June in the Fairegarden is mostly about daylilies, Hemerocallis. We are sorely smitten by them. Ease of cultivation, endless variety and the existence of several daylily farms nearby have worked together to help us build up a substantial collection of nearly one hundred different cultivars. Finding uses for them in the garden De-Sign has proven something of a challenge, but we keep trying. Anna Warner, a passalong from neighbors Mae and Mickey looks pleasing with the spent stalks of Astible arendsii ‘Fanal’.
Ada May Musick from our new favorite source for daylilies, Champions sports the watercolor blend of colors that always appeals to our sensibilities. Really, choosing favorites is impossible, but this is right up there.
Also held in high regard is Golden Globes from Sunshine Hollow. This is a vigorous cultivar with a long bloom period.
Juanita’s Picotee Delight is a tall drink of water. Some years we are on the search for certain characteristics when adding to the collection. This was purchased at Sunshine Hollow to fill the need for more bicolors.
White Opal from Sunshine Hollow was added the year we were searching for more near white blooms to lighten an ever darkening daylily hill as the canopy of the silver maple expands from the severe pruning that was done in 2000 during the renovation of the property. It has since been moved with several others to the yellow/white garden and has finally settled in to begin living up to expectations.
Addie Branch Smith is on the cusp of belonging with the miniature group, those with blooms of three inches or less, that have been gathered together in a bed of their own so as not to get lost amongst the taller varieties. From Sunshine Hollow, she was part of the bicolor search. We love her green throat, much more so than this image is showing.
At one time Sunshine Hollow was offering a free bareroot clump, segregated by colors of yellow, red or orange with each purchase at their farm. Feeling the need for orange that year, this remains one of the best daylilies we grow even though we don’t know the real name. It goes by the moniker Free Orange. If anyone recognizes it, feel free to speak up!
We have never been attracted to the spider types, but something about Planet Max made it jump into the cart at Champions last year. It was a smaller piece and has been placed in the moist ground under the garage deck until it grows large enough to join the other dark hued in the black garden.
The purpose of this post is to reveal a new seedling daylily that has miraculously appeared. Above shows the color in sun and shade, always slightly different.
A chance seedling planted several years ago has resulted in two different flowers. The darker and taller baby on the right appeared last year and was named Emperor’s Baby. The smaller and lighter litter mate on the left is a seperate plant. There must have been a cluster of seeds planted at the same time when we noticed them on the mother plant.
Here is the proud Mama, Emperor’s Dragon. This was the first daylily purchased at Sunshine Hollow, well above what we thought a daylily should cost by the way, when we had just moved back to Tennessee after a three year stint in Texas. One other daylily, Pardon Me, purchased at the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas was brought here as part of the Noah’s Ark group of plants in the gas guzzler at the time of the move in June 2000. Those two were the first plantings of Hemerocallis here. We are leaning towards the name Peach Dragon for the new baby.
A very special daylily, named for the owner of Sunshine Hollow was added here a couple of years ago. A post about it can be seen by clicking here-A Special Daylily From Sunshine Hollow. Dave Rhyne has all the traits one would desire in a daylily, color, form and vigor. We love how it blends with the LA hybrid Lilium ‘Royal Sunset’. It would be nice to claim that this was the aim all along, but that would be untrue, it is a lucky coincidence.
Dave Rhyne was used as the male pollinator in an experiment last year to produce our own crosses. Read all about it by clicking here-How To Repot Daylily Seedlings and other valuable info. Two females were used, Heavenly Treasure and Elegant Candy. There was germination and the seedlings were carefully grown in the greenhouse under lights last winter. They are now growing in a special bed with a heavy dose of compost in the soil. Sea Kelp has been used to fertilize them, something we don’t normally do. The plants here have to be tough, but we were hoping to speed up the flowering. The Emperor’s Dragon offspring took five years before blooming. These babies are numbered and will be named if and when they flower. It is hoped they will premier on this very blog, maybe next year!
All of our daylilies are available for viewing on this page on our sidebar Plants We Grow-Daylilies. Peach Dragon has been added.
Frances
Fairegarden 
Your daylily collection is very impressive, Frances. I thought my 10 or so varieties was more than enough but nearly 100! The first of mine are coming out but I divided a lot of them this spring so I am not expecting so many flowers this year. I just can’t bring myself to throw the other divisions away and I can’t find anyone who wants them!
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
Frances, thank you for your reply. I agree daylilies are very tough, they have a will to grow and will fight most things. I am considering putting the spares in a line next to the pavement (my garden is ‘open plan’ so has no hedges or fences and we don’t have ‘side walks’ here). I think they will cope with the dogs and I will just need to make sure they don’t grow over the pavement too much.
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
For someone who professes disinterest in daylilies, I now have close to 20. I tend to look for the darker colors, intense oranges and I also like the spiders. At work, we are an “Open Garden” this weekend for the mid-Atlantic daylily convention, so there should be some hemerocallis-heads wandering around.
What beautiful daylilies! And the deer don’t eat them – a special plus. While roses are the notable element in my garden we started a daylily bank last year. My daughter Kate bought me several plants and I acquired several more. This spring I have been shopping again and when daylilies we planted years ago begin blooming I’ll choose the palest colors to move to the Daylily Bank. There will eventually be a posting – but they have to be in bloom – which will come after Rose Season. Our climates are so different, Frances.
What a great collection and your new daylily crossing is quite a lovely. I do miss my old garden filled with new cultivars from a local plantswoman who did her own breeding and would dig up clumps out of her garden for me. I see you’re going to Buffalo? I really want to go, but The Archaeologist will only be home visiting from Goshen, NY for the first 2 weeks in July. They’ve got quite a large archaeological site to excavate up there.
It’s very neat to see the new seedling! You have a big collection. The daylily you gave use is blooming great BTW!
Those are all absolutely spectacular. Makes me want to go and put some into the ground right now.
Dear Frances, I still love dayliles~How could one not! Yours are gorgeous. Anna Warner does look splendid with astilbe~and to have a crossing produce such loveliness! Isn’t nature grand! I am very attracted to the simpler forms, so spider types always catch my eye~Planet Max is a good looking spider! xxgail
Oh Frances I’m drooling here over the fabulous varieties you have in your garden. I can’t believe that you’ve over 100 different ones – thats just amazing. I love daylillies but some struggle to perform with our temperatures. Now you have to tell me if you have ever eaten any of the flowers? 🙂 Rosie
The daylilies are just beginning to show their colors here. Yours are lusciously beautiful.
You have some wonderful varieties! I really like your Addie Branch Smith! I have a hillside of daylillies. They are the old, original orange daylily and were here when we first moved in. They have naturalized and make quite a statement when they all bloom. I am thinking about digging some of them up and replacing with new cultivars, so I would have a variety.
My family was driving home from West Virginia yesterday, having chosen to take the lesser used roads and stop for lunch in Ashville on our way to Atlanta. We took a series of wrong turns, but saw places to eat lunch, so we stopped. To my surprise, next door to our pizza/sub shop was The Hop! We all chose delicious milk shakes to take back on the road with us. What a fun coincidence!
Actually, I asked! Only a young girl was there I think. She referred to you as “the owner’s mother” so I think if he’d been there she’d have told me. But still a fun way to get lost!
Lovely and enormously informative.
I really like that spider type.
More power to you for breeding your own varieties.
You know I love me some daylilies. Very pretty Frances. I grow a couple of those. I’m going to the Hemerocallis Region 11 meeting this weekend in St. Louis where I’ll be tempted even more.~~Dee
Stunning daylilies, Frances! And in so many glorious colors. I’ve never grown daylilies, prefering lilium, but who knows perhaps sometime in the future I’ll be growing the offspring of David Rhyne, Heavenly Treasure, and Elegant Candy.
How fun that you’re creating Offspring. 🙂 I truly enjoy daylilies almost best of all – but I couldn’t give up the variety of plantings I enjoy . . . Great post, beautiful daylilies!
I believe you are the most patient lady I know. anyone that grows daylilies from seed must be as patient as a saint. I love seeing all of your lilies. That dark one is yummmy.