Week of July 14

One flower shared by both our Florida home and TAProots farm is the day lily, and pictures of our Florida flowers have been in prior blogs.  Daylily flowers are “in the moment” as they only last one day, but with many blooms on a single stalk to enjoy for a week or so.  MidJuly is the height of the daylily season in the Finger Lakes and day lilies have an impressive presence here, lining the roads with 50 yard masses of orange flowers from the variety that has become naturalized.  TAProots farm has a bank of them lining the driveway to the basement door of the barn, given to Joyce years ago.   We also have three groups of them, both yellow and orange, lining the driveway up to the lakehouse.  Finally, Nonny’s garden in front of the lakehouse has some fancy varieties with beautiful peach, bronze, and rose-colored blooms.  One side trip this weekend was to Grace Gardens, on Seneca Lake north of Dresden, NY.  The owner is an internationally prominent daylily breeder and hybridizer, with many hundreds of varieties with different colors, bloom size, frills, bloom shape including spider, etc.  Selecting our favorites was a challenge.  We bought six plants to add different colors to Nonny’s garden and to the bank of lilies next to the road.  They were planted promptly and should be blooming next year.  By early August, most daylilies will be finished blooming, but fondly remembered.