Sometimes I’m stubborn and set in my ways, determined to make something work and prove I’m right. Other times I can turn on dot, easily distracted and influenced, and just one idea can derail an entire plan. About three weeks ago I went to a daylily farm, and even talked to a daylily breeder. I bought one. I went to another farm. suddenly I found myself going back to the first farm and getting a few more and now suddenly I like daylilies. Hmmmm… did not see that coming…
Some Brookside daylilies which have been added to the garden. It’s nice to have something green in the yard.
My mother might point out that at one point, maybe thirty years ago, someone planted dozens of daylilies alongside the garage and some of those clumps still remain today, but that was a long time ago. I thought we were past that.
The front border still looking a bit fried. Recent rains have greened up some of the lawn weeds, but only the rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) looks completely unbothered by the dry weather.
I guess not. Plenty of good people like daylilies, so what’s the harm in adding a few? With the garden still a depressing shade of sun-faded khaki anything which can shrug off the dry heat can only be a good thing.
Purple gomphrena and angelonia don’t mind the heat, but do need regular watering to keep this fresh and bright. I think it’s worth it.
No one even noticed a few new daylilies, but they did notice the water bill jumping up last month. I admitted that maybe it was the garden causing this, but also pointed out the garden-fresh vegetables were surely worth it. Fifty dollars for a couple zucchini and some lettuce, thankfully there was no cost to benefits analysis done to double check my logic.
Regular watering helped stave off the worst of the baking in this end of the front border, but even without watering I suspect ‘Blue Yonder’ agapanthus would still look unbothered. I’m so glad the bulldozer missed this one, although my seedlings and several other things in this bed were lost.
Triage by watering hose was saving a few things but fortunately I went and scheduled a camping trip for last week, and this brought in a nice storm which actually soaked in a little.
Cestrum is remarkably easy from seed and only grew faster in the heat. At first I was underwhelmed by the small lemony flowers of the first seedling (in my hand), but a couple weeks later, other seedlings began to open up larger orange flowers, similar to their ‘Orange Peel’ mother, and it was all good.
A nice soak, cooler temperatures, and then another surprise shower this past weekend have made all the difference in the garden. No more wilted plants making me feel guilty at every turn and the lawn even has a green haze to it, although it will still be a while before I need to fire up the lawnmower again. I think this just-in-time rain will also help the little tree frog tadpoles immensely. They’re just starting to sprout legs and leave the pond, and I don’t think venturing out into a desert would have been the best thing for my little babies.
There’s a big range to the tadpoles with some already out and about, others well into leg-growing, and a couple still just fat little polliwogs.
I’ve been coming across baby tree frogs in a few spots around the garden. Unlike the gray adults, the babies are a bright green with a dark mask around their eyes.
Baby gray tree frogs (Hyla versicolor) have a leafy green color while the adults take on more of a bark/lichen gray color.
My fingers are crossed that a good number of them make it.
Even the frogs like the new daylilies.
New daylilies, baby frogs, and a decent rain. It’s not perfect but it’s a good position to be in for the first week of August, and as long as no one asks how the construction is going I think it’s still better than a cold day in January.
Have a great week!
sorta like suburbia 
Your little tree frogs are delightful and I approve of your daylilies. Mine have been the best during our drought, they don’t seem to mind the heat and then in the winter they don’t mind being flooded for a couple of months, what more can you ask of a plant!
I’m already asking friends for a daylily here and there 😉
Daylilies are good tough garden plants as well as giving a good display of flower and they resist the drought reasonably well.
During hot spells like this it’s worth it to have a plant which doesn’t complain every minute of every day. I won’t even mention a few yellowed leaves.
Are those tree frogs the ones that peep in spring?
No, these aren’t peepers, these guys are louder and will croak during the summer after a good rain.
Yeah, I agree, it may be hot and dry, but much better than January for sure. I haven’t felt chilly in months, loving that.
This summer is definitely showing the value of a few daylilies in the garden. They are tough. I took pity on yet another abandoned plant of my neighbors on their ‘compost’ (trash) pile. With a bit of TLC, it ought to be good by next year.
Your baby tree frogs are adorable. We don’t get all that many of them since I downsized my garden pool. The herons at the river reduce frog and toad numbers considerably. I miss hearing their calls.
Halfway to the equinox, we’re on the downslope to fall, so hope you get to enjoy what is left of your summer break. Stay cool! 😎
Daylilies and hosta. Between the two of them you could grow a foolproof garden if it weren’t for the taste buds of deer.
We had some more rain and even the lawn looks like it might choose life again. The frogs will probably appreciate that as well as the baby toads which wander down this way from the retaining pond up the street. They seem to do well there, but I rarely see adults around so I’m not sure what they get up to during the rest of the year.
For as messy and unattractive as my pond is I think it might be one of my favorite spots in the garden. There’s aways something interesting going on in and around the water!
I don’t want to think of fall yet. Just yesterday I was sitting around thinking how I could get used to this 🙂
I love day lilies too but they have all gone over so quickly this year… very hot and dry here and my lawn looks even browner than yours! The baby frog is cute. I wonder what they eat. We have toads which live on slugs and the like, but I think our slugs have gone down to the stream for their summer holidays! 😉 We desperately need a drop of rain, so I might just plan a camping trip too… 🤪 Have a good week Frank!
I see you’re still hot and dry there. Maybe scheduling a local camping trip is worth a shot? We got a little more rain and although there are still plenty of dry spots around the yard there’s enough wet for me to not care about the rest. As long as I don’t loose any new shrubs I’m ok with a “drought test” on the rest of it.
I’m not sure what the baby frogs eat, but they all looked quite plump!
I always intend to stagger my daylily blooming season via the descriptions but later learned that those handy abbreviations (VE, E, EM, M, LM, L, and VL) are based on where the original hybridizer first grew/registered that plant. Thus a Florida hybridizer’s VE (Very Early) daylily won’t be a VE bloomer in New York, Idaho, or Maine, but more like an Early Midseason or Midseason. What I now look for in descriptions is the phrase “bud builder” and/or “rebloomer”. Bud Builder usually indicates a long blooming season; Clarity of Purpose is almost done after 47 days flowering, for example; and Late Summer Breeze blooms for all of July and then puts up more spikes in September.
I was aiming for similar goals, and it helped seeing the plants locally as they sent up scapes and sat in the sun to fade test. My selections are far less planned than yours though, so we will see how they perform after a year in the garden. Who knows, maybe this time next year I’ll be obsessed with dahlias again lol
I don’t always appreciate rebloom, since the foliage seems to go downhill after July and I don’t think that helps the show, but bud builder sounds like something I could get into!
Enjoy your daylilies. My sister took me to a daylily farm and bought me several and now I’m hooked on them. The tree frog on the yellow daylily blossom is magical.
Haha, that almost the same story as what happened to me this summer. Sometimes it just takes a small spark to get the fire burning 🙂
Love those little tree frogs, and your daylilies are lovely! So nice to have a little color during these dry, hot days.
Thanks Kerry! The daylilies sure did stick out in my mostly dead and wilted garden. We did get some more rain though, and if the humidity can drop a little I would almost say it’s a nice change.
You simply can’t garden in the Upper Midwest without daylilies. I will admit I mostly grow small flowered varieties that are from my much smaller first garden. I thought I was done with daylilies a few years ago and gave away most of mine. Now I am in the process of getting a few more. They are just too attractive and too easy. You are wise to be adding them to your late summer garden The big question is why have I never seen a tree frog on/in my daylilies. Too cute.
heh heh, that little frog sure knew what he was doing when he posed for me! I hope they’re all making out ok, I haven’t seen any yet this week.
Yeah, daylilies are so hard to resist when they’re all fresh and vigorous with everything else all wilted. Yesterday I was looking at the rutted lawn and thought how easy it would be to throw down mulch and pop in a few daylilies and today I still think that’s 100% better than reseeding grass.
I am so happy you like daylilies at last, Frank. They require more work than some plants — deadheading daily, removing yellow leaves daily — but worth it, in my opinion. So you got rain? We have had none for weeks, and since you visited my garden, it has totally fried. P. x
I think you’ve had more rain than you need by now! I can’t imagine your garden being fried, I’m sure it’s your meadow reseeding and perennials going to bed for the year… or at least that’s what I’m thinking on this chilly day, because right now I can’t even remember complaining about the heat!
You are too funny, but so right!
Would you like to adopt a couple of daylilies that I’ve decided don’t work where I have them (or anywhere else here)? I was planning to shovel-prune them this weekend but then remembered this post. They are two large fans of ‘Hawkwoman’ which is a hardy, dormant tetraploid from Heavenly Gardens. Don’t know if I can put links into a comment but Google will find it in a jiffy. FYI that here I have not seen the lavender pink color that appears in the photos (it is much paler) but I expect that my soil and Darwinian watering approach may be to blame, lol. It does rebloom and in fact is doing so now (end of Sept.) Anyway, I will be happy to send them to you if you want them, just let me know via the contact link in my blog; if not, let me know and they will be ‘free to a good home’ (USA only please, because international postage is a killer.)
🙂 of course I’d like them! There’s still room on the farm 😉