Daylily Days

Until last year, I was never a big fan of daylilies (no pun intended!). Then I went to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to visit the daylily gardens of one of my patients from work, who just happens to be a hybridizer, too. Barb (Wolff) has 28 registered daylilies to her name and her enthusiasm for them could convert anyone into a 'hemhead.'

I strolled through her gardens with a wagon, shovel, plastic bags, and labels and by the time I was finished, there were five or six daylilies in the wagon. This, from someone who was just going there 'to look.' HA! I saw so many wonderful daylilies and enjoyed learning about them from Barb that I really had to restrain myself from buying more. And they were all the same price, regardless of cultivar - five dollars each!

Barb just loves what she does, and it shows. She wants you to share in her love of daylilies, so that's why she sells them for such a great price. I haven't been to her gardens yet this year, but I'm sure they're in full, glorious bloom about now.

I visited another daylily hybridizer last summer - Lana Wolfe, also from Ft. Wayne. Lana has two registered daylilies, and I learned a lot from her, too. I took home a couple more that day. My mom had given me a couple when we dug Max's Garden in the fall of 2005, and I bought a few at the end of the season last year from a couple of the Big Box Stores, so I now have a nice little collection of them.

And how can you not like them? Especially in a drought summer like we're having here this year. This hot, dry weather hasn't fazed a single daylily in my garden. They're blooming their heads off, one after another, with seemingly no effort whatsoever.

See?

This is the first daylily I can remember, besides the usual ditch lilies. It was here when we purchased our house, and has increased exponentially since that time until we now have about twenty feet of them lining the north side of the pool. Not all of them are double, like this one, but they do have the same markings and bloom pretty much all at the same time.

'Leprechaun Eyes'


'Ruffles and Lace'
This one is very large.


'Czar's Treasure'
Mom gave this one to me in 2005 when we first dug the area now known as "Max's Garden." I love its golden ruffly edge.


'Razzmatazz'


'South Seas'
This is a gorgeous shade and one of my favorites.


Unregistered #726 - B. Wolff
Barb has registered several since I bought this one,
so it very well may be a named cultivar now.
Oh, and this one's fragrant! It smells faintly of Lily-of-the-Valley.


Unregistered #734 - B. Wolff
May be registered now, as well.


'Lady Fingers'
This picture is actually from last year, because I forgot to get a picture of its bloom earlier in the week and it will be a few days before the next bloom opens. It's a spider daylily.
Look how green the grass was at this time last year!


'Red Volunteer'


'Etched Eyes'


Unregistered - Lana Wolfe


No ID
This is not what it was supposed to be ('Siloam Shocker') - not even close.


'Pardon Me'
This one has a size and form much like 'Stella d'Oro'.


'Stella d'Oro'
I was given this one by the UPS guy. He'd noticed my gardens and he happened to be the owner of a tree farm and nursery. He asked if I had a Stella in my garden and I said I didn't. He went to his truck and pulled out a pot with this in it and gave it to me. He said everyone should have Stella in their garden. I agree.


This is another one that I have no idea what it is and I'm not sure where it came from, but we have several large clumps of them out in Max's Garden and they are blooming machines. I think we may have transplanted them from the front corners of our property, which means they were here when we moved here.

This morning, the sun was shining through the back of one of these and illuminated it beautifully:



There are a few others yet to bloom, and a few of these will bloom again later.