Monday, August 11, 2008

Daylily Seedlings

We who live in the Clarksville area are lucky we have our very own daylily farm; which also has blackberries and blueberries. It is called 'The Tin Barn' and is located just north of Clarksville. On a gorgeous summer day (not too hot and humid and with a mild breeze), Mr. Fix-it, the Jimster, Vonna and her daughter, and I made the track out to the Guthrie area to pick some blackberries and blueberries. I was on a quest to purchase a few new daylilies.

As I often do, I reassessed the gardens and found a flaw or two. I have this habit of reworking the gardens quite a bit during each season in order to show off the blooms for that current season. My goal is to have year round interest in all gardens. Even when the flowers are not blooming I want the foliage to match with whatever else is blooming. My challenges are that I am limited by space and lack of the full sun many flowering plants require.


Daylilies are one of those plants that do well here at Tiger Gardens. They would like more sun than I can provide, yet they never fail to reward me with lovely blooms and great foliage. I have many colors and types, but very few named varieties. I have chosen to subscribe to the 'more bang for the buck' theory. Seedlings for sale at the Tin Barn in the Guthrie area cost the same as named varieties, but the clumps are so much larger (up to 15 fans versus the 2-3 fans you get with named varieties) that I always buy seedlings. Hence, the 'more bang for the buck'. Seedlings in no way mean my daylilies are inferior to named cultivars, it just means they have not been registered. Reasons for not registering all seedlings can be numerous. Maybe the seedling didn't meet all the criteria the breeder desired. Or maybe there was a better seedling with just the right traits. It matters not to me, because each daylily I handpick are uniquely suited to me and my needs. And, I am pretty sure no one else will have the exact daylily in their garden that I pick. We all know I like my garden to be different.



In reassessing my gardens, I have noticed the orange daylilies I have planted in front of my home are not working. They are too short and do not show up well against the stone we had installed last fall. My quest on this visit to the Tin Barn was to find a tall daylily, preferably with ruffles, and one which would show up well against the stone. Foundation gardens can be tricky to design. You want the flowers to make a big impact because they are usually viewed from the road. Not all colors lend themselves well to showing up from a distance. I find the reds and yellows work well. I wanted a yellow daylily to replace the orange daylilies.


You can see I wound up with three clumps of daylilies on this trip. A yellow ruffled one, a red one with a contrasting yellow throat, and a unique peach colored daylily. All three seedlings do have ruffles. The pictures show the daylilies as they were after being rudely dug from their beds, and transported the 20 miles or so to home in the back of Mr. Fix-it's truck. They were not happy and show their displeasure by wilting and looking ragged. The trauma is of no consequence though because these guys will recover and reward me with tons of blooms in the years to come. I have had great success with all of my seedlings purchased at the Tin Barn. They bloom and bloom and bloom and bloom. My current favorite is a mauve peach colored one which is a very strong and floriferous one.


I posted a picture of all three in front of the stone so I could get an idea of which daylily would show up best. I definitely know the red will not work. I am leaning toward the yellow, my original goal. The yellow will look especially good with the purple bee balm I plan to plant there as well. What do you all think? Yellow or peach?


in the garden....

19 comments:

  1. Hi Tina, that was a great explanation of how you use daylilies in your garden. I personally would go with all three. When driving to Sunshine Hollow there are mass plantings along the road that look marvelous and the design to them is all the same, a riot of color all mixed together and planted closely. They cannot be trying to keep named cultivars seperate and it just looks so good. I had not been growing my daylilies in that way, but this year have started adding them to the front curbing beds in the liriope whenever one needs dividing. I am hoping to get that jumble effect. It will take some time but the plusses are that there will be more color for passersby and it can be mowed in the winter to neaten up before the daffodils bloom. As you know, daffs and daylilies are the perfect match.

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  2. Hi Tina. I love daylillies, they give such bang for the buck. Frances idea of mixing the colors might be interesting. That reddish color one you bought would look nice against your brick too. I do the same thing Tina (reassessing the gardens yearly). I already know I am going to be reworking a couple of my beds this fall when the plants go dormant.

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  3. Good morning all!

    Frances and PG, I think I will mix them up. I do like all colors together-just needed them to show from the road. Frances, Daylilies would look great in that front bed with the liriope. PG, Have fun reworking the bed! So far I have one that needs some help-I hope no more!

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  4. I was going to say...I like the red with the brick. I have some maroon daylilies by the pond, they look so rich almost like velvet. All colors will look nice.

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  5. I like all of the colors too. Good choice. Daylilies are wonderful plants to grow, I have a few myself. I like to get good plants inexpensively. Kudos!

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  6. I love pastels, so I would be partial to the peach, but that wouldn't show up against the stone as much as red or yellow. I like Frances' idea of using all three. I definitely want to plant more daylilies, too. I know there's a daylily farm near us, but I've never visited it. I know I would get a better value and more varieties than shopping at a garden center. Who cares if you don't know the names; their beauty is what is most important!

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  7. I didn't know about The Tin Barn. Do they have a pumpkin patch in the fall? If so I will have to check that out.
    I say yellow is the way to go.

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  8. I like yellow, but peach is also pretty.

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  9. I vote for a rainbow of color using all three!

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  10. Dawn and Cinj, Daylilies are the best and such a rainbow of colors! Hard to choose.

    Rose, I hope you can make time to go visit the daylily farm close by. They are such a kaliedescope of color. Frances loved her visit to her local farm, and I always enjoy my visits here too. The owner says this fall she is going to roundup the whole seedling bed. Can't believe it! Might have to go back and save a few.

    Sarah, The Tin Barn also has blueberry and blackberry picking. The owner is a wonderful gardener who registers daylilies and shares plants. A great day trip for the family. Check it out sometime. It is fairly close, just off 79.

    DP, Thanks, the peach is my favorite as it was so unusual but yellow is ALWAYS welcomed here.

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  11. They all look great as daylilies always do.

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  12. I've never met a daylily I didn't like. : ) I do lean toward sunny yellows though.

    Tina, I have the step by step instructions for the tin can wall garden in the comments section now. I ran them down.

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  13. Hello Jean. Glad to see you are feeling a bit better now...
    I missed you...

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  14. Hi Tina, I like a profusion of all colors. I think that gets the attention. That's why I chose to mix my cannas--all colors.

    Welcome back Jean, missed you.
    Hi Anonymous, nina, Dawn, Dp, Eve, Rose, Cinj & Skeeter. Also Perennel Gardener, Frances, Dave & anyone else that's I've missed.

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  15. Mom, Thanks, they are doing well. The daylily I brought back from your house is doing even better. It is still blooming. I like it so much. Glad you are talking again. I hope you got everything organized with the birds.

    Eve, I checked out the cans. Neat idea and thanks!

    Skeeter, Rainbows are nice indeed. Thanks for being so kind to my mother.

    Lola, Your cannas look great-lots of color. That is always a good thing.

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  16. I think I would lean toward the yellow one for in front of the stone. The peach tones might blend to well and not stand out enough. You picked up some nice daylilies!

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  17. How about planting the 3 in gradation of color - yellow, then peach, then red? Or would the peach look funny next to the red? If so, then the yellow in the middle. In any event, they are beautiful plants. Because they're seedlings, do you get to name them?

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  18. Dave, Thanks! Cheap but nice.

    MMD, Very good question. I guess I can call them anything I want but if I really wanted to name them and register them I think I would be paying alot of money. There might even be requirements on breeders but I am not sure what they are. Sigh. They will just be daylily seedlings "Unknown" to me.

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  19. I vote for all three too Tina! And the purple bee balm. Lotsa great color - it's going to look beautiful!

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