Hemerocallis 'BARBARY CORSAIR' daylily

Hemerocallis

The genus Hemerocallis comprises roughly fifteen species of perennial herbs in the family Asphodelaceae, native to eastern Asia, where they grow along woodland margins, in grassy valleys and on moist slopes. They are characterised by grass‑like, two‑ranked leaves arising from short rhizomes and by flowering scapes bearing tubular to funnel‑shaped blooms that open for only a single day. This rhythm gave the genus its name: the Greek hemera means day and kallos beauty. The first formal description was published by Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), yet several species had been cultivated in China for millennia as medicinal plants and vegetables. Daylilies reached Europe in the sixteenth century, but true breeding progress began only in the twentieth century in the United States, where thousands of cultivars were created with an astonishing range of colours, shapes, sizes and flower types. Modern collections include miniature forms, giant blooms, spider types, doubles and extremely free‑flowering lines that have placed daylilies among the most widely grown perennials in the world.

Daylilies have accompanied people for centuries, acquiring surprisingly different meanings across cultures. In China they were valued as medicinal plants, and their flower buds – the ‘golden needles’ – are still used in cooking as a delicate vegetable; at the same time they are regarded as a flower of forgetting one’s worries, as they were traditionally given as a gesture of comfort and care, a symbolism reflected in old literary and poetic records. In Korea they symbolised motherhood and feminine devotion, while in Japan they appear in poetry as an image of transience, opening in the morning and fading by evening. In European gardens they became popular for their reliability, longevity and ability to flower throughout summer with minimal care. And although each bloom lasts only a single day, the plant produces so many that a border appears as a continuously renewed wave of colour. Modern breeding has brought a spectacular array of colours and flower forms, from cream, lemon yellow, apricot, pink, red and wine shades to almost black tones, together with bold edges, bands, veining and ruffled margins that have made daylilies one of the most variable perennials of today. With a touch of humour, yet entirely deservedly, they are also counted among the plants described as “foolproof”, because they survive almost anything even the most inexperienced gardener might do to them.