More About Daylily Terms

Well, gosh.  Who would have known there is so much to know about daylilies that it almost entails learning a new language?  I sure didn’t years back when I walked up to one of the ladies from the daylily society and asked “Can you answer a few questions about daylilies for me?”  Could she ever, and her enthusiasm for this particular family of plants grabbed hold of me and stuck for all these years.

 And, I’ve learned a little bit of the language of daylilies – enough to help me select just the cultivar I need for any particular spot at Wiese Acres.

 We talked about scapes; bloom size, season, and habit; ploidy; foliage type; throats; and bud counts and branching.  Today we’ll talk about terms that describe the blossom itself.

 Here’s how another of my favorites is described in the AHS cultivar database:

 

'Strutter's Ball' (Moldovan, 1984)

scape height             28 inches

bloom size                 6 inches
bloom season           Midseason
ploidy                       Tetraploid
foliage type                Dormant
bloom habit               Extended
flower form:                Single

 Color: black purple with very small silvery white watermark and silky halo above small lemon green throat

 The fact that Strutter’s Ball is a tetraploid tells me that when it says the color is “black purple” it means that it is a true, deep, rich color.  The 6 inch bloom size tells me it is going to really stand out in my garden.  Since the scape height is 28 inches, I’m not going to want to plant it where anything tall will stand in the way of my view of this remarkable blossom.   Extended bloom tells me I will be able to enjoy each blossom for at least 16 hours before it fades away.

But, there are some descriptors here that we haven’t talked about yet.  What does “flower form” really mean?  The AHS uses this to describe the shape or structure of the flower.  It recognizes five different flower forms:  single, double, spider, unusual form, and polymerous.

Strutter’s Ball is a single flower.  This means that it has three petals (the upper part of the blossom); three sepals (the lower part of the blossom); six stamens and one pistil (the reproductive organs of the flower).  Double daylilies have extra layers of petals, giving it the appearance of a flower within the flower.  A spider is a flower whose petals are at least 4 times as long as they are wide.  These are usually very airy looking, loosely formed flowers.  An unusual form is a daylily where the petals or sepals have unusual characteristics, such as pinching or twisting.

 Strutter’s Ball has a watermark.  A watermark describes an area just above the flower’s throat which is lighter in color than the rest of the petal.

 An eye or eyezone refers to a darker colored area on the petals and sepals just above the throat.  The silky halo that is described in relation to Strutter’s Ball tells me that this blossom has a relatively small eyezone that is not really very distinct.  Silky tells me that it probably a very smooth transition with only slight variation from the lighter colors of the petals and sepals to the darker color of the eye.

 There are a few other terms used to describe flowers that do not apply to Strutter’s Ball.

Choo Choo Fantasy is a good example of a bicolor.  The top and bottom flower segments of a bicolor are completely different colors, in “Choo Choo’s” case,  rose pink petals and cream colored sepals.

 

 

There are also bitone daylilies, where the upper and lower segments  are different tints of the same color. A bitone has lighter sepals and darker petals.   A reverse bitone has the darker tones on lower sepals and lighter coloration on the upper petals.  A blend is a mixture of two or more colors, also referred to as polychromatic. 

A daylily, like Meadow Mist, that is referred to as having a complete self is one where the entire flower – petals, sepals, pistils, anthers, throat and all – are the same color.

Some flowers have a glittery appearance on the petal surface. When the sparkles appear white, they are called  diamond dusted; if they appear gold, they are referred to as gold dusted.  Apricot Sparkles is a diamond dusted daylily.

Every leaf, petal and sepal on a daylily has a midrib, the central lengthwise vein of the segment.  When a midrib is mentioned in a daylily description, it is usually because it is a different color than the rest of the petal or sepal and adds a striking feature to the blossom.  Apricot Sparkles has a faint cream midrib.

Now, of course, you can buy some beautiful daylilies that are perfect for your garden without knowing any of these terms.  But, I like to have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to look like before I go to the work of planting it.

We’ll get to the planting part on Thursday.