2010 and loved the scenery!

Come back tomorrow for Daylily Haiku Thursday!

Daylily Haiku Thursday! | Daylily Blog

posted 2/21/2013 - this is the daylily H. 'Spacecoast Golden Thimble' glowing off in my Illinois garden.  I would love to see a pattern stamped on something this vibrant.

While I was supposed to be doing something else, I was surfing the internet for new ideas (like I need any more ideas.)  

I found a few I think you would enjoy:

A great site full of daylily-inspired art!

Super cool (and creepy) images and information about Daylily Rust.

Dissecting the Daylily!

A neat project for you if you are a listmaker and a memorykeeper.

I dont have any stake in any of these websites, nor do I know any of these people personally.  I just came across some cool things I had never seen before (as it relates to daylilies) and thought you would enjoy some, too.  

Avoid awkward hand swishing... | Daylily Haiku Thursday!

posted 2/14/2013 - something red for Valentine's Day!  This is the daylily H. 'Kingdom of Hearts' that was taken in my Illinois garden last summer.  It pouted and sulked for two summers after planting it, but oh, it was worth the wait!

Maybe you are a casual daylily lover.  Maybe you are just falling head-first into an addiction.  You should know that some perennial purists are very particular about the semantics surrounding daylily-dom, and are quick to correct in writing (or in public) about your perceived mistake.  For example, at one of my very first daylily meetings in the early 90's, I was chatting in a small group about the different stem heights of my daylilies.

"Oh,"  the lady raised her hand and swished the air between us, "we don't call them stems, they are scapes."

Awkward.

Here are a few must-remembers to avoid uncomfortable corrections during your next daylily-related conversation:

1.  Scapes. This is the 'legs' of the daylily.  The 'stem structure.'  Or this definition from the AHS Dictionary of Terms.  Used in a sentence, "That daylily has a very tall scape."

2.  Daylilies aren't lilies.  To purists, these words are not interchangeable.  They are not in the same botanic family.  LILIES are one thing and DAYLILIES are another.  Hemerocallis is now placed in family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae, and formerly was part of Liliaceae (which includes true lilies).  It would be like saying roses and rose of sharon were the same thing because they share the word rose.  

3.  It is one word.  Despite what Webster, the OED or spell check says.

4.  Knowing how to pronounce the word Hemerocallis makes your mouth feel good.  Here is the Talking Dictionary to help you with the correct emphasis. 

I just checked out the Wiki on daylilies.  Interesting.  Here it is.

Now go be awesome.  It's almost spring!

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Sweet Tranquility

posted 2/7/2013 - This is the daylily H. 'Sweet Tranquility' as seen in Dan Hansen's Ladybug Daylily Garden in Geneva, Florida - 2009.

You might also like this past post on local-vores.

Or this one on common threads in our daylily community.