By Jack Ruttle

Photo by shive1

Gardeners can't get enough of daylilies, and it's easy to understand why. Other flowers may be as beautiful, but no other plants are as rugged, widely adapted, or versatile. Daylilies are gorgeous and they are survivors, perfect plants for both the connoisseur and the weekend warrior. Originally from Asia, daylilies have adapted to our challenging and varied climates with all the vigor of our best native plants. They grow in all United States regions, but thrive in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 through 9.

A good daylily variety will bloom continuously for 3 to 4 weeks. By choosing varieties carefully, you can have daylilies flowering for the entire perennial season, 3 months in the North to 10 months in the South.

It's an astonishing performance, but daylilies can do even more. They grow thickly enough to choke out most weeds. They excel at holding the soil on steep slopes and other erosion-prone spots. They bask in the heat of our summers, withstand intense sunlight, and survive drought better than most garden flowers.

That's why we see the old-fashioned Hemerocallis fulva along roadsides and stream banks in many parts of the country. It's one of the few garden plants to survive when farmsteads are abandoned.

The modern daylily, with its great variety of flower forms and colors, is an American creation. When A. B. Stout started breeding daylilies at the New York Botanical Garden almost 100 years ago, there were only a handful of varieties, all of them very close to the dozen or so wild species being grown at that time. Stout crossed wild varieties, and his success inspired the daylily boom we are in the midst of today. Since 1900 about 40,000 varieties have been named in the United States; 13,000 of them are still for sale.

Basic Features of a Modern Daylily

Daylilies are categorized in several different ways. Deciduous kinds go dormant in frosty weather, evergreens can tolerate frost and grow all winter in mild regions, and there is an intermediate group called semi-evergreen. The rule of thumb is to avoid deciduous daylilies south of zone 8 and avoid evergreens north of zone 7. It's good advice, though there are a few varieties in each group that defy the rule.

Most daylilies have arching foliage that grows 18 to 24 inches tall. Some varieties have erect foliage. Some are as low as 12 inches and others reach 3 feet. Leaf color ranges from pale green to dark green with a bluish cast.

The height provided in nursery descriptions and on plant labels doesn't refer to the foliage but to the length of the flower stalk or "scape." There is no correlation between height of the plant and the length of the scape, though most hold their flowers just above the leaves. Flower scapes on the shorter varieties grow as high as 12 inches. Scapes of the tallest reach over 6 feet high.

Single daylilies have six petals. Double varieties have a second set of petals, often ruffled. Flower size ranges from 1 1/2 inches--the "miniature" varieties--to 8 or 9 inches across. The color range of daylilies has expanded to include everything but blue and pure white. Many blossoms are bi- or tri-colored. Many modern daylilies are called "tetraploids." They have twice as many chromosomes as the normal "diploid" varieties. These sturdy varieties generally have larger leaves, stalks, and flowers.

Shopping for the Best

You'll find the greatest selection of daylilies in the catalogs of mail-order specialists. Most varieties cost $3 to $10, but you'll see some selling for hundreds of dollars. Remember, paying a lot doesn't ensure quality, only rarity.

For the typical gardener, selecting from the thousands of available varieties can be daunting. Here's some simple advice: Focus on the whole plant. If there are 4,000 daylilies with yellow flowers, common sense suggests that not all will grow in the same way. Some of those yellows grow significantly faster, produce more flowers, and have more attractive foliage than others.

If you look car at the plants in a display garden or a nursery, there are clues as to how they will grow in your garden.

Sun/Heat Tolerance
The best time to shop for daylilies is late in the afternoon on a sunny day, when you can see how the flowers stand up to the sun. Pale and red varieties are more prone to sun damage. You can also see how they will look at the end of the work day, the time when most of us are able to enjoy the garden.

Number of Flowers
Don't settle for varieties that bloom for less than 3 weeks. If this information isn't on the tag, count the number of buds on the flower stalk. A good performer will have 15 or more buds per stalk. Each daylily flower, of course, remains open for only one day, and on the average one flower opens every other day. It's easy to count the scars where buds have fallen off to see what the total for that variety is.

Where nights are very cool, daylily flowers don't open as readily in the morning. You can solve this problem by growing "nocturnals." These are varieties with flowers that open at dusk and remain open throughout the following day.

Repeat Bloom
More and more daylilies send up a progression of flower stalks all season long. The most famous is 'Stella d'Oro'. Whether or not a variety repeats is usually noted on the label. But if you see a new scape rising at the base of a blooming plant, the plant is a repeat bloomer.

Strong Foliage
Daylily leaves will be a part of your garden far longer than the flowers, and not all daylilies have equally attractive foliage. The most beautiful varieties are dark green to blue-green and the leaves arch gracefully. When shopping, make sure the foliage covers the pot generously.

Rate of Increase
Daylilies can grow slowly, especially if the plants carry exotic blooms. A good landscape variety will at least triple in size each year. Extremely vigorous ones, like 'Stella d'Oro', do even better. Rapid growers have plenty of flower power, and you can divide and replant them more frequently if you have a large area to fill.

Spent Bloom
When flowers of the best varieties fade, they roll up like little cigarettes and drop off within two days. This is a trait that is easy to spot in the nursery, and one that is not shared by all varieties. Some hold faded flowers for days, or worse, drop them onto other buds and disfigure opening flowers.

Daylilies grow well at the edges of ponds and streams.

How to Use Daylilies

Daylilies are stalwarts of the perennial border, but they shine in other spots, too. Vigorous daylilies make weed- and erosion-proof ground covers. Plant them on banks and roadsides or along waterways. Use dwarf daylilies in rock gardens, in containers, or as edging for flower beds.

When planting several daylily varieties, arrange drifts of a single variety. A random mix almost always looks spotty from spring through fall. Foliage varies tremendously among cultivars. So does bloom time and the height of the flower stalks. Group at least three clumps of one variety together and you'll get both a more natural look and a stronger impact at showtime.

Planting and Care

Daylilies grow best in full sun, ideally 6 hours or more daily. However, in hot and dry climates, they benefit from some afternoon shade, as well as irrigation during bloom. Also, many of the deep reds and the paler shades hold their colors better in partial shade. In any zone, daylilies will perform reasonably well with half a day's shade -- they just won't bloom as vigorously.

Daylilies grow well in a wide range of soils. You can plant daylilies successfully almost any time the ground can be worked. The ideal time to transplant and divide is in spring as the shoots begin to emerge, or immediately after bloom. In zones 9 and 10, plant in early spring (February or March) or fall; avoid planting in midsummer. Likewise in the Southeast, don't plant during midsummer because the high temperatures and humidity may cause new plants to rot. When fall-planting in cold regions move the plants at least a month before hard frosts to allow new roots time to take hold against frost heaving.

Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart. Plant at the same height plants grew previously (the white at the base of the foliage) or slightly higher to allow for settling. Firm soil, then water.

Some cultivars can grow for 20 years without requiring division, but others may need division every second or third season. You'll know it's time when you notice flower production declining.

Regional Specialists

Many daylily varieties perform well over five hardiness zones. But a variety clearly superior in Georgia may be only average in San Diego. That's why it makes sense to buy from local daylily specialists or from mail-order specialists in your hardiness zone. For information on daylily nurseries, contact the American Hemerocallis Society (Pat Mercer, AHS Executive Secretary, Box 10, Dexter, Georgia 31019). It welcomes beginners and will send a free membership information packet that includes a source list with 118 nurseries, plus information about its 15 regional groups and 133 member display gardens, many of which have daylilies for sale. Membership is $18 annually and includes the quarterly Daylily Journal.

Top Garden Daylilies

The All-American Daylily Selection Council has screened over 6,000 varieties at more than 30 sites nationwide. The 10 listed below are the cream of the crop. All grow well in at least five contiguous hardiness zones, increase by 60 to 100 percent each year, and have attractive, spreading foliage. All bloom for two months or more. The range in blooming periods ("Days in bloom") reflects the fact that flowering is concentrated in the North and spread out in the South.

NAME AND TYPE PLANT
(Width x Height)
FLOWERS
(Color; scape-height;diameter)
ZONES;
DAYS IN BLOOM
Bitsy
Deciduous
30" x 20" Lemon;
24"; 2"
5 to 10;
79 to 205
Black-Eyed Stella
Evergreen
22" x 16" Gold with red eye;
19"; 3"
5 to 10;
117 to 197
Forsyth Lemon Drop
Evergreen
22" x 15" Lemon;
20"; 3"
5 to 10;
125 to 185
Happy Returns
Deciduous
24" x 15" Yellow;
18"; 3"
3 to 7;
70 to 150
Lemon Lollypop
Deciduous
28" x 15" Lemon;
24"; 2.5"
5 to 10;
73 to 151

Leprechauns Wealth
Deciduous
24" x 12" Apricot;
21"; 2.5"
5 to 9;
67 to 110
Lullaby Baby
Evergreen
30" x 19" Light Pink;
24"; 3"
5 to 10;
38 to 109
May May
Deciduous
24" x 20" Off White;
30"; 31.5"
5 to 10;
100 to 111
So Sweet
Evergreen
32" x 22" Yellow
26"; 3"
5 to 9;
59 to 148
Stella d'Oro
Deciduous
30" x 13" Gold;
18"; 3"
5 to 8;
120 to 158


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