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Daylilies give a different garden each day
By KAY SMITH
Article published on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 |
A daylily bloom usually lasts only a day. Each plant, called a fan, has many buds on many scapes, giving blooms for many days. In my garden, daylilies bloom mid March into September, although I have one cultivar that started blooming Jan. 6.
With each bloom lasting a day, sometimes the garden is yellow, then the next day it might be mostly pink, or lavender and shades of purple, or oranges and reds. New flowers each day draws you into the garden to see what is blooming.
As I go through the garden, I “deadhead” or remove the old blooms to add to my compost pile. The spent blooms will fall off on their own in a day or two, and don’t really detract from the garden’s beauty.
Composting makes all the difference if you have sand instead of soil. Compost Happens seminars at the Pinellas Extension Center have taught me something new about composting every time I attend. My best find was a nearby horse stable where I haul home the stable sweepings for my compost pile. Sometimes I start my compost pile with the free recycled yard waste that is mulched by the county.
To start new daylily beds, I put down wet strips of newspapers to draw the earthworms, then cover with 6 or more inches of finished compost.
I no longer turn the compost into the sand – the worms and watering do that. I plant the daylilies in the compost, then top-dress with more compost several times a year as a mulch.
A daylily seminar, “Daylilies 101,” will be at the Pinellas County Extension on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m. Linda Sample of the Bay Area Daylily Society will show slides on basic daylily information and give tips on how to plant and grow daylilies in central Florida.
Several potted daylilies will be given away as doorprizes. Visit www.flbg.org or Bay Area Daylily Society www.bads.us.
Kay Smith, president Bay Area Daylily Society, is a guest writer who offers hints about successfully growing daylilies.
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Article published on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007
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