This little guy hangs out with me while I garden. He relaxes in the bark mulch while I work, watches me, talks to me, and stalks grasshoppers. I don't even know his name, but I call him "Canny-Kitty" because he reminds me of a black cat I had when I was in college that I named "Canny." He lives at the farm across the road, but I like it very much when he visits and patrols our perimeters. There are a ton of field mice around here and when the mice are not inhabiting our garage, I'm happy.

When Canny-Kitty is not in my garden, I have seen him sitting/climbing up in trees and and on top of dirt piles. He also has a favorite tree stump to sit on and watch everything go on around him. He's a definite free spirit, and I'm glad he chooses to spend some of his time with me.

Really! These blooms are both from the same plant-- the daylily 'Substantial Evidence!" The first photo was taken early in the morning and the second photo was taken late in the afternoon. But you get the gist -- the flowers of this daylily transform; almost like a change of clothes! It is amazing to watch the flower morph from one form to another during the day.

Substantial Evidence is unlike any other daylily that I have. It grows 33" tall and has a flat 6" bloom. When you touch it, it hardly even feels like a flower! This unusual daylily was hybridized by Richard Norris from Ohio and introduced in 2005. So far there are 19 registered child plants from Substantial Evidence including "Pigment of Imagination," "Ida Mae Norris," and "Evidence of Aliens."

Because of the thick, waxy flower substance, it always looks perfect -- in either its AM or PM form. Substantial Evidence is oblivious to weather!

Road trip! Early yesterday morning my friends Mary, Sally, and I drove to Bobbi Johnson's open garden/plant sale just outside of Tomah towards Oakdale. Bobbi has a HUGE field that has hundreds and hundreds of daylilies rowed out. The field was once a former vegetable garden. The 'former vegetable garden' scenario sounded quite familiar to me, as I'm sure it does for many other daylily addicts who no longer have vegetable gardens.

You have to know that a huge field with countless daylilies was equivalent to putting the three of us inside of a candy store! We started out systematically following the rows, but quickly got sidetracked when we saw something we liked a few rows over. Pretty soon we were all over the place, lost in our own little daylily worlds. It was peak bloom and the flowers were so beautiful. Bobbi has every size, shape, and color available and could easily answer any question we had about the flowers. We were in heaven.

What a fun morning! We had some great conversation and laughter in the car, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and each brought home a daylily (or three) to remember the day.  Now comes the challenging part...finding a place to put them.

'Waxed Legs' is one of my new daylilies that is quickly becoming a favorite this season. Last Thursday sealed the deal. After the torrential rain/mini-hail we received, nearly all of my early-blooming daylilies looked really beat on and ripped apart by the heavy downpour. But not Waxed Legs! The flower has a waxy, thick substance that feels like 'pleather' -- a plastic fabric that imitates leather. And it glitters! (The daylily term for this is 'diamond-dusted.') A typical flower is 13" in diameter (dinner plate size) and it grows 42" tall. You can't possibly miss this lime green beacon when it's blooming in the garden.

Waxed Legs is a 'spider' daylily. According to the American Hemerocallis Society, the definition of a spider is a flower whose petal length is four times the petal's width or more. I can only imagine how stunning this daylily will be as it multiplies into a large clump over time.