It read "Day Lilly?" and had this picture.
At work, a large subset of the actuarial department knows me as the one who's really into gardening, and particularly daylilies. This guy in particular is part of my inner circle of friends -- he was the first person to train me when I started, so I've known him for more than three decades. So he felt comfortable asking me about it. And, yes, I know he spelled "daylily" wrong -- but I didn't see any need to correct him.
I wrote back, "Yes. Where? Was it planted on purpose?" I was concerned. In the picture it looked like a wild daylily -- one of the ones that are very aggressive and hard to get rid of. I was thinking that it might be in his garden. And if it was, I felt I should warn him.
He responded. "Across the street from my parents. It's on the street side of the sidewalk so I'm wondering if the owner planted it or some birds and the bees stuff happened."
"Looks like what some daylily folk derisively call a 'ditchlily.' The orange wild ones are invasive, and can be hard to get rid of. Is there a reason you asked? Or just curious?" I felt better having issued the warning, even though it wasn't in my friend's yard. It wasn't even in his father's yard. It was in the yard across the street from his father. But I was wondering why he bothered asking me.
"My dad said 'that's a day lilly' and I had no idea if that was true."
Now I was really puzzled. Why would his father -- an elderly Orthodox Rabbi who (to the best of my knowledge) has never had much interest in gardening -- point that out? "He was right. It is a daylily. But as I noted, it looks like one of the invasive ones." I felt I had to sound the warning again.
A few days later it seemed the conversation had died. We were back on other topics. Then he sent me another photo:
"What it looks like now," he wrote.
At least I could now confirm that these were ditchlilies. I could also ask him the burning question. "I was gonna ask...I don't imagine that, out of the blue, your father pointed to a flower and said 'that's a daylily.' Guessing you saw the funny orange flower and asked what it was?" And I still had to remind him that these were invasive. "Judging from the picture alone, those are the invasive ditchlilies. Daylilies come in lots of sizes, colors and bloom habits."
He quoted my message -- the "out of the blue" part, and wrote "That's exactly what happened! I go every day or two to take him for a walk. And he said 'hey! Day lillies"
"You're BS ing me..."
"Nope. He was looking to make conversation."
"So you had to fact check him..."
Well, my friend's father had his facts straight. Maybe I can get him to join LIDS...
*I won't repeat his name here. Suffice to say he shares a name with a celebrity. But he's not famous, except among people who know him.
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