Angelo Cerchione, Executive Director of the All
American Daylily Selection Council (AADSC) asks rhetorically.
Why? Because all daylilies are not created equal. Since
the turn of the century, over 1,000 hybridizers have named,
registered and introduced over 42,000 daylily varieties
- virtually all of which are described in catalogs as “beautiful”.
Yes, we agree; the blooms are beautiful but how does the
rest of the plant perform?
The question is an important one because of those 42,000
varieties, 13,000 are still in commercial circulation. In
fact, the confusion over performance is so great among growers
that as late as ten years ago they largely avoided this
species. Wide-scale testing, an awards program, and earned
publicity during the last six years has made the daylily
today the number one flowering perennial in the United States.
Since we began, we’ve screened and tested over 6,000
daylilies. Based on our results thus far, we can reasonably
predict that of the 13,000 cultivars in broad service, 12,000
would fail our commercial criteria completely, 800 would
be rated “Good” and perhaps 200 would test out
as “Excellent”.
We test a daylily for 52 performance characteristics at
test sites that range from USDA Hardiness Zone 10 in Florida
and California to Zone 2 in Alberta, Canada. Here’s
what we’ve learned in the last 12 years. The average
daylily tested will give you two to three weeks of bloom;
top performers, on the other hand, will range from 90 days
in Zone 4 to nearly 300 days in Zone 9. This is our advice
to growers and buyers alike. “Look for a daylily that
will bloom for 60% to 90% of the overall bloom period (i.e.,
your entire summer plus some) for all perennials in your
garden.”
Our second strongest concern is foliage performance. Once
the bloom goes off, will you still have an attractive ground
cover? In Zone 6, for example, in North Carolina, Tennessee,
etc., average foliage tends to remain at its best for six
weeks. Our test program looks at foliage color and density
when rating this performance characteristic. Top-notch daylilies
will give you 18 weeks of super-looking foliage - a bit
shorter in the north, much longer in the south. It’s
the difference between a beautifully manicured and a ratty-looking
garden.
You might ask, “How will the gardener know all
of these things that it took AADSC eleven years to discover?”
Here’s a simple guide to the most important performance
characteristics. It is based on what AADSC calls its “drop
dead” criteria.
Check buds - If the plant before you only has one
or two bloom-carrying stalks (“scapes”), pick
the one that shows at least 15-20 buds per scape. If some
of the bloom has already gone off, the scape will show countable
scars where the buds had been attached. Some daylilies send
up lots of scapes. These are “repeat” bloomers.
If you see signs of heavy past or present scape-making,
then be content with smaller numbers of buds
Check foliage color - Look for a rich green or blue-green
foliage. If the foliage color is right, the plant will continue
to be a rich garden asset with or without bloom. Paler fern
green foliage may be suitable in areas with light shade.
Check foliage density - A simple test. Look straight
down into the pot and then take that daylily whose foliage
will not allow you to see the fill material below. Early
indications of foliage density spotted this way will tell
you whether your garden will achieve a finished look in
one full season or three.
Check existing bloom - Shop for daylilies in the
afternoon on a hot day. Many daylilies are not sun-fast.
Some will look as though half the daylily bloom was dipped
in bleach by 10:00 am. It’s terribly unsightly. In
addition, some of the darker colored daylilies will “slick”
--- the surface cells holding the pigment will change in
color and often drip off. As a general rule, this second
problem can be minimized by planting dark purples and reds
in shadier areas of the garden.
Check spent bloom - If deadheading is not your thing,
look for the “self-cleaning” daylily. Once the
bloom goes off, the best daylilies roll their flowers into
little cigarette-shaped spents. Unassisted, a self-cleaner
will lose these in two days. Some daylilies will retain
their spent for a week. Look at the flowers before you and
tap the spents with your finger. If they drop off easily,
you have a winner.
Check scape and foliage heights - The ideal is a
scape that carries the bloom at least an inch or two above
the general mass of the foliage. If this is not evident
in the plants before you, your bloom will be hidden inside
the foliage.
Once you’ve found a daylily that meets this test and
your personal definition of beauty, here are some other
things to consider. Beyond the need for beauty, the daylily
can solve a lot of problems facing gardeners. In point of
fact, we think of the daylily as the “Swiss Army knife
of the plant kingdom”.
Have steep banks that nothing else will grow on? We’ve
reclaimed banks with 70 degree slopes that defied crown
vetch. Suffering from ocean spray, occasional salt water
inundation or run-off from trucks spreading road salt in
winter? Daylilies are salt tolerant. Coastal
Gardening with Daylilies
Do you have areas in your garden in which erosion is rampant?
The root system of the daylily forms a huge chain mail-like
mat beneath the surface. Live in fire-prone areas? Daylilies
are engorged with water and when planted in mass can stop
a brush fire in its tracks.
Are you seeking a plant that requires very little maintenance?
For the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the
daylily has become their acknowledged “plant of choice”.
In fact, recent studies have shown that it is cheaper to
use perennials as a soil-stabilizing mechanism along roadsides
than to use grass. North Carolina has already converted
over 2,500 acres of roadsides into linear gardens. On the
And if that’s not enough, the next time you have sweet
and sour soup at your favorite Chinese restaurant, be aware
that the ingredient called “Gum Jum” or “Golden
Needles” is actually the buds of the daylily. Practically
all of the daylily is edible and is higher in protein and
Vitamin C than most of the vegetables in popular use.
And let’s not forget beauty! In our performance verification
testing, we have found 28 different but distinct patterns
in the face of the blooms. The flowers range in size from
one inch to ten. Some will have over 100 blooms per scape.
The blooms come in most every color except a true black
and a true blue. Usually, the bloom consists of six petals
(actually three sepals and three petals), but there are
doubles (those with over 14 petals) that look like peonies,
and “spiders” with enormously slender petals.
Plant foliage will range in width from 12 to 60 inch clumps,
and in height from 9 to 40 inches, with scapes soaring to
six feet.
What’s really amazing is that most of the daylilies
in long supply today are 30 to 50 years old and, from what
we’ve seen so far, they were not necessarily the best
daylilies in their own time. Why test? To avoid disappointments,
and to benefit from all of the attributes of America’s
favorite perennial.
