Written by Lynn on March 9th, 2010
Today the temperature got to 62 degrees. Spring can’t be too far away and I am soooo ready. I was in the yard today with the dogs and couldn’t resist pulling a weed. I didn’t see the thorny branch from a rose bush and got a stab from a hidden thorn. That’s going to smart for a few days as a reminder that it is a bit too soon to be uncovering the plants. I do have some Crocus in bloom already. I’ve found lots of bulbs poking their heads up out of the frozen ground. Yesterday I went with the Master Gardeners to Chicago for the big Flower Show. I brought home some new bulbs to add to my daylily collection and diversify a bit. One is especially interesting called a HARDY ORCHID GLADIOLA . The picture is AWESOME!!!! I bought 6 of those bulbs and want to plant them in several different places in hopes that at least one will have been put in the perfect place to grow and multiply. I will be looking for a new Petunia called “DUSTY ROSE” I saw in one of the display gardens.
Three more weeks and I will go to Virginia to spend 10 days with my web master son and his family. When I get home on the 10th of April it will be time to get into my garden full time. I have picked 10 of my daylilies that will need to be dug then for the Master Gardener Sale on May 1st. HURRY SPRING!!!
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Written by Karen on January 24th, 2010
2010 started over three weeks ago and it’s been real busy around the Lewis household. We left on January 6th to celebrate our 20th Anniversary. Because of a winter storm warning we had to leave for our Caribbean vacation 3 days early. Nine inches of snow fell on central Illinois. We waited out the storm at a Holiday Inn in St. Louis. It was not a great 12 day celebration celebration because the airlines managed to lose our luggage. We had no clean clothes until two days after we returned home when Mike’s bag was delivered. As of today I still don’t have my suitcase. 
It is less than 2 months to the first day of Spring. For the next two weeks I will be participating in the Trademart with other members of the American Hemerocalis Society. It’s a great way to make new friends around the country and to increase my inventory. I sort of promised myself not to buy any new daylilies this winter and so far I have not bought a single one. I must reward myself by trading plants with a few friends. Mike and I hope to go to the Chicago Flower and garden show in March. There are two workshops for Master Gardeners that I plan to attend. There will also be the annual Master Gardener plant sale that I will have to prepare for the beginning of May. I’ll squeeze in 10 days in Virginia with my son and family. Then there is a College graduation in Charleston and a High School graduation in Iowa. By then the garden perennials should be in full bloom and the first of the daylilies will be poking their noses out of the ground. I have one flower bed that needs to be completely redesigned in the back yard and I am thinking of making it a small Rose garden. We lost a Spruce tree in the front yard last year and are thinking KNOCK OUT ROSES might be a good thing to plant in that circle. Lots of planning to do in the next couple months before I can start digging in the dirt again for the new season.
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Written by Lynn on November 28th, 2009
Winter is just around the corner…..Thanksgiving is already past and Christmas will be here before I know it. I swear it comes earlier every year. Not much gardening goes on here in central Illinois in December…actually none at all. I spend my Winter months updating my database that my son, David has built for me. I have a record of all my daylilies, when I planted them, where in my yard they are planted, how big is the bloom, what color is it, when is it expected to bloom, how tall it is and who hybridized it. And most important I have a record of how many I have of each plant. I need to know if I have LOTS…like 20 or 30 of a certain plant or is it a slow increaser and I only have 4 or 5. I am a member of several online lists that share images of our plants. People see my plants and ask about trading or buying them. More than once I have gotten in trouble during the winter months because many people have wanted a plant that I thought I had lots of. One year I promised to send 8 different people a certain plant but only 3 plants came back in the Spring. I had some apologizing to do. I am also a member of 6 different email robins that deal with different aspects of raising daylilies. Through these lists I have made friends all over the world. Several times I have sent dayliliy seeds to collectors in Europe. Then there is this web site I try to keep updated during the winter. All this adds up to lots of computer time.
When I am not involved in gardening, I am a caregiver for the elderly who are still able to live in their own homes. That is a job I do year around and find very rewarding.
In January my husband Mike and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary with a cruise to the western Caribbean. Lots of planning to do for that. I want to wish all of you “HAPPY HOLIDAYS”.
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Written by Lynn on October 13th, 2009
We have already had our first frost. The thermometer said 31 degrees on 10/10 but beside the frost there was also ice on the dogs water dishes. When I let Cocoa and Rosie out that morning, both slid across the icy deck. The weather forecasters – otherwise known as ‘Poorcasters’ – had said it would get down to 40…WRONG! I have brought into the enclosed front porch some of my potted plants in the hopes of getting them to survive over the winter. My Geraniums have gotten so full and I have had success with them on the porch in years past. The Martha Washington Geraniums are so expensive and actually bloom much better on their second year, that putting them on the porch is a great plan.
Last week I did my daylily inventory to update my database and came up with 442 different varieties in my garden. Because I had the rust infestation this year, I did not sell any. I have about 50 varieties that have become huge clumps of close to 20 fans each. The ten biggest clumps will have to be donated and dug for the Master Gardener sale the first Saturday in May. The next ten biggest clumps will be sold at the Annual Route 66 Garage Sale in June. I must admit that those clumps make a huge impression on our garden visitors…..BUT the clumps crowd out their neighbors and must be removed and or divided.
I traded daylilies for Hostas this year and have about 20 new varieties. Unfortunately we had a bad storm that broke off half of the Plum Tree which means I will be minus a bunch of shade next year. I’m not sure I can find enough shade for all my Hosta to be comfortable. I will go into winter with a firm resolution to downsize my daylily flower garden …. I really have to try!
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Written by Karen on September 9th, 2009
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Written by Lynn on September 1st, 2009
Has anyone seen August? I think it passed me by this year. It can’t be September already. That mean Fall is just around the corner.
On the left is ANNIE GO LIGHTLY. It only starts blooming in August and right now still has buds on it – it is a bud builder, which means it might keep adding blooms into September. This is one of the first daylilies I bought nine years ago. The red is a true red and does not fade in the afternoon sun and does not water spot if it rains. The texture of the petals is like velvet, the throat is golden as are the midribs and edges of the petals. When most of the garden is getting ready to go to sleep for the winter, this plants brings life to a corner of my garden close to the deck and the back door.
This has been one of the coolest Summers on record which means that our vegetable garden was not the success we had hoped for ECXEPT for the zucchini. I have taken almost 100 pounds of it to the Food Pantry at the church. It doesn’t care if it hasn’t rained in two weeks, if it rained too much the past two weeks or if the temps have been record lows 4 mornings in a row. If I happen to go more than two days without checking on it, I can be sure to find plants in there that weight 10 – 15 lbs. I have been looking for new recipes to try and made a Chocolate Zucchini Cake yesterday that turned out great, moist and much like brownies. We usually plant only one tomato plant but planted 4 this year. So far we have gotten about 6 tomatoes off of it.
Over the last 9 years I have made lots of daylily ‘buds’/friends. We chat, exchange emails and trade plants. Sounds great to trade 10 new daylilies with a friend until you realize they really aren’t free when you have to pay postage. I mailed 5 packages of daylilies this week and the total shipping charge was $74. That means I will also be receiving 5 packages of new daylilies from those same people I sent to. Anyone out there interested in joining a DAYLILY ANONYMOUS CLUB? I need to hire a gardener to help with the weeding of these 400+ daylilies.
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Written by Lynn on July 24th, 2009
Golly…Gee…Wizz! Where has the time gone? It has been so long since I logged in here, I had to look up my user name and password. It’s no secret that I am a hemeroholic…addicted to daylilies, that is. What other excuse is there for owning over 420 of them. During the blooming season I am in my garden every morning by 6 and often earlier. I have this internal alarm that gets me up when the sun comes up.
Every morning I know there will be even more beautiful blooms than greeted me the day before. Every year is different when it comes to the outstanding ones. On the left is CINNAMON SUNRISE. The bloom on this one is over 6 inches across. The colors are so vivid, the bloom is so perfect, the scapes (stems) are so strong and straight (never needs staking) and it has been blooming since the 29th of June. It has increased to over 10 fans and has been divided several times over the past 4 years. When you first go through my garden gate, this plant demands your attention. I have so many favorite daylilies, I can only say that this is on the top ten list of my favorites. On a sadder note, I have a full blown case of daylily rust in my garden this year. It is a very contagious fungus so I have not been trading or selling for over a month. Next week is a big club sale in Springfield that I look forward to every year. This year I will sit that one out.
On July 7th my sister came to visit from North Dakota. We had two wonderful weeks together visiting daylily gardens, attended two regional meetings in Chicago and Marshaltown, Iowa; and we shopped our way across Illinois and half of Iowa. We spent one whole day in Amish country and brought home four of their Angel Food Cakes. She helped me a lot in my garden and even redesigned a new Hosta bed for me. Next July I will visit her garden and help her prepare for the regional meeting in her area.
Our vegetable garden has been a real learning experience. So far we have not reaped much produce. No tomatoes, lots of Zucchini, a few green beans and no peppers yet. I had no idea two Zucchini plants would support a complete food pantry for the homeless of Logan County. We are getting tired of Zucchini bread and the raw stuff in salad.
Last year I gave away lots of daylily seeds. I’d love to hear from those people and hear how the plants are doing.
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Written by Lynn on June 21st, 2009
It has been about a month since I could get into this site. More computer problems. Fortunately for me, today son, David visited and solved a bunch of my problems and then tonight son, Skip called from Virginia. He was able to find the problems with this blog and fix them. Thanks so much guys!!! I don’t know what I would do now without a computer even though they sure do try my patience sometimes.
So lots has happened since I last posted. We had a garage sale last weekend and sold only plants…no other junk! We did very well as we seem to be developing a following of local flower lovers.
Our daylilies are off and running. Over 80 of our varieties have started blooming. It’s hard to pick a favorite. I have added about 80 new varieties this year and it so exciting to see the new ones. I have updated my database that I have to keep track of my named varieties and find that I now have a collection of 421. Last week I did find evidence of a rust fungus which right now is confined to my seedling bed. I am researching an organic solution. It’s time for the Japanese Beetles and will try Sevin this year as it seems to be the most environmentally safe. I will soon be adding some new images to my photo gallery now that I am able to log back into that site.
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Written by Lynn on June 7th, 2009
I have something new in my garden this week. I saw this DATURA plant pictured in a Spring Hill catalogue and thought it was very pretty, so I ordered three. One is blooming, one has buds and the other died. I am so happy with this one that is blooming, I am tempted to order one of every size and color. I LOVE IT! Since I have never grown it before, I need to be patient and see how it does for the rest of the summer. Of course I am hoping it will bloom like this for at least a couple months. I have it in a 5 gallon container and am wondering if I should have planted it in the ground.
I now have 8 daylilies in bloom. The plant on the right is called REBECCAH MARIE. We had 48 degrees for morning low temps 2 days this week and I don’t think they like that too well. I have been taking inventory this week in prepration for a huge county Rummage sale next weekend and plan to sell at least 10 of my daylilies and some of my house plants. It will make for a busy week.
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Written by Lynn on May 25th, 2009
I think 6 of my 10 Clematis are in bloom this week. The one on the left is called NELLIE MOSER and this is the first I have seen it in bloom. I had one of this kind in the front yard but I think it did not like the afternoon sun. This one was planted last summer but when it was only a foot high, a rabbit or other critter bit it off at the crown. I was surprised to see it come back after such brutal treatment. I especially enjoy the Clematis becaus
e most of the varieties bloom for about a month unlike so many other perennials that only bloom for a couple weeks.
I have 3 varieties of Poppies and they are in bloom this week. The one on the left has been in my garden for about 5 years now. The bloom is about 8 inches across and it has self seeded itself. The color is so bright I can see it from across the yard.
A neighbor is no longer able to garden but had her son plow up a portion of her former plot for Mike and I to use. It will be our first attempt at vegetable gardening. So far this rainy holiday weekend we have planted green beans, beets, cucumbers and 3 kinds of green peppers. We have 4 kinds of tomatoes but have not been able to get them planted yet.
Lots of daylily scapes are showing this week so we are getting real close to bloom season. The Tall Bearded Iris are finishing their bloom season. I need to drastically reduce that inventory and will sell them for $1 each. Contact me for more info on those plants.
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My plan tonight is to talk about my first vegetable garden….even though I have added images of a couple of my favorite daylilies. Over the years I have occasionally planted a tomato plant or two but this year an elderly neighbor, Grace, was unable to plant her garden and told me I could use her garden area if I wanted. We planted a row of beets and only one plant came up. I planted two kinds of green beans and both did barely OK. We had enough to eat and I have 3 quarts in the freezer. We planted 3 different kinds of green pepers that came out being very HOT…so all of those (approx 
went to the food pantry. We planted 2 Zuchinni plants that just won’t give up. I think we have donated close to a hundred pounds to the Pantry and I have been making Zuchinni Choc Cake, Zuchinni Bread and Zuchinni quiche. Our tomatoes have been slow to produce but finally I have tomatoes once a week that I can freeze. Grace had an old double wash tub and she thought we should try to grow cucumbers in it. We put 4 plants in it and have gotten only a dozen or so cucumbers from them. They are the seedless kind and are very good.
Grace raised 8 children and is used to having a vegetable garden every year. Her pride and joy has been her yellow beans that she has grown since childhood. The beans were from her grandfather (Grace is 96 yrs old) and every year she plants them and lets some go to seed. Those beans don’t know when to quit. They vine on a fence and when they are ready to pick, I can fill a very large shopping bad in less than 30 minutes. I have about 15 quarts in the freezer and have donated many bags to the Pantry plus gifted them to all my friends and relatives…and they are far from finished producing. It has been a wonderful experience for Mike and I. We are hoping that the plot will be available again next year.