~ Ailea's Daylily Garden ~
NOTE: Images are thumbnails; click any image to view larger version
Gardener, I am not, but I do enjoy beautiful flowers with a minimum of work. The daylily has proved to be perfect. Hardy, perennial, self-propagating and delightfully beautiful, the daylily satisfies my craving for beauty with a minimum of maintenance.
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A peek at St. Francis, watching over
things... St. Francis started out at the rear of the garden, overseeing the entire thing (as shown at left), but the garden has grown so over the past few years he all but disappeared behind the foliage, so has since been moved to a more prominent position toward the front. |
The lilies enjoy the full brunt of a hot summer sun, requiring little, if any, supplemental watering during dry periods. This makes them excellent growers in Carolina, where infamous late-summer draughts reign. The lilies do not like shade, and fare much better in the full sun. As is easily seen in these first few images, the foliage of these wonderful flowers grows dense and lush.
Several of the yellow lilies in my garden-
Top row left is a "double" bloomer - two rows of petals, and the bottom right is another variety of a "double" bloomer.
Daylilies bloom May through the end of summer, some into the fall. I had several lilies blooming in December of 2000, which I think was a fluke, but who knows? Some varieties bloom earlier, others later. Several different varieties afford colorful flowers throughout most of the summer months and into autumn. Each lily will bloom for 5 weeks or more, depending on variety and growing conditions.
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The iris, along with the daylily, is one of my favorite flowers. This iris was given me by my mother-in-law, who lives in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, and is a deep, deep red - one of those old-time irises even my mother had never heard of. At left, the bud is new, and appears more black than red in color. But as you can clearly see, the black-looking bud eventually blooms into a truly red iris. |
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I did not expect blooms the first year, as I had only brought the iris home from Tennessee the previous July. I figured the first year would be a dormant one for blooms, but I was pleased to find a few blooms that first year. This iris has since expanded into many fans and is now in need of separating, thinning, and sharing with my family members and closest friends. Story has it this iris has been in her family for generations.
Some of my red daylilies-
One of the nicer things about the daylilies is, they require little to no work from one season to the next. The bed needs to be kept weed-free, which can be a chore, but otherwise maintenance is minimal. The bulk of the work lies in separating and thinning out, which can be quite involved, and time- and energy-consuming, but this need only occur perhaps every 3 or 4 years in the fall.
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This is a crinum, related to the amaryllis. Like the daylily, there are different varieties of crinums. This one is called Peppermint Stick. The crinum has proved itself to be hardy, surviving well in some of the harshest of conditions. I've been pleased to be able to share this great bulb with my sister in Proctorville, Ohio. |
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Though it is wonderful to have flowers blooming beginning in May and continuing way into August, sometimes I think how wonderful it would be to have them all blooming at the same time. Talk about a riot - and a riot of colors!
Ah, a lavender, the dark purple, and a "spider" variety, also with lavender. When I went shopping for new lilies after my garden had established, the purples caught my eye, even though my other lilies were mostly reds and yellows. It is hard to imagine all the different and varied colors these blooms can be, and there are more varieties being developed each year.
Lilies can grow tall, short, spindly, or any one of a number of combinations of these., Some blooms are "doubles" (as seen in some of the yellows, toward the top of the page), some look more like spider legs (as in the spider variety above). Some lilies bloom once each year but others are "repeat" bloomers, blooming twice and sometimes three times during the growing season (May through autumn). Not only the flowers vary from type to type, but foliage as well, with some leaves thin while others are more broad. Combine all this with the different available colors and you can easily see the varieties can be virtually endless.
Here are two distinctly different orange-and-pumpkin colored lilies, and a couple of light-orange lilies.
The best thing about the lilies is, they will be here today, and through many, if not all of, tomorrows.
See some garden
pictures from 2003
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