Week of July 17, 2022

DAYLILIES accompany the warm weather of July in the Finger Lakes. The roadsides along Keuka Lake and Skyline Drive down the spine of Keuka Bluff are crowded with the common orange variety which has become naturalized. This is a tough, resilient plant, resistant to cold, drought, and deer (which still browse their tender shoots in the early spring). Additional varieties can be purchased at local gardening shops and local breeders. These can provide an array of colors of petals and stamen, a variety of petal ruffles and sizes, such as the spider lily varieties. A number of buds emerge on stalks above the long, narrow leaves, and swell in size until they open as blossoms for one day. These provide Nonny’s Garden with several weeks of color and form, each day a bit different. The daylilies will keep the garden interesting until the Rudbeckia, coneflowers, and phlox take over in late summer. Their foliage remains green as it fortifies itself for the winter, when it dies back and is quiet until Spring.