Daylilies

You have to admit that daylilies are one of the most popular flowering perennial plants. They’re versatile, adaptable and require just a little care. Today Southern Gardening is visiting the new daylily display bed at the Veterans Rose Garden on the Mississippi State University campus. The array of flowers in a multitude of colors on display is absolutely stunning. Let’s take a look. Black Plush is a fine example of a spider type with velvety black petals surrounding a bright yellow throat. Classic Caper is a beautiful five inch diameter flower in salmon rose with a large maroon eye and yellow throat. Elegant Candy has lovely four inch pink flowers with a cherry red eye and green throat and is certainly a sweet treat in any garden. Restless Heart really creates some excitement with golden orange flowers with its red-orange eye and green throat. Rocket City has eye catching bittersweet orange petals with a contrasting burnt orange eye. I love the recurving petals. Vintage Bordeaux has 5 inch blooms with velvety deep black cherry petals complimented with a glowing chartreuse throat. While flexible to most soil conditions in Mississippi, for the best performance they should be planted in raised beds for enhanced soil drainage. And true to their name daylily flowers only last for a single day. But each plant produces many flower buds and may take a month for them all to open. Daylilies make nice specimen plants, but I really think when a mass planting is extra special. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I’ll see you next time on Southern Gardening.