Now you can have daylilies in miniature, too!
Almost everyone thinks of the modern daylily hybrid as a robust and vigorous perennial that requires a lot of space, but a new race of small-flowered dwarfs has appeared.
Daylily ‘Diminutives’ Species
These daylily “diminutives” have been developed from two species, Hemerocallis minor and Hemerocallis multiflora.
With patience and painstaking selection, breeders have combined the two into varieties now available to gardeners.
One ancestor of this new group, Hemerocallis minor, is one of our oldest daylilies. It grows about a foot tall and produces yellow flowers 3″ inches across in May.
Although it sends up several stems, these are poorly branched and a shy bloomer.
Hybrids between the Hemerocallis minor and the more robust types have not been successful as garden subjects.
Late Flowering Hemerocallis Multiflora
Some years ago in Asia, Dr. A. B. Stout of the New York Botanical Garden obtained a new species.
Hemerocallis minor multi-flora, which has very small flowers and extremely well-branched stems.
Since Hemerocallis minor is early flowering and dwarf, Hemerocallis multiflora is late flowering and has the desirable branching habit lacking in Hemerocallis minor.
It seemed likely that a mingling of these species might produce a new race of daylily miniatures with better garden value.
Mignon: New Hybrids
The first of these new hybrids to be introduced by Dr. Stout was named MIGNON. This plant has grasslike foliage about a foot high and dainty 2-inch flowers.
It blooms rather profusely on wiry 30-inch stems that sway gently in the breeze.
Perhaps because it was yellow and came when most enthusiasts concentrated on larger flowers and new colors, Mignon attracted very little attention from gardeners.
Similar Miniature Daylilies
However, some could visualize similar miniature daylilies in red, pink, purple, and multicolored patterns.
So, Mignon was not entirely neglected but found its place in breeding programs planned for these diminutive daylilies.
It was not difficult to obtain hybrids from Mignon in most of the daylily colors. The multiflora characteristic of tall stems seems to be a dominant one, however, and it has taken time to produce plants having both short stems and tiny flowers.
Two Classes Of Small Daylilies
There are now really two classes of small daylilies:
- The dwarfs, which are low growing but often have quite large flowers, reflecting their inheritance from H. minor or other large-flowered parent stock
- The miniatures have very small flowers, sometimes only an inch across, but tend to have taller stems.
Ideal Combination Of The Two Types
The ideal combination of these two types may not yet have been achieved, but already selections are available which are useful additions to the rockery or low permanent borders along garden paths.
In the dwarf class are JACK and JILL, a pair of reds that are usually sold together.
In the South, these two make an excellent pair, one blooming after the other. But in the North, Jack seems a much stronger grower than Jill and might better be used alone.
- TOM THUMB is low growing, but the flowers sometimes reach 3” inches in spread.
- DEMI-TASSE is a small-flowered bicolor dwarf in shades of gold and maroon
- PINKIE is a miniature Rosalind with bright rose-pink flowers on 12”-inch stems
Taller Types With Tiny Flowers
The taller types with tiny flowers include:
- JUNE OLCOTT, a yellow that blooms fairly early
- DRYAD, an early flowering bicolor with old rose petals and yellow sepals
- DELICACY, a little midseason yellow
- PINOCCHIO, an eyed flower that blooms early in May and again, more shyly, in September
The individual flowers of Pinocchio remain open for two days. One daylily judge likened it to a “spray of yellow bluebells.”
Other Varieties
VEGA, a purple introduced as a dwarf, is about 18” inches tall in the South but climbs to 38” inches with up to 45 buds on well-placed branches when established in the North.
PURPLE ELF is similar but not as deep in color. Both make showy clumps of color but are not properly miniatures. They look like Lilium tenuifoliurn in the habit of growth.
Early-flowering Dwarf Daylilies
Dr. Stout recently introduced, under the name of ELFIN, a race of early-flowering dwarf daylilies with many small yellow flowers.
This new strain should help to improve the miniature class further.
It will not be long before both the small-flowered dwarfs and the miniatures with their wiry stems and sprays of little bells will be available in a full-color range for our borders and rock gardens.
And even now you can start to collect them.
44659 by Stanley E. Saxton