8 ways to take my breath away... | Daylily Photo Blog

With memories of Georgia still popping about in my head, here are eight daylilies that exhibit some real distinct qualities as seen through my lens during the American Hemerocallis Society's 2010 National Convention. 

I've been contemplating the term DISTINCTION lately, as daylily exhibition season is upon us, and as a senior exhibition judge, I will most likely be asked to rate daylilies with my own guided, yet ultimately objectively subjective expertise.  

Above are H. 'Butterfly Cove' and H. 'Spacecoast Small Talk.'  Notice the midrib blending in the first photo.  It's like a tracer from a sparkler - flashy and smooth.  I see a lot of silver in it, too, which is very distinct.  It's a 2007 introduction by Pat Stamile.  On the right, you have perky 'Spacecoast Small Talk.'  I saw this flower in a few of the tour gardens, and it was glorious in them all.  It has this distinct quality of petal "cresting" like an iris does.  The top three segments of the flower are the petals, and on this cultivar, they are raised up from the sepals, more so than on other daylilies.  You can see it in the bottom bloom in the photo.  See how the petal sits up off the sepal?  They all do this and it is a very nice diversion on an otherwise average-colored flower.  My favorite photo of this flower will be the feature in this week's haiku post...make sure to check it out!

The above two photos almost make my mouth water.  H. 'Jackie Kropf' and H. 'Paradise Royal Purple' are stunning examples of daylilies with distinction.  Both bred out of Florida, these two are unmistakable.  Look at the sepal pattern on H. ' Jackie Kropf' and notice the eyezone on the petals.  I love how the eyezone is penetrated by the midrib, pulling out its patten onto the petal.  Neat.  Neat.  Neat.  I wonder if this one passes on that attribute to its progeny...

The flower on the right reminds me of plush velvet.  The creases and folds deliciously go on forever.

Above are H. 'Christmas Beau' (very cool play on words) and H. 'Exotic Pattern.'  I just love the folds, or pleats in the throat area of H. 'Christmas Beau.'  You all know my wrinkled-nose feelings about red daylilies, but this is one I would add to my own collection - because it is DISTINCT. 

The flower on the right just seems to explode from the throat with color and interest.  Although I like my sepals neater than the ones on this flower, I very much enjoy its echoed pattern.

Finally, H. 'God Alone' has an edge that is well, one that only God alone could have dreamed up.  It was almost half of the petal surface - which you can see from the bottom petal in the photo on the left.  That is dreamy distinction.  Many flowers are this color, exhibit this shape and exhibit an edge.  This one is ornate and bigger than any other I have seen.  On the right is H. 'Cant Believe My Eyes.'  This one showed six blooms open on one plant, and each one of them was a clone of the other, which brought its distinctive quality to light- consistency- a quality that all pretty face daylilies cannot claim.  Sometimes these detailed double-edged daylilies arent consistent, and only open up camera ready every few blooms.  I saw this one in two tour gardens and it was magnificent in both.  Now that's a distinctive quality...