It’s nearly summer which means that it’s time for the daylilies to be showing off their flowers. Daylilies aren’t native plants by any means but they do really well here in Tennessee. They have very few problems and tend to grow nearly untended! I’m sure that combining their low maintenance attribute with their beauty is why they have become so popular. They are definitely not deer resistant and may need protection from deer if the daylilies are planted in a deer prone area, although I don’t think we’ve had the deer eat any of our daylilies yet. Daylilies get their name from the blooms that open and flower for just a day. Despite this they can be blooming for several weeks during the summer due to multiple scapes (flower stems) and multiple flowers on those scapes!
I’m getting into daylily hybridizing this year in a more serious way (which means I’ll actually collect the seed this time!) When hybridizing it’s important to know which flowers are diploid or tetraploid. Diploid flowers have two sets of chromosomes where tetraploid have four. The two types won’t cross over with each other.
Here are a few of our daylilies:
I have several more daylilies on the way but most likely they will not be flowering this year. Of course I’ll show them when they are!