Last year’s daylilies

Last year I kept promising I would make a separate post about my daylilies once they all had finished flowering. The first one started to flower in June and I took photos of them all when they were in flower, and waited for them all to finish, but there were several that just kept throwing out flower after flower - and the last daylily flowered in mid-November! I therefore decided to wait until now to give you the whole presentation – after all, what could be more uplifting on a cold January day than a whole bunch of cheerful daylilies?!

I got my first daylily in 2003, a tiny pot bought at the local market and I kept it in a container for a few years. Soon it could be split in two, then the two could be split again and I started to give away plants. The daylily was labelled ‘Frans Hals’ but I have in recent years seen photos of Frans Hals online and it looks nothing like my daylily! It’s not the first wrongly labelled plant bought from that market....

Here it is, I must have looked at hundreds of daylilies online in an attempt to name it correctly, the closest I have come is ‘Sammy Russel’, but I think 'Sammy Russel' looks redder than mine – mine is more burnt orange-red.

It is a lovely daylily, prolific bloomer, starts to flower in late June or early July and can go on and on till late August. I have 4 of this one, grows to about 70cm.

I have given away so many babies of this one I have lost count, and this year I have two more mature plants to give away as I have no space for them, and the remaining two needs to be divided in a year or two anyway.

This is two plants in full flower, if you have an idea of the name of it, please let me know :-)

After having had this un-named daylily for years I decided I needed to complement it with a sibling, and I bought ‘Burning Daylight’.

'Burning Daylight' is a taller, stronger daylily, it flowers a bit later but goes on for weeks. Grows to about 80cm.

Now that I have had it for a few years it has become a good size clump and last summer it produced a nice amount of flowers.

And now to the newcomers of the daylilies. This is an un-named one I got in a plant swap from Angie, All I know is that it is a short/dwarf daylily. I got a small piece so it is still just a small plant, it produced a few flowers last summer, then it took a pause - and continued, and continued flowering - and this was the one that produced the last daylily of 2014! I hope this is going to be a long flowering daylily every year, never mind I don’t know its name. I have looked at lots of photos of ‘Stella D'Oro’ and wonder if that’s what it is, but it might be easier to see next year when I hopefully have more flowers than one at the time.

I got more new daylilies last year....lots more! Here is ‘Bubbly’, one of my double daylilies. Grows to about 50cm.

I must admit I am not that keen on double daylilies in general, some of them just look too untidy, but some, like this one is quite beautiful. It’s nice with something unusual and different.

This is ‘Eyes of Fire’, grows to about 45cm.

And this is ‘Pink Damask’, one of the larger bloomed daylilies, grows to 90cm.

‘Pink Damask’ – I have two of this one.

This is a very beautiful and rather unusual daylily, ‘Double Coffee’ – also a double, but nice and tidy. It will possibly produce fuller flowers when more mature. Grows to about 65cm.

This one is going to get pride of place in my sunny bed, after I have renovated it, I have two of this one and at least one is going in the new bed. Big changes going on in my garden, but more about that in later posts :-)

This is ‘Exotic Echo’, a small daylily which I will keep in a pot for now, grows to about 40cm.

Maybe I will put it in a large container together with another small daylily with contrasting colours.

And this is ‘Fragrant Returns’, as the name indicates it is fragrant but I could not detect any – possibly because it was raining when the few flowers it produced were out. I have two of this one. Grows to about 50cm.

This is ‘Stoke Poges’, a lovely daylily which I also have 2 of, grows to about 60cm and has some fragrance.

I need to find a good place for them, they still grow in pots.

This is ‘Neyron Rose’, I was unfortunately a bit late taking these photos, the flowers are a bit past their best. These flowered on the hottest part of last July and by the time I had got out of bed, many of the daylilies looked either like this or were unopened buds ready for the next day.

I promised myself to take photos when the next ones were out, but as you know from the name, each flower only last one day and if you are not there with the camera right when they are open, the moment is gone. This year I will hopefully have many more flowers to choose from as all the daylilies I got last year will be more mature. ‘Neyron Rose’ grows to 70cm.

This is probably the most beautiful daylily I have now, I got it 3 years ago, but it didn’t flower the first 2 years, not sure why as daylilies usually flower the following year and often the same year after having been taken from the mother plant.

It probably just needed a bit more time, but boy was it worth it. It is called ‘Moonlit Masquerade’ and the colours are even more spectacular than my camera can capture. Grows to about 65cm.

In addition to those I have showed you I also have the following daylilies which are still small and didn’t flower in 2014 – hopefully they will flower this summer: ‘Crimson Pirate’, ‘Lady Limelight’, ‘Luxery Lace’ and ‘Nanuq’. In total that’s 16 different daylilies, 23 plants all together. You should think that would be enough daylilies in my tiny garden?!
Well....ehrm, I have bought a few more....

I just could not resist!! Look at these beautiful daylilies.
'Moussaka'
'Ageless Beauty'
'Burgundy Love'
'Blackberries and Cream'

They will be delivered end of February and I can’t wait to see them in flower in my garden this summer. Daylilies are great plants to buy online as they are sent bare-root and can survive very well being transported – all you do is pot them up when you receive them. Photos courtesy of http://strictlydaylilies.com where I have ordered these 4 daylilies from, if you are at all interested in daylilies, this new nursery is one to visit online. The nursery is run by a couple, she is American he is British and they only grow and sell daylilies. Their collection is very good – and growing, their website is one of the best I have seen for a nursery. They quote postage for UK and European countries but can send ‘further afield subject to individual quotes for post and packing’. I am in no way connected with them, I was just impressed with them, and after having contacted them with a question, I was even more impressed with their customer service. Just thought you would like to know, but beware, once you have clicked the link you will probably be tempted to buy a few daylilies, can you manage to buy only 4 like me??

Well, now it’s just to wait for the daylilies to start blooming again, it won’t be until late June or possibly early July in my garden, depending on weather. But the daylily plants are already emerging from the soil, many of them have got several inches of leaf growth, there’s no stopping them now, they are all heading for summer and flowers. Can’t wait!

Until next time, take care.