The Colorful Daylily By Diane Cleland, Red Bluff Garden Club Once you have purchased your first daylily it is almost impossible to be satisfied with just one. Your addiction to these easy care plants increasing with each new addition to your collection and before you know it you are a member of the “one is good – more is better club. Congratulations! The daylily is the perfect perennial because it is available in a rainbow of colors and a variety of shapes and sizes. They are able to survive with very little care, adapting to a variety of soil and light conditions, and is almost insect free and drought resistant. Caring for them could not be easier. Apply fertilizer in the spring and fall with a good organic fertilizer which keeps them strong and healthy and increases blooming. Deadheading is not essential but does help keep the plants looking neat and fresh. Most are familiar with the common yellow, orange, and red daylilies but for the most part they have been replaced by new modern hybrids. These hybrid daylilies have a remarkable color range, red; pink; purple; melon; cream yellow and orange and all the shades of each of these colors. The only colors lacking are pure white and pure blue. The flowers come in a host of different color patterns. The flower parts can be different colors, petals one color, sepals in a different color, the throats in a third color. The possibilities are endless. The flower shape can be circular, star, ruffled, trumpet, spider, single or double and these are just a few of the selection available. The daylily can also bloom from late spring through October. To accomplish this you would need to choose early, middle and late varieties and the new-re-blooming daylily. There are three classes of daylilies which designate their winter hardiness: Dormant, most hardy, they go completely dormant in the winter surviving without protection. Semi evergreen will maintain some green through the winter and evergreen which may or may not survive cold winters; they should be given the protection of mulch. A Daylily is in the genus Hermerocallis which is derived from two Greek words meaning “beauty” and “day”, referring to the fact that each flower lasts only one day. To make up for this, there are many flower buds on each daylily flower stalk and many stalks in each clump of plants. Daylilies are a good cut flower, cut a stem with well developed buds and they will open on successive days. To keep your arrangement looking fresh, just snap off the faded flowers. Daylilies are perennial they come up each spring and grow in size and beauty each year. The only time they need to be divided is maybe once every five to seven years. They like at least six hours of sunshine per day through the summer. Daylilies will grow in most soils but they prefer good drainage. If needed you could amend you soil by adding compost, peat moss, bone meal, blood meal or well rotted manure to your soil. The only hard part of growing daylilies is deciding which of these easy care perennials to purchase. Good Luck! The Red Bluff Garden Club is a member of Cascade District, California Garden Clubs, Inc.; and Pacific Region, National Garden Clubs, Inc.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 23:30:44 +0000
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