Isn't that the truth. DH is often telling me, I saw a plant today you need to get. Of course he can't describe it, & isn't even too sure of the color, so he has to show me. I then tell him, I've had that for years, it is growing & blooming right now beside the door/sidewalk/shop. I can't tell you how many times he has done that! I guess it just looks better in someone else's yard :)

Just wait until bloom season. I don't see how he could not notice a bed of blooming daylilies.

Mine just wishes for me to stop buying plants and digging up the yard for more flowerbeds he has to mow around...lol!

Karen

mine calls all my flowers "weeds"...just to make me mad of course!

If your husband is physically able to help you in the garden at all, count yourselves among the fortunate! Mine is in such poor phsyical health that he can no longer do any outdoor work. I do all of the yard work plus all of the gardening. As far as being observant - hah - I have bought new furniture and taken my husband in the room where the new furniture is and said, "Which piece is new?" and he guessed the wrong thing! How bad is that?

So I don't expect him to know much or notice much about the garden. He does know when I get new daylilies and is trained well enough to bring packages inside where it's cool if the postman leaves them out front. Larry has no clue what I pay for daylilies, it has been that way for many years and I expect it will stay that way. My club friends all know when we have auctions, etc. if I pay a lot for a daylily, they are supposed to drop the last digit if they mention it in front of him. For example, if it was $50, they would say, "Oh my, and you paid $5.00 for that daylily!?!"

He does like it when people come over and make good comments about the yard and garden. When he was in better health, once he made the comment that I had enough daylily beds,and that he'd like to still see some grass here and there. So I quit adding more beds, but he never said anything about the size of the existing beds expanding - and they have definitely expanded. Nowadays, it's all I can do to keep up with the size of the garden. Am trying to get the numbers down to under 700 before the garden is on Regional tour in 2012. It's at about 780 right now - but after all spring orders are dug, it will be down to about 760 or so registered cultivars, not counting seedlings. We'll see how that works!

OK, so now I have to share, too. I work in a garden center and yesterday a (male) customer said he wanted some pansies and then gestured with his hand that he wanted the kind that grew 'this high', indicating about knee level. I never did figure out what kind of flowers he really wanted, but I tried to sell him some daylilies, since they are so easy, reliable, long-lived, blah, blah, blah, but he wasn't convinced that this mass of green would actually produce flowers, and left empty-handed because we didn't have the right kind of pansies. Oh, every day is an adventure. Christine

These are all Too funny, I like the furniture story, floota, and about dropping the last digit, that made me laugh out loud!!
Weeds, that is funny, how about when your gardens are called a Jungle, by those that really don't know what they are looking at!!! You try to explain why daylilies are just so wonderful , and then the comment, "why would you even want a flower that only last one day?" Geezz!!!

At least dani's husband only calls them weeds - mine has been known to pull up some of my "weeds" LOL!!!

Yep, years ago my husband helped me weed the garden. When I turned around, all the tomato plants were in the weed pile. I haven't asked him help me weed since. On the other hand, when I wanted to raise the boxes in the back yard (involves removing dl, removing soil, adding reinforcement, etc) he was willing to do whatever I wanted. He enjoys the daylilies and it shocks me when he ascribes the correct name to a prominent bloom. Shocks me, I tell you! He is paying attention!

My DH thinks gardening is something women do to keep busy and clutter up the yard. Humph! Not only that, I have told him several times WHO created the very first garden (Genesis 2:8-10). My DH still doesn't get it- LOL

My husband doesn't care a lot about flowers, but he knows how much I do, so he is very helpful (after giving me a hard time about it at first) when I want to have a border made as long as he doesn't actually have to mow around a whole bunch of little things.

He loves to mow the lawn and is very proud of how he keeps it lush and green. But a couple of years ago, he gave up some of his lawn so I could put in a sitting garden. We sat in that garden drinking a beer together a few days ago and I think he actually enjoyed being there and even asked what a few plants were.

He did come outside last year while I was planting some daylilies and told me that I was addicted to them. Duh! Thankfully, he never asked how much I had spent on them.

I did go a little crazy last year and am going to try to be good this year:) I just wish I could get him to be as crazy about them as I am.

Vickie

I love this thread! LOL!

Yes, the men do notice! I don't have daylilly's yet, but do have alot of succulents. All grouped together on the patio. About 75.

Hubby will come home and notice one or two new 3" pots among them! LOL!

He doesn't garden, but I do make him take a tour from time to time when he gets home from work.

No dinner till he see's all the garden..LOL!

JoJo

Yeah, we just can't hide everything, can we?

That tour thing is a very good idea, JoJo. I need to see if that will work with my DH. Maybe it will convert him to a daylily lover:)

Vickie

I will give DH credit for the fact that he recognizes that my garden work has been an essential element in improving my health.

Today he casually asked "how much do you think is in your garden 20 grand?"

I told him I thought about half of that> Can't fuss about him in regard to spending, but he doesn't ever know what I spend for an individual flower....nor does he need to. It would give him heartburn, I'm sure.

kay

Hello All, this is my first post to the daylily forum. After reading this, I gave in and finally joined. (just so I could reply here) I have been reading your writings for several years, and as a gardening man and a daylily grower who also tries to hybridize, I feel compelled to speak up for the men folk whose wives love grass and don't know the names of any of the daylilies!!! At least there is one of me. You 'guys' keep up the humor, I will continue to lurk and look and enjoy your festivities!

Welcome lilybean, hey we have some great guys on here!!
You don't have to lurk!! Join in and post pics too of your daylilies.
cindy

Hey Lilibean, that is most certainly true. Non gardeners come in both genders. Maybe it is just a thing but more men do seem overly fond of the fancy lawn than us women.

Very, very true. I was careful to differentiate the discussion was non-gardening men since we have Ed and Rick and Davis and ...

kay

My wife's standard comment about any flower I pick in the yard is "That's pretty", she is now hurt because I was less than thrilled when she bought me a peony in a small box in the super market and I told her it would probably take five years to bloom---I'm still nursing along one she gave me two years ago---same little $2.99 box in the grocery store----it works both ways girls---------Weedy

Stephen is my name and thank you for your kind hospitality. I'm in NC, and was most irritated to have to mow the grass I have today. Not that it is bad grass, it's just that I was probably the last house in the neighborhood to begin mowing this year. Lots of people cut their grass too short, it is not good for the grass. Posting pictures??? Once I have acquired a bloom this season, and perhaps figure out how to get the picture from the camera to the computer, I will be glad to post some shots. Right now, I'm transplanting and dividing and receiving purchases, potting, making a mess, etc.
Catch ya later.

Stephen

You are all too funny.
I have a non-gardening spouse but can't complain about hubby. He is willing but sometimes not able to help so I am grateful for the help he can give. He knows I love gardening. Sure, he doesn't know one plant from another and sometimes, neither do I, but he tries. That is what I love about him.
I've even gotten him to come to some of the club meetings with me this year so he is 'educated' about daylilies. And he totally agrees with me about getting rid of most of the grass and putting in garden beds.
I still prefer he not cut the lawn. He just hasn't got the knack (or he is pulling a Tom Sawyer on me) of doing it correctly with overlap.;-)

Julia

As long as my hubby can do any thing that doesn't involve his knees, he is willing to help. He has very bad knees and if he steps the wrong way, one knee will go out and he will fall. Right now he is in the kitchen washing up the dishes from our supper. He doesn't ask how much I have spent on daylilies since the first of the year. I am trying to replace plants I lost.

Welcome Stephen!

I too am the man that does the gardening. If it weren't for the packages arriving, the Mrs. would probably never realize the new additions.

She doesn't know what I spend. I "trade" with friends (but funny how I never send any out).

I keep lists of what I bought (YIKES!) but it it password protected.

I limited myself to 4 new daylilies this year, 3 of them being old varieties that I want to try. Oh, but I did bring in 28 new iris last fall, and 2 Columbine, 1 Sedum and 1 Perennial Salvia so far this spring (and I've placed 2 iris orders already for this fall).

Oh well, I like a pretty yard!

Hubby usually tells me 'that flower is pretty' at a garden center, not realizing it has been growing in the yard for years! However, on the other side, I get my flower addiction from my dad-his gardens are three times the size of mine if not more.

My father (now 80) is a real gardener all his life and notices and understands everything about plants,flowers, vegetable fruit trees. Even now, he always grows something from seeds, nursers some flowers in poor health and appreciates the beauty of diamond dust on daylily or unusual color stamens on a rose. My mother belongs to "that is pretty" camp. However, in my family, my husband, who is sharp and knowledgable in many areas will not be able to see a difference between rose and peony or probably even daylily :). I don't think he even will recognize any vegetable in the garden. It has to be in prepared state on his plate in order for him to say it is carrot or a potato. He just doesn't notice anything in the garden. I can have 100 roses or daylilies in bloom and he will be not aware of this.
So it is really not gender.
Olga

I am the gardener at my house. Husband was been invited, but had no taste for it at all. I had hoped we would be one of those adorable little couples who create a beautiful yard together, but that dream died with the scores of plants he murdered. He came out with me a few times and the results were a disaster. I may as well have sprayed Agent Orange on my most treasured plants He was always drawn to Round up and the weedwhacker, and randomly beheading or poisoning anything green. The really weird part was he would disappear from where we were working together. I would be talking and weeding, and he would just be gone. When i finally would go look for him, I would find a path of carnage on the way. He would deny every cold blooded murder. He is the Ted Bundy of gardeners. Since I could not have him incarcerated, I have made do with a life sentence of never touching anything that prunes or poisons again. I am not one to require my own way, but this he found out was an exception. So, out of respect to 39 years of marriage, I record shows I know he loves, and encourage him to enjoy those while I work outside. Heck, I would not care if it was porn if it protects the few plants I have left.

In loving memory of plants lost in their prime

Laurie.