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A Few Things Don't Mind Dry

16 years ago

Despite the lack of rain, there are flowers blooming as if they had a secret stash of water somewhere underground that only they know about.

H. 'Ann Warner'

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Platycodon grandiflora

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Rudbeckia hirta 'Autumn Colors' (WS seeds from Token)

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H. 'Smokey Mountain Autumn'

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Phlox paniculata 'Blue Paradise'

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The first balloon flower opened this morning, to be followed by hundreds more in the days ahead.

Comments (18)

  • 16 years ago

    Gardenweed, your H. 'Ann Warner' is gorgeous!

  • 16 years ago

    Thanks, glad2garden. I do like this one a lot. Here's what I think is my favorite "lucky" shot:

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    Went walkabout the flowerbeds one morning and caught this daylily in a beam of sunlight.

  • 16 years ago

    Beautiful!

  • 16 years ago

    I really love the color of the Smokey Mountain Autumn, its is so pretty. All of your flowers are lovely.

    Carol

  • 16 years ago

    Thanks Carol. Glad you enjoyed the photos. I know daylilies aren't very popular with some folks on this forum but I just love them for the "WOW" factor of their dramatic flowers smack in the middle of summer. I've been adding new ones that have large flowers, aren't 4 ft. tall, and bloom early, mid and late season. I was very picky and I think Smokey Mountain Autumn was an excellent pick.

  • 16 years ago

    Beautiful daylilies. I have a few that were given to me from a collection. Also have some dark reds from swaps. Don't have the names for most but there are some large blooms and they are very nice.

    Your 'lucky' shot is wonderful. Pink with crimped edges is just my style. My 'soft baby pink' turned out to be peach.
    Still nice but not pink.

  • 16 years ago

    When I moved here 5 years ago I discovered 29 huge clumps of daylilies my brother planted nearly 20 years ago. There are no names but some are crimson, others are peach, there's a couple lemon yellow and a few orange. They're all 4 ft. tall & growing in what was a huge, 30 ft. square bed. A couple weeks ago I had a stone bench set diagonally smack in the middle and am determined to redesign the bed into something less linear. Thanks to WS, I've got lots and lots of new perennials to add. It's been too hot to work out there but I stare out the window and try to imagine what it will look like by fall.

    I'll take pictures to share but basically the "before" photo is a 30 ft. square of thick weeds & invasive vines hiding & choking peonies, daylilies, clematis, sedum, astilbe, Russian sage & rose of Sharon.

    Eileen

  • 16 years ago

    Eileen, looking forward to your pics!

    I'm going to start a love affair with daylilies and hostas. The evil woodchuck living under my shed seems to leave them alone.

    And the fact that they do so well in dry weather is fantastic!

  • 16 years ago

    Hi Victoria,

    If you want free daylilies, you're welcome to take a ride to Somers and divide some of the ones growing here. They haven't been divided in 15+ years so you could fill a pickup with the divisions.

    I'm growing hostas from seed I harvested from my own plants. They grow s-l-o-w but you're welcome to some really tiny seedlings as well as seeds I get this year.

    Eileen

  • 16 years ago

    Eileen, you're so sweet! I'll email you!

    Victoria

  • 16 years ago

    Nice pics, gardenweed! What camera do you use?

    Surprised that your Phlox paniculata is doing so well in this weather. It is not a drought-tolerant plant. Is the color of the picture accurate? The 'Blue paradise' is a hyped up cultivar but it doesn't look blue at all to me.

  • 16 years ago

    terrene - Nikon Coolpix S10 / 10X Optical zoom + 6 megapixels. It's a handy little point-and-shoot or, as my brother dubbed them, PHD cameras (Push Here, Dummy). If it didn't take such great pictures, I'd upgrade to a better one.

    I'm fairly new to phlox paniculata and have only grown it the past couple years. Where it's planted it gets whatever water Ma Nature doles out and not a drop extra. I've got 'Franz Schubert' in a full sun dry spot and it's going gangbusters. 'David' has lots of blooms this year too. 'Blue Paradise looks like the picture and I'd have to agree with you, not very blue. I bought them bare-root in a bag; the name + photo on the bag caught my eye. It goes well with 'Franz Schubert,' 'Aida' & 'Europa' so I'm not getting my tail in a twist that it isn't really blue. There are balloon flowers growing beside them for blue.

  • 16 years ago

    gardenweed - do you have an extra memory chip for the camera and if so, where did you get it? I am having a problem finding one to fit.....

  • 16 years ago

    Linda - I do have an extra memory chip--bought it in 2007 when I got the camera. I bought it at Costco. I was going sailing in Maine with friends and figured I'd take more photos than the camera could hold. Turned out I was right--I'd have missed some great shots if I hadn't had it. It has 2.0G of memory on it.

  • 16 years ago

    Hay Eileen,
    Since you have so many daylilies, you may not mess with seeds, but, I have a question for you.I have a few daylilies,and am wanting more,if I gather the seed this fall, and plant them WS fasion, do you think they will grow?
    Same with Iris?
    I did try last year, but I got nothing,from either.
    Maybe you would be interested in trading daylilies for hosta?
    cAROL

  • 16 years ago

    cAROL, growing daylilies from seed is a breeze. You don't need to WS them; they don't need cold stratification. I grew them last year from seed I harvested from my neighbor's plants just to see if I could grow them that way. They're SO easy! The downside is you won't get flowers for 4-5 years when you grow them from seed.

    Take a gallon-size Ziploc bag, pour in some Perlite & add just enough water to make it moist but not wet. Toss in some daylily seeds, mix them in the Perlite, then set the bag in a sunny window. You'll have adorable little daylily sprouts in 2 weeks.

    As soon as they're about 2"-3" tall or big enough to handle, set them in quart pots of grower's mix and let them grow on in a sunny window. Keep them watered but don't drown them. Mine grew right up until they went dormant sometime in December. They were about 8" tall when they went dormant. All of them came up again this spring and have grown to about 12" tall so far.

    If you want seed, I'll save it for you from my plants and send it to you this fall. The seed pods are good-sized. Wait until they turn brown and start to split open before you harvest the seeds. The seeds are large, shiny & black. There are loads of green seed pods on my plants already so I'll have plenty when harvest time rolls around.

    Chances are the flowers you get won't be the same as the plant from which you got the seeds. Most daylilies are hybrids or crosses.

    Email me if you have any questions.

  • 16 years ago

    Oh wow, so glad I dropped in here and got to see these pictures! They are all positively GORGEOUS!!!

    I have always admired Smoky Mountain Autumn. I need to break down and get that one!

  • 16 years ago

    Eileen,
    I am using your first picture as a screen saver, it is a bit big, but beautiful.

    I have sent you an e mail.
    cAROL

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