Sunday, July 25, 2021

Down the Rabbit Hole

Before I begin, I need to correct an error in yesterday's blog post.  Thank you, my readers, for catching it.

My post yesterday was about interesting names for daylilies.   I forgot to include a link to a site I found online where you can name your own daylily.  I have now corrected my post, and also included the link at the beginning of this paragraph.

It isn't cheap to name a daylily, but if you have the money, I think it would make a wonderful special occasion gift for a gardener (note, I have never done business with the nursery this link leads to, and it is not an endorsement.)

So, why not continue with more of yesterday's theme and feature the rest of the interesting named daylilies I took pictures of yesterday?  I have a few more interesting daylily names for you.  One gave me the creeps - I saved it for last, because it really is creepy.

This is called Paula Nettle and is an award winner - it must be named after somebody, I'm thinking, but "nettles" have other meanings in gardening.   There is the stinging nettle, and if you touch that plant, you are going to suffer for it.

Here is Island Lord.  Love this color!  Interesting, I found other daylilies online with "Lord" in the name, but not this one.

Last but not least, the name of this flower made me shiver a little.  In college, I majored in anthropology, and took a couple of courses where we studied Native American peoples, including the group we call the Navajo. Something seemed familiar about this name so I had to look it up.  In Navajo culture, a "skinwalker" is a harmful witch that can transform from human to animal but other Native American groups have similar legends.


I wonder why this daylily was called "Skinwalker"?  And, did I really want to know? (you know the answer to that one.  Yes.)  I had to look, and found the hybridizer of this daylily - the late Ned Roberts.

This beautiful flower apparently was named after a book by the late Tony Hillerman from 1986 called "Skinwalkers".  I read several of Hillerman's mysteries long ago - I'm not sure if I read that one, though.

But anyway, this lovely flower is a multiple award winner. Although I don't own any spider daylilies, now I want this so badly (and have no room for it).

Internet slang calls this kind of research "going down a rabbit hole".  I'm glad I emerged in time to write this blog post.

So, we've gone from daylilies to Native American legends to rabbit holes.

Not a bad day's work.

12 comments:

  1. ...there was a time when I was in the nursery business, that I thought that I needed every daylily variety. That was hopeless.

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    1. There must be thousands and thousands of named varieties. Yes, hopeless!

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  2. Skinwalker is a strange name, at least there's a reason for it. I have tried to read Hillerman's mysteries, being I usually only read mysteries, but I just couldn't get into them. Same with James Patterson.

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    1. And for me, I rarely read mysteries, but I got into Tony Hillerman for a couple of years. I've never read any by James Patterson.

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  3. Thanks for the link; off to check it out! Interesting names of them for sure! Thanks for a bit of a history lesson too :)

    betty

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  4. They are all beautiful but sure don't like the name skinwalker, too creepy. I had no idea there were thousands of varieties! Have a great week Alana. :)

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  5. I really lilies, although deer around here is hard on them.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  6. I read Skinwalkers and all the other Chee/Leaphorn mysteries by Hillerman several years ago and loved them. I would never have thought of naming a lily after one though.

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  7. Oh, dear... I could link from yesterday's post, but not this one. This one goes to a page "that doesn't exist" on your blog. They have no daylilies unnamed right now.

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  8. Ah, so that's the answer to the question I commented on yesterday's post. Some people come up with interesting names. There's a Skinwalker show on Netflix or somewhere. I saw it while browsing. Not tempted to check it out, though.

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  9. I feel I’ve been enlightened and entertained all in one post!
    My two eldest granddaughters accompanied Husby and me to the coast—just got back today—and early this morning, we had the privilege of visiting the Banff Cascade Gardens. Normally they are quite stunning and just recently (Just pre-Covid) received a complete refit so the fountains once again flow. (Until this year when everything is so parched they have once again shut them off.) But we still got to see the flowers and were able(with your tutelage) to identify all the Day lilies! And with my flower identifier, we also identified Bergenias, Larkspur, Dahlia, Columbine, Pinks, Crane’s Bill, Yarrow, Dusty Miller, Monkeyflower, and Tenweeks Stock. I feel so accomplished!

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