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The Plant Philanthropist

One year after we moved into our new ranch-style home, the Merion Bluegrass lawn was growing well and the basic flower beds were mapped out. A new home doesn't need repairs, but a myriad of needs kept cropping up to soak up any available money. A trip to the local plant nursery put us in shock when we added up the cost of perennials, mulching and proper bricks for the borders. I would search the want ads for bargain lots of building materials, garden tools, mowers and fertilizer with much success. When people move, they don't want to weigh down the moving van with old tools and bags of fertilizer. They practically give them away.

The one thing people would never part with are their perennials. Plants and trees are quite visible to the new owners and they usually expect that they go with the house. My whole winter was spent browsing the catalogs for hosta, iris, roses, and especially day lilies. Available in mouth-watering shades, these new hybrid day lilies come in different heights and plant habit. Some are good for along a fence, other make good border plants, each clump doubling in size every year. Unlike the road side day lilies that grow to four feet tall, bloom only briefly, and send out root runners to take over the rest of the garden, the hybrids are garden friendly. Unfortunately, a grouping of three roots cost about eight dollars, sending the cost of the needed plants into the hundreds of dollars.

One day, in a conversation with a local nursery owner, he revealed the source of some of his day lilies. The farmer lived in a nearby town and grew day lilies for a living. Some intense research turned up his address and I paid him a visit. Presented with row upon row of cultivated day lilies in every imaginable shape and color, I drooled over owning just a few of them for our garden. I parted with all the money I had, fifteen dollars, and went home with three starter clumps. Before leaving, I took a few pictures of his fields and some individual blossoms he had self propagated. I later made a set for him to keep. One low growing beauty sported forty blooms on each stalk (opening one per day) in tones of deep ruby red. Another met the dawn in diamond dusted five-inch-wide flowers in ivory and shell pink, showing an apple green center. A third boasted four inch blooms in a true lemon yellow.

The following summer, I received a call from the farmer. He informed me that he had sold his farm land to a developer and had already bought ten acres twenty miles further west. He had removed all he needed to seed the new day lily farm but was forced to leave hundreds of mature plants. The bulldozers were slated to start preparing the land for the new development the following week and if I would like, I could help myself to any number of plants for my garden. I almost dropped the phone in excitement. Here was presented to me the most desirable flowering perennials I could dream of for our garden! Free!! I thanked him and spent the next three days digging, boxing, and transporting the day lilies. The next July Fourth we had a barbecue party in the back yard. Ringing the gentle curves of the brick borders bloomed forty varieties of hybrid day lilies, glorifying our new garden and warming our hearts.

posted by nwwhimy @ 3:20 PM