Thanks for visiting my daylily blog.  Last year, I started back to school full-time to complete a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree.  I am an educator and healthcare leader, so I felt ready for some added wisdom.  I have always been a fan of daylilies, and the past year I would say that they have become my therapist.  I am also a resilience coach and believe these flowers are the symbol of flourishing.

So, last year, I discovered the joy of ordering daylily roots directly from the hybridizers and growers.  Before that, I was dependent on the varieties at the local nurseries.  I have gotten some great cultivators that way!  However, last year I decided that I wanted to reorganize my languishing front path garden and make daylilies the primary flower.  And, for cost and variety sake, I decided to try my luck at using mail order.

Like all new hobbies, there is a learning curve to this stuff.  And, so I ordered too late for blooms last year.  I used coconut pots that cramped the roots, which didn’t help.  At first, I used just one grower.  Then, I got fascinated with the near blue daylilies, and those searches lead me to a couple of other farmers.  By fall, I figured out the auctions, as well as several other mail order daylily suppliers.

I studied evergreens, semi-evergreens, and dormant varieties.  The blue ones were often evergreen and spent the winter on the porch.  Those blue ones that were semi-evergreen stayed outside and succumbed to a late freeze.  Even one of the ones that looked good inside has slowly died this spring.  That was hard because they were expensive!  And, I didn’t know about getting the best deals, so I paid too much for them.

Fortunately, I still have five near-blues that are thriving.  I also have around 140 other varieties.  My late summer interest was the Ned Roberts daylilies with Southwestern names.  I started with Kokopelli on the auction.  Now, I have a whole section of the rock garden converted for a variety of those blooms.

And, so this blog is born as a way to document the beauty of the daily flowers with photography.  I have almost a dozen scapes growing on daylilies, so the first blooms are only a couple of weeks away.  I hope you enjoy and will share your adventures with your own gardens here.

Today, I am sharing a photo of one of my favorites, Stephanie Returns.  This variety is one that I got from a local grower last spring.  That was the same season that my daughter, Stephanie, returned to Colorado.  Until those blooms happen, I will be blogging about some of my oldies from last year.