How To Create The Perfect Daylily

With Lena Elliot - Lakehouse Nursery

Arguably, the Daylily (Hemerocallis) is America’s top favourite perennial plant, with close on 100,000 registered cultivars. Daylilies are categorised as doubles, large blooms, small/miniatures, spider/unusual forms. There are both amateur and professional hybridisers vying for medal winners.

The majority of hybrids are still open-petaled type, but now there is a hybridiser Bill Maryott (USA) who — via line breeding — has developed a more rounded, uniform, symmetrical shape that has taken daylilies to another level. His quest for the perfect Daylily has taken many years with thousands of seedlings planted and most destroyed until he found what he was searching for!

I discovered his work when he joined my Facebook group Daylily Lovers — now worldwide with over 24,000 members. His posts are always popular, and always include bloom photos with pedigree chart to show how he made the cultivar. Of added interest, he posted his Magic Circles diagram to illustrate his aim for the ‘perfect Daylily’.

It is anticipated that some time in the future Australia will have his introductions, not possible at the moment due to quarantine restrictions.