Lovely, lushly green cool mornings and warm Spring afternoons are a distant memory.

Instead it’s hot and impossibly muggy. Gnats abound and — oh yes, ticks seem to fall off every tree.  Day after day is a blistering 90+degrees.  And as I look out at my garden, I just hope to see more color than weeds in my beds.  Because heaven knows, I’m not going to get out in this heat and weed for hours!

I’ve cut back the roses and they are setting new buds.  In the one or two places where I have shade and a tiny bit of dampness, the hostas and hydrangeas are doing their best to show off.

Of course, the deer managed to get through the fishing line hubby strung up to foil them, so a few hosta plants are munched down to naked stems.  And a couple of baby rabbits managed to squeeze under the fence and eat some asters down to the ground.

But the garden isn’t a total loss.  Over by the fence and next to the deck… scattered at the wood’s edge…even along a more formal bed,  I’m beginning to see bright pops of color.

It’s daylily season in the garden again.

Everyone who has a flower garden knows something about this popular perennial. Most folks in the country have a clump of old fashioned orange or yellow daylilies somewhere on their lot. And suburban beds are filled with the short, school bus yellow Stella d’Oro daylilies so beloved by landscapers.

My garden is no different.  I have clumps of old fashioned double orange daylilies and gleaming coral daylilies with chartreuse throats.  I have peachy double flowered plants, a clump with deep  purple blooms and pale melon colored miniatures with 3″ flowers.

Some gardeners don’t want to plant daylilies because inevitably the plants grow too large and need to be divided.  And it’s true, they do.  Every 3-5 years, a clump will benefit from division.  Dig around the clump in the fall, lift it up with a shovel, divide it into two or three pieces with 3 or more eyes each,  then pop it in the ground where you want more daylilies. Or trade clumps with friends who garden.  Water the transplants well to help them acclimate.

Daylilies are super hardy and usually thrive, whether you buy them bare rooted, in a pot or as a division. Since they will need dividing, they are not completely fuss free, but they are easy. Dependable.  Cheap. And come in so many colors, shapes, sizes and varieties that no gardener could ever grow them all.

One of my all-time favorite daylilies is a bright lemon yellow spider flowered clump with blooms 10″ across that I can see from my desk.  It’s in full bloom now and the clump will need dividing this autumn. Oh well!

It beckons me  with its ‘happy face’ blossoms as surely as the intoxicating Tahitian Gardenia I grow on the deck beckons me with its scent.  And, just like the gardenia… when I get up close, I can’t help the big, silly grin that spreads across my face despite the sweltering heat.

The garden manages to lure me outside regardless of the weather & delight me. It’s a quiet joy. Life is good.