ell, it isn’t the summer solstice yet, but it might as well be here in northeastern Oklahoma. The days are hot and muggy, and the grass has to be cut at least every ten days. So it’s summer whether the calendar says so or not. One of the bright welcome mats of summer around these parts is the nearly-wild daylily, Hemerocallis. You know the one I am talking about; that bright sea of poke-your-eye-out orange trumpets atop three-foot stalks, with floppy sword-like foliage two foot below. These tall sentinels of summer have been back-yard favorites since your grandma was a little girl. They basically came in one color: road-crew-vest orange, and one size: up-to-your-belly tall. Oh, I take that back. You occasionally saw the same size in road-crew-vest yellow. The other thing dependable with the old daylilies was that they bloomed their hearts out, and in a couple of weeks at most it was all over for another season.
That has all changed with modern plant breeding programs. I guess the first great break through was ‘Stella d’Oro’ which, was only about a foot tall and creamy yellow. It was ugly. “U G L Y, you ain’t got no alibi.” It was too short and too not-yellow, and it still only had one bloom period.
The genus Hemerocallis comes from two Greek words: hemera, meaning “day,” and kallos, meaning “beauty.” Daylilies are very beautiful indeed, but each bloom holds that beauty for only one day.
That’s it for this week. Enjoy your yards and gardens. We’ve begun to dig a few new potatoes, and our smaller tomato varieties are very close. Don’t forget to give thanks to God… for everything. See you Sunday.
