day lilies

It seems too early for day lilies. I remember them as an August flower, blooming when everything else is too hot to care. Maybe that's a New England memory. In any event, they're out now in our backyard, our imported day liles. They sat in a bucket for almost two years, I think, when we first moved here, before we got them in the ground, and they have repaid that neglect with a glorious display, all red-orange and vibrant.

These days pretty much all I'm good for is dead-heading day lilies. I pull off the dead blooms the next day and throw them out in the hope that this will save some energy for newer blooms. It's a mindless and satisfying task.