Even the garden takes on a pumpkin palette

Fall is in the air, and it is time for everything pumpkin. The pumpkin spice latte has such cult appeal that 108,000 people follow the drink on Twitter. One car mechanic playfully advertised that pumpkin spice brake pads are finally in season.

Pumpkin spice is basically a combination of the spices in pumpkin pie: cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and nutmeg.

In the garden, there are a few plants that mimic pumpkins in color, with one of the oddest being the Biting Pumpkins daylily. This reblooming pumpkin-colored flower has rows of tiny yellow-green teeth along each petal. It grows to 30 inches tall and is semi-evergreen.

Daylilies get their botanical name, Hemerocallis, from the Greek hemera (“day”) and kallos (“beauty”). Each bloom only lasts one day! However, each stem will have 12 to 15 buds on it, and mature plants can have multiple stems so the plants are just about always in bloom.

Plant daylilies in the spring as soon as soil can be worked, or plant them in early fall, about six weeks before your first frost. Daylilies grow well almost anywhere but do best in full sun with fertile, well-drained soil. You can add compost to the planting site.

Plant them in a hole wide enough for the roots to spread out without bending. Be sure that the crown of the plant, where roots and leaves meet, is buried an inch deep. Pack the dirt firmly around the roots to avoid air pockets, and water it in.

Water your newly planted daylilies once a week until they get established. Once up and growing, daylilies will need very little care; they are very hardy and drought tolerant. During dry spells you can water them with an inch of water per week. Put a layer of mulch around each plant to keep the soil moist and hold down weeds.

You really do not need to fertilize daylilies, but you can increase blooms by adding a general-purpose fertilizer (10-10-10) once a year in early spring when new growth begins. Daylilies will spread and naturalize, so you may want to divide them every three to five years. This reinvigorates the plants, resulting in more frequent blossoms.

Daylilies make great cut flowers. One trick is to choose daylilies with buds that are just about to open, with some of the flower color showing. The buds higher up on the stalk will open as the bottom ones fade. Immediately after picking, cut the stem ends an inch or so and at an angle, which will allow more water to be absorbed. Change the water in the vase every day to keep the blooms fresh. Remove any faded flowers daily, and the new buds will open.

There is still time to plant Biting Pumpkins daylilies and enjoy their unique toothy flowers next year, perhaps along with a cup of pumpkin spice latte. Or while installing pumpkin spice brake pads!