Popagano Eaters

‘Popagano’ is a variety of daylily. It’s a medium-height daylily that blooms all summer, if you can keep the deer from eating it. You can read more about it here.

As plants go, it’s pretty easy to grow. It doesn’t seem to be too picky about getting too much sun or too little rain. Which is par for the course, for daylilies.

We got our Popagano by chance. It came as a bonus gift with some other plants we had ordered. It’s pretty, we like lilies, so we planted it.

The Popagano is a deer magnet. Deer ignore the other daylilies around us–the Stella D’Oro that are so common because they are so easy to grow, the common orange daylilies that grow in roadside ditches. But there is something about the Popagano lily that draws deer to it like kids to Halloween candy.

And sometimes I thought the deer were just messing with us. The buds would just barely begin to open and then, the next morning, the flower stalks would be eaten right down to the ground. It was several years before we got to see a flower actually bloom. I had given up.

Popagano Eaters

I’m bothered most by what I don’t see: no herd, not
even a graceful doe stretching a limber neck
down to eat the unopened buds of Popagano,

daylilies we’ve grown for years but never seen bloom
except in catalogs: creamy petals
edged with dark purple and what’s called

an appliqué throat, which I suppose means
the purple-black banding appears stitched-on,
like a quilt unfolding in a flower bed.

The deer eat these lily buds like sweets they’ve saved
for a special day, but then, when that day comes,
hurry and gorge themselves on the treat.

Tonight, no deer. The dog didn’t bark but hopped up
from his place at the foot of the bed, insisted
I let him look out front. He waited, I waited,

rain began. Then I caught the sight—a woman
crawled among the ornamental grasses, lifted
her face to me, fronds of Papagano at her mouth.

Eating our plants, I should tell the 911 operator,
who'd ask: are they edible, couldn’t we part with some,
and I’d say no, some daylilies I think are toxic,

the look in her eyes is already half-dazed, half-glazed,
as if the plants already sicken her, can’t you
send someone, she’s headed this way— but

it's all reflections, warped like fun house glass: me,
our poodle-mix, the porch light down the street,
visitors hurrying to cars, rain, wind, and lilies, and

it's good I didn’t scream or call for help because tonight
is Bible study night around here, and I ought to
know the regulars, even not knowing their names.

We did eventually get the lily to bloom. We tried several different deer repellents and found one that works. I don’t know what is in it, but it stinks so bad, I’m still arguing for pulling up the lilies and planting something else. And it has to be reapplied every few days. Every day, if it rains. The whole yard stinks. Honestly, trying to grow these is like a gardening horror show. One false move, one day you miss applying the stink juice, and the deer get some sort of signal, and those flowers are gone again.