Viewing comments posted by adknative

Daria is one of less than a handful of daylilies I would not recommend, particularly for anyone gardening in a colder climate. Daria died the very first year I put it into the gardens.

While it's true that nurseries will pretty much guarantee any plant for its first full year, I did not bother to get a second from the nursery. --- It was a well-known, reputable nursery and I did not think it would be fair to them to ship twice and for me to lose yet another - I have gotten many plants from them over the years without any problems and it's not their fault Daria just couldn't cut it here in a northern garden.

I found it particularly temperamental, it just actually gave the poorest performance of any daylily I have ever purchased. Not suited to a cold-climate garden, IMHO.

I have had Custard Candy growing here, zone 3, for nearly ten years. It blooms reliably every year... though, oddly, some years the 'cream yellow with maroon eyezone' of its description is more peach (or blushed with pink) with a more burgundy eyezone.

I have yet to figure out what is different when it shows more pink-ish ... I have not moved it, the soil / compost I add to all the gardens never really changes; perhaps this 'colour-change' or shift towards pink might represent a dryer / wetter year (?) than average - but if so, it is not a truly notable weather shift where I could say definitively, "Oh yes: in dry years it goes peach / pink and in wet years it's more creamy-yellow" (or vice-versa).

Regardless as to which way the colour tints, the pattern is stable and Custard Candy is short enough to move towards the edge of a border where it shows up beautifully, so it's great that it blooms well every year.

Ginger Swallowtail is an eye-catcher: First, it grows beautifully in my zone 3 garden. I have had it a number of years and have to say that it seems quite cold-hardy. Secondly, the flowers are larger than my hand-spread, so you will not accidentally overlook these when they are blooming! Thirdly, the scapes are prominent as well, easily 3 1/2 feet tall -- in my gardens, I think it has come closer to a full 4 feet, especially this past summer. And then -- you have to consider that it is also fragrant...

Sometimes, when you get away from the "reds" in daylily blooms, the colours turn muddy.

That is not the case with Ginger Swallowtail - this flower is a red / rose / cinnamon colour with an eye that sometimes appears almost black. And the form is also UFO, petal & sepal tips curling down. This is a gorgeous daylily, well-suited to northern gardens.

Gillian is noted as hardy to zone 5, but I have been growing it here in zone 3 for at least 5 years. It's very reliable, producing many blooms every year.

While listed as 'lavender' with a purple eye, the lavender sometimes shifts slightly towards pink. But the pattern is prominent, with small spiral arms stretching out from the dark center eye towards the outer edges of the ruffled petals. It's one of my earliest to bloom, but holds the flowers for longer than most. I would recommend it to colder climate gardeners without hesitation.

Country French is another daylily listed as hardy only to zone 5 but which does very well here in my zone 3 gardens. I've had it for 5 years and the winters here do not even faze it.

Whether you call this look 'frosted' or merely 'pastel' this is a reliable bloomer in the gardens. When you see several of the flowers blooming together, it gives me the odd impression that (somehow) I am looking at a bride's wedding bouquet: subtle yet elegant. - Not every daylily in the garden needs to knock your socks off from 100 feet away. If you are looking for a quieter, more peaceful bloom for a quiet reading nook or to set among your roses, this would be it.

Cordial Colors is a newer daylily (only added to the registry in 2018), but there is much to love about it. That blended wash of colours bleeding delicately into each other as the colour transitions from the outer edges in towards the throat through the watermark gives an illusion of an actual watercolour painting in which the pigments have bled through the petals and sepals.

There is the thinnest, hairline thread of white running the outer, ruffled edge that makes you look twice to be sure it's actually there... and that is before you catch the scent from those fragrant flowers that draw you closer.

While it's true that the bud count is lower with Cordial Colors than many others among new daylilies, I absolutely 'LOVE' this daylily. It has moved into my personal 'top 3' favourites among all the daylilies in the gardens: when it is in bloom, you can't take your eyes off of it.

Chick Flick was a gift. I have had it in the gardens for 3 years now and it survives our zone 3 winters beautifully.

In the time that I have had it, it has begun to multiply so that's a bit surprising - in northern gardens, we can go many years without needing to divide our daylilies (I have some clumps that are 20 years old and have never been divided). To see Chick Flick already beginning to produce a larger clump is surprising.

The flowers are on the average / medium range, but what I have noticed is how very sturdy & thick they are (while managing to look delicate) - they have very good substance and strong colour. Even in strong winds or pelting rain, the petals have held up well while nearby daylilies' blooms may be tattered. If I had seen this is someone else's garden, I would have paid good money to add this one to mine. Instead, I got lucky ... very lucky indeed.

While Cherry Burst is noted only to zone 5 for hardiness, I have been growing it successfully in zone 3 for several years. We do get quite a lot of snow here, but that would suggest that even in zone 4 --- with a good winter mulch --- it would likely do well.

This is a very bright burst of colour in the gardens, I can spot it easily from half the garden away. It does boast a nice bud count and yes, because it does bloom early, here in my northern garden I actually do have a rebloom on this daylily ... and reblooming daylilies, in zone 3, are virtually non-existent! If you are in a borderline colder region, I would encourage you to give this one a chance despite its warmer zone listing.

'Pinhill June Sunrise' starts flowering at the end of June (most years) here in zone 3, my earliest daylily to flower in the gardens except for species daylilies. This is a gorgeous daylily, it blooms profusely and puts on a great show every season, flowering for weeks!

I see comments from other gardeners who have had difficulty with this daylily, either in multiplying or in blooming. I have to say, here is zone 3b, my only problem was getting my hands on it... Three times, I ordered it and (3) times I either received a wrong plant or the nursery ran out and cancelled my order.

Another gardener took pity on me and she swapped one of her Wild Horses for a daylily she loved in my gardens. To date, this has thrived here - I divided it, and now have it blooming in two different gardens (wanted to make absolutely certain I would not lose it, now that it's finally here).

As in all of my gardens, the daylily beds are primarily loamy soil with a sandy base down below (beds were created on top of grass areas first smothered by layered cardboard, then topped with compost). Wild Horses was worth the frustration of tracking it down, it's totally gorgeous and absolutely thriving here.

Not everyone seems much interested in daylilies with a tendency to produce polymerous blooms (extra petals / sepals) but 'Daddy's Heart' has been consistent in my gardens for doing so. It polys every year... which sort of rules out 'weather' as a sole factor... though it's still possible weather may contribute to the likelihood.

In July 2020, 'Daddy's Heart' produced poly blooms for 3 consecutive days ... the 27th, 28th and 29th of July, 2020. And on the 28th, it produced (2) different polys on the same plant side by side, one a 4-way poly and the other a 5-way poly.

One has to suspect that polymerous bloom must have a genetic component for 'Daddy's Heart' somewhere in its background.

I've had Rosa rugosa 'Hansa' growing in one corner of my yard since 2014 - an amazing feat in zone 3 gardens, where few roses survive. It blooms reliably every year, the fragrance is very much an 'old-fashioned rose' scent and it tops out a bit under 5 feet (I'm 5 feet 2 inches, and it's about eye-level for me.) Even better, it dislikes pruning and is extremely low maintenance.

This past spring was the first time in seven years Hansa offered up a 1-ft, perfectly-shaped off-spring (inconveniently in the middle of a mowed path). So I severed the connecting root and moved the baby Hansa to a new border bed, where it grew nicely all summer. Unlike several other rugosa roses here, Hansa stays put and does not spread or take over other areas of the gardens.

In zone 3, this is a hardy, well-behaved shrub that offers periodic flowers throughout the summer, after the first flush of blooms has passed... and even with (many) allergies, I can actually smell these flowers. I would recommend Hansa to any cold-climate gardener (where roses are hard to come by).

Kinky Boots is a sport of 'Peek-a-boo Purple' and I suspect the name is probably after the theatre play, "Kinky Boots" which ran on Broadway. (After seeing the play with friends, I had to have its name-sake in the garden.) It stands just over a foot high and spreads to nearly 3 ft. The leaves are narrow and long, a blue-green tone but with ruffled, creamy off-white margins. I especially enjoy the petioles, which stand out in a deep burgundy-purple. Its flowers are a lovely lavender. In my zone 3 gardens, this holds up beautifully all summer and into early fall. I have it in full shade, on the north side of my house - not an easy area to grow in, but Kinky Boots is a winner!

While the vast majority of Forget Me Not (Myosotis scorpioides subsp. scorpioides) will be a lovely sky blue, occasionally in a patch of blue flowers you will see one with pink flowers, or with white. I've successfully taken a white one that's gone to seed, sprinkled the seeds in a separate area, and gotten a small patch of white-flowered Forget-Me-Nots, so these rare colours will produce more of the same.

Arisaema triphyllum, or the wild Jack in the Pulpit - It's of interest to note, although the plant is listed as toxic to cats and dogs, the American Black Bear (native throughout the northeast) is known to dig these plants up and eat the roots.