Sweetie Scape

Each Spring my neighbor and I have a little competition over whose daylilies will bloom first.  I do plenty of trash-talking, bragging and all those things to taunt my gardener friend.  Each Spring he wins.  He has this wonderful well-established patch of tetraploid daylilies on a protected southern hillside and they bloom before anything in my gardens.

Last year I was so devastated my yet another defeat that, as I stood there admiring (to myself) his earliest bloomer, I declared that we were only counting common roadside daylilies for the competition.  Not true, but I needed a second chance.  Of course, his common roadside daylilies bloomed before mine also.

But this year... are you seeing what I'm seeing?  That's right - I see VICTORY!  My extra-early dayliles are in bud and a few are moments away from flowering.  Thanks to our mild winter, they are a few weeks ahead of schedule.  Thanks to careful selection for this particular garden the blooms go from May through October - and they are finally mature enough to put on a good show.

This year, victory is going to be mine!

Unless the deer eat them.