Life has had me overly occupied for the past several days, so this is the first Garden Journal update for the week. Thanks for your patience! I’ve got photos from two different days, though missed taking pictures in between. I missed the first flower opening on several, including Hemerocallis ‘Daring Dilemma’, a lovely that I truly would have liked to share with you all. Several others had FFOs that didn’t get photographed, but I’ve got subsequent blooms in today’s batch. H. ‘Daring Dilemma’ will bloom again, and I’ll be sure to capture it for you.
Today’s grand star is one of my all time favorites, H. ‘Wisest of Wizards’. The first year I planted this cultivar, it bloomed magnificently. We then had a strange winter with deep freezes, thaws, and more freezes that knocked the poor dear for a loop. For two … or is it three? … years in a row I got no blooms. Indeed, the second season, I thought I’d lost the plant all together, for it only put up a few scraggly fans. This year, however, it’s back in full swing, has propogated nicely, and has a number of healthy scapes up, full of buds.
H. ‘Real Wind’ is another one I’m particularly fond of. It has a color and shape that is unlike any other daylily out there, and always is a real stand-out in the garden.
I’ve got another “Candy” blooming. H. ‘Blackberry Candy’, a gift from my good friend Dede, is in bloom, and really doing well this year, despite being crowded by a couple of out-of-control climbing rose bushes. Dede is also the origin of H. ‘Siloam Double Classic’, ‘Todd Monroe’, ‘Darius’ , ‘Barbary Corsair’ and ‘Hazel’s Stitchery’. The latter has buds, but has yet to bloom this season.
H. ‘Matt’, which got a rough start with all of the blooms coming out damaged in some way, is finally doing much better, and shared a nice picture with us today. Some other first flowers opened on H. ‘Eye-Yi-Yi’ and ‘Chamonix’. If I had to pick a “favorite child”, which of course no parent is supposed to do, I think it would be ‘Chamonix’. The combination of colors and shape of the bloom is so unique, the blooms large and profuse, and the scapes grow tall and really stand out in the garden. Today’s first bloom isn’t a perfect one, but I know ‘Chamonix’ well, and there will be many perfect blooms to come. Visitors will be sick of it by the time the season ends, I’m sure!
H. “Watermelon Kid” is what that lovely peachy-orange eyed daylily was tagged at the HADS function I brought it home from. However, I discovered that there is no such cultivar registered with the American Hemerocallis Society. It does strongly resemble a Stamile registrant called ‘Watermelon Moon’, however. I’m not certain that’s what I’ve actually got in my garden … but it’s a possibility. What do you think?
A couple of my “dragons” are also blooming, though I missed photographing the firsts on both. H. ‘Oliver DragonTooth’ and ‘Emperor’s Dragon’ are lovely today, despite being trapped behind the wheelchair ramp.
The ramp will soon be coming down, though, as I’m finally upright again, and find that I handle stairs on the crutches better than the slope. Besides, if my Dad gets approved for his power chair, he’s going to be needing his wheelchair ramp back!
I love my garden strolls. They make me feel almost normal again, even if balancing the camera and the crutches at the same time might keep me slightly off kilter. I hope my website visitors have been enjoying the photos! Drop me a line, leave a comment, let everyone know what your own favorite garden subjects are. Do you recognize any of my “unknowns”? How about “Watermelon Kid” — is it really ‘Watermelon Moon’?
I’d love to hear from you!
