Name:
Daylily

Botanical name:
Hemerocallis x hybrida

Description:
The Daylily, also known by its botanical name Hemerocallis x hybrida, is a popular garden and landscape plant originally cultivated in China for ornamental and medicinal purposes. The Daylily takes its name from an unusual feature: individual blooms open and finish in one day.

Over the last 60 years, breeders from the USA and Europe have collectively been responsible for introducing a vast array of new cultivars with increased vigour, bloom size and longer flowering periods.

The Daylily is a soft-wooded evergreen to herbaceous perennial that forms mounds of rich green foliage which can grow from 15 centimetres to 1 metre high. The funnel-shaped flowers of modern hybrids are held above the foliage with 10 to 30 buds that open from the bottom up.

While individual flowers last a day, other buds are at different stages of development ensuring flowering lasts over several weeks from late spring and early summer. Most varieties will continue to produce flushes of blooms through warmer weather into autumn.

When it comes to flower colour, size and shape the Daylily has much to offer, from single ‘pure’ colour to a combination of patterns, bi-colours, pastels and shades including white, creams, yellows, oranges, reds and purples. Flowers can be single, semi-double or double forms and flower size ranges from miniature (less than 7.5 centimetres diameter) to large (more than 11centimetres diameter). Daylilies come in a variety of shapes or outlines including circular, triangular, star-shaped and spider forms which are either tailored (with a smooth plain appearance) or ruffled blooms.

Daylilies are low maintenance flowers that perform best in sunny positions with good drainage in moderately fertile soil although they will tolerate part shade and more sandy or clay based soils. Daylilies can exhibit great drought tolerance in summer by going dormant, only to shoot new growth once conditions are more favourable. Daylilies are mostly pest and disease free although aphids and spider mites can cause minor problems, however these can be easily controlled.

There are many ways to plant and enjoy Daylilies in the garden.

Where can they be seen in the Parklands:
They are often seen as mass plantings but can be equally effective in mixed plantings and as pot specimens. Within Centennial Park they can be seen flowering at Paddington Gates, Parkes Drive, the Rose Garden and Column Garden and are flowering, on a daily basis, now.