Daylily, My Favorite Flower

We who are captivated by the flowers of daylilies may wonder why it is important to know about the daylily plant. A knowledge of the overall plant characteristics will help gardeners in hybridizing, cultivating, and acquiring daylilies and well deepen their appreciation of the flowers. Understanding the total plant, therefore flowers, foliage, and roots, can greatly increase overall enjoyment of daylilies.



The primary part of the daylily, like most plants, are the root system and foliage. Prior to the bloom season, flower stalks, or scapes, emerge from the base of the plant. Usually flower buds visibly begin forming immediately after the scapes begin to emerge. Plants send up a single scape at time but can send up two, three, or more scapes during a season. The number of blooms on a scape varies from less than 10 to more than 60. Sometimes small plants are known as proliferations form on the side of the flower scape as it matures. The roots of the daylily are typically fibrous, which allows the plant to store food and water. Thus, bare-rooted daylilies are more easily transported than most other perennials since the plant is capable of sustaining itself with stored nutrients. The point at which the roots meet the foliage is known as the crown and contains the growing point of the plant. The sword like leaves emerge from the crown in an alternating fashion that creates a fan shape, a single daylily plant is often called a fan.



The typical daylily flower is composed of three sepals, three petals, six stamens and one pistil. The stamens are the male part of the flower and the pistil is the female part. Each stamen contains an anther, or pollen sack, at the tip. The anthers are closed in the early morning when the flowers first open, but as the temperature warms they burst open to reveal the fluffy, yellow to orange pollen. At the end of the pistil is the stigma. As the anthers open, the stigma becomes sticky to receive the pollen. The pistil connects to the ovary at the base of the flower and provides the passageway for the pollen to reach the ovary. If successfully pollinated, the ovary will form a seed pod.



In order to describe the different possible flower colors and patterns, the community of daylily growers and hybridizers has divided the flower into several parts, which included the throat, the eye or watermark, the petal self, and the petal edge. The different qualities of these parts are then used to categorize the many daylily hybrids.



The throat also called the center or the heart, is the center of the flower where the petals form a narrow funnel meeting at the base of the pistil. Sometimes "heart" is used to describe a smaller area in the very center of the throat. The throat color is usually green, orange, or yellow. Most newer hybrids have a green throat since gardeners generally find that green gives a cool focal point to the flower.



Daylilies are categorized by two primary characteristics: their self color and the presence of an eye or water mark. The self refers to the flattest, widest part of the petal, which carries the primary color of the bloom. The eye or eyezone is a darker area surrounding the throat of the flower. The eye can be a small dark band or it can take up most of the petal area. If this area surrounding the throat is lighter, rather than darker, than the self color, it is referred to as a watermark or a halo. In addition, the petal edges can be darker or lighter than the petal self. Darker petal edges are referred to as a picotee. Picotees and light edges can be very narrow to very wide, taking up to one third or even the petal width. Many new metalloid hybrids have a very dramatic gold edges. When a contrasting edge is very narrow it is referred to as a wire edge, such as a flower with a wire gold edge.



Flower color can be more complex in many cultivars. For example, the petals may contain a blend of more than one color, these are known as polychrome flowers. A bitone flower has petals that are darker or lighter than the sepals. Bicolor flowers are those that have petals and sepals of two entirely different colors. Describing color is very subjective, and the color that results in photographs is dependent upon a wide variety of influences, such as growing conditions, temperature, film type, amount of sunlight, and so on.



Peak daylily bloom in North America varies from May in the deep South to mid July in the northern part of the United States and in southern Canada. Of course, in countries south of the equator the bloom season ranges from November to mid January. Many modern cultivars send up a second or third set of bloom scapes to extend the season. The bloom season of a daylily is categorized according to the start of bloom. Generally, the bloom season is divided into early, midseason, and late. However, in an attempt to be more specific, some hybridizers have divided the season even further, describing the bloom times as extra early, early, early midseason, midseason, midseason late, late, and very lates.



Some new hybrids have an extended season and may begin blooming very early and continue through the entire bloom season. Plants that send up more than one scape are referred to as reblooming, or recurrent, cultivars. Many gardeners look for every blooming hybrids, ones that bloom nearly throughout the whole season.



There is just so much information on daylilies and I absolutely love them. It is wonderful to wake up, get a cup of coffee and look across your daylily field and see all the different colors that have bloomed. I will have a few more articles on this subject because there is just so much to write about. Until then, see you in the garden!



When we began our hobby in our flower beds with daylilies, who could imagine just where this remarkable experience would lead us? We have met many new friends who have shared in this magical adventure! Please come on in the barn and browse if you want to find some neat things for your garden, join our fascination! Visit this site,Need A Solar Garden?