Now that I am through with another season of discouraging deer from eating my Daylily buds, I am starting to make plans for changes that will improve my life next year. I have ten Daylilies that are still difficult to protect. Three of them I don't feel the need to save or even replace, and six of them I do want to replace with something more suitable. Last year I dug out quite a few and replaced them with other plants. Between the lily dig outs and the winter failures, I had to replace twelve plants. Now that is complete and I am making plans for next year's round of replacements.
These Daylilies are going to have to go. The yellow Happy Returns that flank the entrance to the walkway are now done blooming and will have to be cut back anyway, and the tall white lily is just beginning to bloom this week at the point that I am sick and tired of spraying repellent every day.
These yellow lilies may as well be replaced with annuals. In years previous I have planted annuals along the right side and I am going back to that. A row of "white" Marigolds or Geraniums would look nice, but will still have to be sprayed. So far, the deer have never eaten Petunias. I think I may try those next year. That plant on the left of the walkway is the original Happy Returns plant and I have divided it many times so that I, and our neighbor, have it in a dozen other locations. The neighbor wants more, so these will not go to waste.
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| This photo is from ten years (or more) ago. |
I felt like I would like a medium sized perennial or shrub in the place of the white lily. Not far away in the same bed I have this Little Lime Punch panicle hydrangea. The deer will trim it a little in the spring when the tips are growing, but it is not a priority to them so it is easier to protect than lily buds and they do not totally ruin it. Once it blooms it is safe and will look nice for months compared to a lily which only blooms for a week or two and must be protected to the very end.
The Hydrangea is budding right now and it will be covered in large blooms until winter. While the white Daylily (below) is at it's prime and doesn't really look all that hot. I have decided that Daylilies are not front door plants. They just look too plain or too scraggly most of the summer. I mean if this is the best it can do.... there are a lot of easier plants that look nicer for longer.
My intention was to mail order a Little Lime Punch or a Little Quick Fire which are both panicle Hydrangea that bloom on new wood. But, the local fancy nursery that I knew had a good inventory of Hydrangea just put their stock on 25% off so I went and got a beautiful two gallon plant for the same price as a one gallon plant usually costs. After the extended rain the other day, I took my transplant shovel around and started cutting loose Daylilies while the soil was soft. I put my spade in next to that white Daylily and the whole clump came up. No cutting needed!
I was thinking that I may put a medium sized decorative grass to its right. but I already have some good vertical elements with the Echinacea. I think a lighter colored Heuchera may be more appropriate on the corner replacing the yellow Daylily. I guess I could always divide a shorter grass I already have because the deer are not interested in any of my many decorative grasses.
Which brings us to the dry creek bed. I had six Daylilies left in that area. Four of those are on the replacement list. The reason I hadn't already removed those is that I really liked a couple of them and they are a bugger to get out of that rocky planting situation. This large pink one is gorgeous, but sort of stuck out amid the more subtle wildflower look of the other flowers in the creek bed area. I have a couple of ideas for a more appropriate, more deer resistant plant to replace it like maybe Ironweed. Because the pink Daylily is so pretty, the next door neighbor took it and tucked it in a corner where it will hopefully fare better than on the edge of my open lawn.
Nearby it was two toned lily. The deer love this one. Not only was it on the edge and easily accessible, it seems to taste better than some of the others. Truthfully, the deer seem to prefer the lighter colored blooms, and while they will eat dark red ones, those are easier to protect. The deer are not as determined to eat every. last. bud. It was always the first Daylily to sustain deer damage every year. I am just going to replace this with a Foxtrot grass division I already have potted up. I think it is a Sweet Sugar Candy variety and I have more of those in a safer place.
And lastly, this little lily. I had planned to remove it last year, but I had run out of ideas for replacement plants so I just left it. It managed to produce one bloom this year, and the deer reached under the net and ate the rest. I have more of this color in a protectable spot at the end of the vegetable garden so it was dug up and will be replaced, probably with Yarrow.
I am in the process of digging out half a dozen more Daylilies in less conspicuous spots. Most of them are not even being replaced. If the space ends up looking too empty, I can always plant something new in the future. Sometimes the peace that empty space affords is more valuable than the satisfaction of a nice looking plant that you have fought for. Gardening should bring joy, not frustration. There is no reason to keep a plant that is bogging you down.
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