One of the benefits of being a garden blogger and reading other garden blogs, is that from the comfort of your own home, you get the opportunity to look at plants with new eyes.
How can you resist the joy and enthusiasm when other bloggers write about the first bloom of the season from a treasured and much loved plant.
Or the excitement, when they add to their plant collection.
Last year I had to look with new eyes at daylilies. So many of you wrote joyfully about this plant, so many of you posted delicious pictures of your daylilies. I think that Chey with her “Daylily Dreaming” was the person I remember most from the summer of 2008, and her posts prompted me to take a second look at daylilies.
I had always thought that daylilies were dull, dull, dull. What is there to like about a lot of green leaves, with the odd flower usually in some shade of yellow. So I have totally ignored them.
Thinking back, in a neglected corner of my last garden there was a big clump of (dull dull dull) daylilies in a sort of dirty yellow, orange colour, which regular readers of my blog will know is not amongst my favorite garden shades.
But with so many of you enthusing, I had to give them a go. Zoe (Garden Hopping) gave me the names of some suppliers that she had used here in the UK and at the end of last summer, I ordered and planted 3 daylilies, one of which is now flowering.
Meet Yazoo Eyecatcher
And I am very happy to have him in my garden.
The other two have not flowered this year, but as I only bought single fans, I am not surprised and I look forward to seeing them next year.
One thing that really does puzzle me:- I am quite sure that non of my customers grow daylilies in their gardens – so imagine my surprise when this summer, I discovered that every single customer has a large clump of daylilies. Now where on earth did they spring from?
It just goes to show how closed I was to the whole species, that I didn’t even notice them in the gardens I tend, and presumably I must have weeded around them!
While I may never get to the point of having 6 posts about daylilies like Frances (6 posts – I don’t know how she fits all her wonderful plants into her garden!)
I was amused to read Carol (May Dreams Garden) recent post about her “conversion” to daylilies and the fact that she has bought 18 different varieties. It would appear that like me, Carol was somewhat apathetic towards them, and like me – she now has an interest particularly in the spider and UF varieties.
I do suspect that I am on the brink of falling hook line and sinker for these plants, especially when I see how well they do in our area.
I have also discovered an online supplier, Isfryn Daylilies, who is based in Wales, admittedly the other end of Wales from me. But I do like to buy from specialist growers, and I do like to buy local(ish) and I like to buy from nice people, and in the emails we have already exchanged, Sylvia sounds like a nice person.
So, daylilies in the Artist’s Garden next year seems like a done deal.
What plants have you changed your mind about from reading garden blogs? Do share ….
Edit – after Frances comment – I should add, the other daylilies are from my customers gardens,
and rest assured, I have decided that all my customers daylilies need dividing (tee hee)
Hi Karen, your own conversion to daylily love is heartening! Thanks for the link/ping too, such a nice way to be advised of those sorts of things. Your newbie is quite a looker too. Don’t worry about the one small petal, often the first flowers will exhibit that but later blooms will be whole. Have you borrowed some from your clients too, or just snapped them? They do love to do shared, some demand it after about five years or so when the flowering slows down. Glad to see their is a local source too. Daylilies may be the next BIG THING to hit the British Isles.
Frances
Frances’s last blog post..You Can So Do This
Forgot to answer your question, so many things have been added after reading about them on the blogs. Spider daylilies might be the latest new thing.
Frances’s last blog post..You Can So Do This
I would love to say how much you have all inspired me, especially Karen of course. But when she came round on Saturday with Shedman and her friend that was visiting, her comment was that my garden (plant wise) was a miniture (and I do mean miniture) of hers. (Can’t imagine how that happend!!) So, although I love a lot of all the plants mentioned, I can only accomodate a few. The Desert Island challange was a hard one, and reminded me of so many that I had forgotten. Oh for a bigger bit of land …. and more time to tend it.
Yazoo is aptly named! What a gorgeous colour combination. I adore daylilies.
Nancy Bond’s last blog post..WonderFull Weekend
Yes, it was Dee at Reddirtramblings.com who got me interested in the spider/UF forms of daylilies. She has 350 plus, so obviously has all kinds. Plus, living as close as I do to a daylily farm, I can practically walk there on any nice day and see nearly 1,000 in bloom, most of them just okay to me, one bloom wonders, so to speak. Did I mention I now also want mine to be rebloomers?
Thanks for the link!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens’s last blog post..Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2009
So true. Lovely photos.
Joanne’s last blog post..HOHERIA FLOWERING, JULY
I used to have no time for crocosmia. Can’t really remember why now – I thought they were too big for the short period of flower and the leaves rather coarse I think. Now I have utterly changed my mind. Firstly they grow well up here and you have to love whatever loves you in a place like this. Second, I have more room now so don’t mind if every little piece of my garden isn’t singing for its supper for months on end and just wants to lie fallow for a bit. Adore crocosmia Lucifer now and am always splitting it up and spreading it round!
I love your day lilies too!
elizabethm’s last blog post..What’s this? A blog which is not about walking!
These are beautiful flowers and great pictures! I wish I had a great garden like that!
Kate’s last blog post..The cleanse…Day 1.
I must admit that I have recently been converted to day lillies too especially those with finer leaves. I am lucky to have a friend who grows a few and have also come across a fairly local nursery near Crewe which stocks a good range:
http://www.specialperennials.com/hemerocallis.htm
The owner came to give a talk at our gardening club and seems a nice person Karen:) I notice from their web site that they will be at a Plant Hunters Fair at Bodnant in August – not sure how near that is to you.
Anna’s last blog post..Garden Bloggers Bloom Day- July
Thanks for all your comments, I am a bit tied up with the computer just now, and will respond ASAP
K
Karen, Daylilies were my first love, I was even a member of the local Daylily Society! While I still enjoy them wildflowers stole my heart! Zinnias have been reintroduced to the garden…It’s hard to believe that I wasn’t growing them! But now i can’t imaggine not having such a simple and bee friendly plant. gail
Gail’s last blog post..July Bloom Day~~A Few Flowers That Make Me Smile!
I hadn’t really come across daylilies until reading enthusiastic posts by American bloggers last year. I can’t remember if anyone in particular inspired me – there were so many of them! I now have El Desperado, which looks a little bit like Yazoo Eyecatcher. It’s in bloom now, so I must post a picture. Strangely enough, it was only after I got mine that I started to notice them in other people’s gardens – there’s a front garden round the corner which is full of orange ones.
Victoria’s last blog post..How to annoy your kids on holiday
Hi, Karen,
Daylilies have always been one of my favorites. Mine have to be ‘fenced in’, inside the veggie garden, here in deer country. Daylilies are deer candy.
I think I just might have to have one of the spider/UF forms.
Linda/patchwork’s last blog post..Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 2009
Lovely lilies, but I just dropped in to thank you for identifying my mysterious ‘black grass’ which turned out to be Purple Emperor Millet – it’s so kind of you to help me out and I’m thrilled that I’ll be able to grow my own next year from the seed I caught on the wind.
blue world gardener’s last blog post..Before Gadabout – garden wind and rain damage