Askov American., 1938-09-01
Gardeners Nook
BY GARDEN CLUB EDITOR
Daylilies Make Gardens Sparkle.
By Fleeta Brownell Woodroffe.


Daylilies, lifting their star-faced
trumpets of petal-gold, are among
the indispensables in our garden.
Have you seen them, the newer ones?
Since we've discovered what a bril-
liant succession of garden pictures we
can have with the yellow daylilies
adding their inimitable sparkle and
dash, we have daylilies with our early
irises-clusters of gold and orange
stars, daylilies pale as moonlight be-
low our climbing roses, more daylilies
cleaning like polished copper among
the curious, spiky balls of globethistles
in July. We've sun-kissed orange
ones with snowy mounds of tall, white
IphloX-and magnificent white-gold
daylily trumpets with our lavender
Michaelmas daisies just ahead of the
early frosts.
Selection of varieties for a sue
cesSion of bloom is the secret of it
all. "Why, my yellow daylilies
stopped blooming weeks ago." many
a garden visitor exclaims, thinking,
probably, only of the early lemon
daylily. Of course, the early varieties
of daylilies can no more be kept over
for August bloom than Whitney crabs
can be depended on for winter eat
ing! And who would try? Some
200 named varieties of daylilies are
already in the trade, all of them
lovely!
Everybody is attracted by their
(hemorocallis) fountainlike masses of
strap-shaped leaves, their slim stems
topped by great clusters of buds which
open into golden flowers-some wide,
pleated, and crinkly; some deep
throated and smooth as wax. Some
are powdered fetchingly with rose,
some flecked with scintillating gold
Some wear shadowy halos-others
pert patterns of chocolate, Indian red
and cool apple-green. There are BIZ
colors and deep blackish-maroons
among the newer sorts, and a fascin-
ating array of blends and lighter tints
ending in faint lemon-whites.
There are daylilies for the rock
garden, daylilies for the front of the
border and the back. The tallest 1
measured last summer lacked just
an inch of reaching six feet And
besides being easy and hardy, they
don't have to be staked or sprayed
for blights and pests. Consider that.
They like sun on their heads and a
good mulch over their roots. We give
them the mulch and as much sun as
our quite shady garden permits. And
still they thrive! So when I'm asked,
(which do you like best?" 1 take a
deep breath, and then resist the i'm
pulse to name all we grow. For there
very favorites."
I'll begin with Apricot. It has Win
some, open-faced flowers of a light
and mellow tone which combines
charmingly with irises-blue, violet,
white, or yellow; with columbines in
every tint; Danes Rockets; and the
purple sprays of honesty or money
| in-both-pockets.
Wau-bun, one of the new ones,
scarce and therefore more expensive
stands right beside the path where
we can examine its lovely, swirling
petals of soft yellow and their faint
brushings of color, like the sunny
side of ripe peach. Wau-bun's
flowers are large-(to six and one
half inches across) and rise to about
80 inches. It's name is particularly
appropriate, being Winnebago Indian
for "early morn with its rising sum-"
With early Belladonna delphiniums
and the first of the regal lilies, it's