Enjoy these beautiful sun loving plants. They may look exotic but they are tough easy growers with an amazingly long flowering season that lasts right through summer.
This tough sun loving plant comes in an astounding array of colours: hot spicy oranges and yellows, sultry shades of dark burgundy reds and smoky deep near black violets, shimmering pastels in lilacs, pinks and creams.
Landscaping ideas after dividing:
With plenty of new `babies’ what about a revamp? Colour code your beds for dramatic effect. A
driveway bed mass planted with the bright and cheerfully yellow `Shaman’ will give you a wonderful welcome home. Or try `Pink for Two’, a clear pretty double true pink, that will give a more romantic
feminine look. Back them with the deep royal purple of Heliotrope and mix with white or blue
agapanthus.
Day Lilies love containers! Use them in sunny positions, choose your favourite colour and mix
with pansies, violas or blue or white lobelia. Good compact varieties are: Wedding Band’ a clear winter white edged with bright gold, `Prince of Midnight’ a deep smouldering purple with a large bright yellow contrasting throat, or `Booroobin Magic’ a scented dazzling yellow with a rich dark chocolate eye and
edge.
Pop your extra Day Lilies into that empty spot in the garden where you lack flower colour. For a combination that will look fresh and bright in early summer mix a sizzling hot orange Day Lily such as
`All Fired Up’, with the dainty button like white small flowered Matricaria, add white Yarrow (Achillea)
with its fine feathery green leaves, intersperse with Nierembergia and the purple cup-like flowers will
shine like stars as they ramble below the other plants.
Purple and white are important colours in the garden especially with the excitement Day Lilies create.
Both colours contrast and cool the dramatic hot huge blooms. Purple and blue enhance the colours
and white brings a sense of peace and tranquility.
Some varieties of Heliotropiums are frost tender, Nierembergia are frost hardy to half frost hardy. All other plants mentioned in this article will grow in all parts of South Africa.
Dividing:
New Day Lilies rapidly reach clump size; roots become entwined and restricted affecting the well-being
of the plant and resulting in smaller and fewer buds and flowers. They need to be divided at least once every three years, in this nursery they are divided every second year. This is the time you have the opportunity to revitalise the soil by adding organic fertilisers such as bone meal, compost and well
rotted manure.
How to divide Day Lilies in six easy steps:
- Water the clump thoroughly while it is still in the ground.
- Cut the foliage back to 1/3 of its size.
- Use a large garden fork to carefully ease the plant out of the ground.
- Shake the soil off the roots, gently prise the fans apart.
- Keep two or three fans together to rapidly restore your plant to its former glory.
- Replant in pre-prepared positions.
There are more than 40 thousand different registered named varieties of Daylilies today. The top breeders in the world introduce new varieties every spring. They come in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Minis, doubles, spider flowered, edged and rimed in borders of gold and white, chocolate and crimson. Huge eyed beauties watermarked in lilac on soft pastel pink like Paper Butterfly winner of a popular choice award in America. These newcomers are just as tough and easy to grow as the `old' ones, being bred not only for their beauty but also to produce more flowers on shorter more compact scapes over a longer season.
Most folk who have had one of these accommodating plants growing in their garden for more than a season or two are inevitably bitten by the `bug`' and soon reach collector status. For those of you just starting out on this path here are some terms and information that you might need to know:
Daylily Terminology
Scape - the long stem that produces the flowers - established plants produce many scapes.
Flowering season - from spring through to autumn or when the weather turns cold.
Substance - thick firm petal
Throat - the centre of the flower funnel, usually green, yellow or orange
Self - refers to the widest, flattest part of each petal that carries the main primary colour of the flower.
Eye or eyezone - is a different coloured area above the throat. This can be a narrow area or cover almost the whole flower.
Watermark - if the area surrounding the throat is lighter rather than darker then this is called a watermark instead of an eye.
Picotee - Petal edges that are darker than the self colour,
Bitone - petals that are darker than the sepals (the three narrower petals)
