If there were a “language of flowers,” you’d probably find daylilies have a southern accent. These adaptable perennials fit graciously into gardens everywhere. Still, there’s no doubt that more of them have found happy homes in the South and Southwest during the past decade than anywhere else. It isn’t that other gardeners love daylilies less; … Read more
Picture yourself on a hot midsummer day gazing from your host’s terrace onto the brilliantly colored day-lily border shown above. You are told that there was a good display in early June and that there will still be many flowers in September. As you sit and try to keep cool, you reflect on the work … Read more
Nobody will deny daylilies have beautiful flowers, and few would quibble over the statement that their foliage has landscape merit. But to get the best landscape effect from daylilies, we should not think of them entirely in terms of their bloom. Like woody plants, their landscape value is based on the length of time they … Read more
Some remote parts of Northeastern Oklahoma are as primitive today as a century ago when Comanche Indians and buffalo roamed the rocky oak-covered hillsides and verdant valleys. But most of the state is crisscrossed by highways and dotted with thriving towns and cities. At the western border of the Ozarks, near the junction of the … Read more
If your community does not have a daylily show, why not start the ball rolling for one this summer? Your gardening friends are probably waiting for someone to propose the idea. Because daylilies do not reach their peak until after the spring flower shows are over, daylily growers often miss the chance to display their … Read more
It is easy to explain today’s great popularity of the hemerocallis or daylily, to use its better-known name, and to understand why interest in it is growing by leaps and bounds nationwide. In the first place, it comes as close to being foolproof as any plant in the garden; it flourishes in almost any sort … Read more
Under normal conditions, day-blooming daylilies open their flowers in the morning. To orient their opening with a time of day, season, and latitude, several varieties were checked on May 1, 1954, in Gainesville, Florida. And it was established that they opened at 7 A.M. or shortly before or after that hour. To digress a bit, … Read more
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 … Read more
They’re pink! And there’s a variety to match every shade in the color chart. Many garden writers still speak of daylilies “in so-called red shades.” However, if they haven’t seen any of the several hundred red varieties now widely distributed, they are probably unaware of the existence of pinks. Suppose you’d like a pink daylily. … Read more
How should one use the dark daylilies—dusky sirens of the daylily family? Yellow and orange daylilies are supreme for landscaping large areas. But in the small home garden, a dark accent is invaluable. Many daylily authorities feel that one dark daylily to six light ones is a good proportion. Who am I to say that … Read more