Sunday, January 3, 2010

Hemerocallis "Real Wind"




I got this daylily from Greg Pitrowski, a daylily expert who has a nursery in NC now, when we both worked at the NYBG. A lot of daylilies were being moved out of an area for some reason I don't recall now, so I asked Greg for some that he thought were particularly nice and reliable varieties. I got a lot of nice no names and seedlings, but he gave me a divsion of one called Real Wind. He told me that Real Wind was an oldie but goodie, and I have to say that he was right. It is a tough as nails plant, which didn't sulk even when I moved to to the slope garden at school after a few years in my home garden. The flowers have great form, are beautifully colored, and the plant seems to do well regardless of how dry or wet the summers are. The foliage looks good too. I worry that the deer might find it, but I do spray it when it starts to grow and when it is in bud with obnoxious smelling stuff like a spray that keeps cats of furniture, and a homemade deer repellent mix of garlic powder, milk powder, hot pepper, soap and/or raw eggs, and (my secret ingredient) a tiny but funky touch of lime sulfer. I should note that lime sulfer should not be used when it gets really warm, since it can burn leaves and flowers at high temperatures. The deer did explore the garden briefly in early spring, but stopped after I made things smell less attractive to them, and they did not return during the summer or fall. Most of the surrounding plants are also not attractive to deer, so that probably helps as well.

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