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....