In the Beauty of the Lilies

In posting the previous blog about last weekend's garden tour, I must have hit the wrong key and eliminated the lily-swath that lines our driveway.  Here it is, below, and the two species have always staggered their bloom, the yellow Dover blooming first, then the orange and red Franz Hals.  But this summer they've bloomed together - must be all the rain - and right on time for the tour.   

   

    I appropriated the title, above, from a John Updike novel of about seven years ago.  I didn't read it, but the sight of these lilies always triggers the phrase, so I like to think that Updike was visualizing daylilies like these.  Another memory that comes singing to the surface is the old Sunday-school hymn from fifty years ago: "For the beauty of the earth; for the glory of the skies. For the love which from our birth; over and around us lies."   

    These run through my mind each morning just after dawn when W. and I start up the drive from our hour's walk, our dog Cody careening around us in figure-eights, celebrating having "lead" us home.  It's a game he started a year ago, when he first came to us from the animal shelter.  After only the second or third walk, he recognized the drive, and from then on he'd race down the road and into the driveway, his legs slipping out from under him on the turn, then scramble back up into crazed figure-eights, running to us at top-speed then veering off at the last instant.   

   In lily-season, I always stop in the drive to deadhead spent lilies while W. goes in to make coffee.  This brings the lilies into Cody's trajectory.  Our daughter's new shelter-dog, Lila, when she visits, sensibly jumps the swath like a gazelle, but Cody streaks right through it, blasting orange and yellow petals into the air and trailing stems in his tail out the other side.  I turn and walk quickly to the front yard to lure him away, cringing as I hear him whip through the swath behind me.                     

And below, the jolly Franz Hals.

And prim, fragrant Dover (waiting to be deadheaded).

A friend was over yesterday to diagnose the unblooming end of the swath.  "You need to weed them," she said, getting down on her knees.  "They're being choked out by all this grass!" She rips and pulls at the stubborn quack-grass and vetch. Oh god, I know she's right. She's our town's daylily expert, with hundreds of thriving daylilies to prove it.  So much for White Flower Farms and other catalogues of eight years ago when I bought these, featuring beautiful pictures of naturalized daylilies running down hillsides amidst windblown grass. I was thrilled to hear that you could plant these right in your lawn or meadow, and they'd push up through the grass.  But now, it's dawning on me that this probably never meant no weeding.  That means a lot of work this Fall, digging out this unproductive seven-foot section, weeding, then dividing and replanting the lilies.

     Which makes these days of just enjoying them, smelling them and hearing long-ago snatches of song while snapping off spent blooms, all the more precious.    

Comments

[wally]

I hadn't gardened for several years before I retired. I couldn't wait this spring to till and plant. It's funny how you always remember the good part of gardening, like eating fresh vegetables, and watching in awe as such great things grow from a tiny seed. But now I'm remembering the negative side: back breaking harvesting of beans, pulling weeds, and the never ending battle against bugs. Yet, when I'm eating a BLT with fresh picked tomatoes I know it's all worth it.

[notdotdot]

Geez Louise! I hate weeding!
And naturalizing takes a lot of work to make it look right but not appear overgrown. Just short of the-jungle-reclaiming-its-own look.
I think I'll take a walk in the woods . . .someone elses!
I LOVE hearing about your dog. I saw him in a picture you posted. Is he a Great Pyrenees? Love those dogs.

[ml]

Wow! That's the first time anyone's gotten so close to our dog's heritage just from his picture. Notdot: he was billed by Petfinder.com where we got him, as a golden-retriever mix, but when we got him we knew they were wrong. Our vet said "Great Pyrenees!" as soon as I walked in with him, and I was amazed, because he's not that big - about 60 pounds. The vet said he's probably GP mixed with husky or border collie.
Anyway, I love the look of the great pyr. too.

[Chancy]

Beautiful lillies

and the last verse of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic comes to mind:

"In the beauty of the lillies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on."

[Annie in Austin]

I wish I could help you divide that Dover, ML! What a beautiful color, and fragrant, too!

[Tabor]

The unfortunate thing about perennials is that we think they are perennial...but they require thinning and replanting just like everything else. Your yard is lovely and I am glad the tour went so well.

[Theo]

and you really should give it a try sometime, if you like U at all.
It's among his best two or three, I think.

[Terri]

What a great post and the Day Lillies are simply gorgeous!
I smiled at the difference between Cody and Lila...she appeared to be much more lady-like.
Hmmm, since I also planted Day Lillies this past spring....I think you're telling me that I'll be joining you weeding come fall.
I'd call that "false advertising" from the catalog.

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