(The Tribune ran a story about Gwen Brady's daylily garden back in May and promised a follow-up when her gardens went into full display in midsummer.)

"Bittersweet Destiny" is going to be a mother. Abig one.

The stalks - or more correctly, scapes - of this daylily variety in Gwen Brady's garden are loaded with more than 30 buds. The first ones have already opened in a preen of gold and burgundy-orange petals. The others, spiraled around the stalk below in descending size from fat thumb to pinkie fingernail, patiently await their day in the sun.

And each blossom gets just one. Daylily flowers open, bloom and die in one day. But this garden, planted sagely with early, midseason and late varieties, will have flowers opening clear through August.

Big bloomers like Bittersweet Destiny can display for weeks. Varieties considered "high bud count" have 18 or more buds, said Brady. She and her husband, Mike, live just a block south of Mandan's Main Street on Sixth Avenue Southeast, where her gardens have become a slow-down-and-gaze stretch of street.

Each year a bit more of their lawn disappears into a new or expanded bed for Brady's multiplying daylily collection, now topping out at 560 varieties. Poppies, roses, echinacea and other flowers make brief appearances, but daylilies are the stars of the yard.

Brady's joy is to work in her flower gardens. Every morning is a chance to adventure through the landscape to see what's opened overnight as she deadheads the flowers, removing the spent blossoms. Fairly soon she will lift some of the plants and divide them for a plant sale Aug. 7 at Sertoma Park in Bismarck, when local daylily growers offer fans divided from their own plants. Brady will divide about 40 of her plants, separating out sections - called fans - for sale before replacing the slimmed-down plant.

After that, she won't divide the plants again for several years - not until after 2010, when the Central Dakota Daylily Society hosts a regional gathering of the American Hemerocallis Society (daylilies' botanical name) in Bismarck-Mandan.

Brady loves daylilies for their hardiness. They are uncomplaining, don't need a lot of babying, and give abundant display. She also loves the countless variations available - sizes from mini to monster, some with petals stiff as waxed leather, or frilled edges, in shapes from fat curls to narrow spider legs. Colors can be bold, from retina-dazzling oranges and golds to rich maroons, even the near-black called "Dominic." Others are more delicate shades of cream and blush, lemon and lavender. Some are fragrant with scents reminiscent of honeysuckle or melon. And they're edible, adding lemony or peppery flavors to salads.

Even closing in on 600 varieties, Brady knows them each by name, which she loves for their inventiveness and poetry - Boney Maroney and Kindly Light, Chesapeake Crab Legs, Spiderman,Bubbling Brown Sugar and Flutterbye and Prairie Blue Eyes.

"Sometimes I pick them just for the names," she said.

(Reach Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com. The daylily sale begins at 5 p.m. Aug. 7 at Sertoma Park Shelter No. 7.)