Hybridized Daylily – ‘Fulvous European’ photo: N. Chase
Family: Liliaceae Sun Exposure: Full sun/partial shade
Genus: Hemerocallis (hem-er-oh-KAL-iss) Height: 12inches – 5 feet
Category: Perennial -tuberous roots Hardiness Zone: 3 - 10
Hemerocallis is a member of the lily family Liliaceae. The name Hemerocallis combines two Greek words creating the meaning ”beauty for a day”; hence, the common name ‘Daylily’. Although a single flower lasts but a day, the plant produces many buds per stalk and numerous stalks per plant. Thus, the show of the plant is quite stunning, especially when planted in masses. Certain varieties bloom continuously for periods of time, generally about three weeks, while other varieties bloom on and off throughout the growing season.
Originating in parts of Eurasia, from Europe to China, Korea, and Japan, the daylily has become a favorite garden plant worldwide with more than 60,000 registered named cultivars worldwide. The ability to hybridize this plant is one of its many attractions to gardeners.
The ease of care of the daylily also makes it quite appealing. It prefers well-drained soil amended with organic matter, but can adapt to almost any type of soil. Full sun is best, but daylilies will grow in partial shade. They can tolerate flood or drought.
As for fertilization, apply a complete fertilizer in the spring such as 5-10-10 or 5-10-5, water it in, making sure to keep fertilizer off the foliage. Don’t fertilize at planting; instead amend the soil with manure or compost.
Daylily foliage can be deciduous, semi-evergreen, or evergreen. The grass-like blades range in color from blue-green to yellow-green. They are arranged opposite from each other from the crown, creating a fan form arrangement. Multiple fans form a clump.
Divide clumps once every 3–6 years. Here in Georgia this is best done in the fall, but early spring is okay. When dividing, lift out the plant, and then separate it by using two spading forks inserted back to back into the middle of the clump. Work the forks back and forth until you pry apart the clumps. This method is less damaging to the fine feeder roots than cutting is.
As you replant the division
make the hole large enough to allow the roots to spread out. Make a small mound
of soil in the center of the hole and place the plant on top of the mound with
the roots fanning out and downward. Replace the soil gently around the roots
with the crown set about one inch below the soil surface. Space plants 24 – 36
inches apart for tall varieties and 18 – 24 inches apart for smaller varieties.
The beauty of the Daylily is in the flower. The outer portion of the daylily flower is considered the basic flower color. These colors range from yellow, red, pink, purple, melon or cream-pink and all variations of these shades, including brown, buff, apricot, and peach. Only blue and true white have eluded growers thus far. The center area of the daylily flower is called the throat. This section is usually a different color than the basic color, generally a shade of green, yellow, gold, orange, apricot, or melon. The stamen color may match or can be different from both the basic color and the throat. Usually the stamens are light yellow to greenish with dark to black anther tips.
Unlike the original wild types, the modern color patterns are complex. The patterns include: Self, Blend, Polychrome, Bitone, Bicolor,
Eyed or Banded, Edged or Picoteed, Tipped, Dotted, Dusted, Midrib, or Diamond Dusting.
The flower form is almost as diverse as the color spectrum and pattern. The form can be
Circular, Triangular, Star, Informal, Ruffled, Flat, Recurved, Trumpet, Spider, or Double. For more details on the various categories listed above, go to www.daylilies.org.
“Green Eyed Giant” photo: N. Chase
Until recently daylilies have remained relatively pest and disease free. In 2000, a potentially devastating disease for daylilies was found here in Georgia known as daylily rust. This disease is serious and needs special attention to keep it at bay.
Daylily rust is caused by a fungus, Puccinia hererocallidis. The fungus only infects and colonizes green, live host tissue such as leaves and scapes (the long stem that the flowers arise on) not roots or crowns. Under favorable conditions for disease development (a minimum of 5 – 6 hours of continuous leaf wetness and high humidity) symptoms appear 3-7 days after infection. Symptoms to look for are small, yellow-orange, oval-shaped pustules. The pustules contain hundreds of rust colored summer spores that are easily transported by wind or rubbed off onto clothing, shoes, or tools. It is these summer spores that cause repeated infections and spread to other daylilies. In the fall, before the leaves begin to die, new infections will produce dark brown to black pustules that contain the resting or winter spores.1 These over-wintering spores will begin the cycle again in the spring by living on the green material of evergreen varieties of daylilies, plants that have been brought inside, or in minimum-heated greenhouses.
To combat daylily rust, isolate infected plants, cutting them back to an inch or less from the ground. Remove and destroy infected foliage. Treat the plants repeatedly with fungicides as label directs. Other minor problems daylilies might incur are leaf streak, root-knot nematode, soft rot, thrips, spider mites, and aphids.
The diversity of is quite amazing, they work well as borders, planted at
the top of banks, in 
perennial
beds, near pools, ponds, streams, or drainage ditches. Dwarf varieties look
especially lovely in rock gardens and containers. All types of daylilies may be
used in rain gardens. The flowers can be used in arrangements, make sure to cut
stems that have well-developed buds so you will have flowers for several days.
For the ambitious, certain varieties have flowers that are edible such as
“Golden Needles” which is used in hot and sour soup.
‘Implausibility’ photo: N. Chase
Few plants are as diverse as daylilies . . .
and few plants produce such beautiful flowers
with so little care.
Information Sources:
1”Daylily Rust,” www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/04-089.htm
“Daylilies,” http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/horticulture/g869.htm
American Hemerocallis Society. www.daylilies.org
Photo Credits:
Nick Chase. nick.assumption.edu/Daylilies/about.html
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