The daylily is any of about 15 species of flowering plants in the genusHemerocallis. Hemerocallis fulva, the tawny daylily and H. flava, the lemon lily, were early imports from England to 17th century American gardens that soon established themselves along roadsides. The tawny daylily especially is so widely feral that it is often mistaken for a native American wildflower.
The name Hemerocallis is based on the Greek words for day and beauty, which reflects the fact that the individual flowers last for only one day.
Originally from Eurasia, native from Europe to China, Korea, and Japan, their large showy flowers have made them popular worldwide, and there are over 60,000 registered named cultivars. Daylilies can be grown in gardening zones 1 through 11 making them some of the most adaptable landscape plants. Most all of the cultivars have been developed within the 100 years.The large-flowered clear yellow 'Hyperion', introduced in the 1920's, heralded a return to gardens of the once-dismissed daylily and is still widely available. Daylily breeding has been a specialty above all in the United States, where the heat- and drought-resistant qualities of Hemerocallis made them garden stand-bys during the later 20th century. New cultivar introductions have sold for thousands of dollars. To learn nore about daylilies go to the American Hemerocallis Society website.http://www.daylilies.org/
The flowers are edible and are sold in oriental markets as golden needles. The young green leaves and the tubers are also edible. The plant has also been used for medicinal purposes. Please note not all varieties of daylily roots are edible.
Evolutionally, the lilyfamily is probably the basic monocotyledonous stock, its ancestors having given rise to the majority of contemporary monocots, e.g., the orchids, the palms, the iris and amaryllis families, and possibly also the grasses.
The name lily is used chiefly for plants of the genus Lilium and related species but is applied also to plants of other families, e.g., the water lily, the calla lily, and especially the numerous species of the amaryllis family (often included in the Liliaceae) whose blossoms closely resemble the true lilies in appearance.
In religion and art the lily symbolizes purity, and as the flower of the Resurrection and of the Virgin it is widely used at Easter.
The original daylily is orange, had flower spikes 30 inches high with orange blooms for three weeks in June.
Daylilies still like partial shade, regular watering and will take any soil.
However, daylily likes rich well drained soil the best.Clumps need division every three years or when the clumps become so large that crowding results in fewer blooms at the center of the clump.
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