Goals

I always knew that my goals needed to include more than just 'pretty faces', however, the more I think about it and the more I talk to other people about it, the importance of plant habit and maintenance needs to be a priority in my mind.

Think of peonies, or some other treasured old perennial. How much work do they need to keep them going? To keep them flowering? To keep them looking nice? In my garden, not much! They seem to be able to look after themselves. The same goes for my species daylilies - I planted them (or someone long ago planted them in my garden) and for the most part, they are left to get on with looking pretty and producing the right effect in the garden at the right time. This is what I need to have in my seedlings. I want to produce plants that, if the garden were abandoned for years, these plants would be found still happily flowering each summer. Can this kind of vigour be reclaimed from the species daylilies?

I'm betting that it can.