My small (about a quarter of an acre) country garden is located in a rural subdivision and is in a sunny clearing surrounded by native Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), white oaks (Quercus garryana), madrones (Arbutus menziesii), and big-leaf maples (Acer macrophyllum). The informal raised beds for daylilies and their companions are terraced along a gentle slope; where edging is used, it is made of wood timbers, concrete bricks, or of local rock.

My collection of daylilies is relatively small, just around 200, but with wide spacing, they are allowed to reach multi-fan clump size. Most of the daylilies are newer cultivars from Southern, Northern, and Pacific Northwest hybridizers, and these provide much of the interest in the garden from mid-June through mid-August, with a peak in July.

Some other plants that add interest before, during or after daylily bloom are daffodils, bearded irises, Asiatic, trumpet and Oriental lilies, roses, clematis, alliums, various flowering perennials such as achillia, coreopsis and rudbeckia, and asters. In the shadier areas are rhododendrons,hydrangeas, hostas and other shade-tolerant plants. An 8-foot high fence keeps the deer out, and gives the garden-boundaries definition.

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