Daylily Obsession

I will gladly admit that I have an obsession. Gardening is what I love and every spare moment I have is dedicated to doing it. I have often wondered what would happen if I suddenly had more time (and space) to dedicate to what I love.

What happens when my kids are off to their own lives and my yard can be a full garden, instead of a playground/baseball field/football field/wrestling arena with a side of garden?

I think I have found the answer and, oddly enough, I found it in my husband’s aunt and uncle’s yard. And, boy what an answer it is.

Uncle John and Aunt Sue are Daylily Fanatics (note the capital letters). I don’t mean that they like daylilies. I don’t mean that they have a few dozen daylilies. I mean that they have, in a yard not much larger than my own (which as we know is not all that big), they have hundred and hundreds of daylily varieties.

It started as a small thing. The kids were mostly out of the house and there was spare time to do what they enjoyed. A few daylilies caught their eyes and there was the notion that there were people who had toyed with Mother Nature to produce these pretty things. Then there was a trial. Could they make their own daylilies varieties as well? The next thing you know the vegetable bed was gone and the pool is going in the Fall, because there just is not enough room for all the daylilies they wanted to grow.

Their yard is now a stunning display of daylilies. A mish mash of daylily colors, shapes and sizes that would make a Vegas showgirl blush. Their garden has become the garden you get to tour when you pay $19.95 to tour the great private gardens in the neighborhood.

So, with all this daylily experience, what tips does Uncle John have on growing daylilies? For starters, theyare stupid easy to grow. Throw them in the ground wherever and they tend to survive. Heck, don’t throw them in the ground and they will probably survive as well. Great for beginners, but with enough room and complexity for the more advanced.

Also, Uncle John says you have to give them time. Like a fine wine, daylilies develop and mature to display different facets of themselves as they get older. A young pink, shimmery ingénue will mature to a deep coral matronly daylily cougar.

Exposure to sun will also affect the personality and traits of a daylily. A buttery colored daylily may turn golden if moved to a sunnier location or the reverse can also happen.

When I asked Uncle John what is takes to create a new ‘named’ daylily variety, he shrugged and said “oh, just $15”. That is all is takes to name a cross breed you have grown added to the daylily registrar.

While it may be easy to name a new daylily, getting the community as a whole to accept it is not. If you are submitting a variety to be named, it should have the moxie to impress those who really know their daylilies. A named variety is only as good as the word of mouth that talks about it. Present anything less than wonderful and you may have someone publicly point it out.

Uncle John and Aunt Sue are striving for their own daylily perfection. Something spidery, twirled, large and absolutely stunning. They have some promising yearlings in the nursery bed but they are still searching and pollinating to find just the right combination. Uncle John is certain that once the pool is gone, there will be enough room to grow the new crop of seedlings. At least for this year…

Daylilies in Uncle John and Aunt Sue’s garden (in Lightbox, so click on the pic for a bigger image):

Desert Icicle (Roberts-N., 1995)	Little Rainbow (RECKAMP, 1963)
	Bark At Me (Roberts-N., 1999)
Boogie my Woogie Baby (Bachman, 2003)	Radiation Biohazard (Gossard, 2000)
	Seedling ( Highland Pinched Fingers X Monster )