This years day lily report reveals me exercising the gardeners prerogative - to have a change of mind! I decided to leave the wild species orange ones under the pleached rose row after all. I know the rest of it is pretty much a repeat of last year - but hey, this was the first time for it in print and I can't crank out any more than two a month at these rates ;-) every month! But the strollies pics are from this years garden.

Hi, Maggie, I haven't dropped by the forum lately. Other irons in the fire...I'm sure you know how that goes! I enjoyed your daylily piece. I think I missed it last year because I was in the middle of a garden project.

That wreath of daylilies on your home page is fantastic!

I hope to have photos of the daylilies in our Hot Zone bed. I was out with the camera yesterday, and there were blooms galore. We've taken out all our Stella d'Oro daylilies. Don liked them because they bloomed so long, but I thought that 5 huge clumps were boooorrring. And their color wasn't really bright. At the front of that bed we now have a lot of colorful annuals and some perennial poppies in bright hues.

Thanks Susan! I made the ‘wreath’ last year. It is the easiest arrangement ever, because I just put the blooms in an old ‘viola ring’ - a short ceramic ring-shaped vase, and shot it from above. Think the Victorians came up with it for displaying the newly developed big-faced pansies. Neat thing is, it works with any type of bloom and is nice with chunky candle in the middle for a low centerpiece.

I’m looking forward to seeing pics of your re-done hot zone – sounds wonderful. You know how much I love colorful blooms in a garden! So sad we can't grow perennial poppies here.

I just received press release info on a very promising repeat-blooming day lily that is a child of Stella de Oro. SdO was the pod parent to this ‘Black Eyed Stella’. It has been chosen as one of three top performers to be named for the year 2002 by the All American Daylily Selection Council. Available in retail since 1994, it has recently proven top marks in 6 USDA zones, with exceptional heat tolerance and fade-resistance as well as being prolific of bud scapes and new crowns. The pic is from their pr CD.

We grew 'Black Eyed Stella' for three years, and it was disappointing. The colors were not as vivid as they appear in the photo. In our garden it was not as good a repeat bloomer as the original Stella.

Photos of daylilies are so deceptive. There was a daylily in R. W. Munson, Jr.'s book Hemerocallis, The Daylily which was so appealing...When I saw the real daylily in a friend's yard, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was ho-hum! Seeing that daylily "in the petal" turned me into a cynic (about plant photos). I'm going to go through the book and look for the daylily in question. Maybe someone visiting the Forum has grown it.

'Antique Rose' - my favorite colors (at the time), the ruffling was so beautiful...The real daylily fell short of that perfect photo.

Do any of you grow it?

Don’t give up on the day lily photos Sus. Your disappointments may be caused by the plants environment, rather than perceived ‘inaccurate’ images. I have seen tremendous changes occur in this garden when plants were moved from one bed to another, including bloom colors. Also, adding phosphate to my hungry soil really improves bloom color and in some cases, I have noticed that a pH change will also.

Last winter I saw some flats of mostly-yellow Johnny-Jump-Up violas that I intended to return for when I had gotten the intended site prepared for their planting. Two weeks later, I returned to find they only had blue ones instead. When moaning about it to the clerk, he said those blue ones were the same ‘yellows’ he’d had two weeks earlier, except he had been fertilizing them heavily to bring out their colors!

When describing a choice pink selection, the above day lily press release states that “…pink is a variable color in daylilies. Soil moisture, pH and fertility, as well as nocturnal temperatures and humidity can cause the bloom to range from pale pastel pink to rich salmon pink.”.

Another example: When I requested a selection of lavender pink ones from a day lily grower, she supplied me with several out-of-bloom crowns that developed into the peachy pink as seen in MK’s day lily pic. I suspect the conflict to be a pH effect since she is local, but her area has a sandy soil that is more acidic than my plot.

Your line above, about the Stella d Oro … “their color wasn't really bright” … surprised me because around here, they are screaming gold-yellow. Your summer night temps are prob much cooler than our 75* plus, and your soil is acidic, so maybe one or both of those factors would explain your experiences with day lily color disappointments.

The pic below, is an exact match (on my monitor) to how the bloom appeared in the garden. I can imagine that it might better resemble the above 'Blk Eyed Stella' pic more if I had grown it in better or different conditions. All my other DL pics have matched the actual blooms too, without any enhancement - esp thanks to this new camera. It has been a dream.

Our cool summers are a big problem for daylilies. The most frustrating thing is that some of the newer cultivars won't open well, no matter how warm the day is. Our particular microclimate is on the cool side, and much of our garden has only part sun.

'Stella d'Oro' was in the sunniest spot in our garden, and it was always a subdued yellow. We do have a bright gold daylily called 'By Myself,' and on warm days the color of 'Viracocha' matches a Frito cheese puff.

We had our own happy experience moving a daylily from one bed to another. I'm beginning to think that nothing (excluding some native plants) likes to grow under a Douglas fir! The daylily in question was pale and languishing. It looks so much better in its new spot.

I do think that a good photographer can enhance the appearance of a daylily (or just about anything else). I wish I could remember the name of the small orange daylily we got at a plant trade a few years ago. I'd seen a photo of it in a catalog and was entranced. The daylily in our yard was obviously the same plant, but somehow the real plant did not have the charm of the plant in the photo.

Is there a pic of it on your site Susan?
Please post a current link to your WorthogGarden site here,, for us today. I was going to, but am worried about picking up an old url. Have been known to do that before , huh Terry?

No, there's no pic of that one. It was gone long before we created our web page. At that time Don was the only photographer, and he could let months go by between photos.

Here's a picture of one of our daylilies which goes along with the earlier discussion:



Our Website

I know how that goes Sus (er Nadia!) Even when I catch my daily strolls, it is so easy to miss getting everything I want to snap with camera.

Enjoyed catching up on your pages today. Love the gardeners intro page - and your first name! and the 2 season description and your Hot Zone day lilies. andandand

Amazing to think there are now over 48,000 registered day lilies, isn't it! - it gets more dangerous to look at new pics of them every year ;)

We went nuts over daylilies for a few years, but we've thinned out the collection. Daylily foliage is so boring, and the daylilies only bloom for a few weeks. We still get occasional new cultivars, but we have to give away some of our older ones to make room for new acquisitions (because of our very limited full sun area).

We will have new photos of the Hot Zone in a week or so. We've made some changes, and last Saturday was a super day for daylily blooms. I took lots of pictures.

All these Day Lily pictures are getting to me, still not a flower open on mine. I know what you mean about the short flower times Susan, with limited space the plants have to earn their keep. Nice to have a few short season ones to add spice to the mix though.

Terry, How hot does it get in your area? When do your daylilies generally start blooming?

Our first daylilies usually start blooming at the end of May or the first week in June. Those are Stella d'Oro (now departed) and the species Lemon Lily. We have to wait until July for most of our daylilies.

Susan, my area might be cooler than yours - our daylilies are at their peek right now. How cool do your nights get? We can have a huge difference from daytime highs of mid 80's to night time lows in the 40's. What are your temps Terry? I thought your lilies would be open about the same time as mine.

I hope to make a screensaver of my daylilies this year.

mamakane, Our lows have been in the 50's the last few days, but our highs are in the 60's and low 70's. We certainly don't have the variation in temperature that you have! Our daylilies might be just past their peak. I went out three times this evening to look at them "one more time."

Looking forward to seeing your daylily screensaver!

Our lows are low 50's and highs about the same as yours Susan. First flower has just opened this morning on what looks like a beautiful sunny day. It's 9.30am and I'm already sweating and all I'm doing is typing this, I'm guessing it must be in the high 70's which is very good for this part of England. Not the tarmac melting temps that our Texan friends have to endure.

It was 92* at 10 pm tonight With any luck, it might drop below 80 before sunrise. So I have nothing more to say about that, as the censoring program won't let me
But,,, yous guys day lily reports certainly verify the accuracy of my 'green rule of thumb' statement on the home page!

Well 70.....is a temperature we will not see again till October....We Texans hate the HOT weather,but we do appreciate the rest of the year!! All we have to do is get by till Fall....and try and keep everything alive....even our plants......

Just to show how relative all these temperatures are, we are being promised a scorching weekend with temperatures reaching the low 80's.

Well, the official low for the last 2 days has been 82. No fear tho Terry, while you are basking in the heat wave, we are expected to be hit by a cold front for the next three days. The lows will drop below 80 (78-79*) and the highs are expected to stay below 100. (97-99) woo hoo

David is right about keeping careful watch to keep everything alive in this flamethrower season. Yet one of our kitties has devised a somewhat independent tactic. I'll post it on my Critters page.

Ok here is my common or garden Daylily, the only one that does really well for me, no idea of the name.



The ones I moved into a more open position last year are recovering from the early slug damage Maggie, no signs of flowers yet but the leaves look big and healthy. I have had both of them for about ten years and have yet to see them flower, so I shall be like an expectant father when the buds do appear.

Wow! Bit diff from our "common" daylily.

Not common to me either Ter. It reminds me of one I really like, named ‘Jim’s Pick’ – that is, if the label on it is right ;-) I sure am glad to hear my prompting you to move the others to an open space has been good for them and I will be as proud as ‘Dad’, if it brings them to bloom this year!! And if so, I want to see their baby pics

Now Terry, that is gardening patience!!! - waiting 10 years for a bloom. I would have thrown them out by now. Of course they would probably bloom for me then where I tossed them Hope you see blooms soon.