Viola Griffin: Farmington, Missouri

Flower & Garden Magazine, June-July, 1995 by Doug Hall

ONE VISITOR TO VIOLA GRIFFIN'S GARDEN DURING the height of daylily season had a strange reaction. Instead of remarking on the profusion of daylily styles and colors, he gave a warning.

"You're killing yourself doing all that work," he told Viola. She politely disagreed.

"I have to get outdoors and work," she says with a smile. "I cannot just sit in the house. No matter how tired I am, working in the garden just seems to relax me."

Viola has always kept a flower garden, but it hasn't always been on such a grand scale. Soon after she retired in 1976, Viola began to add beds of bearded irises to her backyard garden. But the irises were prone to rotting in her heavy Missouri clay; gradually, her interest turned to daylilies, which have fewer disease problems.

Today the garden has expanded to fill the entire property. A stately flowering crabapple spreads its branches broadly from the center of the yard, sheltering beds of hostas, astilbes, impatiens and caladiums. Sun-loving perennials fill the perimeter flower beds and island beds scattered throughout the yard. Broad grassy pathways provide room for a leisurely stroll among the flowers.

Midsummer finds the garden at its most glorious, when Viola's 400 varieties of daylilies bloom. The.. spectacle begins in early June, peaks around July 4 and winds down toward the end of August.

Daylilies need plenty of water, Viola says, as well as daily deadheading and grooming during the blooming season. At the peak of daylily season, deadheading takes about two hours a day. She uses snippers to remove the spent blooms without breaking off buds. By the time she's through, her hands are stained purple from the pigment in the flowers.

The daylily leaves look ragged from the heat as the flowering season ends, so Viola cuts the foliage back to about 8 inches. The severe trimming prompts fresh foliage to appear. She topdresses the garden every far with well-rotted cow manure, which her husband, George, brings from his farm by the truckload.

The garden changes annually to make room for new daylilies. During the blooming season Viola starts a list of those varieties she will remove from her garden. In late August and early September, she digs up the clumps that are to be moved, divided or discarded. The discards end up at her local daylily club's annual plant sale.

"In order to put in a new variety, I have to take one out," Viola says. "I don't know why it's so hard to give up a daylily, but it is."

Wading through the hundreds of new daylily varieties that are introduced every year takes time but is a pleasant winter activity. From her years of mail-ordering daylilies, Viola has learned which companies sell healthy, substantial starts that will bloom in their first year. She has paid as much as $100 for a prized new variety, although most that she purchases are priced from $5 to $50.

Even with its emphasis on daylilies, Viola's is not a single-season garden. Bulbs, peonies and irises begin the floral display in spring. Climbing roses and clematis bloom on trellises and arbors.

In summer, the daylilies bloom alongside a wide selection of perennials, including Shasta daisies, campanulas, monarda, globe thistle, lilies, coreopsis `Moonbeam,' phlox, malva, rudbeckia `Irish Eyes' and Russian sage. Edging plants include trailing sedums, variegated liriope and sweet alyssum.

Dwarf evergreens and hollies provide contrasting foliage within the beds, and container-grown annuals spread even more color through the garden. Boltonia, asters, aconitum and ornamental grasses keep the garden interesting after the daylilies dwindle.

When she adds perennials and shrubs to her garden, Viola chooses only very hardy plants. Even though the USDA hardiness zone map shows Farmington to lie in Zone 6, Viola tries to select plants that are hardy at least to Zone 4. She feels that choosing tough, hardy plants decreases the work and makes gardening more satisfying.

"Gardening is a challenge in Missouri," Viola says. "It's either a drought or a flood here, and the summers get too hot."

Daylilies of all styles and colors are represented in Viola's garden. If pressed to choose a favorite daylily, Viola names `Barbara Mitchell,' whose broad, lightly ruffled blossoms are as close to true pink as daylilies get. She prefers varieties with large, ruffled flowers, and is partial to double-flowered daylilies.

But really, when it comes down to it, Viola admits, "I like them all."