Saturday, July 24, 2010

I'm Sorry, but Out They Went!

(Nearly all of them, at this point.)

Actually, Hemerocallis fulva 'Kwanso' is a beautiful (in my opinion) daylily.
It is tall, blooms mid-season, and is a prolific bloomer!
(photo taken July 15, 2008)

(Photo taken June 27, 2010)
In my reading, it was surmised that Kwanso probably came from the Chinese Hsuam Ts'ao which literally means "forget your worries." It is a medicinal plant and the flowers are edible - so reads another source.

I planted it in the Sunny Corner Bed a few years ago and it made itself quite at home.
(photo taken July 15, 2008)
It became so comfortable with its surroundings, however, that it decided to take over!


It propagates by sending underground runners in every direction. The young plants will often be found several feet away. While that might not be a problem in some settings, in my Sunny Corner Bed, space is limited.

photo below taken 7/21/07
Can you tell this is before I began the recycled sidewalk edgings?

photo below taken 7/04/08
(the recycled sidewalk edgings were begun in the Fall of 2007
and finished in the Spring of 2008)

photo below taken 7/16/09 -
taken from the side (there were tomato plants in front)
(photo taken June 19, 2010 - before they began to bloom)
Because I would like to have a greater variety of plants here (including a few more daylilies), I finally decided that drastic measures must be taken.

(photo taken July 10, 2010 - after most have been removed)

That's where my garden fork, shovel and wheelbarrow came into the picture. Two wheelbarrow loads of Kwanso and Dutch Iris were taken to the back ravine.


This beautiful Dutch Iris is Very Vigorous... the tubers grow long and longer and multiply like crazy. (Love them, though!)

(photos taken June 8, 2008)

There is a clump of each left in the garden. I plan to pound 8" segments of plastic retainers around each clump to confine (hopefully) them to their own areas. :-)


Nothing shady - just hopeful!

19 comments:

Rebecca @ In The Garden said...

I hope the plastic works for you, it's hard when a nice plant takes over! Best wishes with the containment.

joco said...

Lovely to see long shots of your garden.
That plant is the mainstay of my garden. About the only thing in flower, apart from Perovskia, which I have always associated with pink plants. Wish I had planted some Kwanso next to them instead. Good combination.Maybe it will arrive there in the end all by itself :-)
Good post Shady, and I like the info about the plant as well.

Rosemary said...

Shady; Understand completely when a good plant goes bad. With smaller space one does have to be ruthless..... Your plastic should work to contain them.

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

Hi, Shady;
I like this idea of the plastic! My lilies are very ill-mannered. I keep digging them up and moving them to inhospitable parts of the property. I'm kind of amazed that they still bloom without watering.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

Sometimes, less is more. I like the use of recycled concrete. I'm doing that with pieces from an old shed pad we tore out.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Rebecca, Thanks! I'll know whether it works sometime next Spring. :-)

Jo, You're right... Kwanso complements other blossoms beautifully (which is why I decided to try keeping one clump). I have a tall, large-flowered, peach daylily that is also quite beautiful. It didn't need the competition, and I was afraid I might not be able to tell the two plants apart when I went to dig!

Rosemary, I'm going to hold to your encouragement. :-)

Kate, I'm of the opinion that lilies (and iris) are very resilient... esp. iris!!

Gardener, Way to Go! Will you post (or have you?) photos??

F Cameron said...

Sometimes you just have to rip out plants. Editing, right? :-)

MrBrownThumb said...

I'm thinking of pulling up all of my daylilies. I mean, I like them enough it is just they spot they were comfortably in 3 years ago is no longer big enough for them.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Cameron, Absolutely.

Mr.BT! I understand completely. Could you share them with someone that would LOVE to have them?? If I were closer... I love daylilies (that stay within bounds!). ;-)

Pat said...

Love that daylily ! So bright.
I've heard about using retainers like plastic buckets to controll plants from spreading. Wonder what I can do to keep all my neighbors English ivy from spreading into my yard...year after year.

troutbirder said...

In my ignorance I wish they label some of these "takeover" plants as such. I've grown to really dislike a few of them that cause me so much work!!! I've got a "limited" sunny garden problem too.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Patsi! (On my side of the fence, I'd probably use a weed control product!)

troutbirder, I agree! Plant ID would be a good idea!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

Wise moves. It's hard to rip out something that's doing so well, but enough is enough. Good for you for following through.

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

I'm kind of a daylily hater. The only kind I like are those orange ones!

Garden Lily said...

I admire you for your tough love. I also have and love Kwanzo, and the large patches look great in my large garden. I love to give away fans from the outer edges of the patch to friends.

Northern Shade said...

I moved and gave away some of my daylilies recently, too. I don't have many, but the area had grown shadier, and they didn't produce that many flowers anymore. Kwonso sounds like it had plans for that sunny bed, but it sure looks nice with the lavender colour.

Your edging gives a nice clean finish to the bed.

Shady Gardener said...

Thanks, MMD. :-)

Monica, May I send you a few??? ha.

Garden Lily, It's not hard to find fans to give away, is it. :-)

Northern, Thanks for your visit. The orange is really a great complement to the lavender and blue tones. That's why I'm hoping to restrain a small clump!

Corner Gardener Sue said...

Both of those plants sure are pretty. I hope your barrier works.

One thing I've figured out is that our blogs look different on different sized monitors. Someone had told me I had lots of room in my sidebar to put 2 columns. I want to look at my blog on my husband's larger monitor. Mine is 13 inches.

The last word of your title didn't show up until I made the window larger. We are kept on our toes with blogger.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Sue, It's odd, isn't it? Oh well. I'm glad you continue to work on it.

I'm going to be gone for a bit. Later! :-)