If some of you have been waiting for some daylily pornography from the Flint Hills, I'm afraid that you are just going to have to share disappointment this year with the rest of us. It has been a bad year for many plants, to say the least, but the daylilies have been hit the worst of all.
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| Bed "A", 7/2/11 |
Just take a peek at this bed as an example. The picture at the left is from July 2nd, 2011, and the picture at the right below is the same bed, from roughly the same angle, on June 24th, 2012. Both were about at the point of peak bloom in their respective years.
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| Bed "A", 6/24/12 |
We knew it was going to be bad with the Winter and Spring drought here, but I never dreamed that daylilies would struggle, rain or no rain. Clear back in May, the Master Gardeners in the area were debating whether the foliage loss was due to fungus or drought. I was on the drought side of the argument and I even broke down and watered once this year. Looking at these pictures, I think the drought proponents were correct.
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| Bed "B", 7/2/11 |
I've actually been trying to hide my daylily failures this year, but I figured it was time to come out of the closet when emails from the local Hemerocallis Society, who put on an exhibition at the town mall every July, were discussing whether or not there were enough blooms to even bother this year. At least I know that the experts are missing their daylilies too. Look at my second bed, as photographed last year on the left, and then again, this year on the right, below.
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| Bed "B", 6/24/12 |
I may, in a later post, show a few of the daylilies that did make it though summer heat to shine as bright spots, but first I have to edit their pictures through my tears. Maybe next year, if the daylilies survive, I'll have more to offer.
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Perhaps adding soaker hoses or drip lines would help, since we can't count on Mother Nature to always cooperate. Soaker hoses keep my garden alive, especially my daylilies who like to stay moist. The epsom salt/seaweed solution I have posted on my blog right now would help them. Fortunately, daylilies are tough plants.
ReplyDeleteYes, they'd help, and I use them on edibles like blackberries and grapes. But if I took that route for occasional use, my entire garden would be ringed with black soaker hoses.
ReplyDeleteMy entire garden is ringed with black soaker hoses! I cover them with mulch and you can't even see them. I mark the end of the hose with a hose guide to remind me of their location. It's very effective and super easy. I use metal landscape fabric pins to hold the hoses in place. In the fall, if I make changes to the bed, I just rearrange the hoses and cover them with mulch again. :o)
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ReplyDeleteI think sprinklers would do the trick to moisten the soil once in a while. I can't bear to see those beautiful flowers go to waste. Global warming is really taking a toll on us.