These two flowers mark the end of daylily blossoms here for this year. Looking back, this has been a year of extremes for these plants. An incredibly harsh late freeze turned their significant new growth into pale mush. Certain that my daylilies were dead, I turned my attention to other parts of the garden unable to deal with the mess. The daylilies did recover and flower impressively but their overall size may have been stunted.
This clear bright yellow flowering plant was sold to us as a Royal Palace Prince. It in no way even distantly resembles that named variety. We have absolutely no idea about the name of this plant if it is a named variety. For me the ruffled petal edges and the lime green throat are more than enough to secure it a place in the garden.
Two years have elapsed since this plant arrived here. It is short now but we will watch to see if it makes a more robust presentation next year. I failed to check for scent today since getting that close to the ground is not as easy as it used to be. We will find a location for this plant that takes advantage of its small size if that is how this plant presents itself next year. We could use it as a foreground plant in front of spring bulbs.
Unlike the dayliies, this cone flower will return tomorrow and for many days after that. For some unknown reason this single plant is displaying overall young growth. In that sense it does mark the end of a season of spectacular bloom for this variety. Cone flowers are overrunning the garden down by the road. We will have to thin the returning plants and find something to do with the all of new seedlings that will appear like weeds. As problems go this is not a bad one to face but we have great difficulty composting desirable healthy plants. A little thing called winter will insert itself here between now and the time to deal with transplants. We prefer to think about new locations for our returning plants.
