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Nature’s Way Resources owner John Ferguson, “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith and Pablo Hernandez welcome your feedback and are so grateful to the many horticulturists who contribute their expertise
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Pretty little daylily, so gay, so bright…why do you timidly close
all your colorful petals to hide in the darkness of the brooding night?
— Author unknown
THINK YOU EASILY RECOGNIZE A DAYLILY? DON’T BET ON IT!
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
GARDENERS-IN-THE-KNOW usually immediately spot daylilies in a garden. But maybe not all these! Daylilies are very close to — if not THE — most popular garden flower. This year the 100,000th-named daylily has been registered! But, boy, have they come a long way, baby, from their original Asian home! (Pictured: H-Town Star. YEAH, COUGARS!)
Folks who first spotted a blooming daylily on American soil probably figured it was a native wildflower. Wrong! Classic orange ones spotted here were (and still are) ancient native Asian species Hemerocallis fulva. No one knows for sure when or how these were officially spotted, but the botanical name “Hemerocallis” for daylilies was given to them by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.
That lovely classic daylily has helped produce some amazing offsprings! Fortunately our two wonderful local groups, HOUSTON HEMEROCALLIS SOCIETY (founded in 1953) and LONE STAR DAYLILY SOCIETY (founded in 1996) are making some of the best on market available at their upcoming 2025 sales, highlighting new “looks” such as these above! Remember, these pictured are exciting news, but so new, might not be readily available
In our Spotlight Article below, LSDS’s Paul Eskine give great overview of newest daylilies! Remember, this is a update overview of how daylilies have changed. It’s NOT a list of those that will for sure be available at these shows. Those inventory lists are posted on the club websites!
TEXAS FIREFLY UPDATE FROM BEN PFEIFFER‘s sighting-update in our area: 2025 appears to be mild year for firefly flashing. Persistent drought conditions over the last 2 years. On plus side, recent rains may improve conditions into May, typically best time to see fireflies here is through mid-July (tho they’re often spotted as early as April and as late as October, depending on weather). More from Ben: Appearance on Central Texas Gardener & How to Attract and Protect Fireflies.
FENCE CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS Several readers have asked about increasing privacy with fences plantings. I’ll start with my big mistake: didn’t check how huge it might grow. Can’t see it, but mine is about to overpower my Red Yucca! Do share fence planting successes and (especially) failures. Why is it dying? How do these work with neighbors? Don’t know who owns a shared fence? Check state law here:- Guides.sll.texas.gov/neighbor-law/fences and boundaries.
- Signs-vines-on-fence-cause-damage/
ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS — Nature’s Way Resources offers free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities for garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented, organized groups. As usual, NWR’s now-expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations a must for both. Great time to visit!
- SUBMITTING CALENDAR EVENTS?: These will be in next upcoming newsletter ONLY IF SUBMITTED IN OUR EXACT FORMAT they may be held until can be reformatted. Otherwise, they may be held for reformatting. PS. Apr, 14 National Gardening Day. – You take it from there
Spotlighting . . .
Lone Star Daylily Society
l to r, ‘Dr. Doom.’ ‘Always Jiggy,’ and ‘Dr.Octopus’
‘What is that?’ ‘It’s a Daylily’
‘Really? It looks totally different!’
By Paul Eskine,
Lone Star Daylily Society
lonestardaylilysociety.org/
This year, the 100,000th named daylily was registered! The patterned daylily is the newest thing. Daylilies are registered as Miniature, Small, Large, Extra Large, Double, Spider and the Unusual Form. But lately, the things the hybridizers are doing with the ‘eye zone’ of the daylily, is really interesting. It could be a small size, it could be a large size, it doesn’t matter, it Is what is going on within the inner part of the flower Pictured: Erins Fantasy Scene
They call these Patterned Eyes or a Patterned Daylily. They have different colors or variations in hue, value, or saturation. The design is formed in the daylily’s eye. They can have stippling or variegation, or concentric rings or feathering of color.
L TO R Zella Panchaud, Buttefly Cove, Digital Divide, Erins Fantasy Scene
L to R: ‘Galactic Chameleon,’ ‘Italian Summer,’ ‘Water Drops’ and ‘Italian Summer.’
John’s Corner
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD
OF SOIL AND PLANTS
Subject: Plant band-aids chickens silicon organic farms gophers nutrition
Researchers have discovered a Band Aid for plants. They have made patches made from cellulose produced by bacteria. When applied to injured plants, 80% healed within one week for the plants with patches, but only 20% healed without the patches.
A growing trend amongst gardeners is having a few chickens in their gardens. Chickens like to eat many of the plants species we call weeds, they devour insects like grasshopper and crickets, and will search for caterpillars.
As a bonus these free-range eggs have far less cholesterol and saturated fat than store bought eggs. They taste better and are much higher in vitamins A & E, beta carotene, and polyunsaturated fatty acids as well as minerals.
We have known for thousands of years that the plant Curcuma longa that we get the spice turmeric which contains curcumin. A new study in the journal Microbiology Spectrum (2025) found that adding curcumin increases the effectiveness of several antibiotics. It also boosts the effectiveness of tuberculosis medications.
Researchers have found that adding silicon (Si) to one’s soil can help tomato plants resist damage from pests like the American tomato pinworm. Silicon is found in many soils from sand to clay; however, the silicon atoms are locked up chemically and are not available for plants to absorb.
Silicon is available from rock dust and products like remineralizer. These often contain granite and basalt minerals which were formed under extremely high temperature and pressures hence they are unstable at normal temperatures and can break down more easily in the environment, releasing their silicon in a water-soluble form. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025)
More and more people are growing their own vegetables as part of their gardening experience due to the poor quality and very low nutrient density of food from conventional toxic agriculture. I read a white paper last month that illustrates the poor nutritional density of our food supply. It can be found in a paper by the Ortho molecular Medicine research organization titled, “Measles: A nutritional Deficiency Disease – Integrative Orthomolecular Medicine for the Prevention and Management of Measles” at https://orthomolecular.org/
The April 28th Orthomolecular Medicine News Service newsletter had a good article on how poor nutrition in our food supply affects our health and mental functioning. “What is smart food for smart kids? – Cognition for Smart Kids and Teens”
Organic agriculture continues to grow. The state of Sikkim in India has become the first state in the world to implement a 100% organic policy! The article stated that 45,000 farmers in India have converted to modern organic methods.
As gardeners we need to learn how to work with other life forms in our gardens from earthworms and insects to small mammals and birds. I read an article a few months ago in Acres USA magazine on Mount Saint Helens that erupted in 1980.
Once the ash and pumice had cooled researchers brought in a few gophers by helicopter in 1983 for a day. There were very few plants and most were growing poorly. Six years later there were over 40,000 plants growing on the plots where the gophers were. The untouched land was still mostly barren.
The gopher’s burrowing brought up microbes (bacteria and fungi) required by plants that were buried under the pumice. The benefits of this experiment are still visible today in 2024. The full paper can be found in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes (2024).
God’s creation is amazing when we learn to work with nature instead of destroying it with toxic chemicals.
SPONSORSHIP
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at 936-273-1200 or send an e-mail to: lazygardenerandfriends@gmail.com
ABOUT US
BRENDA BEUST SMITH
WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . .
but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true.
Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request.
Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM.
For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources.
A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake.
Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
About her column, Brenda says: “I don’t consider myself a ‘garden writer.” I started out 50+ years ago as a very lazy “gardening reporter.” I still feel that way today. I hope my columns inspire/help newcomers, but I do not write to them. I write to very experienced gardeners who want to expand their horizons.
JOHN FERGUSON
John is a native Houstonian and has over 35 years of business experience. He owns Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company that specializes in high quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He holds a MS degree in Physics and Geology and is a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas.
John has won many awards in horticulture and environmental issues. For years he represented the composting industry on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden has been featured in several horticultural books and “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. His business has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of their products. He is a member of the Physics Honor Society and many other professional societies. John is the co-author of the book Organic Management for the Professional.
For this newsletter, John contributes articles regularly and is responsible for publishing it.
PABLO HERNANDEZ Pablo Hernandez is the special projects coordinator for Nature’s Way Resources. His realm of responsibilities include: serving as a webmaster, IT support, technical problem solving/troubleshooting, metrics management and quality control. Pablo helps this newsletter happen from a technical support standpoint.
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