Daylilies Anyone?

If you have ever planted daylilies, then you know how prolific they are.  If you have never planted them,  just try one in a small area and watch what happens.  If they like the spot they are planted in step back, because they are going to increase in number faster than you can imagine.  The name daylily identifies the length of the bloom, one day.  The roots have little growths on them which probably have a biological name, but they look like elongated peanuts and may be called buds.  This is their progeny and they seek to leave home more than any disconteded teen ager.  They do not go far, they spread all around the mother plant.  I happen to have a huge number of them which are double orange.  A few years ago I filled the trunk of my car with bags of them to take to a county agent who grows them, possibly at  his farm.  Even with all I took to him, they are all back again.  If not divided every few years, they are not happy and stop blooming.  Maybe some inner clock says, no more children.

Today I had a great helper, my son-in-law, Jim.  With a shovel and strong arms and some doubt he began to dig these plants for me.  I have a curved stone wall at a turn in my road.  I had planted daylilies, along with other plants inside of the stone wall which circumscribes this garden bed.  Now, their children had left home and spread all outside the rocks, too close to the road.  Jim was afraid if he dug them it would undermine the rock wall.   I had a different view, so he plunged ahead and in a very short time we had a huge pile of day lilies, along with some iris which like to do some traveling of their own.  I put them in a large yellow plastic tub and also in some plastic garbage bags.  My daughter wanted to plant them in their garden in Norcross.  Jim is a most accomidating husband so he will be digging a new home for these plants where his wife wants them.

Oh, if only the work stopped there.  Now, I have the chore of weeding inside of this bed.  A lot of Black Eyed Susans are experiencing too much growth so they need room to spread around.  Unfortunately the wild honeysuckle likes the inside of this bed.  So, it is up to me to show who is in charge of this garden bed.  Somewhere in there is a Cherokee Rose bush, whose future depends upon my work.

I hope I have not discouraged anyone from planting daylilies.  There are so many different varieties of them and each one is prettier than the next.  They really are a joy to own, even if they tend to need some dividing every few years.  Any that Jim did not take home, I can always take to the church rummage sale as freebies for folks coming to buy.