Growing Daylilies Together

Rita Rerat Smith

I have always gardened so I always had some daylilies in my garden.  I was bitten by the daylily collecting bug in spring of 2007 and that is when I

seriously starting planting daylilies. That year, I made a big raised bed in my backyard and spent the summer buying and planting. Bought most of that year's daylilies from Maryott's because they shipped all summer long so I could get an order in, plant it and then buy more. I kept that up until that entire bed was full. Those fist year purchases were almost all evergreen or semi evergreen southern or far west hybridized daylilies. I just bought what I thought was pretty. I had a lot of Maryott intros because they were listed as 'rebloomers'.

After all that effort I found out that these daylilies would not rebloom here in the north and that is when my interest in northern hybridizers started. In fact, since I started growing my northern hybridized daylilies, I just don't buy the southern belles any longer. Now I tend to buy from my favorite hybridizers over and over. My top three in terms of how many of their intros grow here are Mary Jane Meadows of Westbourne Daylilies, Phil Korth and Karol Emmerich. I have near 40 of each of their introductions. Other very favorite hybridizers of mine are Melanie Mason, Bryan Culver, Richard Norris, Charmaine Rich and Gary Schaben, among others.
 
I am a member of the Long Island Daylily Society. Not much of a go-to-meeting person but I like to do the 'members only' garden tours they have in the summer. I have never gone to any regionals or nationals and I do not hybridize. I'm not really interested because for me, it's all about a pretty garden and not about creating flowers. I think the well- known hybridizers do a better job than I could ever do.
 
I am a regular on the daylily e-mail robin, Gardenweb and Dave's Gardens as well as here on MyDaylilies. I love to write about my garden and my daylilies so I'm always yakking away on all the lists and forums.
 
I love my garden. I grow many plants as well as daylilies and feed the backyard butterflies, songbirds and hummingbirds. I have planted lots of fruit-bearing shrubs to attract them to my yard such as blueberries, serviceberries, currents and cherries.

I also grow roses and have well over 200 and totally lost count of how many daylilies I bought. I know I bought over 200 in 2008 alone. I had at least 100 before that and bought about 150 last year. I don't even know how many are coming in the spring as I am afraid to count but I have bought from my favorite hybridizers again.  Last year I moved most of my roses and the entire backyard daylily bed around. Lots and lots of work but its going to look even better this year. I can't wait for spring.

Rita Rerat Smith
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