Are you Afraid of this lily?

Species name: Hemerocallis sp. (Hemerocallis 'Afraid')

Common name: daylily

Location: Ontario

This cultivar of daylily was registered in 1985 and has been a popular short-statured late-bloomer since. The flowers are a salmon-pink that become darker with age (as opposed to fading with age, as in most daylily cultivars), don't have a visible eyespot, and have a yellow-green throat. One great quality of this cultivar is that it can live quite happily in full sun to full shade, and can survive drought-like conditions (which we're experiencing quite a bit in southwestern Ontario this summer) for an extended period of time. Like the last cultivar I highlighted, Classic Caper, the petals and sepals of these flowers are quite different; the petals have a ruffled edge that becomes slightly yellowed with age, and the sepals are much narrower and much less pigmented.

For a more in-depth blog post about daylilies, please click HERE.

Classic Caper is a lily that looks nothing like capers

Species name: Hemerocallis sp. (Hemerocallis 'Classic Caper')

Common name: daylily

Location: Ontario

This cultivar of daylily was first registered in 1982, and is the first example of something called an "eye" or an "eyespot". The maroon colouring in this daylily cultivar is only on the petals, and only on the upper surface. It doesn't extend down to where the petals join (the neck or the throat), so it makes the flower appear as if it has an eye in the middle. Eyes in daylilies at one time were thought to be very difficult to achieve, but now they're becoming more and more common in modern cultivars. Perhaps all we as humans needed to do was find a cultivar that expressed the gene (or gene mutation), and the rest comes easily after that. Or perhaps it was just bad luck historically that led to fewer cultivars with eyes. As an aside, I have no idea how this cultivar got its name since the flowers of the caper plant are not anything remotely like these flowers (not in colour, pattern of colour or shape), and the fruit are picked green and pickled; the only thing I can figure is that it's named after the Latin grammarian Flavius Caper.

For a more in-depth blog post about daylilies, please click HERE.