by Leslie Cox; Wednesday, July 17, 2013
As the garden wends its way through summer, it is nice to have whole swaths of flowers on display. And if there is a delightful fragrance to accompany the delicious colour buffet…all the better.
Indeed, for the busy gardener, there is one plant genus that will deliver the goods – Hemerocallis or daylily. Well…there are others too, but daylilies are easy care, plus relatively disease and pest free. If you select wisely, you can have blooms from late spring through into autumn.
Did I mention selection? While this is a relatively small group, as plants go, with only about 15 species within the genus, the hybridisers have been extremely busy. We now have an incredible selection of over 30,000 cultivars available…and even more coming on the market every year.
Native to China, Japan and Korea, the first daylilies were brought to England sometime around 1590 via the silk trade route. The first to arrive was the fragrant Hemerocallis lilio-asphodelus (syn. H. flava), an early-flowering species with delicate, lemon yellow trumpets. (Common name is lemon daylily.)
Next came H. fulva (tawny daylily). This species prolonged the bloom season by providing tawny-orange coloured trumpets from mid-summer to late summer.
Both of these species are vigorous growers with a clump-forming habit that requires dividing about every three or four years. It is perhaps because of this vigour that the daylilies were considered the “Cinderellas of the garden” in that era and relegated to the back of the border or in a forgotten corner of the estate somewhere.
Their rescue from anonymity is thanks to a Yorkshire schoolmaster, George Yeld and his friend, Amos Perry, of Perry’s Hardy Plant Farm in Enfield. In the late 1800s they began to cross-pollinate between the various species in an attempt to increase the size of the flowers and widen the colour range from the standard yellow and tawny orange.
From these two breeders and others who have followed, there is a whole rainbow of colours…with the exception of a true blue. Flower sizes range from two inches (5 cm) to seven inches (18 cm) across. Trumpet shapes have been flattened in some cultivars and the standard smooth edge of the petals now comes in a variety of pleats and delightful ruffles.
Did I mention hardy? Easy care? Most will thrive in Zones 4, with a few preferring Zone 6 which means they all do well in our Comox Valley climate.
Plant them in a well-prepared hole amended with compost or well-aged manure and a generous helping of a complete fertilizer. Make a small mound in the centre of the hole to set the crown on and gently spread out the roots before filling in. The crown should be no more than one inch (2.5 cm) below the soil surface.
Daylilies prefer regular watering but once they are established, they will tolerate drier conditions. Top-dressing with compost before flowering season will provide an abundance of blossoms.
Be forewarned! There is one downfall to daylilies…the arrival of the hemerocallis gall midge, Contarinia quinquenotata. This pest appeared on our west coast of Canada sometime around 2001. It has been present in Europe since the 1980s. The damage, which is caused by the midge larvae, is to the flower buds before they open. (More info on this pest here.)
Your first indication of an infestation will likely be through spotting swollen buds that fail to open. The adult flies are miniscule and you probably will not see them depositing their eggs. Egg-laying is carried out from about mid-May through to early July. Upon hatching, the white larvae slip inside the new bud and start feasting. This is what causes the buds to swell.
When the larvae reach their mature size of a tenth of an inch (3 mm), they drop to the soil to pupate. The gall midges over-winter in this stage before emerging as adults in early spring. And therein lies the good news…there is only one generation per year.
Research is still ongoing but the best line of defence in keeping this pest from becoming an epidemic problem on our coast is to pick off any swollen buds you may have in your garden and dispose of them in the garbage. You could also set out some yellow sticky traps amongst the newly forming flower buds in the hopes of catching the female midges before they lay their eggs.
Luckily…because the females are active early in the season, it is mainly the early-flowering varieties that are affected. And the preference also seems to be for the yellow and tawny-orange coloured flowers, although other colours fall prey to the gall midge too. By planting types that bloom later, you may circumvent the pest.
Gall midge problem aside, these lovely flowers that open just for a day are well worth their salt to those with busy schedules. Did I mention all parts of the plant are edible? What more could a gardener ask?
