That’s Welsh, you know. Means “Awake it is the Day”. Which is sort of appropriate for Hemerocallis, aka daylilies.
My “proper” daylilies have decided to wake up all of a sudden. I’m trying a new imaging technique – just showing a single bloom and erasing the background. What do you think of this presentation? Let me know in the comments.
And here’s what’s open today:
And a mystery! I have a narrow border which was overtaken by white phlox last year. Not being a fan of lots of white phlox nor of the smell (can’t call it “scent”) of the nose-level blooms, I dug the lot out and turned the border over to various types of Crocosmia. I’ve never planted Hemerocallis in this border; moreover none has grown there before. So what’s coming up this year is first-yearlings. Now you’d expect first-yearlings to be fairly small and probably to not produce much in the way of flowers. But the ones I’ve got are almost as large as my two- and three-yearlings and have a fair number of buds filling up.
I’d assumed that they had piggybacked in on some of the pots of Crocosmia I’d bought from a particular nursery but that nursery assures me this is not possible.
But, not to be thought tardy, one of the mysteries has started to open today. It’s a brilliant yellow. No sign of patterning but if the bloom opens fully tomorrow, something may be revealed. Such excitement. And such anticipation.
It doesn’t look like any of the daylilies I’ve planted and I’ve absolutely no idea where it came from. But I’ll leave it in place and enjoy it. And will wait and see what mysteries 2 and 3 turn out to be.
These blooms were subsequently doctored by removal of their anthers. Just as with lilies, the pollen of daylilies is toxic to cats (all parts of lilies and daylilies are toxic but unless a cat is a nibbler of plants, it’s the pollen that poses the greatest risk). I have no desire to cause injury to resident cat.
Well would you want any harm to come to one of the best mole killers in the area?
It’s surprising how many people don’t realise that pollen can fall from a bloom onto the cat’s coat and then get ingested as he (or she) grooms. The result can be chronic kidney failure. The window of opportunity for treatment (which won’t be cheap) is at most a couple of hours. Then it’s a slow and painful death.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
I cannot make my mind up about the pictures, which I know is of no help!
As it happens, comments are all (savde one) for the white background as it removes any distraction from the blooms. From my perspective, it just removes the background of something or other I need to dig up, prune, deadhead or attend to in some other way. I suppose I’m just concealing the evidence.
Many thanks for the follow. I did not know that the anthers of lilies and day lilies was toxic to cats. I am a big cat lover…
Hi Brigid. Thanks for commenting. There is a debate going on about daylilies. To be honest, I was, until a week ago, under the impression that they were safe but, after being told rather bluntly that I was wrong, I did some research. The ASPCA over in US and Cats Protection here in the UK (plus a long list of veterinary web sites) say the pollen is dangerous. Removing the anthers is simple – takes a couple of seconds per flower – and doesn’t detract from the visual impact so I’m taking the risk-free approach. Certainly for true lilies, ALL parts of the plant are toxic but, again, pollen is the dangerous bit; I’ve never seen a cat eating a lily. There’s a VERY long list of plants which are dangerous to some animal or other (as well as to us humans!). I won’t stop growing them but will take what I think is a proportionate, and simple, approach to reducing risks.