Ten Daylilies For Ten Dollars

Ten daylilies for ten dollars or less.

Each.

You didn’t think this was one of those crazy ads at the back of a gardening magazine did you?

“Grow luscious peaches on your garden deck for only pennies a day!!! But, wait, wait, there’s more!”

No, it’s not that kind of post, but because I felt responsible for leading you into temptation, I’ll show you some beauties you can grow and enjoy without endangering your retirement. All prices shown are for double fans as listed in the Eureka Daylily 2008 Reference Guide, the price bible for daylilydom.

What is a fan? When you dig a daylily clump and begin to separate it into sections, each section resembles a lady’s fan. Daylilies are generally sold as double fans unless you are purchasing a very new cultivar.

In no particular order, let’s begin. Each is listed by cultivar name, hybridizer and year of introduction. Then, scape (stem) height, season and flower diameter. If you let your mouse hover over the photo, you can see the name of each cultivar.

‘Red Volunteer’ (Oakes 1984) 30″ M 7″ Avg. price $7.31. This was my second red daylily. My first was ‘Frankly Scarlet,’ and I sold it at the club’s daylily sale long ago. I will always have a place for ‘Red Volunteer’ in my garden because its deep, velvety red blossoms remain beautiful in the hot sun, and its height makes it a nice focal point.

‘Wineberry Candy’ (Stamile 1990) 22″ EM 4.75″ Avg. price $6.76, is one of the “candy series” hybridized by Patrick Stamile, and it is one of his best. WC has lots of scapes and blooms, making it look like a bouquet every morning. WC’s only fault, in my opinion, is that it tries to open so many blooms at once, that they sometimes crowd each other. Mine is planted in front of ‘Basye’s Blueberry’ rose.

‘Joan Senior’ (Durio 1977) 25″ EMRe (Early Midseason Reblooming) 6″ Avg. price $6.87. This was my second daylily and my first near white. I will always keep JS because it is a luminous presence in dappled shade.

Note: Daylilies are composed mostly of water, so unlike roses and other flowers, whose colors fade in the afternoon, daylily blooms actually melt. This is why their blooms last only for a day; hence their common name.

‘Elizabeth Salter’ (Salter 1990) 22″ MRe 5.5″ Avg. price $6.71. Jeff Salter named this daylily for his wife, a hybridizer in her own right and the niece of R.W. Munson, a daylily hybridizing pioneer. ES won the Stout Silver Medal, the highest award for daylilies, in 2000. If you want a ruffled edge for a great price, this is the daylily for you. It looks good near the front or the middle of the border.

‘Jedi Tequila Sunrise’ (Wedgeworth 1990) 20″ E 5″ Avg. price $6.85. I am so glad my friend, Wanda, insisted I take this daylily when she gave me several cultivars a few years ago. Although listed as an early bloomer, in my garden, JTS blooms about the middle of the season. My photo is a good representation of this daylily, but it doesn’t capture how beautiful it is. JTS looks great planted near dark purples like ‘Nordic Night’ and ‘Vatican City.’

‘Spider Miracle’ (W. Hendricks 1986) 32″ M 8.5″ Avg. price $6.78. SM isn’t a spider at all, but instead, an unusual form. It is a luscious lemon chiffon yellow, which is not the most noticeable color in the garden palette, but it still gains “oohs” and “ahs” because of its twirling petals, flower size and height.

‘Buttered Popcorn’ (Benzinger 1971) 32″ MLa 6″ Avg. price $5.66, is an old cultivar, but still a good being sold some thirty-seven years after introduction. It starts blooming mid-season and continues until late. Multiple golden yellow blooms open everyday. I planted it at the very end of my garden, and people are always drawn to it. Unlike ‘Camden Gold Dollar,’ which is also golden yellow, BP’s blooms are large for an older daylily.

‘Moonlit Masquerade’ (Salter 1992) 26″ EMRe 5.5″ Avg. price $8.86. MM won the Stout Silver Medal in 2004 and for good reason. The cream colored blooms are distinctive with their dark purple eye, and they open consistently each day. At the daylily show held by COHS a few weeks ago, one of our members used MM in a flower arrangement. It was a crowd favorite. Mine is planted next to ‘Pandora’s Box,’ an older cultivar with a similar color pattern. Also, MM blooms heavily in partial shade.

‘Oakes Love’ (Hansen 1994) 29″ MLa 9.75″ Avg. price $9.66. When I took this photo this morning, I was very happy because OL was twisting and twirling with the movement of a ballerina. No wonder Mr. Oakes loved this one when he saw it. For an older spider, it has very strong scapes. (Spiders and UFs tend to have thinner scapes on the whole, and sometimes, they can’t hold up their large flowers.)

‘South Sea Enchantment’ (Billingslea 1996) 21″ MRe 6″ Avg. price $11.75. Okay, this one isn’t under ten dollars, but I had to include it anyway. Its color is listed as a rose pink, but to me, its name gives a better indication of the color; the interior of a conch shell. SSE’s blooms have strong substance, beautiful color, and it multiplies like bunny rabbits.

I hope you’ve enjoyed traveling through my more reasonable daylily favorites. I have others that fall into this price range. Maybe I’ll make this a yearly stroll.