Affliciton

I have an affliction.  It has changed my life.  My loved ones have had to make some adjustments to accommodate my needs   All I can do is go forward and make the best of each day. My husband has helped me develop systems which make life easier with this condition.  But our lives will never be the same again.  This affliction is rather intense and there is no known cure.  It affects my vision.  I go to bed and see a kaleidoscope of colors swirling.  It affects my thought processes.  Whatever I thought was reality has melded into a fantastical Alice in Wonderland swirl of wonderment.

Yes, I  have been diagnosed.  I suffer from Daylily Fever.  Oh, I am sorry.  Did I say 'affliction'? Silly me! I meant 'affection'!  Ah..... Ok, then.  Let me tell you about my journey through the looking glass.....

For some reason, when I lived on a mountain, I could not grow daylilies.  I grew lots of flowers and herbs and veggies and fruit trees but the daylilies I planted did not make it.  I bought them through a mail order catalog and they arrived rather dry. I had no idea what they were supposed to look like or how to take care of them.  I planted them, along with all my other babies and - nothing happened.  That is, no daylilies happened.  So I bought some more.  Nada.  I decided that daylilies were not for me.

Then I moved to the valley.  Someone had planted daylilies in my yard.  OMG they were pretty.  And down the road, a few clumps were just growing along the way.  My mom moved in below me and dragged me to the nursery where she bought two packs of daylily fans.  She planted them and they magically grew into glorious plants. (I blame you, Mom)

We moved again, this time to Oregon, and I left all my daylilies behind.  But one day my daughter came to visit and brought me a little clump from her garden which had come from my garden.  See how this works?

We began riding bikes around our new town and one day we discovered a little nursery, out a dirt road, amongst ginormous maple trees.  Everything was on sale and they had buckets of daylilies for 3 dollars each.  I asked what kind they were and she said she did not know, just yellow and red.  So I hauled them home in my bike basket and planted them.  Wow, so lovely.

I wanted some more colors so I checked out Craigslist.  Lo and behold, a nursery nearby (uh, yeah, by that, I mean 45 miles away) had all of their daylilies on sale for one to three dollars per gallon pot.  I looked up all of the names online to see if any were pretty enough to merit the drive, and thus stumbled upon the American Hemerocallis Society.

About this time, I became aware that there was a group of people dedicated to hybridizing daylilies and that there was a vast universe of colors and forms and patterns available.  These people are nuts, I thought.  Look at the prices these stupid flowers are going for!  Cripes sake.  I knew people were crazy about roses but daylilies?  Why?  I just didn't get it.

I did, however, 'get' about 30 pots of daylilies at that nursery... on my first trip.... After all, they were only a dollar or two, right?  And I could give some away.  It did not take long to decide I really needed a bunch I had failed to purchase the first time... but unlike all those suckers paying a fortune for the supposedly exotic stuff, I was getting perfectly lovely flowers on the cheap... and that would make me perfectly happy... and everything was just, er, perfect..... for a while.

Until they bloomed, that is.  Wow!  So gorgeous!  I started foisting them off on everyone I could. "You simply have to have some of these!"  Such a short leap from innocent to hooked to being a pusher. One hardly notices the transition...

I decided I could afford to splurge just a wee bit so I bought some varieties on Ebay.  That mostly worked out for me.  Pretty soon I bought some seeds too, thinking it might be fun to see what I might get.  I found it fascinating that every seed was an unknown entity.  I read about some of the pioneers of daylily hybridizing, perused blogs and groups... drooling over the photos and longing....

By now I was hooked.  I placed my first order from a famous breeder and was starstruck when he himself called me and gave me advice... very patiently.... as I knew NOTHING, mind you!

I decided I wanted to breed my own beauties and thought I could content myself with just breeding whatever I could dredge up and hope for the best.  I asked another breeder for tips.  He gave me some of the best advice ever on daylily hybridizing:  'Hi Rita, My advice has always been to buy fewer plants to breed with rather than many, so you can to use the best parents possible.'  Ah, if only I had listened!   In fact, I am glad I am writing this now.  I think I needed a little wake up call.... again!

Before long, I was plowing up as much of the lawn as possible.  Any young, strong visitor was doomed to be coaxed into helping - my daughters just took pity on me, rolled up their sleeves and pitched right in. Bandmates, friends, my daughter's boyfriend - no one was spared.  I pressured my husband to get rid of the camper shell on the truck so that I could easily haul soil and amendments.

The rest is a blur, actually.  Probably due to the fever.  Yeah, you know, the daylily fever.  That is right - do not underestimate its power to change your life.  Seriously.  I now have hundreds of varieties, some quite exotic and expensive (at least for now).  One of our crisper drawers in the fridge is FULL of daylily seeds, all sorted and marked.

There have been embarrassing moments.  Once my daughter looked at a catalog and exclaimed "Who would pay that much money for a flower?"  Silence.....  Another time, a crew came by, wanting to dig a trench through my yard for an underground cable.  I said no, that they could not did through my flower bed unless they were prepared to pay for any damaged plants.  Sure, they said, how much could they be worth?  When I told them, suddenly, an alternate trenching route was discovered.

This has been a long winter and I have been working really hard at my 'day' job, not to be confused with my 'daylily' job.  I thought that maybe I had recovered somewhat from my obsession.  I began to wonder what had possessed me to be so immersed in this thing.  But then... I dunno.... the sun came out... people started posting pics of blooms online... the snow melted away.. the daylilies started coming to life.... the catalogs arrived... I began to go out and wander along the beds, daylilydreaming.....

Yes, people, Daylily Fever is caused by a bug.  It can bite anyone, but there are ways to avoid contact. 1) Stay out of gardens.  2) Avoid nursery catalogs.  3) Skip farmers markets.  4)Avoid neighborhood strolls during spring.  5) And summer.   6)And fall.

Oh, there are more precautionary measures one can take but the best thing is to just crawl under your bed.  If that is not possible, then do not, that is to say DO NOT fall for the trap of believing "I can quit any time".  Yes, it is so easy to get that first fan, isn't it?  Plenty of seemingly nice people are all too happy to dig you up a piece of their plant.  Remember:  "The first time is free".