My little sister is not a gardener. In fact, she is militantly not a gardener. Unless, of course, it suits her to think about landscaping her place in order to make it more saleable. Then she is a gardener. But not at a party, where other people who have beautiful gardens might want to talk about them. After all, that would require her to listen to someone else talk.
Anyway, one fine spring day a few years ago when we were still more or less on speaking terms, she dropped by our place and found me knee deep in dirt, busy transplanting and mulching.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m transplanting some of day lilies and planting a few more that I bought at the day lily sale Jeri and I went to yesterday,” was my reply.
“Day lilies? You already have some day lilies, don’t you?”
“Well, yes. But these are new day lilies.”
“Well, I don’t see why you would want any more. They are all orange, anyway.” This was spoken in her dismissive “this is the end of this conversation” tone.
In refutation of that statement, I offer you this bevy of beauties, all blooming this week in my garden. The first is named Double Bourbon.
This next one is called Hyperion. It has a lovely scent, the flowers are six inches across.
Next we have Strawberry Candy, followed by Peach Candy:
Now this one is a miniature, the blossoms are only about 2 inches across. She is called Little Sweetness.
Next one is Spacecoast Starburst. I actually spent over $30 to acquire this beauty when she was a brand new variety. Signs of obsession, I know.
The rest have names, I know, but they are lost in the mists of history. The flowers are no less beautiful for being unnamed.
Now how could anybody say all day lilies are orange?
Gorrrrgeous ~ blooming lovely ~ not ‘all orange’ at all! Thank you for showing them to us, it is an eye opener – I occasionally take flower photos too.
Just popped over from Tammy Vitale site ~ nice to ‘meet’ you!
Wow! I mean Wow! The photography as well.
Nobody with an eye for the colour and beauty of the world could possibly call them all orange… my sister militantly isn’t a gardener too so I sympathise with your frustration at that conversation.
And Happy belated Birthday too by the way!
wow. i am so jealous. None of my day lilies have bloomed much at all this year – I think maybe one. The tall spikey very orange ones (2 different varieties) have bloomed beautifully, but the day lilies sent up leaves that are now turning brown without blooms. The tigers were especially bad this year. =[
And I haven’t a clue of the names.
Wonderful photos, they do the blooms justice.
I, like your sister, am not a gardener. I like the idea, but I just don’t seem really to be able to keep anything going, and I feel sorry for things that die due to my inept abilities. However, I SO appreciate what good gardeners like you can do. What stunningly beautiful lilies!
Day Lillie’s yes, But not just day lillie’s. Awesome!
We have a huge bank of day lilies on the hill next to our front door. I have to admit I don’t like them that much, I guess because they are all a single “just orange” variety and so totally dominate the area. They seem extremely vigorous and since I’m not sure we’ll live here too many more years, I’m hesitant to expend the effort to dig them up to put elsewhere.
Check out my artwork of flowers done in 2005. aliennature.com