Hi, I'd love some of your lily of the valley. Sending you an email.

To newyorkrita... I didn't plant them there, they came with the house and I have never redone that section of garden. When I get to redoing that section, I will dig them out and put some better dayliles there. Still, they really are not that bad looking are very cheery in color. Nothing kills them as they have been neglected forever. I find a kinda like them anyway." Your words, my thoughts exactly. About 4 years ago I started to transplant those very daylilies that came with my house 25 years ago. They were always ignored on the chimney side of the house where no one ever went. Although I've only "gotten into" daylilies the last few years, I've come to love my ditch lilies as well and always note who's got them growing where. If I were to name my home as they did in the past, it would have to be something to do with ditch lilies. I'm still trying to think of something clever. I was glad to see that by the end of your posting you had conceded that they definitely had their own charm.

Mystic I appreciate the kind offer but these daylilies come back year after year and bloom nicely and I have a lot of them. I must say that they are my favorite daylily though. They look so natural here in the mountains. These daylilies bloomed nicely this year also; it's just that after they finish they always turn ugly, yellow and brown. Somebody should jump on your offer because the wild type daylilies are wonderful in my opinion.

Hi Diana, I suspect that what you refer to as mutated, was always 'Kwanso'. 'Kwanso' and 'Europa' may be closer than cousins, but definitely related. I doubt it will do much good for you to personally try to stop the natural spread of either daylily. They seem to brighten up the ditches, which is not a bad thing. They are also commonly used for landscaping tough areas. 'Kwanso' seems to tolerate more shade than the rest of the family. When I say invasive, I mean in comparison to other plants. If planted close to something else, without barriers, you will soon only have the daylilies. They are very aggressive spreaders. H. fulva 'Europa' was introduced to the US via Europe, hence the name. If someone in France would pay $5 a stem, I'm sure there would be lots of people willing to supply them. Put my name on the list please. All the daylilies you have planted by the fence may be there in the next epoch, not just the next generation. The ditch lilies and 'Kwanso' varieties historically date back thousands of years. The amazing thing is that they reproduce vegetatively, not sexually. So the ones you planted by the fence are clones of plants that have been around a very long time. Ed