Daylily (Hemerocallis) in my garden
As a mini-project this summer I counted how many daylily flowers bloomed in a single pot of the herbaceous perennial plant in my garden. I have no idea what possessed me, except that I am intrigued by the fact that each flower comes and goes in a day.
I first “identified” what daylilies were when I saw them growing in the walled back garden of my in-laws’ tall, Victorian terraced red-brick house in Yorkshire. These were the very common orange or “tawny” daylilies and they were growing near the shed, so I was interested to find on Wikipedia that one of their common names is outhouse lily.
An illustration of the tawny daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) from 1885
The Latin name for the daylily genus is Hemerocallis (from the Greek hemero, meaning “day” and kallos meaning “beautiful”). Daylilies are not related to true lilies – an advantage because those annoying red lily beetles (Lilioceris lilii) leave them alone.
There is a lot more information on daylilies on Wikipedia and the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society website, but here are just a few facts.
Hemerocallis is native to Eurasia, including China, Korea, and Japan, where it is used in cooking, and daylilies are mentioned in the Tang dynasty “Materia Medica” of AD656.
According to Hemerocallis Europa the first mention of a daylily in a European book was by the Belgian herbalist Rembert Dodoens in 1554 in the “Cruydeboeck”. It was named “Lilium luteum” but the picture showed it was what we now call Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, a small, yellow, edible daylily.
I realise now that I once ate these dried daylilies, or “golden needles” when experimenting with Chinese cooking in my youth!
Golden needles or dried Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus
The common-or-garden orange Hemerocallis fulva is an invasive species in some parts of the USA, having been imported from England as early as the 17th century. But it is not the only daylily – there are now more than 35,000 cultivars in a variety of colours. Sadly I can’t name most of those I picture here, which I have seen on my travels.
Double orange daylily cultivar at Dewstow Gardens, Monmouthshire, in August 2008…
The same daylily cultivar at Colby Woodland Garden in Pembrokeshire in August 2013
Is it the same as this one I saw at Powis Castle a week or two ago?
If so, just for once I have a name for it!
Another daylily cultivar seen at Colby
Almost white daylily at Compton Acres, Dorset, in August 2012
Yellow daylilies at Compton Acres
This one was snapped at Abbotsbury Gardens in Dorset a few weeks ago
Daylily in the parade Gardens, Bath, in June 2010
I used to have three pots of daylilies in my own garden but only one still flowers. There was a dwarf yellow one which now looks like a big bunch of thick grass in a pot – but at least it is still alive.
For what its worth, I do have the name of this dwarf Hemerocallis Stella de Oro – but it still looks like grass to me. This picture was taken in March 2010
I seem to have mislaid the other daylily I had completely. This was it…
The daylily I used to have…
A closer look at the daylily…
In some lights it looked more golden
My remaining daylily also looks different colours in different lights…
Wet daylily…
…in close-up
Here are some daylily buds in June 2010…
And finally the boring bit – my daylily project, day by day, nearly all the images being taken first thing in the morning when the new blooms opened…
July 3 – first bloom
July 4
July 5
July 6 – two more blooms
July 7 – all gone again
July 8
July 9 – another pair
July 10
July 11 – four at once
July 12
July 13
July 14 – two more
July 15
July 16
July 17 – two more
July 18
July 19
July 20
July 21 – one new flower
July 22
July 23
July 24 – the last of the daylilies…
I can reveal there were 15 flowers on my daylily this year and not one of them lasted more than a day…
But I don’t seem to have any seed capsules this time – they aren’t “pods”, by the way. And I don’t think I have ever taken a picture of them. If I had, they would look a bit like these on the A Growing Garden website…
Daylily capsules, unripe and ripe, from the A Growing Garden website
Bare sticks are all that is left of my summer’s daylilies…
This has been a intresting post, do you think the Lily’s only flowered for a day as it was a unwell plant ? I don’t think you should be left with the bear sticks. I have had to throw a pot of my Orange Lily’s out this year as they had Vinewevil larvae eating the roots as well as been infested with Lily Beetle, yet I have another type of Lily in the frount garden also covered in Lily Beetle, but so far there is no damage to this plant, this one is in the ground and not a pot.
I realy like the idear of following a flowering plant much like we follow the tree…
We must try and remember this for next year. Great work.
Amanda xx
No, it’s perfectly healthy. Daylilies aren’t related to “proper” lilies. And they are called daylilies for the very reason that it’s just their way for each flower to bloom for a day and then wither. But it means they are no good as cut flowers!
I’m not really worried about the “sticks”, as the green leaves at the base are still fine. It’s just that in some years I get those pod things before the stalks die back and this year I haven’t, maybe because of the wet weather.
Meanwhile my REAL lilies have also been hit by those red lily beetles you talk about…
All the best 🙂
You know Pat, I would probably not have noticed that it was a different lily flowering! That sounds awful but when I’m in the garden I’m reading plus we have mostly shrubs now. I do enjoy walking round the garden but still … Love that you have done this.
Thanks – it seems daylilies are a bit misunderstood!
All the best 🙂