Just noticed this. I like to pick the daylily buds before the bloom opens…put them whole in salads.
I wrote an article on them for the MtVernon newspaper few years back.
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always stick with the yellow/lighter colored daylily buds.
My kids have gotten sick on some of the darker ones. Nothing serious, just a bit of bathroom discomfort.
My personal favorite are daylily citrina (the lemon daylily) and Happy Returns.
Scott
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For anyone looking to help the pollinator population, thin leaved mountain mint and wild bergamot (also attracts hummingbirds) are nice choices. I saw some animosity towards the mint family but these are great in our pollinator garden and require little maintenance. I also wanted to suggest lupine which is a nitrogen fixer and makes beautiful purple flowers. Ours get up to 5-6ft tall when mature. Echinacea is another great pollinator option that doubles as an herbal tea ingredient.
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To all the perennial experts i have a question. I am doing some landscaping in and near my small orchard and need some help selecting a low growing non invasive perennial to stick between the landscape rocks and the pathway. Low growing in this case would be no taller than 10 inches. This is still a work in progress.
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Ajuga reptans or blue-eyed grass or cerastostigma (plumbago). Those are 3 options, I’m sure there are more.
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Creeping thyme is nice
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creeping phlox
scilla
muscari
delosperma
dianthus
violets
crocus
Walker’s Low Catmint (maybe low enough)
Alpine strawberries or even regular strawberries
Ramps (they are picky about where they like to grow however)
chives
garlic chives
sylvetta arugula
perennial sorrell
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Nothing is 100% maintenance free.
Even the peonies have to have the old dead stems from
the previous season removed.
And iris beds eventually have to be renewed.
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Lots of wonderful plants listed here. Some others I haven’t seen above that are fantastically hardy, pretty, and reliable are:
Virginia bluebells
Sea Thrift
Hakonechloa (not flowering, but beautiful)
Celandine Poppy
Snow in Summer (Cerastium tomentosum)
Solomon’s seal
Wood Hyacinth (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
Lily of the valley
Bleeding Hearts (early … fades by summer)
Toad lily
Sea Holly (Eryngium planum)
Moss phlox
Species tulips
Penstemon
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I planted about 25 liatris bulbs a few weeks back and they are growing nicely. Bees love them and so do the rabbits, so i had to fence them for now.
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it’s dry in summer here with really cold winter. I’ve got ice plant and creeping jenny in pathways. I do have to cut back the jenny each summer so it won’t spread out.
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Wild Columbine is another one to add to the list, it’s flowers are very pretty. We have a cultivar seedling with white flowers that popped up this year, I’ll share pictures of both later today.
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My low maintenance landscaping starts with heavy duty woven landscape fabric and a good 2-3 inch layer of crushed stone……then I added in the boulders and plants. I do all perennials in the ground….a few PJM rhododendrons, small and low growing conifers (birds nest spruce, mugo pine, juniper), nepita (catmint), baptisia, Angelina and blue spruce stonecrop, barberry (now banned from being sold in Maine) & more.
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Lovely, like a traditional English garden.
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Nice looking garden.
I can’t seem to succeed using lupines. Nice columbine.
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