Moosey's latest ramblings

16 Jan '08 3:50 am

I have so enjoyed Moosey's latest journal entries with all the beautiful summery garden photos and exciting news about water wheels. She has, however, mentioned several times her dissapointment with her large clumps of daylilies and their sparse bloom. I didn't want to presume at first to tell her how to manage her plants, but I do wonder if she is aware that daylilies like to be divided into smaller clumps about every third year. When the clumps grow too big and crowded, they stop producing blooms. Just a suggestion that I hope will not be resented in any way. Anyway, her summer gardens are putting mine to shame and making me intensely aware of my shortcomings as a good garden design manager. I tend to be a little too random and also too soft hearted with all the volunteer plants that fill my summer gardens. Note to myself, be brutal with volunteer seedlings this coming summer!

18 Jan '08 3:34 pm

Oops. I did know that, but I don't divide up the big ones - and then I moan and groan about no blooms! I dumped my best red one on the rubbish heap, dug out by mistake. The single rusty species ones are the worst, and they're almost on my banned list. I know they're considered quite weedy by some gardeners - is it they're called ditch lilies?

Stella D'Oro has been so unspectacular, and I've read that it can be tricky, being an older plant. So this one I divided and replanted in the sun. Results? Nothing. Not one flower. My friend who gardens by the seaside has also had blooming problems this year, and she's a much more detail-conscious gardener than I am.

Naturally we suspect that there is something in our climate which is not quite right for daylilies. Lack of - water? Too much shade? Oh well - it's one of the great things about gardening, that we keep on and on and on trying!
Cheers, and the waterwheel goes in this weekend! Great excitement...

18 Jan '08 8:05 pm

I am really looking forward to seeing the water wheel.
dixie

20 Jan '08 2:07 am

Oh well, I figured you must know that already. Sorry I don't have any more constructive suggestions. Daylilies are so undemanding that I just can't fathom that they wouldn't perform under almost any conditions. Just keep plugging away and maybe they will bloom again someday. As for Stella d'Oros, I have not been too impressed with the ones I have either. The blooms are not that spectacular and they grow so low to the ground that they just don't put on much of a show. I think they are really more suited to large commercial installations than the home garden.

As for the water wheel, we are all so excited for Moosey and can't wait to see the first photos.

21 Jan '08 2:58 am

I like that word. I've just made it up. Daylilies to me are seldom (never?) as spectacular in South Africa as in England. Mine, bought with great enthusiasm two years ago, mostly go almost unnoticed. Must add that I am several stages less detail-concious (as Moosey puts it so delicately Laughing

) than anyone else here at Mooseys - especially this past summer, lost in a haze of rain and work.

Another one which was discussed in my earliest days on the forum, is Sedum Autumn Joy. I've watched it this year to see what happens, because of this. It was lovely in early December. It is now - mid January and to me that is on the cusp of summer - brown and unremarkable, despite the leaves being in good shape and not a sign of mildew this year. So much for AUTUMN joy! It had, at best a 6 week season.

21 Jan '08 4:41 am

Why do we grow Stella d'Oro? It isn't the nicest shade of yellow. Then there is all the deadheading and I think I spend more time pulling away old, ugly folliage than I do mushmummies. Your peach colored ones are so nice as are my orange and burgandy 'Flasher's that I wonder why I don't give Stella the boot.

Your water wheel looks great and I'll bet the sound is awesome. Will you use the buckets to lift water for irrigation elsewhere? With the threat of drought and water rationing that would be a godsend.

22 Jan '08 10:26 am

Stella D'Oro is the only daylily I grow which seems to attract the wrong sort of company - the clump foliage ends up being suspiciously half grass half daylily. I mean - I could just as easily (since mine don't flower) just grow a weedy grass clump and be done with it! As you say - not the best sunshine colour - I think I prefer the yellow of dandelions... Cheers

Actually, Stella should be quaking in her - roots? cos I'm actually tidying up her garden at this very moment. Ha!

22 Jan '08 10:42 am

Hello All,
I live in British Columbia, Canada, a climate that seems to suit daylilies, and I don't like Stella either! I think she's an example of an over promoted plant that doesn't really do that well for anyone. I have many beautiful daylilies, and have decided to give Stella a miss!
Your summer garden looks so wonderful. We're in the middle of winter with Arctic outflow winds... brr.
June

22 Jan '08 2:32 pm

Stella, your days are numbered. Papa's got a little shopping to do.

Moosey's latest ramblings

Moosey's latest ramblings

Daylilies and Waterwheels...

waterwheel

Daylilies and water wheels

Daylilies and other temperatementals

Love your peach colored daylillies.

Daylilies

Okay, it's unanymous then.