What is a Daylily?

Series Summary

The very nature of their name is indicative of the confusion caused by daylilies in the exacting world of home gardening. Should their title be spelled as one word or two, separating the day from the lily? Both forms are correct, though the single-word usage appears to be more common. Beyond such nitpicking nomenclature, we arrive at the cause for a more substantive confusion, the fact that daylilies are not in fact true lilies at all, but mere Hemerocallidaceae pretenders to the Lilium family throne.

One branch of the daylily clan, the Tawny Daylily, has even stooped so low as to become known as a wildflower in certain parts of America, although its provocative appearances in several videos by the pop metal band Whitesnake in the 1980s temporarily regained a certain type of admiration from teenage boy gardeners. As a result of their false status, these plants are quite hardy, resistant to both heat and drought. However, the onset of grunge rock forced the Tawny variety to go underground, though it continues to thrive in soil conducive to 80’s revivals.

In this free series of gardening videos, our perennial gardening expert Martha Cycz tells you everything you need to know about daylilies, including how to incorporate them into your garden, how to position them for the right amount of shade and how to trim them without causing damage to the stems. She even discusses their root systems and suggests attractive color combinations. If you are unsure whether or not daylilies deserve to be in your garden, these videos will decide for you.

Video Transcript

"So what are daylilies? Daylilies are probably the flower with the most different color variations then any other plant in perennials gardens. As you could see they come with brilliant colors, they come with settle colors, on this particular one there might be 20 buds per clump. Other you might find flowers that might be a little bit larger with a only a few but they all have one thing in common and that is kind of makes me smile cause they are beautiful flowers and they make anyone's garden look wonderful. So why are they called daylilies? Ever single flower that you see in front of you right now the biggest one's, the smallest one's, the one's with 4,5 blooms per stem every single one of these flowers would be dead. Cause they one last for one day. But the great thing about it is every bud that is about to be about open right now would be opening tomorrow so you would have basically the same look tomorrow. So your garden never really changes it stays the same different flowers may appear with 5-10 buds, you may have your red one's, you may have your white one 's or your pink one's. Some of them will come earlier, some of them would stay later, but I guarantee if you put daylilies in your garden you would be just as happy with them as I am. "