Fragrant and Happy

'Happy Returns'

     

'Fragrant Returns'

Day 192
The Daily DuBrule

Just like two of the seven dwarfs of fairy tales, Happy and Fragrant live in my yard! They are siblings and come from a long line of dwarf repeat blooming daylilies. Everyone knows 'Stella D'Oro', the golden form that I now consider "the parking lot perennial". It is a workhorse but so over-used that I am sick of it. 'Happy Returns' is much easier to design into gardens as the yellow flowers are buttery, soft, and marry with pretty much any color you can pair it with. I inherited a huge stand of this plant with my new home and promptly split it and spread it to a few key places in my borders. As long as I deadhead it and deadleaf it and give it a second feeding in July with compost and organic fertilizer, it will rebloom until late fall. 

'Happy Returns' in need of work

My daylily after deadheading and deadleafing

I heard about 'Fragrant Returns' and thought to myself "cool, but how fragrant can it really be?". I am a sucker for sweetly scented perennials and have surrounded my house and deck with them. Well, guess what. It IS fragrant. AND, it is an even softer shade of creamy yellow. I am in love. 

The other trick to success with repeat blooming daylilies is frequent division. They should be dug up and split every 3-4 years to keep them vigorous. That really isn't a problem because splitting daylilies is very easy to do and you can always use the extra plants somewhere in your world. If not, pretty much any savvy gardener will be glad to take them off your hands.