A Lily A Day . . .

We have our own little lilyfest going on right here at Our Little Acre. We're enjoying the frilly blooms scattered throughout Max's Garden, where nearly all our daylilies are located. We don't have regular daylily gardens like you see when you visit a hemhead* garden, where they are generally placed in daylily beds or grouped in large clumps. Ours are here and there, living happily among the other perennials, annuals, herbs and roses.


However, the more daylilies we get, the closer they get to each other. Some have been here for a very long time, and those have spread to the point that I'm feeling like some need to be divided. The nice thing about older, larger clumps of an assortment of daylilies is that you're pretty much assured that once they start blooming, successive blooms keep them going for a month or three.

When we moved here in 1977, there was minimal landscaping on the property with very few flowering plants. I can remember a couple of peonies, yellow potentilla, and some orange daylilies. Those original daylilies still grow here and have multiplied exponentially. They line the north side of our pool area, and we've shared them with neighbors and family.

I used to think they were run-of-the-mill ditch lilies, but last summer, I took a good look at them, and they certainly are anything but ordinary. The color is familiar, but the form is double and sometimes triple! (Could be 'Kwanzo'?) I have a new appreciation for these daylilies that we've been enjoying all these years.

All of our daylilies have not popped blooms for us yet, but many have been doing so without stop for about a month now. I present the current line-up:

'El Desperado'
I love the dark edge on this custard-colored rebloomer. Purchased this year from Great Garden Plants (highly recommended for daylilies!)


'Alabama Jubilee'
I thought 'South Seas' was a great, vibrant color, but wow! This one is so reddish-orange that it's hard to capture the gorgeous color. It definitely catches your eye in the garden. Another Great Garden Plants selection - and a rebloomer.


'Siloam Double Classic'
Purchased this year from Great Garden Plants


I originally thought this was 'Strawberry Candy', but now I don't think it is - no dark edges on it. This was a passalong that I got so long ago I don't even remember who gave it to me. I do have 'Strawberry Candy', but it's not blooming yet.


Wolfe with a Dark Eye
This is a hybrid from daylily hybridizer Lana Wolfe. Mom and I visited her nearby gardens last summer and I purchased this unnamed and unregistered hybrid from her. She "done good" on this one!


'Etched Eyes'



'Lady Fingers'
This spider daylily is large and the greenish centers glow when they're illuminated by the sun.


An unnamed hybrid by another hybridizer - Barbara Wolff - which she simply calls 'Wolff 734'. I bought this from her two years ago, so I need to call her to find out if she ever named and registered it. It's quite large.


'Wolff 726'
Another great one from Barb Wolff. The eye is a little more subtle than this photograph suggests.


Another Lana Wolfe hybrid that I called 'Lovely Lana'. Of course, it will never be named that because there's already a daylily by that name and this isn't it. This one is another of hers that isn't named or registered. But she should. It's GINORMOUS and a heavy bloomer. Stunning.


'Hush Little Baby'
Such a pretty thing. Creamy coloring. Just sweet and perfectly named.


'Leprechaun's Eyes'


'Pardon Me'
Its blooms are small, but goodness, it's prolific! And fragrant!


'Czars Treasure'
Given to me by Mom in 2006


'Black-Eyed Stella'


No ID - I can't remember where I got these (from Mom probably), but they were the first daylilies planted in Max's Garden in the fall of 2005. They've really spread and I should divide them and share the love. They're a deeper red than this photograph shows.


'Razzmatazz'
Very similar to 'Pardon Me'.


'Ruffles 'n' Lace'


'South Seas'
This is a really luscious shade of deep corally orange.

'Big Smile' and 'Penny Candy' are finished, but we're still waiting on:

• 'Sunday Gloves'
• 'Red Volunteer'
• 'Frans Hals'
• 'Sarah Christine'

'Stella d'Oro' is taking a break.

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* "What is a hemhead?" you might ask. The genus name for daylilies is Hemerocallis, so just as Jimmy Buffet fans are called parrotheads, daylily lovers are called hemheads. I'm not one. Yet.