Monday, January 12, 2009

Yellow Daylily



Yellow Daylily
Hemerocallis 'Jen Melon'
(hem-er-oh-KAL-iss)

2008 was certainly the year of the Daylily and Dahlia as far as photography was concerned. This yellow Daylily was shot on the Daffodil and Daylily walk at the NYBG on August 3rd. The Daffodil and Daylily Walk as been featured here before and I have to again say that it is a great combination. There are several ‘copies’ of the walk in Southern Connecticut, if you know what I mean. After the Daffs come up and bloom the Daylilies quickly come along and hide the spent bulb foliage. Of course with both species of plants there are a myriad of cultivars to choose from, something to make almost everyone happy. Deer leave the Daffodils alone but the like to eat the Daylilies so it needs to be in a protected area.


Daylilies have to be one of the hardiest and easiest perennials to grow and in my opinion can form the backbone of the perennial garden. They like full sun and are drought tolerant. Depending on the site and cultivar they can need to be divided every three or four years or can go several years without being divided. We usally end up dividing to get new plants. The flowers are edible, which is something I didn’t know and probably won’t try.

‘Jan Melon’ is a large flowered cultivar from Oakes Daylilies and was introduced in 1987. Oakes looks like my kind of place, check out the prices on the clearance sale. I think that I will order a few new cultivars for the Estate. These pictures were shot with the D70s and the 24mm/1.8 Sigma EX lens.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There are certain flowers that I wish had beds full of and one of thsoe are daylilies. Daff's have never been a favorite of mine as have tulipds, but daylilies are swoon worthy. I'm enjoying some amaryllis right now.