I'm not sure whether I should try to come up with a conceit for discussing and displaying daylilies. Jane Marie's clever "Cotillion" metaphor already covers the territory pretty well. I've been reading her posts with true enjoyment. (Jane's blog has sound, by the way, in case you need to know that before clicking the link.)
I think daylilies just naturally invite this sort of thing. A couple of years ago I wrote a post in which I suggested that one of my daylily plants reminds me of the ballet, and followed up that idea with another post where 'Cimmaron Knight' took a role in defending 'Catherine Woodbury', a ballet dancer whose honour was being threatened by the Russian count ('Russian Rhapsody'). For me it was a bit of whimsy that I quickly abandoned. Maybe too quickly.
Anyway, now that Jane is doing such a good job with her Cotillion, I've been thinking more along the lines of a show. Well, right now anyway, while it feels like I'm waiting for The Big Show to begin. The show could also be fireworks, because it always starts out small, with a few pops here and there signalling that the big display is about to begin. So get your oohs and aahs ready folks, because it won't be long now...
Here is 'Grecian Gown', scheduled to be divided and moved this year. This beautiful pale yellow competes directly with 'Moonglow' (another pale yellow) for attention. What was I thinking when I planted them so close together? I honestly don't know. And what am I doing with two pale yellow daylilies when yellow is supposedly my least favourite colour? I don't know that either.
Grecian Gown
The other first bloomer today was Dad's Best White. There is really no such thing as a pure white daylily. First of all, you are not going to get the blue-white that you see on most white flowers. The closest daylilies get is a cream colour. And most daylilies that are called white will have a greenish or yellowish throat in addition to cream-coloured petals and sepals.
Dad's Best White
Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without permission.
Another curious colour anomoly with daylilies is when they tend to lose any cream or lavender from the original flower and drift towards yellow, pink, or peach colours. This might also have something to do with the age of the plant, how the plant was propagated, or water and soil conditions where they are planted. In any case, it's a common problem. I wish I knew more about the science behind it, especially if there are some nutrients I can give the plant that would restore the proper colouring to the flower. (Is it like pink and blue hydrangeas by any chance?) If anyone has any information on this, please pass it along.
5 comments:
Hi Karen,
My daylilies are few in numbers these days, but I know where to come for a Hemerocallis Fix ;-]
'Prairie Blue Eyes' has been dusty rose ever since I moved it to TX and this year 'Vi's Apricot' is orange, and my peachy-pink 'Best of Friends' came out a washed out yellow with pink flushes, presumably from the heat and drought... even Pam/Digging had puny daylily blooms.
I checked the daylily forum and found a very lively and interesting discussion on how soil and weather seem to change the daylily colors. Some suggestions were epsom salts and mulch to keep the ground cool when buds are forming. I might try some of these ideas next year.
Looking forward to the extravaganza!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
lol, i just read how annie is suggesting you use mulch to keep those colours true, i'm guessing you might you could forgot that step and go right to the epson salts.
ahhhhhhhhh, look at that terrible comment i just left an english major, blame my typing skills, or my brain, thinking faster than i can type, yeah, that's it, i'm really not illiterate.
Hmm, I have epsom salts, but I don't know how to use them. It's the right time (lots of buds still too small to be showing colour). I should learn.
Annie, that was a great link. It brought up a point I was worried about getting into, the tissue culture thing. I think that's why they say a lot of the newer pinks are pink, but the older hybrids (now heavily tissue cultured) come out peachy.
I didn't see anything on cream/yellow though, but I guess it's the same sort of thing. If pinks turn peachy, then creams would probably be turning yellow.
Karen, thank you so much for the compliments and link to my posts. As soon as I saw this post I had to move from my Google Reader directly to your blog so I could view the flowers better. I loved the links to last year's posts. Cimmaron Knight is fabulous. It will be interesting to see what he looks like this year.
I have seen great changes in my flowers from last year. Some are quite a bit smaller, even with all of our rain. Others are totally different colors. That's what I love about them, I guess. Unpredictability. The garden never looks exactly the same from year to year.
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