Forever and a Day Lily : Trumpet-Like Blooms Play Siren Song to Devotees
Chances are Nancy Webb and Richard Stretz don’t really croon Cole Porterlove songs to their day lilies, but it’s easy to imagine. The two members of the American Hemerocallis Society are clearly smitten.
Webb, for instance, has at least 200 different Hemerocallis (day lily) cultivars growing at her Garden Grove home, but she covets more. She receives scores of mail-order catalogues and roams three counties attending day-lily gardening clubs to keep up with what’s going on in the field. The personalized plate on her Plymouth, DYLYLDY, is no exaggeration.
Stretz, regional vice president of the American Hemerocallis Society, has fallen even harder. The Los Angeles resident succumbed to the hybridizing bug years ago.
If such devotion seems a mystery, say day-lily fanciers, that may be because your only exposure to the Hemerocallis genera has been those sun-colored trumpets of summer we’re all familiar with--perhaps numbingly so. “Hem” devotees have a name for these ubiquitous flowers--”little yellow varmints.”
Day lilies--thanks to intense interest in their hybridizing, especially in the past two decades--come in more than sun colors. There are ivories and creams; pale pinks and deep roses; scarlet, burgundy and black-reds; peaches to coppers; and lilacs to deep purples. The only colors missing--so far--are true blue and absolute white.
Adding further interest, many day lilies have contrasting throats and/or a band of color, called an “eye,” at the juncture where the flower segments join the throat. Some also have midribs of color (often white) running up the middle of each petal.
The shape of modern day lilies may not be what you’re used to seeing either, according to John Schoustra of Greenwood Daylilies in Long Beach. Instead of traditional, lily-like trumpets, he says, modern hybridizers favor flatter forms in which the individual petals are wider and overlap, giving the flower a nearly circular shape. Day lilies also come in star and spider forms, Schoustra says, and there are even doubles.
One of the most unusual shaped day lilies around, Stretz says, is the ‘Mynelles Starfish,’ which he describes as a spider variant with curly edges.
“It’s a huge flower (10 inches across) and ivory-colored with a pink cast,” he says. “It really does look like a starfish. It’s one of those flowers that commands you to stop and look.”
Something else you might not know about day lilies is, despite their Greek name Hemerocallis (which means “beautiful for a day”), many unfurl their blossoms after the sun goes down. These varieties are called nocturnals, and they’re wonderful landscaping choices for homeowners who entertain evenings and use their back yards as outdoor living rooms when the weather’s warm.
Near-whites such as ‘Iron Gate Iceberg’ or ‘Joan Senior’ look particularly luminous under moonlight, says Schoustra. He favors the former, saying, “It’s one of the whitest, and it stands up to the heat.”
Phil Miller, general manager at Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach, on the other hand, prefers ‘Joan.’ “It’s a prettier shape, and it blooms more,” he says.
Deep-hued nocturnals can also be dramatic evening performers if planted against a white stucco wall or picket fence or if highlighted by Malibu lights, suggests Schoustra. ‘American Revolution,’ for example, which he describes as “the color of port wine seen through a green bottle” takes on an eerily sinister quality after dark that many--himself included--find alluring.
Nocturnal day lilies are also good choices for gardeners whose yards turn shady midafternoons. Stretz’s home falls into this category. “I pick plants that will be open early in the morning so I can see them before I go off to work,” he says. (Nocturnals typically stay open until late morning or early afternoon the following day.)
Another way to enjoy day lilies after the sun has set is to look for diurnal extended bloomers. These varieties open early in the day and by definition stay open at least 16 hours.
One of Schoustra’s favorites in this category is ‘Louise Manelis,’ a peach-colored beauty with a slightly deeper-toned throat. “The foliage is rather bluish, which sets off the flower color nicely,” he says. “And it’s stiffer and spikier than usual, which I find interesting.”
‘Louise Manelis’ generates about five bloom cycles (or approximately 180 flowering days) a year, says Schoustra, and its flowers tend to come in waves, instead of one at a time. Day lilies with this blooming habit make particularly good border specimens, he says.
Another misconception many gardeners have about day lilies, say their devotees, is that they bloom only in the summer. Some do, but many come close to rivaling roses in their flower production, producing blossoms eight or nine months of the year. These are the varieties Webb looks for.
Though she admits she had picked a few cultivars, such as ‘Spider Web,’ strictly by name (Spider was her husband’s nickname in college), most were chosen first for color and second for re-blooming capability.
“When you are lucky enough to garden in Southern California, why not choose re-bloomers?” she asks.
One of the favorite re-bloomers of Miller at Roger’s Gardens is ‘Russian Rhapsody,’ a big six-inch-wide flower in a luscious shade of violet-purple accented with a yellow throat and a deeper purple eye.
“It blooms six times a year, and it blooms prodigiously,” says Miller. “It’s a beauty.”
Though it’s definitely little (two-inches wide) and clearly yellow, Webb likes the “little yellow varmint” called ‘Bitsy.’ “It blooms constantly,” she says.
Schoustra likes it too. “It blooms 290 days a year; it’s a pure, true yellow, and it has graceful, willowy scapes (flower stalks),” he says. “It’s our best seller.”
In the unlikely event you get tired of a prodigious bloomer’s flowers, you can always eat them. Day-lily blossoms are edible, as Miller demonstrated at the end of a presentation to his staff at the nursery.
“When I popped a flower in my mouth and started munching, they nearly flipped,” he laughed. “But really they’re pretty good.” The taste is subtle, similar to raw fennel, perhaps, minus the crunch.
Day-lily buds can be cooked tempura style or added to a stir fry, and raw petals can be added to salads or used for an edible garnish. Or, as one cookbook suggests, you can serve individual portions of chicken salad scooped into the center of your largest, prettiest blossoms.
Fragrance is another surprise. Though day lilies aren’t notorious for their heady aromas the way jasmine and wisteria are, many varieties are unexpectedly fragrant. ‘Raspberry Pixie,’ a pert little berry-colored blossom that looks like its name, is an example.
“You don’t notice the fragrance from individual flowers that much,” says Schoustra, “but you sure do when it’s planted in mass. It’s a nice, light smell, like citrus and honey.”
Day-lily fanciers rest their case. Whether you want blooms that are wee or humongous, muted or chrome bright, on short or tall flower stalks, early birds or night owls, you’ll find them among the Hemerocallis, they say. Evergreen foliage, re-blooming capability, care-free cultivation, fragrance and culinary potential too. What more could you possibly demand from a flower?
All About Day Lilies Specialty day-lily nurseries include:
Greenwood’s day-lily display garden. The garden, on the grounds of Pacific View Nursery, is open to the public the first and third Saturday of each month, except December and January, between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. 698 Studebaker Road, Long Beach, Calif. (310) 493-2770. Or request Greenwood’s free catalogue by writing 5595 E. 7th St., No. 490, Long Beach, Calif. 90804. (310) 494-0486.
Cordon Bleu Farms. Request a catalogue ($1) by writing P.O. Box 2033, San Marcos, Calif. 92079.
Aline Valley Gardens. Request a free catalogue by writing 2627 Calistoga Road, Santa Rosa, Calif. 95404.
Day-lily gardening associations include:
Orange County Iris & Daylily Club. The club meets the second Tuesday of every month at the First Presbyterian Church in Garden Grove. The majority of the meetings are open to non-members. A plant sale table is usually featured and is a good way to pick up unusual varieties inexpensively, says Nancy Webb. For details, call club president Ruth Greiner at (714) 893-1289 or Webb at (714) 539-9478.
American Hemerocallis Society. Annual dues ($18) include membership in a regional branch of the Society and quarterly issues of the Daylily Journal. For details, write the American Hemerocallis Society, Elly Launius, executive secretary, 1454 Rebel Drive, Jackson, Miss. 39211
Literature includes:
“Daylilies: The Perfect Perennial.” This book, by Lewis and Nancy Hill (Storey Communications, 1991, $14.95 soft cover), is a comprehensive but not overly technical primer on day lilies. It’s packed with information in an easy-to-understand presentation.
