As the century turned, and writing the year 1900 took some getting use to, my grandmother dreamed of something else that was new, a summer home, away from the noise and congestion of the city. Prospects were good as trolly lines extended themselves into the forested countryside 20 miles to the northwest and land was still inexpensive. Speculators bought land, subdivided and resold to city dwellers searching for a bit of Shangri-La. In the fall of 1904 my grandfather purchased 4 lots of land and soon built a summer retreat for the family. The opportunity to color the landscape in the summer of 1905 with flowers did not escape my grandmothers eye. Soon flowers and bushes flourished in their new home amongst the pines and laughter of 3 children at play. Fast forward 85+ years to the early 1990's and a grandson's yard with the descendants of some of those flowers planted in 1905. Orange daylilies in several large groups brightened the early summer garden. Now however, daylilies came in a profusion of colors, sizes and shapes. No longer were we anchored to one color, pretty as it might be. The flower catalogs had shed light on the multitude of daylilies but seeing is best. An hour and a half trip had us gazing over 20 acres of daylily rows in a nursery specializing in the flower that delights but for one day. We made several selections and as we were totaling the days finds the conversation touched upon the seed pods that dotted the stalks of flowers past. Her response rang bells in my head, "We pay someone to gather the pods and then we burn them." While few pods were mature, a testament to the minion who gathered them, our search yielded many candidates and we felt like squirrels in a nut orchard at the end of the day. A few years later the new flowers from seed announced their arrival and the first was on the day of the summer solstice. Successive years produced identical results and I named the daylily "Summer Solstice." Lately, however, the flower has been blooming earlier and earlier, which brings us to the crux of this story. Today Summer Solstice bloomed, its earliest ever. Tomorrow more will bloom but today a single flower greeted the morning sun. It did not take long for me to spot the first of the year. ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Summer Solstice Jerry
Loved reading your post. Summer Solstice is a beauty! I'm just planting my first daylilies this year. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share next year.
