Large daylily blossoms with prominent pollen producing stamens, the male organs, and the large single pistil or female organ make breeding of new varieties an easy venture.

Garden Journal columnist Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service.

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Large daylily blossoms with prominent pollen producing stamens, the male organs, and the large single pistil or female organ make breeding of new varieties an easy venture.

Confessions of a Compulsive Plant Buyer: I admit it. I can’t resist buying a plant, usually an herbaceous perennial, whenever I’m at a nursery or garden center. Frequently, this is done without any forethought and I soon discover that there is no place to plant the thing. Too often the plant will simply be left in its container, out of the way, and eventually die from lack of companionship. At other times, I’ll stick the plant in any space I can find in the yard. This makes for some interesting landscape schemes, none of which will land me a spot in the Landscape Hall of Fame. Worst of all, there is the guilt — guilt for spending money compulsively, guilt for subjecting the plants to a life of ridicule, scorn, and sometimes loneliness (You wouldn’t believe the nightmares I have!).

What’s my point with this diatribe?

Plan ahead before you make your next plant purchase!

To help avoid guilt and nightmares, here is a list of tasks that need attention this week:

Among the plants which do not give me nightmares are daylilies. They are tough plants, adaptable to just about any growing conditions from dry to moist soils and full sun to part shade and they need minimum care. Despite the common name of daylily, they are not true lilies in that they do not grow from bulbs. Rather, they have thick fleshy roots which make dividing the plants relatively easy. Their botanical name is Hemerocallis and at last count there are more than 35,000 cultivated varieties. One reason for so many varieties is that it is an easy plant to cross-pollinate. The blossoms are large and the male (stamen) and female (pistil) parts are prominent making it easy to collect pollen from the stamens of one variety and transfer it to the pistil of another. As such, many of the cultivated varieties of daylily have been produced by amateur plant breeders. The range of varieties includes early, mid-season, late bloomers, as well as repeat bloomers. To get a taste of daylily varieties, stop by the Berkshire Botanical Garden and take a stroll along their Daylily Walk.

I must have been hungry when I wrote in last week’s column “Tie stems of pepper plants to steaks.” Soon afterwards, a good friend texted: “I just finished reading your column and wonder, since I’m a vegetarian, if I can tie something other than steak to my peppers? Would tofu work?” All I can say is that spellen and grammer ain’t among my few talentz.

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