Down at the Daylily Farm

Seriously, if you asked me even 5 years ago if there was such a thing as a daylily farm, I would have laughed out loud at you.  A daylily farm?  You've got to be kidding me.

But there is such a thing.  And what's more - I actually went there.

It's over in Connecticut, down by the Housatonic River, nestled in between the mountains.  You take the highway, to the state route, to the county route, to a street, to a road, to a dirt road with little hand-painted signs that tell you to make sure you stay on the road because there's a nasty 4-foot drop on either side that would split your car in 2 should you choose to pull over.  That was a joy to drive down in my big pickup truck - I thought I would have a stroke!

But once you get there, oh so pretty.  The road opens up and you realize that you're in the valley - and the only thing there is the daylily farm.

They have the most adorable little shop.  Natural cedar building with a wood stove.  Inside it was painted a creamy white and hand-oiled wood accents for the shelves.  Potatoes, squashes and garlic were mounded in hand-made baskets.  Watercolors of the dayliles graced the walls.  (Yes, I said "graced" - because they were so delicate and gentle in their art.)

None of the daylilies are in bloom now, but can you imagine this filled with flowers?  I could.

We ordered the fans (that's how they come - in fans) a few weeks ago, so they were all dug up and boxed, ready to be picked up.  These ones are for the Garden Club to give away, unfortunately, not for my gardens.  So I chatted a bit with the farmer (daylily farmer - heh heh heh!) and thanked him for getting up with the sun so I could pick up the fans.

Then I made my way back down that dirt road at a whopping 3 m.p.h. and headed home.  Snails crawl faster.

Tour 2

Today was the 2nd garden tour of the season.  This one is specifically to feature our daylilies.  In a way it's a harder tour than the 1st one which featured the entire gardens, because these people know their hemerocallis!

When we prepared for this tour, we ignored the weeds and "fluffy" hedges.  We focused solely on the daylilies themselves.

Each individual plant was deadheaded and trimmed neatly.  Any yellowed leaves were inspected for bugs and disease - their yearly plant "physical".

I gave a sincere talk to each one of the flowers, encouraging them to bloom brightly and look really happy.  I think it worked.

Since the season is running about 7 days ahead of schedule this year, our visitors were able to see some of the later blooming daylilies that normally aren't out during the tours.

And since most of my daylilies are historic plants, which most people don't collect in this area, they were able to see blossoms that they had never seen before in person.

And, of course, this particular daylily is only in our garden (and 2 of our friends - it was their wedding gift).  This is the one that my DH and I registered.  That makes it pretty special.

Since we plant several new cultivars of daylily each year, some of them are blooming for us for the first time this year.  It's always exciting to see them popping up in the gardens - adding their splash of color to the rest of the blooms.

Some of the colors are quite vibrant - they look as they are swallowing the sunshine.

We had some wonderful folks stop by to view the gardens and had some serious talks about our hemerocallis collection.  (Yes, some people take this quite seriously!)  But we also had a lot of fun meeting people that we only email during the course of the year.

My DH and I love our garden tours - and there were hundreds of flowers putting on a great show today - but I'm glad we're done with them for the season.  They are a lot of work, preparing the gardens and all.

I think that next weekend we're going to do something a bit simpler - like maybe just mow the lawn.

Strawberry Candy

The gardens at our bucolic manor feature historic daylilies.  Initially, I was not a big fan of daylilies.  I always associated them with funeral flowers - sort of depressing.

But now - after seeing thousands of daylilies both in person and photos - I've changed my mind.  I really like them!  The blooms come in all shapes and colors, and they start blooming in May and don't stop until October.   Some of them even bloom twice (early, then late).

The best part about them, though, is the foliage.  I think it look almost like an ornamental grass - so it's a great border plant.  And you can plant it on top of your bulbs.  The daylily hides the bulb foliage as it dies back which makes for less weeding. (And you know how I feel about weeding!)

This daylily, Strawberry Candy, is the most popular daylily in the northeast.  It's more pink in real life than the picture shows - it sort of glows pink.  And it's a small flower - 2 1/2-inches.  But it is delicate and it contrasts really well with its' foliage, so it stands out even from across the yard.

This is the first time that it has bloomed for us.  We get the plants when they are small so they can grow a good root system before they start producing flowers.  I think it makes for a stronger plant in the long run.

Strawberry Candy - delicious daylily eye candy for our garden!

Our Day Will Come

Our roadside daylilies have bloomed - 4 days ahead of "schedule" - but right on time for this year's garden.  All over the gardens we are starting to see their bright splashes of orange - quite lovely.

Of course, every year I have a "contest" with our neighbors to see whose daylilies will bloom first.  Even though I have extra earlies in the garden that start blooming in mid-May, they don't count when it comes to this contest.  It would just be pitting our wallets against each other - who could buy the earliest blooming plant - and would have nothing to do with the skill of the gardener.

So we only count the lowly common roadside daylily for the contest.  Same flower, same soil (practically), same sun (pretty much), same rain.  The question is plant placement.  We have both set stands of these daylilies throughout our properties.  We even have some from their gardens and they have some from ours because these daylilies spread like crazy, so whoever is willing to get to digging gets the overflow daylilies.

This year, I had a new stand of daylilies on a southern hillside, well protected, lots of sun, good soil, good amounts of water.  Everything was looking great.

But he beat me.  He beat me by 12 stinkin' hours.  I thought I had it in the bag when I got up in the morning and saw that his weren't in bloom - knowing that mine were ever so close to bursting open.  But when I looked again at the end of the day, I saw it - a lone daylily blossoming on his south-facing hillside. (Yes, that's why I planted mine on a south-facing hillside.  I'm not too proud to take gardening help!)

I thought, well, maybe, possibly, it was a cultivar, not a roadside.  But I knew better.  It was the first roadside of the season - 4.5 days early.

The next morning when I went out to my gardens and saw all of the roadsides in bloom, the only thing I could think to console myself was that where they had but 1 blossom, I had several in almost every stand (except the south-facing hillside stand).

So there you have it.  The "daylily cup" goes to the neighbors once more.  But next year - next year I'll have compost on my side!!!

May 7th

The first daylily of 2012 is an historic Gold Dust (Yeld, 1905).  Isn't she a beauty?  The best part is - I beat my neighbor!!! My little Gold Dust came up first.

The reason that I like this particular flower so much is because it will bloom again in September.  You really have to love a flower that comes back at the end of the season just to say goodbye before the snow comes.

Of course, when I saw this little golden flower as I was coming home from work on Monday, I jumped out of the truck and quickly snapped a photo.  One photo was not enough, so Tuesday night I took some more - fortunately it was before the sun finished setting.

Can you believe it? I actually get to see the sun when I get home now.  You have to love that about springtime.

I love this view of Gold Dust because you can see the mahogany coloring on the back of the petals.  When the buds are closed, they are this rich mahogany - then they open to show that beautiful golden yellow.

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.

Finally Getting Some Blooms

It's nice to see that the daffodils in the Peony Garden are finally budding out.  Even though I know (I really know!) that Spring is coming earlier this year, a part of me was still thinking that the flowers would never comes back.

I go through the same thing every year though.  I know that the plants are there. I know that they have blossomed/fruited/leafed-out every year.  And yet somehow I seem to manage to worry that this year they won't come back.  Even knowing this about myself and Spring won't prevent me from worrying if the tomatoes will have fruit this Summer.  It's a thing.

But right now there is a promise of blooms in the garden.  Their little yellow flowers are seeking out the sun and waiting for the perfect time to open.

Of course we'll lose a few flowers to the chipmunks, squirrels and other outdoor creatures.  But that's okay - I planted extra for them so they can eat whatever they like.  

Well, they can eat the daffodils...when it comes time for the daylilies, I think we're going to have a discussion.

The Last Daylily

Hemerocallis 'Judge Orr' (Orr, 1939)

This lovely surprise was waiting for me in the garden this past weekend.  I just love the way it seems to be reaching out towards the sun.  Judge Orr is one of our historic daylilies (hemerocallis).  The fabulous thing about this particular flower is that it greets me at the beginning of the season - and then, just when I start to think there aren't any more daylilies left, it pops out again.  Rebloomers - you just have to love them!