Daylilies in The Gardens by Grace Willis

Learn more about the daylily garden at The Gardens!

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are not to be confused with true lilies (Lilium), as shown in the first photo. True lilies grow from scaly bulbs, possess leaves all the way up their stems, and have flowers that can stay open for days or weeks. By contrast, daylily roots are usually long, slender, and fibrous but can also be quite fleshy. Daylily growth originates from a wide crown, where each plant’s roots meet its leaves. The crown produces grass-like leaves from its upper surface that give the plant a flattened appearance. A single daylily plant is often called a fan. When daylilies bloom, some of their fans send up unbranched, leafless flower stalks (called scapes). Unlike true lily blooms, daylily blooms only last for one day, hence the name daylily. Don’t worry, each scape may possess up to 40 buds, allowing blooming to continue for 2-3 weeks! 

As of 2024, there are over 100,000 different cultivars of daylilies listed in the American Daylily Society (ADS) database. Our daylily bed at the Gardens, which features over 140 cultivars that reflect daylily diversity, began blooming in late June. This bed is a registered ADS Display Garden and is managed by the Northern Colorado Daylily Club. Many of our cultivars were created by local hybridizers, including ‘Bellevue Beauty’ (Poulton, 2014), ‘Centennial Snowflake’ (Crawford, 1998), 'Dream Catcher' (Roberts-N, 1995), and 'Laney’s Choice' (Bowden, 2016). Others come from world-renowned hybridizers such as James Gossard, Patrick Stamile, and Dan Trimmer.

Care information: Daylilies should typically be planted in full sun but can tolerate shade for a couple of hours a day. They dislike standing water or overly moist soil. So well-drained soils are ideal. While not absolutely necessary, applying fertilizer to established daylilies is beneficial in the spring and prior to bloom time. Many hybridizers recommend a balanced fertilizer such as 6-6-6- or 20-20-20 (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium). When planting newly divided daylily clumps, sprinkle a little fertilizer in the hole to stimulate root growth. Daylilies can be propagated by creating beneficial conditions for fans to divide or, for some cultivars, by rooting their proliferations.

Daylily diversity: Daylilies can be classified into many categories, including bloom time (Early, middle, late), foliage type (Evergreen, semi-evergreen, dormant), ploidy (diploid or tetraploid), and forms. There are six forms of daylilies recognized by the American Daylily Society: 

Single: Though the typical gardener may describe a daylily flower as having six petals, a daylily flower actually possesses three. That’s because the three inner petals are true petals, while the outer three (made of the flower bud itself) are called sepals. So, a standard “single” daylily flower has 3 petals, 3 sepals, 6 stamens (male reproductive parts), and 1 pistil (female reproductive part). This is the most common form of daylily and can be found in around 80 of our cultivars. 

Double: Daylily petals and sepals occur in ring-like layers around the bloom called whorls. Double-form daylilies have an extra whorl of petals produced by turning some of their stamens or pistils into more petals. This typically creates a much fuller-looking flower compared to single forms. We currently have 14 double forms in our daily bed, including the three pictured. 

Polymerous: Polymerous flowers have more than the normal number (3) of segments in each whorl. Rather than 3 petals and 3 sepals, for example, they can have 4 petals and 4 sepals or 5 petals and 5 sepals. We currently only have two daylily cultivars at the Gardens that are polymerous: ‘Centennial Gambler’s Dream’ (shown below) and ‘Wanna Cracker’. Though it is challenging to see, there is a fourth petal and sepal on the ‘Centennial Gambler’s Dream’ shown below – notice the green bud with 4 divisions rather than 3. You can more easily see the four sepals when viewing the bottom of the flower, in this case, or the bud, which is split into four sections that will eventually peel back into sepals.  

Spider: To qualify as a spider form, petals must have a length-to-width ratio of 4:1 or greater. These flowers look like spiders because of their long, skinny petals. At the Gardens, we currently have 12 spider forms, but only one is currently in bloom, 'Thin Man.' As shown below, the petals are about 6 inches in length and 1.5 inches wide, just meeting the 4:1 rule.     

Unusual: Unusual Forms: This is a class based on shape alone, not on color or color patterns. The flower must display distinctive petal or sepal shapes on all three petals or all three sepals. Subdivisions include crispate, cascade, and spatulate. At the Gardens, we have around 30 cultivars that fall into the unusual form category. The unusual form shapes that we currently have blooming are cascading and crispate. Cascading is when the petals curl down towards the ground and then back up under the flower. Crispate is when the petals curl around the sides of themselves, as shown below. However, we do have one cultivar, ‘Winged Gargoyle’, that will bloom soon that is cascading, crispate, and spatulate. Spatulate means having petals or sepals that are noticeably wider at the end, like a kitchen spatula.

Sculpted: Petals have a 3-dimensional feature protruding from the petal surface. This is arguably the rarest form of daylilies currently, as well as the newest to be recognized. At the Gardens we currently only have one cultivar in the sculpted category, ‘Happy Mother’s Day’, cultivated by Heather Herrington. This cultivar clearly shows its sculpting throughout the whole petal.  

You should keep in mind that a given cultivar may exhibit more than one type of form. For example, many single-form daylilies may also fall within the spider, unusual form, or sculpted category. However, you cannot have a cultivar that is both single and double or single and polymerous due to the different number of segments (petals and sepals) or whorls (typically sets of petals in this case). 

For more information, reference our Gardens Explorer, the Northern Colorado Daylily Club, or email me at gwillis@fcgov.com.