Several years ago I tried to rid the back garden of those common orange daylilies. In fact, I've hacked at them more than once. But, despite my efforts, here they are against the fence and looking pretty good too.
I almost forget, but I think I had once meant to plant less unruly daylily cultivars, but I have given in. I am a much less ambitious gardener than I used to be, and these daylilies now look perfectly fine to me. That back section is pretty well where the wild things are now anyway.
They are a resilient species. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, but I've made my peace with them. As far as I am concerned, they have earned their right to be there.
Their resiliency does remind me of a very very early post of mine from way back in 2004: Remarkable Rose. It was of a rose that grew in a small space between a wall and an air conditioner. I also tried to hack that out, and I swear that I dug with great intensity below ground level. However, after several years it grew back and produced a rose. I found that remarkable.
The photo that accompanied that old post has gone amiss, but the words and thoughts remain. This is the second time within days that I have been reminded of it because someone else recently posted of a plant with great fortitude. (I see that I wrote that post on July 02 2004, and here I am writing about it on July 02 2021 – to post tomorrow on July 03.)
I now don my pedagogical cap to point out that this common daylily in my yard is not a tiger lily although many people call it that, just as I used to. It is Hemerocallis fulva whereas the genuine tiger lily is Lilium lancifolium or L. tigrinum. The tiger lily is a true lily and grows from bulbs whereas the daylily has a root system. Its orange petals curve and contains dark spots as seen in this internet photo.
15 comments:
They are so pretty, no matter what you call them. I'm glad you are continuing to post such lovely shots, AC.
At my former house I had a rose that grew up the side of the house. No amount of digging would unseat it. I finally gave up and welcomed it. I did trim it enough to keep it from climbling the roof. It eventually shaded the porch which was actually welcome. Your daylilies are beautiful.
I like seeing all the orange daylilies along the side of country roads at this time of year.
We had wild,tiger lilies in the ditches around Wheatley when I was a child in the '50's. I was told there had once been farm houses where they were found. I believe the same is true of a lot of the orange lilies that we see along the roadsides in Eastern Ontario. It is also true of lilacs growing alone. The starts of both of these must have been passed from hand to hand by our pioneer ancestresses, I think. Nice to consider.
I find them pretty and cheerful. I have that issue with a gingko tree that my husband planted; I've had it cut back and supposedly killed numerous times but it keeps coming back. It's fought so hard to live that now I let it. Unfortunately it grows fast and into my gutters, so I do need to keep it trimmed.
The day lilies are in full bloom around here. All of them are orange that I've spied. One neighbor has made a hedge of sorts of them. Their planted on the edge of her backyard all the way around. It's quite a mass of orange. I look forward to one day planting day lilies of different colors like I once had in my last perennial garden.
Very pretty!
Good lesson on lilies. The orange beetle got into mine this year, I'm surprised how they came back after the soap and water treatment.
I've seen those lilies growing around the old foundation of a log cabin that must have been abandoned 100 years ago.
I think I've mentioned, but I don't remember all the places, that the grands and I used to put the thinned out flower roots over the ravine. We said they were ditch lilies.
Daylilies are my favourites1 When my front yard got a flower in the first year we own the house, I got thrilled. I was giving water and fertiliser for it. This year, she gave more flowers. Hopefully, more will come next year.
I enjoyed your post from years ago. It provides food for thought. Those lilies are hardy for sure. They will outlive us all.
We have both the common and the cultivars. I love them all.
I really like them. Any colours to get us through winter!
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