When a gardener says, “She has some very nice lilies in her yard!”, the message received may be quite different depending on who hears it. Members of the lily family are among the most prized flowering plants for the home garden. Their throated, often fragrant blooms can add a lot to any landscape. But, when talking about the general category of “lilies”, the backyard gardener is usually talking about either the daylily or the hardy lily. Though related, they are quite different plants.

Daylilies belong to the genus, Hemerocallis. The common name comes from the fact that individual flowers last just one day and then fade away. The good news is that a mature sized clump will develop dozens and dozens of buds and flower continuously with 5 or 6 blooms opening every day for a month or more. A few cultivars including the classic H. ‘Stella de Oro’ will have an initial flush of blooms and then follow with sporadic blooms throughout the rest of the season. Continue reading →