Orange Crush

I believe I have discovered the flower that may be the most tolerant of my novice gardening bumblings and missteps.

This plant simply waits its turn for attention.  It doesn't seem to mind if it isn't watered, if it isn't weeded, or even if it's chopped up in places to make room for a flower garden companion.

This lovely plant, low-key in all ways except its gorgeous bloom, is the daylily.  I have several blooms opening right now, which has absolutely nothing to do with my skill as a gardener.

In fact, the daylilies are blooming despite, or perhaps because of, my nearly outright hostility toward them.

Don't misunderstand me -- I do love daylilies.  Their showy orange blooms can evoke only admiration.  However, the problem with my little patch of daylilies was that they had been neglected for years before they became mine.  They had been planted in front of our well cover, perhaps as long as 10 years ago, and they most likely haven't received much attention since that time.  I didn't know what they were when I first saw them -- I honestly initially thought they were a type of grass.  While tearing out nearby dead bushes and one very sorry-looking peach tree, I considered digging them out as well.  Their reedy appearance just seemed to match the weedy decor I was fighting to remove. (See the photo below.)

I didn't realize when I first noticed this "weed patch" that when daylilies are overly crowded, they cease producing flowers altogether. 

Last year, I decided to plant hollyhocks behind the daylilies.  Using the shovel, I chopped out several of the daylilies (which I realized by then were not actual weeds, but still seemed useless) in order to make more room for their new neighbors.  The hollyhocks didn't bloom, or survive longer than a few months (more on that at a later time), but the daylilies at the edge of the patch, near where I had so carelessly uprooted them, began to flower in early summer!   

I did a little research on daylilies over the winter, and found out about the overcrowding problem.  This spring (when I re-planted the hollyhocks), I took the hoe and applied it rather ruthlessly around the edge of the daylily patch. I admit -- I sacrified a few around the edges to make the whole patch healthier.  As a result, the plants yielded even more buds this year. 

As the buds begin to open, I am growing more and more fond of these flowers.  They are so low-maintenance that they now seem as though they should be an essential part of my garden!  This fall, I plan to divide the remaining daylilies and give over half of my supposed "weed patch" to neighbors, so we can all enjoy them next year.