My pack of murderous cats keeps my property clear of moles, but I have had groundhog problems so I can relate! The daylilies are gorgeous! I love that purple one. Once I get things a bit more planned out, I think I'll indulge in some different daylilies. So far most of mine run toward the pink/yellow/orange spectrum and I'd like to try some other shades.

Lucky you to have outside cats, Annie --mine have always been inside and would have no idea what to do with a mole. The nuisance cat next door is outnumbered by moles so I don't see a speedy end to the problem!

My daylilies were orange, pink and yellow for years until I discovered the reds in my grandmother's garden then everything changed. Collecting them does become a habit!

My cat herd is indoor/outdoor, like carpeting *HA*. There's about 20 of them right now, but I refuse to be called a crazy cat lady because so many of them are outdoors at any one time. Right now, there's only one cat in the house! They are killers; I hate it when they kill bunnies and birds (and even moles and mice...I'm a softie), but I know I probably would have problems if they didn't.

I'm thinking of going toward the purple end of the spectrum in daylilies. I would like to get some odd looking ones for the upper part of the Storybook Garden. Maybe those spider types!

I love the purples and need so much to add them to my blog. I think the purples were a long time coming for me as well, and I have one seedling - no name - that is a lovely lavender/mauve, but in some light it looks brown. Not so happy with the brown look at all.

Happy Kitties at your house!

I just discovered i DO have a sort of purple daylily! About 3 years ago, a friend bought a big box of daylilies from Sam's Club...what a disappointment. We shared them out and there were supposed to be 3 different varieties (don't remember what they were now); almost none of the bloomed until last year and they were nowhere near the colors they were supposed to be: I know one was supposed to be this striking pale pink with red edges....it bloomed plain old yellow. Anyhows....looks like another clump finally bloomed this year and it's a sort of odd reddish purple. Just saw it this morning.

Yep I'm definitely going to be adding some daylilies. I just did a survey of the garden this morning and it's in that "July slump" where everything is green....very little in the way of color, especially in a few areas... Daylilies would be perfect this time of year.

The good thing about that is daylilies can be planted/transplanted at most anytime. So easy to grow! Daylilies take over in my garden soon after the irises fade, there is a little slump there that I fill with a few peonies, but for June and a big part of July, it's a Daylily Parade.

You'll love the color they bring with them.

I like daylilies too and I do want to expand them in my garden, but I'm also interested in getting other plants that bloom in that sort of "down time" from late June to late July. One that really is putting on a good show here is Geranium "Johnson's Blue"....and that color will look great with yellow or orange daylilies too! Monarda is doing great now too, but that needs cool, damp soil and that's something I aint got much of in the borders!

I'm really watching teh BBC gardening vids carefully and I've got to start taking notes...they grow stuff over there that is not all that common here. There's a plant called (I think) Astrantia that looks interesting

Although I don't have a 'cottage garden', I often take a look at that forum or online to find new and different perennials that will take me through the empty months. Sometimes I end up resorting to shrubs, though.

I'm a big fan of flowering shrubs. When I first started here, I had this vision of a great long perennial border but that faded fast because the soil was so bad and there was just too much else to do...building the house, etc. So I started turning to flowering shrubs and now I have a nice border of those...nothing fancy, but pretty throughout the year.

Cottage garden forum...will check it out.
Thanks!