For our May 2023 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, we are giving away a Daylily ‘Handwriting on the Wall’ from Three Shovels Farm (value $18).
This beautiful daylily was created by renowned daylily breeder Karol Emmerich. It has 6-inch, triangular-shaped flowers that are peach with a wine-purple eye. Like watercolor paint, the purple color blends to lavender toward the yellow throat for a stunning display. A thin, purple picotee edge frames the blooms. It is a short plant, growing to about 24 inches high, and is a mid-season bloomer. Three Shovels Farm (https://threeshovelsfarm.com/) is a small, family-owned mail-order nursery in South Carolina that specializes in daylilies, Louisiana iris, Japanese iris, and Siberian iris.
To enter, send an email to WashingtonGardenerMagazine@gmail.com by 5:00pm on May 31 with “Daylily” in the subject line and in the body of the email. Tell us what your favorite article was in this May 2023 issue and why. Please include your full name and mailing address. The winner will be announced and notified about June 1.
UPDATE:
Congratulations to our contest winner John Rebstock of Cheverly, MD!
In this episode, we talk with Stuart Kendig, owner of Perfect Perennials, all about daylilies and what makes them the "perfect perennial." The plant profile is on Solomon's Sealand I share what's going on locally and in the garden.
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It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. Here is the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, the past month has been a roller coaster - from no sign of rain for days to deluges of several inches at onceand temps ranging from scorching hot to quite chilly again this morning. It has been pretty unpredictable.
This month, I thought I'd share two favorite combinations blooming in my garden now. Both were unplanned and both involve daylilies. The first (pictured above) is the common ditch daylily and chicory. I have both "weeds" planted along my back fence line and sidewalk media strip. They are hemmed in on all sides so cannot escape cultivation. Every year, they both open their flowers without fail at the exact same time -- I think they know just how well orange and blue set each other off.
The second combination is a daylily cultivar whose name I'm wracking my brain for, but alas, cannot recall. I planted it right against the Lavender 'Phenomenal' near my small water garden. The violet tones in the middle of the daylily really pick up the lavender wands around it -- trust me, it is much better in person than I can capture with my iPhone camera here. What is blooming in YOUR garden today?
Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
are versatile and easy-care perennial plants that tolerate a wide range of soil
types from clay to sand, moist to dry, and bloom in full-sun to part-shade. I
plant them in my sidewalk “hell strips” along the street, where they can take
both the wintertime salt spray and summertime baking heat.
There are more than 80,000 daylily cultivars and
collecting different ones can become an obsession. 'Stella D'Oro' is one that
is widely available and planted everywhere from gas stations to suburban
cul-de-sacs.‘Happy Returns’, ‘Ruby
Spider’, and ‘Strawberry Candy’ are three of my personal favorites for vigor
and superior performance in home gardens.
Most daylilies are clump-forming and are easy to dig and
divide every few years to increase your garden or to share them with others. A
note of caution, however, about the common “ditch lily” (Hemerocallis fulva), which is an invasive species in our area. It
is sterile, but spreads by underground stolon and has been a popular pass-along
plant. Please try to resist the urge to share it and keep it away from our
natural areas.
Daylily blooms last just one day then self-shed. If a few
hang on and this bothers you, you can easily groom them off.
Fun fact: the daylily flower is edible and you can
prepare it as you would a squash blossom. They are delicious lightly battered
and fried.
Daylilies are “deer candy.” If that is an issue in your
area, you can spray with a repellent or spread Milorganite in the flower beds
early on in the growing season, which can also act as a fertilizer.
They only care I give mine is to cut the plants back hard
in the fall. You can give them a bit of additional fertilizer in the late spring,
but I never bother and they still bloom prolifically.
Daylilies: You can grow that!
The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine. It was shot and edited by intern Alexandra Marquez.
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