Gardens are loveliest when they are planned to have a succession of blooms. Then they are continually interesting, with the flowers of one plant immediately following or overlapping the bloom of another.
But, on the other hand, they are not gardens devoted to one plant with a bloom for only a fraction of the year.
This idea is not original—the Greeks and Romans knew of it. But it was new to me several years ago, for I was an iris fancier.
My friends, iris fanciers like myself, grew nothing but iris. When in bloom, our gardens were big slices of heaven, but they were drab and uninteresting for the other eleven months of the year.
Visiting The Fairmount Garden
My reformation came in 1939 when I visited the Fairmount Gardens in Lowell, Massachusetts, at both iris and hemerocallis time. There, Mrs. Thomas Nesmith had planted iris and hemerocallis in the same display beds.
I noticed that when the iris were in bloom, the chimps were separated by the highly decorative hemerocallis foliage. The iris foliage was not too noticeable when the hemerocallis was in bloom. And this combination gave her three months of bloom.
Replanting Iris Display Beds
So in 1940, I replanted my iris display beds and placed hemerocallis in the middle. But I had many beds and few hemerocallis to put in them, for I had purchased quality and not quantity.
I had secured all of Mrs. Nesmith’s latest introductions, including:
- DAWN PLAY
- PERSIAN PRINCESS
- BOLD COURTIER
- PETRA
- CANARI
- GLOWING GOLD
- MOROCCO RED
- PURPLE AND GOLD
- ROYALTY
- Dr. Stout’s ROSALIND
And I had several young plants from seed secured from the late Dr. Leon H. Leonian. So, as I needed more daylilies in a hurry, the natural solution was for me to hybridize and raise seedlings of my own.
Starting My New Garden
The first generation produced interesting plants, but the second generation of daylilies gave me some worth naming. I also had several hundred more that were well worth saving for landscaping.
This was important because, in 1948, I had started “the new garden,” and I needed daylilies for its development. I had also become interested in daffodils, so now all three flowers were utilized.
This new garden is without seasons; the daffodils bloom in early April, the iris in May, and the hemerocallis in June continue until mid-August.
Old and New Garden
The new garden, adjoining my older gardens on two sides, is 75’ feet wide by 220’ feet in length. The situation offered endless possibilities for development as it sloped southeast and gave views of the Lower Bay of New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean.
I laid out long beds with flagstone walks between them to utilize this ocean view. The beds curved both at the beginning and end to connect with the older garden to the south. These display beds were originally 6′ feet in width but were later enlarged to 8’ and 10’ feet.
Iris were planted in front of a 42-inch square, so it was possible to plant three rhizomes of four varieties in one square.
Irish and English Daffodils
Between these squares, also in front, were planted my choice of Irish and English daffodils. They were given a space of 36” inches in front but only a depth of 24” inches so that I could plant a choice of hemerocallis behind them.
This broke up the monotony of a continuous iris planting. Then, in the back of all of these, I planted two rows of hemerocallis seedlings, and when I widened the beds, I could repeat the daffodil and iris planting on the other side.
This idea of long and wide beds is not always feasible in a small garden. But I have smaller beds in other parts of my garden that are seldom more than 3’ feet deep. These usually have daffodils in front and hemerocallis in the back.
Provide Enough Space
In making new beds or replanting older ones, I would caution you not to plant too closely; the iris needs space and demands air circulation. Daffodils planted between them permit the air to circulate because the daffodil foliage dies down in early July.
Daylilies have hundreds of small feeding roots and must not be planted too close to the iris, which might steal their food.
Consequently, if one wants a fine display of daffodils, iris, and hemerocallis in one bed, the plants cannot be crowded. Remember that quality and not quantity yield the best dividends.
Using Hemlocks
In this new garden, I used hemlocks, both as a windbreak and a background planting. I prefer a green background for displaying flowers, and the hemlocks also give height to the garden.
Roots of trees, if planted too close to garden beds, will compete with the plants for food, and trenching or annual root pruning with a spade will be necessary.
Hemerocallis Seedlings
Growing hemerocallis seedlings on Staten Island seems to be a more difficult proposition than elsewhere. I always plant my seeds in cold frames so that they require no care over the winter.
Iris seedlings can be transplanted in late Jane, and usually, 90% percent of them will bloom the following year. But not so with hemerocallis.
The plants are small and do not make sufficient root growth in the open ground to anchor themselves during our open and mild winters.
To avoid their heaving in the alternating freezes and thaws, I replant them for an additional year in cold frames. And, naturally, I must wait an additional year for blooms.
Hemerocallis are, in my estimation, the most nearly ideal flowers to use in the garden. No matter what kind of garden you have or what kind of soil, hemerocallis will give the most bloom during the summer months and for the greatest length of time of any perennial.
They also require the least attention. Some daylilies start to bloom with the iris, others not until late July.
They usually open in the morning and continue for a day. The evening blooming daylilies open in the evening and give 24 hours of bloom.
Daylily Varieties
New daylily varieties have so many buds on a stalk that a dump remains in flower for at least three weeks. And because the varieties do not all start to bloom together, the season should spread over at least two and a half months.
Some plants even bloom again in the fall. This is not important here on Staten Island, for the second blooms do not develop properly or have their true colors, but farther south, it lengthens the blooming season.
Daylilies now come in practically all colors and all kinds of shapes, so if one likes a definite styling, it can be supplied. In my iris garden, I prefer lighter colors and use dark ones only as accent points.
But dark-colored hemerocallis is not objectionable, and many can be used, for they give character to the planting if soft yellows, oranges, bright reds, and pinks are also used.
Pink Damask
I particularly like a new pink created by James Stevens called PINK DAMASK. This is a luster pink, and I believe there is nothing like it in existence today. It is medium height and therefore does not have many flowers on a stalk.
But this deficit is made up by the many bloom stalks in a clump so that there is always an abundance of bloom. Pink Damask should be planted as a focal point in the garden for, as Robert Baker Wynee says, it has “that certain something more.”
Develops Proliferation
Sometimes after blooming, hemerocallis develops proliferations. These are miniature hemerocallis and occur where the branches join the stalk.
They quickly send out roots, and it is possible to root them and have duplicates of the original plant.
Last fall, I had 30 deliveries on Nesmith’s POTENTATE. All of which I was able to root. This is the easiest way of propagating, but unfortunately, not all expensive varieties produce these growths.
If the proliferation occurs in early summer. I usually break them off when the roots arc 1/2-inch long. They are placed in manure pots in which vermiculite but not soil has been added. Then they are stacked in an old 11 X 14-inch enamel developing tray which always has some -water in it.
Thus the manure pots are continuously moist, and in a short time (as little as two weeks), roots of the hemerocallis break through the pots. However, they can be planted intact directly in the beds in early fall and will suffer no setback.
I have found that many will send up bloom stalks the following fall. Here on Staten Island, this is not important, but farther south, it adds to the length of the blooming season.
If you want to hybridize hemerocallis, get up early, or you will find that the bees have been ahead of you. They remove the pollen, grain by grain, from the stamens, for it is bread to the bee.
New Comer Hemerocallis
Hemerocallis are newcomers on the horizon. In 1940, Dr. A. B. Stout counted 400 named varieties. Now there are several thousand. This progression is akin to the phenomenal development of the iris, but I believe the hemerocallis hybridizers have gone further faster.
Not only are we getting cleaner reds and pinks, but we are getting a longer season of bloom. So try some of these new varieties in your garden.
If unsure what to choose, see the Hemerocallis Society’s popularity poll in the June FLOWER GROWER. You can’t go wrong.
44659 by Kenneth D. Smith