Gentle Ed

This post title is not some declaration of the true character my inner self but is the varietal name of a plant.  The flower is somewhat understated.  Its petals are short and rounded with barely visible ruffled edges.  A yellow eye spot sharply contrasts with maroon petals but is controlled.  White midribs strongly anchor the petals.  When searching the catalogs for new plants, I must admit that this name was a strong factor in my choice.

Elegant Candy was never selected for purchase here.  A visit to a local one man breeding operation placed me in contact with a huge pot of an expensive and much desired plant.  Its price was more than reasonable but when we returned home the pot's contents of three plants became obvious.  One was the named plant while the other two were these.  Strong ruffles and a vigorous growth habit contribute to my feelings of having purchased a bargain but a sense of having been slickered lingers.

Blueberry Candy was clearly chosen.  Pale peach ruffled petals sharply contrast with the purple eyespot.  This plant is well proportioned with the smaller flowers matching a mid-sized plant.  Dreams of a large Daylily bed persist but deer relish their flower buds.  A fenced large bed would look horrible and the deer would simply jump the fence to get to the buds.  Urine sprinkled on the ground keeps the deer away but the desired garden would be close to the public road.

Indian Giver is the horrible name of this beautiful flower.  It is offered for sale at $50.00 or more and may be well worth that price but I am slow to part with that much money.  This was the third plant purchased with Elegant Candy.  It has grown large enough to divide but I remain reluctant to hack apart a plant this beautiful.  Here we have more white ruffled edges on purple petals.

Ivory Edges is a rather obvious name for this stunning flower.  An exploding eyespot close to clearly defined ruffled edges makes a statement that can be easily seen from some distance away.  More than three dozen Daylilies grow here and I sometimes wonder what will become of them when I am elsewhere.  These plants hold their own against the weeds and would likely expand over a decade of no care.

Yellow Chiffon looks a little beat by mid afternoon on a cloudless hot July day.  Many mail order businesses offer a free plant with orders.  Usually these plants were unique enough to obtain varietal names but failed to gain wide acceptance.  This plant is modest in size and the flowers fade early in the day.  It arrived here hiding a horrible secret in its root mass.  A never before seen  sedge soon grew from the daylily root mass.  We have been diligently weeding it out for years but it remains an ever present wandering pest.  The triangular stem of that pest reminds us of the free plant with a secret that just keeps on giving.

Lazarus Lilies

As winter gave way to spring here, our weather experienced extreme shifts.  Daytime temperatures can range across seventy or more degrees on consecutive days.  An early appearance of a strong warm system from the south tricked many of our plants into early robust growth.  Then an equally powerful cold northern air mass changed everything.  Overnight temperatures fell perilously close to ten degrees.  This was way beyond a simple frost.  Our plants were hit with a hard freeze.  New daylily leaves that were nearly one foot tall were transformed into yellowish limp slime.  We were certain that all of the daylilies were totally dead.  Not knowing how to deal with the mess, we simply turned away to other tasks in other parts of the garden.  After more than four days had passed, new growth began to appear above the rotting slime.  Nearly normal leaf growth finally produced properly appearing plants.  Relieved that our plants still held life, we tidied up the bed, but expected no flowers from them this year.  These pictures show that we had seriously underestimated the strength of these plants.  We love the colors of this variety but hate its name, Indian Giver.

Molokai was poorly placed near the field grasses.  Quackgrass rhizomes have pierced the crown of this daylily but its leaves prevented the deer from finding and eating flower buds.  When a more civilized area is ready for desireable plants, Molokai will be moved to a better spot.  Big yellow and beautiful, this flower can be easily seen through the heavy rain from inside the house even though it is at the far end of the garden,

Chicago Arnie's Choice displays the moisture from early morning rain.  We have watched moisture laden systems pass north or south of us for months.  Today we will likely see measurable amounts of rain all day.

Ivory Edges sports small flowers with rather flat petals.  Shades of purple marked with white is a favorite combination here.  Safe inside of a fenced area, yesterday's flowers are beyond my reach.  Sliding my hand through the 2 inch by 4 inch openings would allow me to snap off the spent flower but then the back of my hand would have spots of color similar to the purple of the flowers.

The storm clouds have opened and bright sunlight now fills the air.  We will be drawn outside to work knowing that the rain will return and we will be soaked before we can reach shelter.  This is how July in the garden is supposed to be here.  The gardeners don't look nearly as pretty as the daylilies when drenched with rain, but we are enjoying the rain just as much!