Daylilies provide fleeting burst of midsummer color
The daylily is a familiar plant to the Mid-South, flowering now and naturalized in many places. You often see the double-flowered orange form growing along roadsides and old home sites. Hence its common name, the “double ditch daylily.”
Daylilies are perennial plants in the genus Hemerocallis and are native to parts of Asia; the blossoms are often used in Asian cuisine. They are among some of the most forgiving, easiest-to-grow plants — they’ll even resprout when tossed onto the compost pile.
I have always admired daylilies when in flower, but the short bloom time and the unattractive foliage limit their design use. In fact, they are called daylilies because the flowers only last a day. Fortunately, the blossoms open over a period of a few weeks, which gives them many days, not just one, to show off.
T he orange ones are difficult to use in design, and I find them jarring. However, last summer, when I was at Hidcote Manor gardens in the Cotswolds in England, one of the most iconographic gardens in the U.K. national trust, I saw orange daylilies used very effectively along the borders leading
up to the twin gate house. The entire scene utilized warm colors and had lots of plants with burgundy foliage.
Even though the orange ones are used in this classic English garden, I tend to like the pure yellows or soft yellows. Some of my favorites are the large classic yellow ‘ Hyperion’, which grows up to 3 feet high and almost as wide; and the regular-size ‘Green Flutter,’ less than 2 feet high with its pale yellow flowers and green throat. Both of these were in my garden as a teenager at my parents’ home, providing a few weeks of color in the summer.
Even the very popu- lar ‘Stella de Oro’ daylily has an orange tone to the golden yellow, making it more difficult to use in the landscape than the softer colors. The reason for its popularity is it is ever-blooming instead of providing color for only a few weeks. It continues to reward the gardener for several months during the summer. This was the first ever-blooming daylily. It has a nice, compact habit and was bred by the late Walter Jablonski in the early 1970s.
Nearly 10 years after the introduction of this popular plant, Dr. Darrel Apps bred a small yellow daylily using ‘Stella’ as one of the parents. This plant, named ‘Happy Returns,’ has the size and ever-blooming characteristics but in a softer yellow that blends better with other colors. The plant has increased in popularity and can be found today in many garden centers. We have it growing in several places at the Dixon, including the hot parking lot islands.
Dr. Apps has gone on to breed many other colors into ever-blooming daylilies, many of which have “Happy” or “Returns” in the name. There have also been numerous other plant breeders who have capitalized on the genetics of ‘Stella de Oro.’
I want to try a newer introduction listed by Monrovia nursery called ‘Little Grapette,’ which has deep purple flowers and a golden yellow throat. Try some of these ever-bloomers in your garden for long-last- ing color.
For more information on these easy-care summer perennials, go to the American Hemerocallis Society website at daylilies.org.
Dale Skaggs is director of horticulture at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.