Although there might be one or two, or several, other daylilies that open up a blossom first, Cape Cod Cousin is the one that really kicks it off for us; maybe because for so many years, it was our earliest, and the one whose buds we kept watching with anticipation.
This year's strange spring weather led us to think we were going to have an early season; we scheduled our first Open Garden Day a week earlier than we might have, and then three swift late frosts set everything back. Wisely, we held off on advertising, and now realize that there are not yet enough daylilies in bloom to open this Sunday ... nobody wants to come and look at a forest of foliage! But oh, there are hundreds and hundreds of buds quivering with promise, and we expect by the following weekend we'll be able to fling the doors open (figuratively, of course).
Sometime, will you post about how you decide which ones of those 400 daylily hybrids is a keeper?
ReplyDeleteGiven that I'm fairly new to the subject, I'll share as I learn ... the first of my three-year-old seedlings bloomed yesterday, and here's what I observed: it has GREAT increasing abilities, going to five fans from two last summer; it has a decent bud count, not fantastic, but about 12 blossoms per scape with three scapes; and it's an early bloomer. BUT -- (there's too often a "but," of course!) -- the blossom itself is nearly a clone of one of the parent plants, which IMHO is nothing special.
ReplyDeleteAnd so I'm thinking that this one isn't so disappointing to throw onto the compost pile, but will perhaps be a good one to use for potting up. My favorite landscaper purchases 20-30 pots of daylilies from me from time to time, and since this one's got a red blossom, it could make a nice contrast to the ubiquitous yellow Stellas that dominate commercial landscaping.