Author: digman

Mom’s old Daylily patch was indestructible yet ephemeral. The plants withstood our tiny, trampling feet, but the flowers came and went with the mid-July sun. In the morning, peachcolored buds opened wide, revealing orange petals and yellow throats. But by late afternoon they were gone – shriveled, twisted and rusty-brown. In a few weeks, the blossoms disappeared entirely.

Today’s Daylilies are just as tough as mother’s old ones. But their brief summer show has been extended. Each flower still lasts a single day, owing to both their common and horticultural name. (Hemerocallis in Greek means “beautiful for one day.”) However, instead of flowering for two short weeks, today’s hybrids start blooming in late June and last up to six weeks. Then, after deadheading and an application of fertilizer, some can launch an encore performance that stretches into late September.

Individual blossoms have staying power, too. Instead of opening and closing by midafternoon, today’s Daylily blooms may keep their form for up to 16 hours. That means your flowers will still look fresh for that after-dinner garden stroll.

And care? They’re about as close to foolproof as a perennial plant can be.

Once established, Daylilies are extremely drought tolerant. They bloom best in open sunshine, but will have limited bloom with as little as four hours of direct light a day. All this, and the foliage keeps its handsome shape through the dog days of August. Today’s Daylilies need only water and a little fertilizer to remain vigorous.

Choices have improved so much that gardeners can find a Daylily to suit any spot in the landscape. Instead of brassy orange and yellow, today’s hybrid hues run from elegant white to deep purplish-black, with a rainbow of colors in between. There are short-growing plants for borders and groundcovers or majestic, taller plants that stand above the rest of the perennial pack. A few favorites from Fred Dabney of Quansett Nurseries in South Dartmouth, Mass. a grower for Blooms of Bressingham perennials:

‘Lady Elizabeth’ – A tall-growing Daylily with lush, blue-green foliage and pure white, 5inch flowers that last deep into summer. It’s excellent for mass plantings.

‘Miss Mary Mary’ – A compact daylily with up to 3-inch, yellow-gold flowers that are similar to the popular ‘Stella d’ Oro.’ But when ‘Miss Mary Mary’ reflowers in late summer, it does so with fluffy double blossoms.

‘Lady Scarlet’ – Velvety scarlet-red blossoms are 6 inches across and bloom on 21- to 24inch stems above longlasting, dark green foliage. Stunning.

‘Miss Tinkerbell’ – Incredibly pretty peach-pink flowers are produced in abundance on low-growing 12- to 15-inch plants. Blooms are 3 3/4 inches in diameter. An exquisite groundcover.

Lessons Learned with GrowLab

It is not absolutely clear who is more enthusiastic about the GrowLab in Mr. Flint’s classroom–the class or Mr. Flint. There is no doubt, however, that there is a whole lot of learning and fun going on in the fifth grade in Cambridge Central School in Cambridge, New York.

In this kindergarten through twelfth grade rural school of about 1200 students Carl Flint has found his “calling” as an elementary school science teacher. Formerly an agriculture teacher at the secondary level, he left teaching for 12 years to pursue his dream of becoming a dairy farmer. His farming phase over, he returned to the classroom in 1995 to teach younger students. When his brother alerted him to the GrowLab program, Carl jumped at the opportunity to provide hands-on experience in growing and tending plants to his students. In his small school he has some discretion with the science curriculum and is able to work information about plants into it for the two sections of 25 kids each that he teaches every year.

GrowLab programs

The GrowLab program for school children is sponsored by the National Garden Bureau (NGB) in a joint venture with the National Gardening Association. In a matching funds program, NGB and participating seed companies donate 6 GrowLabs a year to schools all across the country. GrowLab units are commercially designed and constructed for self-contained, tabletop seed-starting and seedling management. Essentially a metal frame that supports two 4 foot long, easily adjusted fixtures that hold fluorescent growing lights, each unit is 52 inches wide and 23 inches deep, 39 inches tall. Each is equipped with a timer, convenient trays to hold seedling containers or potted plants, and a tent-like cover to help regulate humidity. It is accompanied by a starter kit containing pots, fertilizer, labels, watering can, potting mix, insecticidal soap, and seeds. Supporting printed and video curriculum materials, and follow up newsletters provide helpful information.

Initially, Carl experimented with various activities that focused on plant science with an older GrowLab model. Students learned about soil, photosynthesis, and other concepts by planting seeds and raising seedlings. They learned about organic material by recycling dead plant debris into compost. They learned and practiced skills of observation, measuring, calculation, and charting data. Carl reports that one of the surprises that they encountered was the degree of variation within a population of seedlings–even though they were all treated exactly the same. This spurred some interest in plant genetics among the students.

The early projects Carl designed involved establishing trial groups and control groups to test how different watering, light and/or feeding regimens affected plant growth. He abandoned that approach when it became obvious that the kids were deeply disappointed that some plants invariably failed to thrive. He realized that, “They all wanted the best outcome.” In light of the fact that his kids “even had a tough time thinning seedlings,” he developed projects that assured, barring the occasional disaster, a uniform result for each participant. Carl reports that, “All of the kids are so enthusiastic, especially the special needs ones.”

In the Classroom

By the time he received a brand new GrowLab courtesy of his Cambridge-Pacific Company sponsor three years ago, Carl Flint had found that the best way to use it was as a “sidebar” to his regular curriculum over an entire semester. Because it takes so long for plants to go from seed to maturity, class GrowLab activities parallel typical shorter science units. Through the GrowLab Carl can introduce and reinforce science skills and concepts as well as teach the plant-related things. Typically, once a project is launched, teacher and students devote, on average, about one hour a week to record keeping, observation, and plant maintenance. Combined, the old and new GrowLabs do not quite accommodate a plant for each of his 50 students, especially when seedlings go from their small cells into larger 4 inch plastic pots. However, all students are able to enjoy up close and personal experiences with them as they grow.

Last fall the sunflower project was a big success. Carl’s students planted dwarf sunflowers, which both he and they thought were “so cool.” At 18 inches maximum height these plants were ideal for the GrowLab. Because instead of the 70 to 75 days to maturity listed on the seed packet, their plants required 90 to 110 days. Upwards of 80% of them developed beautifully and the students proudly took them home to their parents for Christmas.

Teachers who use GrowLabs report that they have an impact well beyond the particular classrooms where they are located. The parents of Carl Flint’s students were delighted to receive the cheery sunflowers. The plants were tangible evidence that their children were loving learning and succeeding. Because the GrowLab in Carl’s room is visible to passers by, the other teachers at Cambridge Central School enjoy watching the ongoing developments under the lights. He receives many compliments from his colleagues. The school custodian is one of the GrowLab’s biggest fans. He looks after the plants, watering faithfully over extended vacation periods.

Lessons learned

Carl and his students have gained respect for how difficult it is to raise healthy plants, even under the best conditions. He feels that the biggest insight his students have gained is “how different each plant is and how quickly things happen. How growth happens in spurts, then slows. They are impressed with how vegetative growth differs from reproductive growth.” In addition to knowledge about plants and how they grow, the kids have had to develop troubleshooting skills and the ability to handle disappointment.

Participating teachers can draw on resources such as the printed materials that accompany the GrowLab and representatives from their sponsoring company who are available for donated supplies, visits to the classroom and other support. Carl reports that, “A ton of information comes with the GrowLab…the support is excellent.” From his experiences to date he advises other teachers to have fun. He suggests that they do not do anything fancy at first–“start with no-brainers, then try the more complex stuff later.” Since nothing succeeds like success, aim for positive results rather than sophisticated experiments. He encourages teachers to reach out to their corporate partners for support.

At this point Carl is experienced and confident enough that he is thinking about how to move on to more advanced activities. He plans to build on a former successful basil growing project by adding a marketing component. Students will grow the herb and then sell it. He is also considering introducing activities such as grafting and hybridizing to his 5th graders. The possibilities are endless.

We credit Liz Ball as author of this article

I will admit that I love flowers. I also love gardening. I am not the most proficient or the neatest of gardeners, and I have a taste for the less than manicured bed.

Why do most of us garden? I think there is a combination of an appreciation for the plants themselves and their attributes of beauty such as foliage, shape, stem color and, of course, their flowers. We wish to surround ourselves with the beauty of plants. We do so by in a sense, playing God on our little acre (or 1 /3 of an acre in my case). This is not altogether bad. But any time we pretend to be omnipotent, a little bit of humility is a good thing.

There are two aspects of our obsession with flowers that we have to think about: 1) do they bloom just for us, and 2) do the plants in our gardens exist in a vacuum separate from the surrounding environment? The answer to both questions is no.

The flowering part of a plant contains the sexual reproductive organs. Sexual reproduction allows for variation which helps plants fit in their environment and promotes the long-term survival of the species. Many types of plants reproduce sexually. Angiosperms, or plants which have a covered seed and often have showy flowers, appear in fossil records some 140 million years ago. There is no coincidence in the fact that the explosion of flowering plants about 100 million years ago corresponds closely with the rise of many of the colonial insects such as ants and bees. The basic fact is that the whole reason for producing those physiologically expensive showy flowers is to attract pollinators which will greatly enhance the plants’ chances of successfully reproducing.

So there you have it. As much as we may appreciate flowering plants and arrange them in our yard to admire their beauty, they do not flower for us; they flower for the lowly insects. What’s more, when the plant goes to seed, its seed form is often designed to attract animals to eat it, thus increasing the chances that the seeds will be dispersed to favorable habitats.

These facts lead to the answer of the second question: plants in our gardens do interact with their surrounding ecosystem to a very high degree. They provide structure both above and below the soil. They provide cover. And they provide food in their stems, foliage, flowers and seeds. If soil is an ecosystem’s foundation, plants are the backbone.

Everything we do in our yards has an effect. Because areas around towns and cities are made up of many small lots, the plants in those lots make up the structure for the local ecosystem. That is why it is so important to consider what we plant.

I have felt honored this winter with the daily visits to my yard by yellowrumped warblers and at least three species of sparrows. I have no bird feeders; instead, they come to forage on and around my plants. The cedars behind my house which once formed a farm fence line provide a nightly roost for many bird species and gray squirrels. The hummingbird moths that come each summer to drink nectar are amazing to watch. The importance of this backyard habitat in a time when almost every ecosystem and habitat in North America has been altered or fragmented cannot be underestimated.

As we labor in our gardens and walk in the stream valleys this spring we need to remember that although we appreciate the beauty of the flowers, they do not bloom for us. The plants are trying to complete their reproductive cycles and we are merely bystanders to the interactions between the plants and their pollinators, seed dispersers and their predators. However, as humans we shape our local environment to suite our desires. The choices we make can determine whether a species survives or goes locally extinct. So I urge you this year to fully enjoy the flora, but to also keep the fauna in mind while you dig.

Charles Smith, VNPS Membership Chair.