Daylilies New and Old

I need a master list of my daylilies. An index, really. It's getting harder and harder to even look them up when I want to remember a name. I must be approaching 70 varieties now. By the end of the summer, I should have photos of more than 50 varieties blooming in my garden.

Anyway, here are today's blooms, followed by better second blooms from a few plants, and then some "context" shots to show how the daylilies look in my garden.

'Destined to See' is a favourite of mine. I'm cheating and showing only the second bloom. (There was a "bloom" yesterday, but it was such a mess of deformed, barely open petals that it wasn't even worth photographing.)

Destined to See



'Bumble Bee' is a miniature daylily, with flowers less than 2 inches (5 cm) across. The foliage is smaller and more delicate, too. 'Peach Magnolia' is a large apricot-coloured daylily with double flowers.

Bumble Bee



Peach Magnolia



Yesterday's 'All American Plum' was another mangled first bloom, but luckily today's flower was a better example. I had thought this one would look more like 'Siloam Plum Tree', but it's a lot bigger, redder, and has a muddier eyezone. It's still a nice dark daylily though, and I do like the dark ones. The other ones I like have large, multicolour eyezones, like 'Lavender Rainbow'.

All American Plum



Lavender Rainbow



One of the main things I like about 'Lavender Rainbow' is that it looks good in the garden where I have planted it with other plants around it. (So many of my daylilies are clustered together in the front garden, where I still have room, that I like seeing some of my earliest plantings that were still part of a diverse garden setting.)

'Lavender Rainbow' in Context



This bed beside the deck was planned with plantings that I thought would look good together: dark purple daylilies, chartreuse hostas, variegated honeysuckle, and heuchera with dark foliage. I really like the way it all turned out, and I think the 'Cricket Dance' daylilies are an integral part of the arrangement here.

Cricket Dance in Context



The side bed by the chain link fence is a sort of planned border that changes with the season. Mid-spring it has tulips, late spring irises, and then it's fairly quiet until daylily season in July. The daylilies are just starting now. It will really take off in a week or so.

Side Bed with 'Peach Magnolia' (Left) and
'Destined to See' (Right)


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without permission.

I need to do this more often, take photos in context. I usually see my garden either as a huge whole (where I am very aware of the areas that need improvement) or else in terms of individual plants and flowers. It's definitely beneficial to look at the in-between view once in a while.