Home > Flower and garden articles > Delightful Daylilies - wonderful in the Summer garden.

Delightful Daylilies - wonderful in the Summer garden.

Daylilies are wonderful in the Summer garden because they provide a daily crop of fresh flowers & are exceptionally versatile with their hardy, self-sufficient nature.

Daylilies are not only pretty in their myriad of colours & shapes, they`re also exceptionally useful because they require so little attention.
Daylilies are very long lived plants and because they do require so little attention they`re ideal for adding colour & lush foliage to those parts of the garden that are either not easily accessible or to which you are unable to dedicate a lot of time. Combined with this wonderfully useful nature is the Daylily`s ability to adapt to a wide range of conditions including full sun to part shade (although the latter often results in fewer, but more vivid, flowers). This means that these generous plants can be enjoyed on steep slopes - where they also help to control erosion - along sweeping driveways, paths or walls & terraced edges. They`re also beautiful by a stream or decorating a pond`s edge, in a `woodland` setting or as a potted display for Summer. However you plan to enjoy your Daylily selections remember two things. Firstly, a large drift makes the most impressive show and, secondly, the flowers will lean to the light so try to position the plants so that they will be viewed from the `lit` side.
The flowers are the obvious attraction of these plants but many bulb lovers have discovered that Daylily foliage is ideally timed for disguising the fading foliage of Spring bulbs & filling the subsequent voids in the garden.

Variety is the spice of Daylily life

The world of daylilies is mind-bogglingly enormous because fanatical breeders around the world are continually trying to `out breed` each other. There are 1000s upon 1000s of brilliant & beautiful hybrids available including those which vary in size, shapes, colours & flowering time. However, we`ve never seen any that come close to performing as well as the dwarf Daylily Stella D`Oro. It`s tough, hardy, tolerant & produces a parade of wonderful warm yellow for about 121 days per year once established (Spring, Summer & Autumn).

Care

Daylilies are easy, easy, easy! They`ll adapt readily to a range of soils & positions and survive on a minimum of care. The only effort required of the gardener is an annual feed &, should the clump become over crowded & flowering diminishes, some lifting & dividing. See our growing guides on Daylilies

History

The name Daylily is derived from the Greek words hemera, meaning “day“ (because that is how long each flower lasts) and kallos, meaning “beauty“.
Daylilies have been grown for thousands of years with their existence having been noted in Chinese texts dating as far back as several centuries BC.
Although admired for their beauty, Daylilies have also been recognised for other uses which, through the ages, have included:

favouring a male child (if worn in the belt of a pregnant woman)
helping you to relax (it has been reported that by eating the young shoots of the plants a state of intoxication can be achieved).
relieving pain by eating the petals.

Even today, Chinese traditional medicines include Daylily plant extracts.

Last Reviewed: 18/02/2004 9:33:42 AM

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