On road trips, often it’s the flowers blooming everywhere – by the side of the road, in untended lots, throughout otherwise unoccupied fields – that make the biggest impression, no matter how many famous gardens and botanical sites we visit.
During a mid-July excursion that took us through the Berkshires, into Northwestern Connecticut, and back, there was definitely a “plant of the trip” and it was Hemerocallis fulva, aka the “ditch lily.” It was in untended as well as tended spots (as seen here).
Why would I take such delight in such a familiar plant, one that many gardeners dismiss or even refer to as “invasive?” (Nope, it’s not, not according to the DEC list in my state.) A plant that you can see everywhere at a certain time of year?
It’s exactly because it was absolutely everywhere during this trip that we found it so lovely. The quantity. The orange masses everywhere. No wonder it’s also called the “fourth of July” lily; it provides fireworks at just the right time.
If a big patch of it was in my garden, I’d likely get bored with it – and I’d certainly be unhappy in late July, August and September, having devoted heavy real estate to its strappy foliage.
It’s the same reason I delight in the common violas that take over my front garden in April and early May, or want to pull over and pick armfuls of goldenrod that dominates the roadside scene in September.
If I lived in California, I would be taking the same delight in the spring poppy blooms. If Texas, I’d be on the roads during bluebonnet season.
This is the pure pleasure that I only get occasionally- and to a lesser degree – in my own garden. There never seems to be enough of any one thing to produce an unfettered explosion of color.
I also enjoy the purity of it being just one dominant species. Though if it was the same plant with a wide color range, that would be okay too.
Oh, and I don’t want to go wading through the mud in spring to find hepaticas or painted trillium. I want everything to be out there where I can see it. Though geranium maculatum is lovely and tends to be more visible.
I always go back to the ditch lily though. It escaped from cultivated areas, took up residence where it could and somehow still asserts its presence, in spite of human contempt and deer predation.
Respect.
Love the ditch lily and the flower buds are tasty. I grazed on a hillside of them for weeks on end in early July, here in Kentucky.
Well said. I’ve never understood why passalong plants, the tried and truly beautiful plants that are so easy to grow, should be so despised by the gardening elite. However, if anyone wants to go trillium hunting, I’m game.
Respect indeed!
You can have all mine. In the border, they crowd out other daylilies and plants. And then they start popping up where you didn’t plant them. Yes, it’s pretty, but it’s also an invasive weed.
Funny, I read your sentence, ” It was in untended as well as tended spots (as seen here).” as “It was in unintended as we as intended spots!” Kinda means the same thing, I think. lol
I too respect the ditch lily, and the deer don’t seem to bother them at all. Maybe they’ve gotten sick of eating them?
Living in WV as a kid, this wild lily was known as a tiger lily. First time I’d heard it called a ditch lily.
Tiger lilies are a different item, at least in our garden.
I love ditch lilies and am thrilled by your praise of them.
We have hybrid daylilies. The deer eat them. They eat our friends’ daylilies. They leave the old orange alone, for some reason, which is OUR reason to PLANT them. Plus, they hold a slope like nobody’s business. As for
“invasive”– I have read that it was recognized as a garden escapee in 1690 or thereabouts–which is more of a pedigree than most people have.
In Ohio, I have been enjoying the chicory on the roadside. Also, noticed that it is mostly right by the road and not much further. Love ditch lilies as well.
My ditch lilies come up through a gravel mulch and have a relatively long bloom time. Sad to see them go.
Let’s also applaud their tenacity on horribly stressful highway sites, helping to cleanse the pollution of vehicle emissions while hindering erosion. Good nod, Elizabeth!
Precisely, Carol. Thank you. I recently was able to enjoy them literally “en masse” during a recent trip to New England. Gorgeous! And a very-happy making plant.
I don’t love the ditch lilies but can appreciate their tenacity. It took many sweaty hours for me to remove a thick mat of them, enough to fill two large cardboard boxes, and I gave them to someone who needed to control erosion on a slope. She was happy, I was happy. Years later I am still seeing them crop up in my garden.
If we’re talking roadside plants that make me rubberneck and drive very slowly, I vote for Shasta daisies in central NY, and wild lupines in VT and New Brunswick. Absolutely stunning.