Now that winter is almost over, I have been reminiscing about the beautiful  daylilies that bloomed last summer. Peak bloom in our area in western Wisconsin  occurred around July 20, 2022. Here are a few photos.

Daylilies pictured include Blueberry Breakfast,  J.T. Davis, Final Destination, House of Misrepresentatives, Dean Corey, Sabine Baur, Time Stopper, Ruby Spider, and Stranger Than Fiction.

Double Delight is one of my favorite perennial companion plants for my daylilies. As long as you cut the spent flowers, it will continue blooming until frost.  It has a compact habit with multiple blooms on each sturdy stem.  They are incredibly drought tolerant and easy to grow.

DETAILS

• Botanical Name Echinacea Conefections™ 'Pink Double Delight' PP18803
• Hardiness Zone 4-9
  
• Light Requirements Full Sun
• Flower Form Large, 3" flowers with a fully double center surrounded by a single layer of petals.
• Foliage Type Mid green leaves, lance-like rough and slightly toothed
• Height/Habit 18 - 24 inches
• Spread 24 inches
• Soil Requirements Average garden soil, well drained
• Will Tolerate Acidic Soil, Clay Soil, Dry Soil, Loamy Soil, Sandy Soil

If you want to make a bold statement in the garden, here is the Oriental lily for you. With 8 inch flowers and an amazing fragrance, Dizzy grows up to 40 inches tall. Oriental lilies can be a little temperamental in zone 4 so I keep mine  planted by my house for extra protection in the winter and make sure it's mulched well. Other than that, Dizzy requires very little  care. I get many comments about how beautiful it is.

Shocking is one of my late season Orienpet hybrid lilies. It is truly a show stopper with its large 6 to 12 inch blooms and heavenly fragrance. Shocking is a cross between an oriental lily and a trumpet lily. It is hardy in zones four through seven, grows 4 and 1/2 feet tall and typically blooms from mid to late July into August. Orienpets like full sun to part shade and they adapt to most soils very well. If you want some big impact in your garden, this stunner is for you!

Toronto is one of my best finds ever! Not far from my office there is a large plant nursery. Needless to say, I spent many lunch hours looking at their plants. At the end of the season they would put out bargain tables. In one particular plant pot there were two solitary sticks poking out of the dirt. There was a plant tag in the pot of a gorgeous Asiatic Lily. I thought I would take a risk and try it out hoping that it wasn't a misplaced plant tag. I was tickled when the plant bloomed the following year and looked even more beautiful than the tag.

I grew Toronto in a flower bed mixed in with daylilies in the backyard. I loved the unusual vibrant color so much that last year we moved it close to our back door. I get so many compliments about how beautiful this lily is.

Have you ever thought about becoming a master gardener? Recently my friend Vonnie earned her certification as a Wisconsin Master Gardener. This is quite an achievement! As a master gardener, she is  knowledgeable about all things related to plants and gardening.

If  being a master gardener is something you may be interested in, here is some information and a website you can go to. It is a very rewarding certification to hold.

How to Join the Master Gardener Program
​#1. Learn about plants and how to take care of them. Participate in an approved learning opportunity from the Wisconsin Extension Horticulture Program such as a county-based in-person course.
#2. An Onboarding course will explain the scope of your role as a Wisconsin Extension Master Gardener.
#3. As a Wisconsin Extension Master Gardener you apply your knowledge and skills educating others and gardening at local organizations. Volunteer service and continuing education are required to be completed and reported each year.
#4. Your involvement will lead to an increase in knowledge and skill in yourself and those your reach. You will use your knowledge of plants to improve lives of others and the community you live in. This, ultimately, will lead to a bigger change in the world around us.

mastergardener.extension.wisc.edu/get-started/

All photos are from Vonnie's home and garden. She grows a wide array of annuals and perennials. And  Vonnie's beautiful cat is named Tipper.

One evening last week my friend Sally came over to help me live-head my day lilies so they would look perfect for the next morning, as I was having some friends over to see my flowers. It's always hard to pluck perfect blooms off, but knowing they live only one day anyway makes it bearable. Sally brought over a bunch of her new blooms after she live-headed at home so I could see them. Some of her new daylilies included Passive Aggressive, Green Arrow, Space Coast Royal Rumble, Underdog, Smoke Scream, Paradise Bar and Grill, and American Muscle, just to name a few. Between the two of us we had lots of beautiful blooms so we decided to make this cute 'I love daylilies' flower image on the grass.

This summer my grandson Blake deadheads my daylilies a few times each week with his Mom and sister. He is so energetic! Secretly I am hoping to instill a of love of flowers in his life. I have to be honest though, he's really much more interested in the John Deere lawn tractor. Nonetheless, I'll keep trying…

When Blake comes over he likes to visit our next-door neighbor's goose named Donald. Donald rides herd over a flock of chickens, keeping them in line. Donald honks and makes a big racket to protect his chickens. Blake first met Donald when he was tiny and has enjoyed visiting him as he's grown up. 

This little gem came from the bargain bin at a local big box store. If I remember correctly, I only paid two dollars for it. Since being planted 'Buff Pixie' has thanked me over and over for giving it a place in my garden. The soft buff-orange sorbet color is so striking that it almost glows in the flower bed. Buff Pixie grows 8 to 12 inches in height. The large blooms look the best in a mass planting. I grow my plant in 100% sun, although it will grow in part sun also. Bloom time is in early summer, before the daylilies start blooming. When I see this Asiatic bloom I know that it won't be long before it's daylily time.

I don't have a good track record with tulips. I can't tell you how many tulip bulbs I have planted over the years –doubles, species, parrot, Darwin hybrids, tall ones, short ones – you name it, they just about all vanish.  The deer love them and the buds would often get eaten before they opened. If that didn't happen, the squirrels, voles, moles, or rabbits either dug up or ate the bulbs before they could grow. My red and yellow tulips are the lone survivors. They aren't fancy, but boy do I love to see their faces every spring. They are tough characters that have somehow defied all odds.

        "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
                                                                                                                       - Robert Bault

Here are some photos of my dear friend Sharon's beautiful perennial garden. As you can see, she loves  the pink and purple color palettes. Daylilies are a predominant part of her garden, but she also has a wide variety of other perennials. Enjoy!

With spring right around the corner, I am already looking forward to seeing this beautiful mini iris. My friend Sally gave me a division of 'Captured Spirit' from her garden about ten years ago.  What a joy this delicate ruffled iris has been! It has reliably bloomed and happily multiplied year after year. Captured Spirit bridges the bloom gap between my daffodils and tall bearded irises.

Captured Spirit is a standard dwarf bearded (SDB) iris hybridized by Hooker Nichols (in Texas) and registered in 1980 as an early bloomer. Registered height for this variety is 13 inches, but mine rarely grows taller than six or seven inches. This may simply be the difference between growing in Texas as opposed to growing in Wisconsin.

If you make sure Captured Spirit gets six to eight hours of sun, has average, well-drained soil and some water it will reward you every spring. It is cold hardy to US Zone 3 (-40 °F to -35).

Dusty Miller is one of my favorite annual companion plants. I love the fuzzy silvery-gray foliage that complements any color of annual or perennial it is planted next to. Occasionally it has reappeared in the same location it grew the year before, but only if our winter was very mild. Dusty Miller grows best where afternoon shade is available during the hottest months of summer. I plant mine in an eastern exposure and it does well. Dusty Miller care is minimal when the plant is established. It is adaptable to many soil types, from acidic clay to sandy loam. Dusty may need a midsummer trim if the plant becomes leggy. Best of all, the lacy leaves are resistant to deer, and rabbits dislike the fuzzy leaves as well, which is an added bonus!

Here are a few photos of the fluorescent marigolds growing by our home. They literally glow in the sun. People don't believe us when we tell them that every single marigold they see has re-seeded itself from last year's flowers. I know it doesn't appear so, but we really did try to thin them out. They have been re-seeding like this for years. I originally bought three or four 6-packs of 'Bonanza Gold' 8-10" marigolds maybe five years ago. They are super hardy and pop up all over, so we relocated a few of the seedlings where we wanted them. We even rescued some seedlings from cracks in the sidewalk. These are some crazy, happy plants!

Tip: We planted marigolds in front of our daylilies so when Fall arrives all the daylily foliage is covered up completely.

Photos by Ange and Jade Anderson

I'm not at all fond of orange ditch lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) as I've spent countless hours digging their invasive rhizomes out of my flower beds, but I'll be the first to admit that they look pretty darn good in roadside ditches.

'Eramosa Skies' is the most unusual colored iris I grow. It's difficult to capture the beautiful light blue-sapphire shade in photos. Visitors to my garden always comment on its unique color. This award-winning Standard Dwarf Bearded (SDB) iris was hybridized by Chuck Chapman (1996) in Ontario, Canada. So with Canadian genetics this iris grows like gangbusters in western Wisconsin. You'd never know this large clump was divided last fall!

My friend Sally gave me a division of Eramosa Skies from her garden about five years ago. It's an awesome border plant that grows up to 13 inches tall. It typically begins to bloom at the end of April or first week in May, depending on the weather. Dwarf bearded irises bridge the bloom gap in my garden between the daffodils and tall bearded irises.

In case you wondered, Eramosa is a township in Wellington County, in midwestern Ontario, Canada. Hence the name 'Eramosa Skies.'

This April I have really enjoyed my deep purple hyacinths. Their fragrance is amazing! Most of them grew about eight inches tall and four inches wide. These hyacinths were originally part of a large plant pot I received filled with a variety of bulbs, including daffodils, tulips, and scilla siberica. This was a perfect gift that truly kept on giving, as I continue to enjoy these bulbs every spring -- and I received them over 20 years ago! I wish I knew what variety the hyacinth is, but oh well.

Introduced in Europe during the 16th century, hyacinths are easy-to-grow spring bulbs that are still popular today (US hardiness zones 4-8). They like six to eight hours of sun each day and soil that drains well. After the bulbs have bloomed, be sure to cut off the flower stalks (not the leaves) to encourage the plants to store energy in their bulbs. Every fall and spring I sprinkle bulb booster fertilizer granules over my bulbs and gently work the granules into the soil. Rain will disperse the fertilizer. Hyacinths are best planted in early fall, about four inches deep and six to eight weeks before the first frost.

Hyacinth bulbs contain oxalic acid, which can cause a skin reaction in some people. If you are sensitive, wear gloves when handling the bulbs. Oxalic acid is also toxic when eaten, so keep your pets away from the bulbs. All kinds of rodents will chew on hyacinth bulbs. An easy organic method to deter them is to interplant hyacinths with daffodils, which rodents tend to avoid.

Hyacinth info from www.thespruce.com
Photos by Jade Anderson