dlyn

It’s actually not that easy to get good shots of daylilies. When the morning light is still good, they aren’t all fully open yet. By the time they are fully open, the light is often too bright. And waiting for the good evening light isn’t a good idea either because by then a lot of the blooms have bleached out some and they are all covered with pollen and bug spots. These shots were all taken this morning around 7:45AM. With the exception of cropping and a very slight sharpening, they are straight out of the camera.

A few years ago, I ordered a group of unnamed seedlings from a hybridizer who was selling his excess plants on eBay. This yellow is one of my favorites from that group.I had wanted this one – Tom Wise – ever since I first saw it online. Last year, right before she had Anna, Ellyn and I visited a daylily selling garden down near where they lived in Virginia and I picked this up along with an obscene number of others.For a person who detests spiders, my attraction to spider form daylilies is not something I can explain. This is Spider Miracle.This is supposed to be Tuscawilla Tigress, but it doesn’t really look like the photos I have seen of this cultivar. It is pretty either way.Hot Town – I go this from a couple who live not far from me. Their obsession with daylilies has necessitated the selling off of their excess fans. Visting them is like stepping into daylily heaven – they walk around their gardens with you, naming every single plant from memory and scribbling down the names of the ones you want. At the end, they present you with a total that is about a third to a half of what you would pay anywhere else and in mid-August they call you to come and pick up your prizes. I have a nearly overwhelming urge to kiss these two people, but I restrain myself because I want to be able to go back next year.This is Monster which I got from the same folks. A lot of people are not crazy about the form of this one – it grows too open and the color is blotchy. The blotchy color is one of the reasons I love it – every bloom has different water-color like patterns.Sammy Russell – an older cultivar. It multiplies rather rapidly which means I have lots of them. The bees seem to really like it – there are always crowds of them working the flowers.Somebrero Way – one of the first daylilies I ever bought. It has a very long bloom time and in a good year even gives me a second flush of flowers in later September.

Have a great Saturday!