I love Daniela's garden. Always have and always will. So I was thrilled to get an email from her today. Here's what she's up to in her Zone 5b garden: "The Daylily Bed Project started with removing a dying birch tree in 2012. I had a small raised bed made by hubby right in front of the tree and over the 15 years we lived here this bed went through a lot of change. It wasn’t wide enough for lots of perennials for continuous blooms but I tried anyway. I placed some tall pink hollyhocks from seed at the back, then moved in bee balm, pink mallow, dark purple bearded irises, red and yellow daylilies, and geraniums in blues and pinks. It occurred to me that in July the bed looked at its worst even though it had the most overlapping blooms! I had pinks, yellows, orange, and reds kind of clashing.
I kept thinking about what to take out and what to bring in. The most reliable plant in this bed was the daylily. With only 3 hours of sun a day you can’t beat this plant in bloom count, size, and power. I removed the pinks and the bearded irises, who got sick a lot and sometimes didn’t bloom at all. I added some Culver’s root with white blooms for July to cool off the hot colors (like I didn’t have enough colors already) but still was never happy with this bed. When the old tree came down we had the roots ground and added a large load of compost and top soil, and I started the redesign in a much deeper/larger garden bed. The bright idea? Consolidate most of my daylilies from the garden into this one bed so that it is easier to spray them for deer protection. Embrace the colors of July and expand on that.
So, I took the three clumps of red lilies with the yellow/orange throats and split them each into many divisions, creating 10 of the same variety that defines the "back skirt" of the daylily bed. Then I brought in other daylilies from around the yard, split them if it was necessary, and placed them at random as a row in front of the reds as the "mid skirt." I added mostly peach, burgundy, pink, and dual colored ones.
I decided not to bring any plain yellow or orange to this bed. In the front row I placed a couple perennials that bloom earlier in the season like astrantia, hardy cranesbill, straw foxglove, and big betony. A couple types of ferns: Japanese for the front and ostrich for way back behind the daylilies. I put in a couple of low spreading sedums by the rock edge. I split the Culver’s root that was in here before and placed them behind the daylilies with some Lobelia cardinalis for end-of-July/August bloom. So that is the story." See, now if any of you still aren't converted to the daylily dark side, there's just no hope for ya! Daniela, this bed is stunning now! I do love that low stone wall, and Culver's root is one of those plants that I never see in gardens, and I don't know why. I grow it, and it's wonderful. You can divide and divide it, and it is so pleasingly vertical. Bravo on the makeover!
