Search

Search My Garden Blog with Google Custom Search

18.7.07

Daylilies In My Chicago Garden

Shortly after I joined and started participating on GardenWeb I came across a thread where experienced gardeners were adopting newbies to gardening like myself. I ended up getting adopted by an experienced gardener who shared some tulips, alliums and daylilies from her garden with me.

Various daylilies growing in my chicago garden

Daylilies in my urban garden
This year all of the daylilies I received have bloomed and I've realized that nothing makes me think of summer in Chicago like a garden with daylilies blooming. To be honest, before I received these plants I hadn't really given daylilies much thought but since then I have added two more to my garden on my own.

I've also been paying close attention to other garden bloggers who have been posting photos of daylilies with the hopes of maybe adding some more in the future. I get the feeling that daylilies are the "crack" of the ornamental gardening world because I can't stop looking over images and wanting to acquire more. Are there ever enough daylilies in a garden? With buying more and trying to cross- pollinate blooms (very similar to pollinating an Amaryllis) to create your own crosses I don't see how you can resist collecting more.

Perhaps this group of daylilies that were gifted to me will be enough to keep me busy for a while. I don't have any names for these plants but I have two favorites in the bunch. The green daylily is my number one, it has a really large bloom and I have to transplant it to give it a more prominent home in the garden. My second favorite is the one located one photo below the green daylily, I really like the colors and the way the petals are pinched at the tips. If you happen to come across this entry and you have a moment take a stab at IDing one if it looks familiar to you.

My two newer daylilies:
Hemerocallis: 'Fairy Tale Pink'
Hemerocallis: 'Siloam Fairy Tale'

13 comments:

  1. MBT - I'm very interested in how you were adopted by an experienced gardner.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Gina,

    Over on GardenWeb in the plant trading forum sometimes there is an "adopt a newbie" thread where someone tries to pair up newbies with gardeners who have more experience. You just respond to the thread if it is active and if someone near you has time to answer questions or help in some way they will e-mail you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. how wonderful is that! I need to keep my eyes out for that.. thanks for the heads up!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can never have too many daylilies! Like hostas,beware... they're addictive. Enjoyed my visit on your informative site.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SO many daylilies, so little time. I love the red with the yellow throat whose petals turn outward like wings.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I Love daylillies, they seem to grow wild where my brother lives in Maryland. I like the orange one in the middle of the first group, very unusual shape.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why Mr. Brown Thumb, how lovely your daylilies are! And, yes, they do make a summer garden!

    I need to email you (note to self)!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9:19 PM

    I love daylilies too! your daylilies are gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous9:10 AM

    Hello MBT:
    I have researched some of these daylilies and have some names for you. I will try to get that to you by the end of the month. By the way, there are some that have Chicago in the name and they are pretty spectacular. Also, I have some seeds obviously not through my cross-polination but the bees do the work for me, can you use them? Let me know. Your pictures are great. diene

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Diene,

    Been a while since we last talked. I don't need the seeds because mine produced a few but I'll take the info on them.

    Also my apologies for not responding to the comments above I just noticed I missed a few of you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely blooms!

    Did you start them from bulb or a mature plant?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Citra,

    Daylilies don't grow from "bulbs" they're more like roots or rhizomes. You can start them from divisions and slips that grow along the flower's stem and from seeds. Or you can just buy mature plants.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I never thought much about daylilies until I met a neighbor's friend who collected so many varieties you wanted to stop and just sit in the middle of her yard to take them all in. It is beautiful. Different shapes, textures, heights, colors.

    ReplyDelete

Hi!

Feel free to leave a comment. You can always use the search box for my blog or the search "Google For Gardeners" if you're looking for gardening information. If you're looking for seed saving information check out "Seed Snatcher"search engine.

Do not have a blog yourself? Comment using the "anonymous" feature. If you have a Twitter or FB account feel free to use the "Name URL" feature so other people can find you.


Thanks for visiting.