Capturing A Blooming Daylily Hill-Without A Net

Did you know that daylily flowers bleed?

Neither did I.

Since the beginning of daylily season every effort has been made to take a representative shot of the flower bed referred to as the daylily hill. Red Volunteer, Save Mine to the right and the bleeding daylily, Radiant Greeting to the left make for an eye pleasing combo. But they are only a microcosm of the whole hill. Lasting but a day, these harbingers of summer provide a colorful view from the lower deck as the blossoms keep on coming. The sight gives us great joy, but why is photographing this area so difficult? Why don’t the images equal what the human eye views?
Looking upwards through the echinaceas with the camera was tried.

Standing on the wall looking eye to eye with the echinaceas was tried.

Climbing the stairs to the garage deck was tried.

Time is slipping by! The daylily season is drawing to a close. The effort to capture each cultivar for posterity has been a success, but an overall shot of the daylily hill has proven elusive. In desperation, the new camera, the Canon Powershot sx1 IS is brought out of the box. Lining up the mini tripod on the deck railing, getting the scene centered, clicking….and what’s this? Kitty walks right into the shot to rub against the camera clenching left hand. Good thing the little tripod allows for a small somewhat weak hand to hold on with the death grip. Okay okay, Kitty, head scratching and acknowledgement of your existence coming right up. Lucky for you the new camera did not fall the ten plus feet to the gravel path below. There would be all heck to pay when The Financier found out about your shenanigans, even though you are being quite the performer just now. Reading up about hybridization on the site of one of our favorite local daylily farms, Champions, we learned of diploids, tetraploids and ploidys in general. Click here to access that page. It seems the way to try for new and interesting colors, form and vigor with crosses requires knowing if you have a dip or a tet. Dip to dip or tet to tet are the only ways to get a viable seed. That information can be found on Dave’s Garden among other places. You must know the name of your daylily however, to be sure. Looking around the garden for likely candidates, we chose Dave Rhyne as the male and Heavenly Treasure as the female. Shown above is the result of a night of passion unrivaled in the universe…..oops, make that the dousing of the pistil with pollen from the stamens with the utmost care and plenty of snuggling afterwards. This pod will be tagged and watched until it dries and opens, revealing the precious seed within. It will be planted in a pot and placed in a protected spot until germination, possibly in the sunroom/greenhouse. Pretty exciting stuff.
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The final installment of daylilies on parade in the Fairegarden, 2009 edition is awaiting two late bloomers now in bud. Once this sixth posting is published, all of the posts will be added to the Plants We Grow-Daylilies page on the sidebar. There were a couple that did not bloom, one that bloomed while I was out of town, two that I broke the stalk off and one that has disappeared without a trace. A tally will be made after the last bloom has faded and the season is ended until next year.

Frances