Don't panic when I mention the word "teeth" -- no dentists involved here.  I'm talking daylily teeth. Teeth are all the rage in daylily hybridizing. In fact, many hybridizers breed specifically for teeth. Pictured is my daylily named "Puffer Fish," which displays a good example of teeth. As you can see, the petal edges are full of spiky little yellow teeth. Even the sepals have a few tiny sharky teeth. This fancy daylily is a dormant tetraploid; very hardy and fuss-free. It's also a 'mid-season-late' bloomer which is also a desirable trait. Puffer Fish was hybridized by Jamie Gossard and registered in 2006. Many of his awesome daylily introductions have teeth.

The late Brother Charles Reckamp (from the Chicago area) was one of the pioneers that first hybridized daylilies with teeth almost 50 years ago. Brother Reckamp's daylily genetics are found in many of today's cutting edge "teeth" dayliles (no pun intended). Of course, today's hybridizers have taken daylily teeth to an entirely new level with some of their latest introductions.

Loving words as I do, I get caught up in the many creative daylily names with teeth references. For example: "Buzz Saw," "White Fang," "I Wanna Piranha," "Deadliest Catch," "Riding a Chainsaw," "Venus Flytrap," "Swimming with Sharks," and "Vampire's Bite." Not only are the daylilies innovative, but so are their names.

Over the winter I have renewed my relationship with a long-lost friend--Ibuprofen. Due to overzealous landscaping last fall, I have been dealing with a cervical disk that is supremely unhappy. Why-oh-why do I do these things to myself? It's been a winter of Ibuprofen, physical therapy, neck traction, and lots of ice. Imagine wearing an ice pack around your neck four times a day while it is 10 degrees below zero outside. Unhappy face.

What I take away from this:
* Patience, patience, and more patience
* Injuries hurt even more when you inflict them upon yourself
* The physical therapy department has awesome coffee
* It's okay that it's snowy and cold outside
* And finally, when something hurts, don't ignore it and keep working!

Hopefully, with the gift of time and a rigorous physical therapy regimen,  I will be outside, happily gardening come April. Until then....aaarrrgh!

January is a perfect time to visit a garden and see some colors other than white outside. Let's pretend it's July and go on a tour of my dear friend Sandy's garden.

I admire Sandy's mindset--she has a 'laissez-faire' approach to gardening. If an unexpected plant shows up where it isn't necessarily wanted, Sandy embraces and nurtures that. This relaxed attitude gives her gardens the warm and inviting charm of a cottage-style look. There are interesting elements all over her gardens -- vines tumbling from a trellis and growing happily onto a bush, a relaxing water fountain, bird baths, bird houses, hummingbirds zooming around from flower to flower, wonderful fragrances, wind chimes gently singing in the breeze, and every color of the rainbow popping up here and there. A dedicated daylily bed grows in Sandy's yard, but she also has a love for just about anything green - perennial or annual.

Cars driving by that slow down to appreciate the flower gardens in her front yard, and neighbors stopping to take a closer look have become a commonplace occurrence. Just don't let that sly roaming gnome (pictured below) out of your sight.

The daylily, that is -- this "Cheddar Cheese" is completely fat-free. Just out of curiosity, I searched the American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) database and found 36 daylilies with "cheese" in their name. ("Blue Cheese Please," "Cheese Curls," "Cheesehead," "Quackers and Cheese," "Raspberry Banana Cheesecake," and "Spacecoast Cheese Whiz" just to name a few.) Since what we eat can evoke a pretty picture, a good smell, a time, a place, or a happy memory, it's no wonder favorite foods are a popular name choice.

Naming daylilies is a big deal. A 9-page PDF resides on the AHS site with the official do's and don'ts for daylily registration. So with each daylily name there is much research and thought given. A chosen name goes through a registration committee for approval. To date, there are over 81,000 registered daylilies, each one with a different name!

Cheddar Cheese, the daylily, is very striking. The waxy texture of the 6+inch ruffly flowers keep it looking fresh from sunup to sundown. The vibrant cheesy-colored blooms on this big, tall plant command your attention from a distance, especially in a large clump. The deep green foliage accentuates the cheddar-hued flowers, setting off the dainty olive green throat.  And it's an early bloomer, usually in full bloom by the end of June or beginning of July depending on the season. Cheddar Cheese was hybridized in Ohio by John Benz. Keeper!

Red isn't my first choice color - not for clothes, not for cars, not for paint colors inside my house. And it's no different with daylilies. Garden stats verify this - my daylily garden is a measly 12% red. I just don't gravitate to that color, but as you can see by the photo there are some beautiful reds to be had. When I purchase daylilies I always have to consciously tell myself, "I WILL get reds, I WILL get reds." Once I have them I really like them--even love them! How could a garden possibly be without "Red Volunteer" or "Chicago Apache," two outstanding old-school reds? Or "All American Chief?" The vivid reds really complement and punctuate the yellows, oranges, dark purples, and cremes, so they are an important part of the garden color scheme. I just have to make it a point to get them. Note to self (yet again): Mo' reds!

Daylily pictured: "Tuscaloosa"- In addition to the prolific bloom, I love the white-ish colored buds on this daylily.