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(Our guest in The Neighborhood
Garden today is
BUT I
PART #2
BY
“If you want to cover a lot of ground, include daylilies in your
landscaping plan," she said. "But I don't like daylilies," I said.
You've seen them, haven't you?
They're those tall orange flowers that grow everywhere in country
ditches.
I saw nothing special about daylilies 30 years ago, but my
husband,
I knew daylilies were a perennial--plant once and forget.
I knew daylilies were relatively low maintenance--water during
dry spells. I knew
daylilies had few pests--even grasshoppers like other things more.
And I also knew daylilies were orange.
I've learned a few things since I started growing daylilies.
Myths do exist. Last
week I wrote about three of the common myths. Today we will look at 3
more. Let's see if you have heard any of these.
MYTH NO. 4: Daylilies love
full sun.
Not exactly true. It
is true daylilies are considered a "full sun to partial shade" plant.
That classification does not mean, however, that daylilies MUST
be in full sun all day long.
Any time a plant is classified as full sun, it simply means the
plant needs a minimum of six hours of sun a day.
At the Gardens, we had some daylilies in full sun all day long;
some got only morning sun; and some were planted under evergreens and
deciduous trees and received filtered sun.
What they have in common is they get at least six hours of sun a
day.
Many cultivars of daylilies, particularly the pinks, do very well
in full sun all day long.
But dark colored blooms (i.e., reds, purples) prefer a little afternoon
shade, thank you very much.
Without some relief from the sun, these dark blossoms tend to "overheat"
and loose color. They fade,
look washed out and just plain drag.
A striking plant in all-day sun is Brass Cup.
With its smooth, sturdy texture and color blend of brass, yellow
and red, it seems to glow at dusk, calling to you to come and rewarding
you for your attention with a wonderful fragrance.
MYTH NO. 5: Daylilies don't
bloom very long.
If there is a major downfall of daylilies, it is the blooms last
only one day. Because of
that they don't make a particularly good cut flower even though I've
seen fantastic floral arrangements incorporating daylilies created by
floral arranger and master gardener,
An established plant, though, can be in bloom for several weeks.
It depends on the cultivar and the bud count.
Some seasons we would see exceptionally high bud count, which I
attribute to the previous season’s snow falls and lots of spring rains.
While most daylilies open early in the morning for the
early-to-rise, early-to-bed bunch, some cultivars actually start to open
early evening and don't close until the next day.
These guys are for us night people.
One advantage to having daylilies in your garden over some other
perennials such as iris is that different daylily cultivars bloom at
different times. Because of
this characteristic, you can find cultivars that bloom in
Some cultivars, called repeat bloomers, bloom more than once
during the growing season.
The commonly used one here is
MYTH NO. 6: I don't like
daylilies.
I must admit that it didn't take me long to change my mind about
daylilies. With my first
shipment came a catalog filled with beautiful 4-color pictures of
striking, incredible daylilies.
I didn't get the ultimate ground cover for my acreage; instead I
have beautiful blooms in a wide range of colors, with low maintenance
and few pests. A visit to
the any daylily garden during peak bloom time will show you, without
question, that not all daylilies are orange.
Happy gardening.
Copyright 2011
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