Nice bloom Royce. I can see why you like his plants.

When I give up trying to hybridize, I will then design my garden according to color and lots of different perennial plants and shrubs mixed into the current daylily space. Right now, I have very few perennials mixed into the daylily areas. I want to be able to get to the plants to hybridize, dead head, etc and don't want to step around and over other plants.

I have areas in the garden with NO daylilies and try to have spring or fall blooming plants in there. For me, no other plant can compete with daylilies during peak bloom. You just ignore other plants blooming at that time.

Now I need to sweet talk Rick into visiting with bricks, flagstone, the retaining wall thingees and some magic mulch. I want him to make my place look like some of the AFTER pictures he has been posting. I've already made the before pictures.

Brooke

Great idea about Rick. Maybe he will build me about 3 raised beds for what I have in mind - about 4' x 100'. Some of that hardwood mulch would also be nice. It's 'spensive here.

Without Rick's help, I am not thinking of anything terribly elaborate, just a fairly small area, with some idea of color. I couldn't manage color really well even if I wanted to and I don't intend to put a lot of effort into it. Right now, I have to find an area not in use by seedlings.

Royce, I do like that daylily and the perfect roundness of it. It reminds me of Lace Cookies, which is on my wish list.

It's weird that, after spending way too much money acquiring the kinds of daylilies I didn't have before (mostly spiders and UFs), I'm appreciating the simpler ones all the more. I had first blooms on Marked by Lydia and Parade of Peacocks and, frankly, they just didn't float my boat. Then I had a first bloom on a pink Munson and it hit me -- I think I had what I liked all along. Just wish I could've figured it out without spending all that money.

Your Magic Lace is that kind of daylily for me. Thanks!

Chris

Thanks Chris. Below is a picture of ULTIMATE PERFECTION, from a prior year's bloom. It is another one hybridized by Tom Wilson.

I still like the fancy ones like I want to use in hybridizing, but keep thinking these are beautiful regardless of age. It is great to run out and see the new seedlings each day. It is one of the few things that will cause me to get out bed really early. However, I think all seedlings have now bloomed this year, so I know what to expect from additional blooms. I think it would be nice to have a small section of the garden just for garden daylilies.

Brooke, I have absolutely nothing mixed with my daylilies, except grass, weeds and nut sedge. I also don't have many plants other than daylilies, except for really large things such as the crepe myrtles. They are actually small trees. I think that is one of the reasons I am thinking so seriously about an area for daylilies that I like and might, or might not, use in hybridizing. I see it containing all the Tom Wilson daylilies I have, plus a wide assortment, ranging from SHORES OF TIME and RIBBONS AND THINGS, to INDIAN GIVER, TRAHLYTA, INDY LOVE SONG, etc.

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I like this one, too. I think I'll go to Tinker's and search for Wilson daylilies to see what else is out there -- are they all this perfectly round?

I like your idea of having an established daylily garden to compliment your seedlings. Let me know what you might be looking for. If I have it, I'll be glad to share.

Chris

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL PICS! Yes, the simple elegance can be quite stunning! I so appreciate these beauties as well as the newer, ruffly ones!
Royce, your beauties reminded me of a beauty I brought back with me from Jack Carpenter's garden recently.
OUR FRIEND TOM WILSON 2005 Jack Carpenter Intro
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Now Rick....you come to my house and help....PLEASE!
Ask Ellie...she'll tell ya....I NEED HELP! LOL!
Nancy

Good morning, Royce!

It looks like you and I came to enjoy daylilies from two different directions (and if I'm mistaken, please correct me!) - hybridizing (for the love of one kind of plant) and perennial gardening (landscape design and the love of many plants). I'd been working on my garden and learning about landscape design piecemeal for about 7 years before I became interested in daylilies, and I've only been using them in larger quantity in my plantings for a couple years. I also have a love for herbaceous peonies, historic TB irises, lilacs, clematis, shade gardening, and daffodils, among other things. Hence, all my daylilies have been incorporated into my mixed borders, with a lot of attention given to their color and bloom habits among other plants. I think you will be very pleased with a "pleasure garden" of mixed perennials and daylilies.

Plant habit is SO important, and a gorgeous bloom atop a stingy, stringy clump of foliage is a waste of time in the garden, IMHO. And, if a single bloom on a young daylily clump with good foliage is lovely, a mass of them can be amazing and stop you in your tracks. Take your absolute favorites, plan a garden around them, and let them clump up for a few years - I think you'll be amazed at how much more you'll enjoy your daylilies (if that's at all possible, LOL) when they're part of a peaceful, personal garden refuge. Please, post pictures and let us in on the fun when you start planning, Royce!

Laurel

I hear you. Those are lovely daylilies! And I do like pink! How have I missed these??!

Not having the luxury of space (although I must be in denial considering my buying habits), my daylilies have always had to share space.

Chris, I am learning that lesson, too. It is easy to be convinced by a pretty face, lol! Your buying (and maybe mine) from here on will be more directed...something Brooke and Royce learned long ago.

Color is hard one, I think. Someone somewhere once remarked that in nature colors are all mixed and look pretty terrific. I try to remember that and not stress out over it too much as I tuck whatever here or there. I tried a few years back to have a pink area of daylilies (okay, I still try) and it was pretty horrible. We all know the pink story...peach, tan, lavender, etc. Much better to put some other colors in there as well.

I would like to imagine 50 blooms of Shores of Time...however, I have one humble fan with a tiny scape coming up (at least it has that), so this year, I will have to be content with a couple blooms...I think your idea is great, Royce! Take the ones you like best and enjoy them! It will be beautiful!

I do like this rambling, but I promised myself I would actually get out there and get some of these potted daylilies in the ground. And that isn't piddling!

Chris, thanks for the offer to share. However, at this time, it is just an idea. I am thinking about what I will do and won't actually work on it until fall. Too hot now. We reached 100 yesterday and probably will again today.

Nancy, I like OUR FRIEND TOM WILSON and it reminds me of some of the Wilson introductions also, especially CONNIE BURTON.

Laurel, my gardening journey has been circuitous. When I was very young, I liked flowers and had a few simple things. I then lived in an apartment for many years and did no gardening. Took up photography as a hobby and flowers were some of my favorite subjects. Planted some flowers, mainly roses, but a few other things such as daylilies and irises, at my parents home, so it would be convenient to photograph them. This rekindled my interest in gardening. When I retired, I built a home in the country, with lots of space. Had visions of all types of flowers. Planted trees and larger things first. Just after getting to the point of planting flowers and planting about 50 daylilies, I ran across a discussion on the internet, regarding hybridizing. I decided to try it and got a little carried away. After getting rid of lots and lots of daylilies when I had daylily rust, I am now building up again. I am just thinking it might be nice to have a small area with several clumps of the same daylily, rather than mostly the one, I have for hybridizing.

GG, I don't envision any fantastic color matching. However, I expect some like FOOLED ME, will not be in that garden. I like FM, but think it a bit bold for what I have in mind.

Royce

Royce,

It's been unseasonably cool up here - we got down into the upper 40s for a couple nights, and only into the mid 60s for a couple days. It does NOT feel like June at all. The plants seem to be in a holding pattern, waiting for some HEAT.

I divided my yard into two color schemes: the front yard is cool colors (pink/rose/purple/wine/white/lavender, with a touch of yellow), and the back yard is screaming hot colors (reds/oranges/yellow/gold/white/some chartreuse foliage plants, and accents of blue). I've got bloom scapes coming up on some of my new (southern) DL purchases, which is very exciting for me - I'll probably let one bloom of each open so I can see it, then cut the scape off so the plants can get down to the business of growing strong for the winter. (And, before I cut them back, I'll probably dab some pollen around onto established things, just for fun.)

I'll have to see how last year's daylily purchases look when they finally bloom together - I'll probably need to move a few things around, but at least they're still small enough to move easily. Anything that doesn't pass muster in my yard can go to my parents' yard, where they have a large area they'd like to fill with mixed daylilies.

Have a great day!

Laurel