As much as I love my daylilies, Picky-Patty-Me harbors a few pet peeves. Here are my top ten:

• Daylilies that multiply too fast. Sounds crazy, right? Truth is, I get tired of dividing the same plant every year or so, and then trying to re-home the discards. (Why can't I just throw them in the ditch?) At one point in time, I'm pretty sure every friend I've ever had received a division of 'Mary Todd.'
• Blooms that have poor substance and slick-off in the sun (wet, slimy blooms).  In my 100% sun yard that calls for instant removal.
• Scapes that droop and/or fall over. I refuse to prop up any plant in my garden. Away you go!
• Daylily bloom petals that canoe (when the flower petals turn inwards) Ick!
• A cultivar that puts out exceptionally beautiful blooms alongside of inconsistent blooms. Why put up with that? There are thousands and thousands of daylilies available that always have consistent, beautiful blooms; those are the ones I keep.
• Some daylilies have roots that are so densely woven together and tangled up that I have had to resort to a small saw to get divisions!  It must be genetics, because most daylily roots are not saw-worthy.
• Daylilies that periodically send out traveling roots to new fans that are far away from the mother plant. Then Picky-Me has to dig out the traveling fan to keep the plant contained in its allotted garden space.
• Plants that bloom inside of their foliage instead of above the foliage.
  
• Ratty foliage. Enough said.
• Daylilies that exhibit scape blasting. I've had some cultivars that routinely did this every year. I've said goodbye to all of them but one, and that daylily (Virginia B. Hanson) is so perfect in all other aspects that she gets a pass.

Here are some of my experiences that make up the ever-present irony of daily life. Do any sound familiar?

1. Good news....free samples of pizza at the grocery store
   Bad news...it's 'breakfast' pizza - no wonder they give it away
   
2. Good news...the grocery store offers an insanely cheap price on an item
   Bad news...you have to buy 10 of them to get the cheap price
3. Good news...you are given a *free* car wash token
   Bad news...while going through the car wash,  your rear windshield wiper gets ripped off, never to be seen again
   
4. Good news...while shopping you finally locate a public restroom
   Bad news...there's not a shred of toilet paper to be found anywhere
   
5. Good news...it's Saturday
   Bad news...your alarm clock woke you up at 5 am because you, while on auto-pilot, activated it the night before
6. Good news...you are having friends over for dinner
   Bad news...you forgot to press start on the dishwasher full of dirty dishes
7. Good news...a dog-walker dutifully carries their plastic bag
   Bad news...when his dog did the deed, the dog-walker did a 360 to see if anyone noticed; he assumed no one did and continued on his way. The plastic bag must have been a fashion accessory.
   
8. Good news...you spent $150 at the grocery and replenished every item you wanted
   Bad news...except for the one item you desperately needed to make your evening meal
9. Good news...you bought ten beautiful perennials you couldn't resist
   Bad news...not one empty space was available in your garden
10. Good news...gasoline prices are at an all-time low
    Bad news...you're 'sheltering at home' and your travels are limited

I'm often glad I live out in the country, because I'd be the first to admit that I can get very distracted while outside gardening. I sometimes find myself just sitting still with my eyes closed so I can hear the birds, feel the wind in my hair, or enjoy the warm sun on my face. If I had close neighbors they'd probably wonder what I was doing.

Weeding, after all, is not the most rewarding garden activity. I can easily be distracted from weeding -- fill that bunny hole, stomp down that mole tunnel, remove the Japanese beetles from my plants, or run to get my camera or phone to capture that perfect photo I can visualize. Some days (or should I say most days) weeding can take way longer than expected.

But I don't think that's a bad thing; it's all part of what we enjoy about the garden experience. And on a positive note...it's great for your well-being.

Pictured: Daylily 'Grey Witch'

If you talk, sing, or play music to your plants, will they respond? Does it help them grow?

I read an interesting article "The Intelligent Plant" written by Michael Pollan and published in The New Yorker. According to the article, plants have the ability to sense and react to the world. For instance, when plants were played a recording of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf, they reacted by secreting a defensive chemical, just as though they were threatened. Pollan also states that plants can sense gravity, the presence of water, and can adjust/shift the direction of growing roots when it senses there is an obstruction (a rock, perhaps).

The Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters explored the possibility that plants respond to sound and/or speech. They set up seven greenhouses, four of which were equipped with stereos playing looped recordings. Two were of negative speech, while two were of positive speech. The fifth greenhouse had classical music playing, while the sixth had heavy death metal. A seventh greenhouse, set up as the control, had no music. The team found that the plants in the four greenhouses with recordings grew faster than the control plants with no music, but the plants in the greenhouses with music grew even faster than the negative and positive speech. Surprisingly, the plants in the greenhouse exposed to heavy death metal music grew the best of all!

Bottom line: Talk and sing to your plants; complain, yell, and scream...just don't give them the silent treatment.

New Yorker article "The Intelligent Plant"
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/23/the-intelligent-plant
Discovery Mythbusters (Episode #23 aired November 15,  2004)

Pictured: Daylily 'Black Falcon Ritual'

Recently I passed by a home that had a ginormous resin cow in the front yard. The homeowner had tied a chain around the cow and wrapped the chain around a tree trunk with a padlock. Cows are big here in Wisconsin! This is yard art at its best!

You've all seen yard whimsy gone wild, yes? It's that yard that has one too many flamingos and somehow crosses the invisible line between tasteful and tacky. It stops you in your tracks to gape at in disbelief. Thoughts I ponder when I see yard whimsy gone wild:

• How do the homeowners cut the grass? Clearly, in many cases, a lawnmower isn't an option. Do they just go around the entire yard with a weed-whipper?  I once saw a man on his hands and knees trimming his yard with a hand clipper so as not to disturb his yard art.
  
• Can there be too much of a good thing?
• Does the inside of the home resemble the whimsy-fest that's happening on the outside?
• Rock on yard whimsy! Keep the smiles coming :) Wouldn't life be boring if we all liked and did the same thing?
  

Garden slip-ups are, without a doubt, one of the easiest topics for me to write about since I have single-handedly made just about every blunder that a gardener possibly could. As I've mentioned in earlier blogs, I did not grow up in a gardening family; my love of perennials came unexpectedly out of left field. Without a mentor I learned to garden by the trial-and-error method. Some of my gardening ideas worked (luck), but many others were an epic fail. It was then that I borrowed books from the library. The gardening books helped me achieve a much better outcome. And why is it that we never read instructions until we screw up or can't figure something out? Human nature, I guess.

Here are a few of the things I've learned (the hard way):

1. Pay attention to the actual width and height of a mature plant listed on the plant tag. Failure to do this causes extra work. The plant is no longer cute when it's massive and crowding out all the other adjacent plants.
2. Pay attention to the hardiness zone on the perennial plant tag. I live in Zone 4B and often see Zone 5 perennials for sale in our area. When buying plants, don't be swayed by a pretty face. Yes, they may survive during a mild winter or perhaps they will do okay if planted in a protected place, but don't expect them to stick around for the long haul. If you do buy out-of-zone, consider the plant an annual from the get-go so you're not heartbroken when it dies.
3. Pay attention to the sun exposure on the perennial plant tag. Here's specifically what these terms mean in terms of actual numbers -- very important!
   *  Full sun - More than 6 hours of direct sunlight.
   *  Part sun - 4-6 hours of direct sunlight. Afternoon sun is usually better (hotter).
   *  Part shade - 4-6 hours of direct sunlight. Morning sun is usually better (less hot)
   *  Shade - Less than 4 hours of direct sunlight.
4. Resist impulse buying. Before I buy anything, my rule is that I must have a place to put it. Cramming a plant anywhere doesn't do it justice, or the plants that already live in the flower bed you are cramming it into.
5. Planning ahead is best practice and really does save extra work down the road. If you don't want to do it twice, plan ahead.
6. Steer clear of walnut trees - There are several walnut trees surrounding our property. Their roots produce a substance called juglone that can be toxic to many plants. Luckily, my daylilies aren't bothered, but many of my other plants have a major problem with juglone. Also, be careful not to let walnut leaves sneak into your compost.
   
7. Never get lazy about spraying deer deterrent. You can't ever be too tired...it only takes one evening for a few deer to take out an entire flower bed full of blooms you've waited all year to see.
   

Daylily pictured: Grey Witch

Grateful living is happy living. Every year at this time I like to take time to reflect on things that made me smile or feel grateful over the past year. Here's my list:

• Buying an item at a garage sale and a week later finding a gift card tucked inside. After checking the balance online, it was never used! Regretfully, after going to 20+ garage sales seven days prior, I was clueless  as to which house it came from. So all I can say is "Much obliged indeed!"
• Being able to have some great laughs! And a laugh is so much better when I can get it at my husband Ange's expense. I must preface this story by saying that our four-year-old grandson is obsessed with bodily functions, especially burps and farts. Since Ange is just a grown-up version of a four-year-old, he downloaded a 'fart app' on his iPhone which our grandson L-O-V-E-S. Here's the funny part; after Ange and I spent an afternoon with our grandson, on the way home we stopped at an evening garage sale. You're familiar with pocket-dialing? Well, while Ange was looking at garage sale items (in a small garage filled with people), the iPhone fart app activated in his pants pocket, and the volume was not low. You should have seen the people scatter!
• Receiving an unexpected gift of an entire pound of high-end chocolates from a specialty shop in Oshkosh. Definitely my guilty pleasure! I ate nothing but chocolates that evening for dinner. Best.meal.ever.
• My eight-year-old granddaughter asked me if I was aware of the fact that by the time she's a teenager, I would probably be dead. You gotta love this girl :)
• Getting the gift of a perfect September day that coincided with a day off from work. The local weather had forecast thunderstorms and rain all day, when in fact it turned into a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 70s. Gardening heaven!
• Finding a division of a daylily I had admired in my friend's garden potted up and sitting by my car at the end of a work day.
• Our brother-in-law is a rock star. After two brain surgeries, lung cancer, chemo, radiation, and heart bypass surgery (all in the course of a few years) his sense of humor and resilience is nothing short of amazing. He also makes me think twice before complaining about anything.
• I know this will be hard to believe, but before 2018 I had never seen the sitcom 'Friends.' So over a six-month period I watched the entire ten seasons on Netflix. The best part was that every single episode made me laugh! And who doesn't need a happy place to go to at the end of the day?
• Ange and I have had the same card-playing group for over 20 years. Cards have become quite comical as of late. We are spending more and more of our time figuring out who dealt last, who laid down the last card, and who the heck snuck Canadian money into the pot. Thankfully, none of this interferes with having a guaranteed good time with lots of laughter.
• Finally, I'm so grateful that Ange always takes time to help me out in the garden. He says he hates flowers, but just between us, I kind of think he's playing me.

Pictured above: Minneapolis sophisti-cat 'Sophie,' a shelter rescue who now lives the life of a princess

The human eye can distinguish between millions of different colors. Regardless of whether you are familiar with color theory or color wheels, most gardeners just know or feel when certain color combinations work together and other combinations don't. And much of that 'know-or-feel' has to do with personal preference. Some gardeners love the monochromatic look (all white flowers, for instance), while others may just plant pastels, or perhaps vibrant oranges, yellows and reds. Any of these looks can be very appealing. Your garden visitors may think it was pure luck that the colors, sizes and shapes all go together and look great. I'll admit there are moments of serendipity when perfectness just happens, but most of us gardeners work very hard to have our plants play nicely together.

Every summer I run around the garden picking blooms and comparing them with other blooms, trying to determine which color combos go together best. This is why I juggle plants around every fall; I keep trying to make what I think looks good, better. For this reason I keep detailed information about every plant that I grow, including each plant's size, bloom time (start-to-finish), bloom size, and color. So in addition to my personal preferences, I use data to help me make decisions. And herein lies the challenge...even when you have all of this information at your disposal, Mother Nature provides variances. You can make an educated guess about what you think should happen, but ultimately she holds the reins! That being said, Mother Nature never stops me from continually trying to get it right.

Pictured: Daylily 'Spacecoast Cherries and Cream' with its companion 'Echinacea Double Delight'

After a long winter, which continued through the month of April, gardening in Wisconsin proves to be an exercise in delayed gratification. And there's nothing whatsoever I can do -- Mother Nature has the reins. My job is to move the plants around, get rid of the weeds, add mulch, and wait. Looking around the garden, I see lots and lots of scapes, but hardly any flowers yet. Is it really the end of June? The *wait* part is getting harder and harder by the day. So it looks like delayed gratification isn't my only issue; add whining to the list!

Pictured is my old faithful 'Moonlit Masquerade,' one of only four daylilies blooming in my yard on June 24.

The great thing about growing daylilies is that no matter what your income level is, you can find one to fit your budget. There are so many exceptional daylilies available that you can purchase for $10 and under. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are trend-setting daylilies you can buy for up to $300. After a daylily has been out on the open market for a while, the purchase price gradually decreases over time as new cultivars are introduced each year.

When I was first bitten by the daylily bug my kiddos were in elementary school. At that time I remember feeling guilty that I spent more money than I should have on a daylily. Should I have bought school clothes instead? I ultimately decided that the new daylily made me a happier Mom. How's that for rationalization?

Although I'm still not in a place to afford triple-digit daylily prices, that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm by any means. I just have to wait a little longer to get what's on my wish list. As it stands right now, I am perfectly happy getting the seven and eight-year-old daylilies. As each year passes, hybridizers come up with more and more innovative, cutting-edge daylilies. Consequently, there is always yet another daylily that I must have -- it's a never-ending cycle.

Pictured: Daylily 'Signs and Wonders.'  At the time I bought this pretty, it was my biggest splurge to date. Sorry? Not really.