Some remote parts of Northeastern Oklahoma are as primitive today as a century ago when Comanche Indians and buffalo roamed the rocky oak-covered hillsides and verdant valleys. But most of the state is crisscrossed by highways and dotted with thriving towns and cities.
At the western border of the Ozarks, near the junction of the Grand and Arkansas Rivers, is Muskogee, which we consider one of the most progressive and beautiful cities in Oklahoma, and it is here that we have been privileged to live, raise our children, and tend our gardens.
We have plenty of sunshine and abundant water from September into June—our rainy season. However, July and August are dry and hot, and we water regularly to keep lawns green and gardens colorful.
While winters are short, they are severe enough to give our plants a dormant period. As a result, our soil is well-drained, fertile, and rich in humus.
List Of Plants We Grow
There is not enough space for me to list all the plants we grow, but let me mention a few before getting to our daylilies so you can see that we are well-rounded gardeners.
Crocus and Iris’s reticulata bloom in mid-February; daffodils and dwarf iris start in March and continue until April, when hyacinths, tulips, and camassias flower.
Then come the tall bearded, spuria, and Siberian iris. Our major summer color display is from daylilies, which we love not only for their beauty but because they flower in the season of outdoor living and are practical in many garden situations.
We plant daylilies along fence rows, garden paths, and drives. We grow them under trees where the shade is manageable.
We use them on banks and hills where their roots hold the soil against erosion. We plant them in clumps and drifts in herbaceous borders or set them in beds by themselves. And we like to tuck them into pockets between shrubs and evergreens where their flowers, seeking light, turn outwards from the shadows.
We have been too busy raising children for many years to visit other growers and so have bought varieties based on publicized popularity alone.
We read the national garden magazines, The Hemerocallis Join-nal, regional newsletters of the American Hemerocallis Society, and scan the Society’s 100-best symposium, buying new varieties as fast as our budget allows.
We are thrilled when each of the new creations of hybridizers Tom Craig, Dave Hall, Mrs. Nesmith, Carl Milliken, Russell, the Sass brothers, Stout, Wheeler, and others come into flower in our garden for the first time.
Flowering Season Began
Last year our flowering season began with the old favorite Queen of Gonzales, huge yellow-orange flowers on sturdy stems.
Dorothea was the loveliest-eyed variety—orchid lavender eye on light yellow petals; and we were delighted as usual with the display from Milliken’s Colonial Dame, a lovely warm apricot with pale rosy-tan banding on the petals.
Howdy, a striking bicolor with lemon petals, purplish orchid sepals, and Dreamy, with its subdued eye on cream-buff petals, have also done well.
Jack was the tiniest dwarf. Its small ruby-red blooms held just 15” inches above the ground. Jill is about the same size, with russet red blooms.
Lovely little Fancy Trimmins in two shades of Pink were almost as short, and we are anxiously waiting for Elfin to bloom this year, for we understand that it is the smallest of all.
Dwarf Variety
Little Cherub, the only dwarf to make the popularity poll, is handsome in front of our border, where its clear yellow petals shine brilliantly.
Mrs. Lester’s Fairy Wings was the loveliest variety in our garden last year. It is a fairylike pale yellow with a delicate pink tint in the center of the petals. It has a cool green throat, and the petals and sepals are edged with tiny ruffles.
Golden Triangle, yellow, and Jack Frost, pale yellow, were also outstanding last year. At the same time, Kindly Light drew attention from every part of the garden with its long twisted citrus-yellow spidery petals. We also have the Little Taj Mahal, a rich chrome with a deep red-purple eye.
Ebony Prince is a dark maroon with black velvet overlay; Raven is an outstanding satiny red-black with a green throat, and it competes for attention with dark maroon Dark Ages and near-black Bayou Teche.
We also find Black Falcon and Black Prince to be exceptionally good, both deep mahogany reds.
Free-Blooming Crimson-Reds
We love the smaller, free-blooming crimson-reds, such as Royal Ruby, Betsy B, and Queen Esther, finding them indispensable for bedding, as they are covered with bloom.
Naranja remains our best smooth golden orange, and High Noon is the most desirable orange-yellow. Painted Lady, with its huge cinnamon flowers, and Garnet Robe, with its fluorescent shade of glowing red, are tops in quality.
Windsor Tan and Athlone are two of our loveliest blends in soft tan and huffy yellow shades. Brackel is a startling shade of mahogany and brown with a brocade overlay. We love it, but only some people do.
Cathedral Towers is in a class by itself, its soft yellow flowers boldly marked with red-brown pyramids on the petals, the same pattern being lightly traced on the sepals.
Red-purple is supplied by Amherst, Potentate, and the older Purple Waters. Potentate is a satiny red-purple self, even to its stamens and pistils. Amherst is the same color, with a milk-white midrib down each petal.
Carpenter’s Crimson Glory
The reddest red we have is Carpenter’s Crimson Glory. With its myriad blooms, Crimson Pirate keeps us guessing its proper classification. We think of it as a 20” inch dwarf, but some years it blooms larger and grows taller than many a standard variety.
The nearest to baby-ribbon pink in our collection is Pink Dream. Its lovely star-shaped flowers are smaller than many other pinks in our locality, but its color is superb. Salmon Sheen’s wide-petaled amaryllis-like flowers are salmon-pink.
Chloe and Luxor are a lovely pair. The former is a ruffled flower, flushed with golden sepia, while the latter is a buff-yellow pastel, dusted pinkish lavender.
Pinks
Pink Bowknot, a luscious salmon-pink; Pink Damask, a dusty rose-pink; Pink Prelude, a lovely dawn pink self; beautiful pastel Prima Donna, in various shades of buff, copper, and peach; and Ruffled Pinafore, a warm apricot, should be in every garden.
I need to mention pinks and list the most popular Evelyn Claar, a striking salmon pink with a silvery sheen. It is a vigorous, small plant, fine for foreground planting.
Newly Planted Varieties Last Summer
Impatiently we await the flowering season this year to see the new varieties we planted last summer.
Such exquisite varieties are the following:
- Captain Russell
- Coral Mist
- Daafu
- Eyes of Texas
- Mrs. David Hall
- Pearl Shell
- Nantahala
- Quincy
- Ringlets
- Scorpio
- Thumbelina
- Tootie
- Wideyed
- Yellow Rain
Last June, we attended a two-day meeting of the regional Hemerocallis Society, visiting gardens in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Sarcoxie, Missouri. It was the first such meeting we ever attended, and what an eye-opener it was.
Rice’s Garden
In Bartlesville, we found our way to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Rice. Many out-of-state cars were parked out front, and many from Oklahoma, and the garden paths were filled with daylily fans “oohing” and “ahhing,” as well they might, for the garden was designed with loving hands and an eye for exhibition.
All varieties are plainly labeled, and paths lead you to clump after clump of rare and exquisite daylily creations.
We saw so many unusual and beautiful blooms that we listed only the ones we felt were so far ahead of those we now grow that we could not be without them.
High on our list are the following:
- Peggy Schultz, a little flower of light yellow overlaid pale rose with a cool green throat
- Annie Oakley, a super variety of soft buff with a distinctive red eye
- Eyes of Texas, a well-branched greenish yellow with a red eye and green throat
- Pearl Shell, a lovely pastel of amber yellow flushed pale lavender with the bright golden throat
In the Rices’ garden, we first saw David Hall’s Pink Imperial, a wonderful porcelain rose with a large greenish-yellow throat.
The name “Royal Flush” appears in the notes we made that day, but we have been unable to locate it in any catalog or on the lists of new introductions in recent years. Could we have misread the label?
McKeithan’s Garden
Leaving the Rices, we drove a few blocks to the garden of Mr. and Mrs. D. R. McKeithan, where long, narrow beds contained marked clumps of such beauties as David Hall’s Mary Ann, named after the MeKeithans’ lovely young daughter.
It is a delightful shell-pink that deepens in the throat, giving it a banded effect. Here we added Green Shadows, a greenish-yellow self with a deep green throat, and Queen of Hearts, a bright crimson self with a green throat.
Hensley’s Garden
Later we stopped at a new garden belonging to Mr. and Mrs. William A. Hensley, Jr. It contains wide fine varieties and will, in the future, be an added attraction for those viewing the daylily gardens in Bartlesville.
The next morning at nine found us in Sarcoxie at the home of the Allen Wilds, and again we were amazed to find the gardens crowded so early with daylily fans.
We enjoyed row after row of wonderful new varieties and numbered seedlings—the daylilies of tomorrow.
Dean Of Daylily Hybridizers
We had the privilege of meeting David Hall, the dean of daylily hybridizers, who also originated the pink flamingo iris.
Going through the seedling beds, we came on No. 58-181, which, in our opinion, was the loveliest-eyed daylily we had ever seen.
One lady remarked The branching is not so good,” but with all my attention focused on the lovely flowers, I couldn’t help thinking, “Who wants to branch?”
I remember it as a slightly reflexed bloom of creamy white, delicately flushed pink with a lavender-red eye, not a solid splash of color but a series of bars set close together.
Our list grew longer with the addition of Florence Clary, a nice, full, green-throated variety with overlapping petals and sepals of chrome-yellow, their edges stippled cinnamon. Rare China is a lovely blend of yellow and rose with a green throat that extends out into the petals.
The flower is large, full, and slightly recurved. Veiled Beauty, a lovely yellow, is brushed with Pink near the tips of petals and sepals. Top Score, a large light yellow on tall stems, has triangular flowers pinched near the tips.
Angel Halo is the last variety we noted, satiny maize-yellow with a moderate red halo and deep yellow throat.
Back home the next day, we dug out our catalogs and went to work. But alas, most of the varieties on our list were so new they were out of our price range, and we could order only three.
The remaining ones were put on our future consideration list. They should soon enter a range where almost everyone can afford them.
44659 by W. T. Patrick