Anything that has pretty blooms and will grow here- I'm a total flower hog! The desire to collect other plants besides irises hits too, mostly with daffodils, but I've also amassed quite a few varieties of roses, peonies, lilies, clematis, and on and on... I don't even consider myself a big daylily enthusiast (I really like them, just haven't been inclined to collect them), but still have nearly 100 varieties of those.

I agree, if it flowers or the foliage is beautiful. If bees and butterflies love them. If they get hummingbirds flitting about and better yet fighting,
But....that is why the realtor said, "you need to move most of the plants"
I love plants

I grow Asiatic, oriental, orienpet lilies. Azaleas from propagation. Japanese Maples, 1 successfully grafted one and the rest from seed.

Gardenia from proprigation, a few succulents, hostas, and roses, mondo or monkey grass, zennia, hibiscus.

no lilies here. I got tired of fighting the red beetles. Irises keep us busy.

If you grow nearly 100 daylilies but don't consider yourself a big daylily enthusiast, Neal, then I'm a little curious as to how (and why) you amassed such a number, and what's your idea of a "collector" or a "collection", anyway?

Fwiw, I have over 100 registered daylily cultivars, but I don't consider myself a collector, either... not even for polymerous daylilies, though I have more than a few. I guess in my view, a plant "collection" would entail having all (or most, or some large number if "most" runs to several hundred or more) of a particular class of daylily, whether that be an award winner (Stout, All-American, Best XXX, whatever), or those hybridized by a certain hybridizer, or those of a particular form, or bloom size, or age (like historic irises), and so on. There may be some display gardens (whether daylily enthusiast gardens or at general purpose horticultural gardens) that might have one or another such collection. And I suppose that an AHS display garden, by its nature, can be considered to be something of a collection (with a little bit of everything). But that ain't happening here...

Sometimes it is easy to just refer to my conglomeration of daylilies as a "collection", but it isn't, really. Some of them are polymerous and were chosen specifically for that trait, others were chosen for color, some were bought for one odd reason or another - but overall there is no underlying connecting theme. Two of my favorite daylilies are wildly different wrt flower form, color, size, and plant habit. One of them was chosen because it was supposedly polymerous.... it isn't, here, but it stays because it has a nice bloom and good plant traits. The other one, iirc, was acquired at a local club meeting, and it has good plant traits too. Yet not all of my daylilies have good plant traits... I am slowly whittling the number down, and plant traits (or at least, good disease resistant foliage) is one of the things that I am selecting for. But at the end... still not a (themed) collection, as I see it.

Well, mostly I am rebuilding right now. Have a few clumps of daffodils, tulips, hostas in the ground and in pots, Two heucheras, some columbines, a few other clumps of small bulbs: tritelia, galanthus, chionodaxa, pushinska, crocus, scilla, miniature tulips and bulb iris. Also daylilies in the ground and in pots. I tore out some peonies last year that were so entangled with myrtle that I couldn't separate them. There are some Allium aflatunense Purple Sensation that I will keep, mostly in the side yard. I have several clumps of Red Crown Imperial fritillaria.

There is a dwarf mock orange, a yellow delicious apple under which I will plant my hostas and some more heucheras after I dig up all the alliums. This is the apple's off year; I hope all my digging won't affect the tree too much. There are several Rose of Sharon that self seeded in one corner. Plan to keep the white and kill the rest.

I have two bush roses, the old pioneer yellow and the bright Austrian Copper. There are about 14 very old Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses; I intend to take cuttings of some of these and some at my hairdresser's. The owner there has a lot of fragrant varieties, haven't asked yet. Still have a few miniature roses, used to have over 120 when I made crafts (pictures, jewelry and cubes) with dried roses, baby's breath and forget me nots with dried vine tendrils.

With all the iris I am buying, I’ve got to really work hard to avoid the temptation to buy a lot of perennials, bulbs and shrubs until I can get a number of other areas cleared.

Poly, it just happened over time. I ordered about 20 varieties of daylily about 15 years ago, and the rest have come from other gardeners. Mostly folks who I sent some bulbs or plants to who would offer this or that daylily and I'd say "sure!". We don't see rust here much, so they're reliable low maintenance perennials that thrive with hardly any attention.

I did the same thing, Neal. I first ordered about 20 of the shortest ones offered and six of the taller guys. Then the rest just came to stay. I have their names but would have to look them up as only a few are marked in the garden. My favorite bloom last year was Big Apple as it was just apple red.

These are all of the perennials that I have in my yard along with the iris. I also have two apple trees, a 'Golden Delicious' and a 'Jonathan.' We had a bumper crop on the apples, the first in five years and we canned 90 quarts of apples before leaving on a trip last fall.

Alcea rosea Hollyhock
Aquilegia Columbine 3 varieties
Armeria maritima Thrift Dusseldorf Pride
Campanula Bellflower 2 varieties Pearl Deep Blue and Pearl Light blue
Clustered Bellflower
Spotted Bellflower
Chrysanthemum Mum Burgundy color
Delphinium 2 varieties
Dianthus Pink 'Wicked Witch'
‘Shooting Star’
‘Fire Star’
Digitalis purpurea Foxglove 3 varieties
Echinacea purpurea Coneflower 'Magnus'
Eryngium planum Flat Sea Holly “Blue Glitter”?
Geranium sanguineum Cranesbill 'Vision'
Helenium hoopesii Sneezeweed
Hemerocallis Daylily 6 varieties
Heuchera Coral Bells 'Plum Pudding'
Hosta Hosta 'Patriot'
Iris Germanica 52 varieties; 16 NOID
Lily, Asiatic Lily "Tango Pushoff"
‘Painted Pixie’
‘Sunny After 8’
‘Black Bird’
Lupinus Lupine ‘Red Flame’
Monarda Bee balm 'Petite Wonder’
Muscari armeniacum Grape Hyacinth
Narcissus Daffodils ‘Grand Master’
‘Tresamble’
Oenothera missouriensis Evening primrose Ozark Sundrops
Papaver orientale Poppy 2 varieties
Platycodon Balloon flower
Potentilla thurberi Red cinquefoil Monarch's Velvet
Stonecrop Matrona Stonecrop
Sedum Sedum Acre Gold Moss
‘Summer Glory’
Tulipa Tulip 7 varieties
Veronica spicata Speedwell 'Glory' ROYAL CANDLES
Red Veronica

Before we retired, my flower beds in California consisted mainly of iris and a few perennials. But when we moved to Idaho, I wanted color in my yard all summer, to complement the glory of the iris. I had 6 beds of flowers which I enlarged about 5 years ago, adding more perennials. Then I added 9 beds a couple of years ago along a back rock hill, intending to fill them with iris, but my hubby wanted to add other perennials there to fill in with color through the season. When you are at the nursery and your hubby begins picking out plants, what do you do? Buy plants, albeit more selectively than he would, but buy nevertheless. Then last year I added 14 spots in our west rock field and 9 spots in the east rock field for iris from trades. Today, we finished digging and dunging two larger 5 ft oval spots in the west rock field for the iris I ordered this year with room for hopeful trades later in the summer. I would say that I am finished DIGGING and DUNGING for new iris, but I said that two years ago . . . before I met ATP. Sorry. My list was in columns when I finished it, but the spacing did not translate into the finished article.

I just found this thread. My backyard is a steep, wooded hillside best left natural. I have a very small garden, just an island bed in my front lawn and a shade bed next to my carport. So while I love irises I want color all season long. In the shade I have hellebores, euphorbia, brunnera, purple oxalis, lady's mantle,a few hostas the deer haven't eaten and dragon wing begonias. In the sun I plant daffodils, creeping phlox, several varieties of coreopsis, profusion zinnias, blue sage, angelonia, rudbeckia, echinacea, lilies, some garden phlox that the deer didn't eat, two kniphofia that survived the heavy rains, and butterfly weed. Across the front of the house are a cryptomeria, zebra grass, two remaining knock-out roses, a crape myrtle, snapdragons, and azalea and a camellia that my husband bought me years ago.

I grow more than a few varieties of azaleas, bigger blooming rhodedumdrums, gardenia, hostas, hydrangeas, daylilies, oriental and orienpet lilies again after leaving behind, figs for the first time. If the shrub or plant doesn't flower or grow edibles it has no place in my garden. I'm slowing working on a shade garden of colors so I'm still piecing it up here and there.

My choices has as also been heavily influenced by deer. Lilies of all kinds are a special interest for me. Luckily for me the deer never eat them here. They don't touch hostas either, but the slugs do, so I do not have as many of them.



I did mention deer, didn't I. I love tulips and for years I grown tulips covered with netting to protect them. Now I have found a good spray for them that so far seem to work perfectly and that doesn't wash of with rain (it's called Trico Garden, but unfortunately I don't think it is available in the US) so I'm happy to be able to grow more of them again. Netting is just to complicated to be done on a larger scale. However one do need to remember spraying and there is always that risk... what if it stops working.







Almost all types of bulbs actually intrests me so I have a lot of Crown Imperials...



Lots of other bulbs too of course, but I shouldn't forget the Corydalis...




I have also added a lot more hellebores lately.



Rhododendron do well here in the forest and I technically grow a lot of trees, although I have never planted these!


Some daylilies, a few heuchera, the list is long. There is a kitchen garden too, but as that is the sunniest spot, there are more and more irises there.

Oh wow!

William, you could make your own private photo contest with all those great garden images!

Many thanks, Lilli for your kind words and your acorn (While I'm at it, let me thank you for the acorn on the Purple Serenade pic as well).

I didn't enter any images for this years contest, so maybe a private photo contest just for me would be a good idea.
I would then almost certainly be guaranteed to win at least one category, maybe even several.

William your gardens are beautiful!

Your garden is stunning and every photo is like a postcard.

Wowza! Gorgeous William--sorry about your deer trouble, but what an enchanted space you have

Beautiful gardens, William!

I'm so very happy you enjoyed the photos Tom, Robin, Dirt and Scott and thank you also for the acorns.
You all have great gardens yourself!