Thursday 22 January 2015

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.

53 comments:

  1. I love daylilies and yours are really beautiful. Time and disorganization have deprived me of the names of most of my varieties, but I still enjoy them just the same.

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    1. Thanks Dorothy, I love them too, it is easy to get addicted!

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  2. Your daylilies are so gorgeous Helene.
    Have a wonderful day.

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    1. Thanks Marijke, have a wonderful day too!

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  3. You have some beautiful colours - we have about three different plants. According to James Wong all parts of the day lily are edible but I won't be testing this out

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    1. PS I am amazed at how many you manage to fit in,

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    2. I have heard that you can eat them too, but I am not sure I will try either! If they had made berries like fuchsias I would have been more inclined to try I suppose, fuchsia berries are lovely. Many of my daylilies are still in pots and therefore not so difficult to fit in, I just plop them in wherever I have a gap.

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  4. Love your day lilies Helene, I have grown them for years and find that surprisingly they are extremely tough critters. Grown in containers then chopped up and planted out after a couple of years or visa-versa they always seem to be OK and even flower well in my sun-starved garden. Really useful plants.

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    1. Thanks Rick, I have read that the correct way to split daylilies is to use two garden forks and force them apart. I have never owned TWO garden forks at the same time so I have never been able to do that. My solution has always been to use a breadknife and simply cut them in suitable pieces. Works fine! Those I have growing in almost full sun flowers much better than the same variety in more shady areas so they definitely prefer a sunnier location – but I still get flowers.

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  5. Helene you have a wonderful collection of daylilies, I almost cannot understand where you have planted them all, you have so many of them..... I think that first daylily which is not Frans Hals, is much nicer than the awful striped Frans Hals.

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    1. Thanks Janneke, I haven’t planted them all, most of them are still in pots so I just put them in between other plants where I have a gap. This year some of them will need to get bigger pots or containers as they have grown out of their pots. I agree fully with you on Frans Hals, I really don’t like it, looks garish.

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  6. Hi Helene
    You just brought me back the hope, that some day my garden will explode in colors again. At the moment it looks more like a war zone, after all those fallen trees :o(.
    Have a great week and thanks for the relief for the eyes. :o)
    Alex

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    1. You are very welcome Alex, glad I could bring some colour to you :-)
      Have a great wee-end!

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  7. Dear Helene, your day lily collection is absolutely awesome! And you photographed them in a spectacular way. Contrary to you, I love the double day lilies. For my own garden I tried out different varieties, but was never really satisfied with the colors. I bought them from local nurseries just led by the label but not seeing any actual flowers. Often the color was very different from what it said on the label or how the photo of the bloom looked on it. The colors were repeatedly going into the warm color range like apricot rather than pink and that just doesn't go well with my overall color scheme in the garden. But I am very inspired by your post to keep trying. This time I will also ordering at a special day lily nursery online. Will see if I have better luck. From your collection my favorites are ‘Stoke Poges’, which has exactly the pale pink tone that I am after. ‘Moonlit Masquerade’, has an amazing coloration and 'Moussaka', oh boy what can I say... 'Blackberries and Cream' is also a very interesting variety. Hope the newbies will grow well for you! I have a feeling that day lilies can become as much of an obsession like roses are for me. Not that I need another one, though ;-)! Warm regards,
    Christina

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    1. Thanks Christina, sorry if I have fired up on another obsession for you ;-)
      I buy all my plants online and it is often difficult to buy plants for a colour scheme as description and photos online can be very different from actual colour. I tried to make a completely red bed many years ago – none of the flowers were red, but I had all shades of pink, orange, maroon and mauve! In my garden I also stay clear of anything called ‘pinky-peach/apricot’ as it won’t fit with the colours so I like ‘Stoke Poges’ too for that reason. Buying the daylilies in flower is of course the safest way to do, if you can go there yourself, but I am not able to so will have to trust the photos and description and hope for the best. There are so many great varieties I would love to have, I can see me sending in another order for daylilies before 2015 is over….
      Have a great day, take care.

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  8. Oh, what a lovely tour through the Day Lilies! So many, so beautiful!
    Hope you are having a wonderful day!
    Lea

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    1. Thanks Lea, I’m glad you enjoyed the collection. Hope you have a great day too!

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  9. Oh, so many beautiful ones! I love the first one (I wish I knew what it was!), as well as Stoke Poges and Neyron Rose. I'm on the lookout for some pink daylilies for my garden in the front. It will be hard to choose!

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    1. Yes, it is hard to choose when there are so many to choose from! I particularly like those with unusual patterns, like my new Moussaka.

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  10. Wow, you have quite a colleciton of Daylilies! I think my favorites among the ones you've shown are 'Double Coffee' and 'Stoke Poges.' They're all beautiful, though. It sounds like yours begin blooming about the same time mine do. I usually notice some new growth under the snow. Amazingly beautiful, hardy plants!

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    1. Thanks Beth, yes I think they are rather tough plants, as long as they get enough water in the summer, mine tend to sulk a bit during the hottest part of July and August, especially those I keep in pots. I don’t have any of the very early varieties yet, (that will be next on my list!) but I could get daylilies to flower as early as late May here if I had any of those.

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  11. You have a beautiful collection Helene. I inherited roughly 40 daylilies with our current house, all the same dormant variety, which has been identified by other people as 'Sammy Russell.' Like yours, mine is a burnt orange color. The exposure to these was enough to get me hooked, although I prefer evergreen rebloomers in my garden. My favorites are 'Spanish Harlem' (a deep burgundy) and 'Persian Market' (coral). Believe it or not, I currently have a yellow variety blooming - 'For Pete's Sake' wasn't classified as a rebloomer but, since I planted it, I reliably get at least 2 distinct cycles of blooms.

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    1. Interesting to hear you have ‘Sammy Russell’, does yours look like mine? I have seen so many different versions of what’s supposed to be ‘Sammy Russell’ but I don’t really know why they vary so much both in shape and colour. 'Spanish Harlem' is a lovely daylily, I’d love to have it!

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  12. Love the Double Coffee - I only have one plant that has grown into a huge clump and really needs splitting.

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    1. Yes, they do grow very quickly, I simply dig them up and take a breadknife and cut them up in suitable pieces for a 3-4 L pot, then plant one piece back in the ground and the rest in pots

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  13. You told and showed us many varieties of day lilies, Helene. And my favorite is striped one, pink with white. I think they bloom very short time if the weather is hot, don't they? And we need to plant day lilies in shadow spot.

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    1. Daylilies bloom for one day, regardless of the temperature, but they can get a bit limp if it is hot and they are not watered well, especially in my garden where most of them are grown in pots. I have tried growing them in part shade but they don’t flower as well so they need as much sun as possible.

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  14. Helene I marvel at your meticulous records with plants....me not so good with that. I adore daylilies and have many. I make sure I take photos of them every year as I can't get enough of them....and yours are just stunning. If I could I would just add more and more.....maybe taking some pieces and moving them around would work too for me. I cannot wait to see yours and mine bloom again!

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    1. Thanks Donna, I started out well with keeping records of all the plants I put in and took out, so I have just continued. I am so happy I did that, would have been a nightmare to keep track of everything today if I had not started when I had just a few plants!

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  15. Hei!

    Så hyggelig at du skrev på bloggen min :)
    Du har virkelig mange flotte dagliljer! De samler jeg også på, og det er så mange fine å få kjøpt. Den 'Moonlit Masquerade' var nydelig!!!

    Ha en fin helg!

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    1. Hei Marit, velkommen til bloggen min, jeg er sikker på at du vil finne mange andre planter du vil like ettersom våren kommer i gang på ordentlig. Liljer og roser er noe jeg ikke kan få nok av, hvis du har tittet på plantelisten min så ser du det, men med en bitteliten hage (62m2) er det ikke lett å finne plass til alt – det er så mye man kan gro her som man ikke kan ha i Norge – jeg vil gjerne ha en av alt!
      God helg :-)

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    2. Hei Helene! Tusen takk! Roser har jeg virkelig fått dilla på, og spesielt de engelske (David Austin) i de siste årene. Forstår at du har plassproblemer, 62 m2 er ikke stor plass når en vil ha en av alt ;) Jeg bodde i 17 år i rekkehus med omtrent samme størrelsen på hagen som du, og måtte til slutt bare flytte for å få større hage :)
      Nå har jeg to mål, men det blir fort fullt her også...
      Misunner deg det klimaet du har, men jeg prøver hele tiden å tøye klimasonene som er her. Noen ganger går det bra, andre ganger ikke ;)

      God helg!

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    3. Ja jeg tøyer klimasonen min også hele tiden, vil gjerne gro planter som hører til i Syden! Jeg har mange planter som ikke egentlig skal overleve her, men hysj! det vet ikke plantene :)
      Jeg har 3 David Austin roser i hagen og 2 på bestilling, de er nydelige! Skulle gjerne hatt 2 mål hage men med tomtepriser i London måtte jeg i så fall vært billionær!
      Hyggelig å ha fått kontakt med en norsk, jeg har ikke vært flink til å titte på norske blogger, har bloggvenner fra stort sett hele verden men du er den første fra Norge - men kanskje jeg finner noen fine blogger gjennom deg?
      Ha det godt!

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  16. Wow... you have so various variety! Day lily is adaptable on our warm climate but their growth is not good as yours. The only one that I have ever grown is the yellow-orange version. Thanks for sharing

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    1. I suppose daylilies will suffer a bit in your heat, and putting them in the shade will make them bloom less. You could try to grow them in large containers and put the containers behind other so they will be shaded from the heat – roots in the shade, flowers in the sun, which might help a bit, and make sure they get morning sun rather than afternoon sun. They also need lots of water if the weather is hot, they might flower better for you in the winter than the summer.
      There are so many different and exciting varieties to choose from, I assume you could get hold of most of them too, from nurseries. Good luck if you try some new ones :-)

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  17. This is an impressive collection! I think Pink Damask may be my favorite... they're all lovely. I had one daylily but it was lost to the pave over. I forget what it was, but it was orange and the flower was huge! I'm glad to hear these grow in pots.... I have to try them and visit the link you shared. Oh I can't stand it when plants are marked wrong! I actually planted what were supposed to be "green goddess" calla lilies and got yellow ones! So frustrating! :)

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    1. Yes, wrongly labelled plants has been a frustration to me as my I usually buy plants to fit in with other plants I always have (not always, sometimes I just buy on impulse!).
      One of my ‘wrongly labelled’ from the first photos (Sammy Russell?) has never grown in the ground, it is now 12 years old and still happily growing in a container. I think I can safely say you CAN grow daylilies in containers, yes! But it got a rather large container and I take it out every 5 years or so, cut it in 3 pieces and put only one piece back. That’s how I have managed to give away so many plants from the one I originally bought. I also make sure not to place daylilies in pots at the front of the patio or the border in the hottest part of the summer, it will cook their roots and they don’t like that. Move them further back so the pots and containers get shaded by other containers but the flowers are in the sun. And they need lots of water when growing in containers, much more than in the ground. Good luck if you are having another go with daylilies, there are so many wonderful varieties and I am sure you have a specialist nursery online in your area:-)

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  18. Helene, you love your daylilies, and love is mutual!!!

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    1. Thanks, I can’t get enough of them, wish I had room for many more!

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  19. Helene, your collection of daylilies is awesome. Love your ‘Sammy Russel’ the color is so red. And I also want to say your choice is very interesting - this one Moussaka will decorate your garden! Do they need some special conditions?

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    1. They don’t really need any special conditions apart from most plants - like water, fertiliser and a fairly sunny position. They are really tough plants though, mine are coming out of the ground already :-)

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  20. I love love love daylilies! I have so many, too and just ordered South Seas, Pandora's Box, Wayside King Royale, and Canadian Border Patrol. I can always find a spot for them. Yours are beauties!! I also have Pink Damask.

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    1. Oh, ‘Pandora's Box’ and ‘Canadian Border Patrol’ are lovely, looks a bit like my ‘Moonlit Masquerade’ and ‘Wayside King Royale’ is exquisite – but those dark coloured ones tend to get a bit wishy-washy in my climate, not enough sun I think. My ‘Pink Damask’ has already got 6” of leaves, the earliest sprouter this time. I have already got a wish-list for more from same company, I think I will have to get a few more…..just a few!

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  21. Your daylily collection is stunning, Helene. And I love the new ones you ordered. Look forward to seeing the changes in your garden for 2015. P. x

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    1. Thanks Pam, as long as they are small and can grow in pots I can always squeeze them in between other plants, but some of them grow fast and need bigger space – not sure where I will put all of them eventually!

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  22. I am always impressed at the number and variety of plants you have in your garden. I am just getting interested in day lilies. For years I turned my nose up at them, though I have a hillside of the common orange ones that came with my house. Then one day I realized I could plant lots of the newer varieties among the old ones, and it would look spectacular. So that is my aim. A friend gave me a dozen bronze ones, though she could not remember their name, and I planted those a couple months ago. Perhaps one day my hill will sport lovelies like yours!

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    1. A whole hillside of daylilies, well you have space enough then :-) If you are a bit careful when you choose your plants so they fit with each other in colour it could look really spectacular with some different varieties placed in between here and there. There are so many to choose from so you are spoilt for choices!

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  23. I do love your daylilies Helene. Cant make up my mind which one I like best. I would also have gone along with the one from Angie as being Stella D'Oro, its the first one we ever had. None of them ever flowered profusely in our Aberdeen garden, produced loads of buds but slow to open. Myra was just saying the other day, we should get some daylilies, I have saved your link to the nursery, wait till she sees them.

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    1. Thanks Alistair, I will post some more photos of the yellow one this year, perhaps it will become more obvious if it is Stella D’Oro or not when it has more flowers. The nursery website is well worth a visit, and I can see me buying many more daylilies from them!

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  24. This is the perfect post to read on a gloomy winter's day, Helene! I had only a few daylilies when I first started gardening about 8 years ago and they were all given to me. But now I am a daylily addict:) We have a daylily farm near here where a friend and I like to go each summer, and of course, I can't leave empty-handed, even though there is simply no more room for new ones! I also have 'Moonlit Masquerade,' and love it, especially since it usually re-blooms for me in the fall as well.

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    1. Daylilies are so easy to get addicted to! I have a space problem too, as some of mine are getting too big for their pots, I need to either split them and get two pots, or give them a container – but where do I put yet another container??

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  25. I am always amazed at how much you pack into that little garden of yours. This is quite an extensive collection of daylilies! I like the four new additions. Three of them have such nice ruffled edges ( one of my favourite daylily attributes) and the nice dark color on the fourth is the reason I am sure you chose it.

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    1. Thanks Jennifer, I can’t wait for the new daylilies to arrive, it will be another month before they turn up, but I already know where most of them are going. Moussaka is going to get pride of place in my new rose bed and so will the deep red one, Burgundy love too.

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