Daylily Haiku Thursday | Vive La Difference!

In the moonlight,

the wild honeysuckle

seems so far away.

Spring is slowly giving way to Summer, and the woods around the house are teeming with the scent of wild honeysuckle.  It is intoxicating; the vines fill the air and my nose with the sweet smell of summer vacation.  

The daylilies are starting to bloom, too!  Martin Kamensky's H. 'Shy Pirouette' is a tall spider with lots of grace.  The first bloom opened on it today, 35 days earlier than it last year.  H. 'Spacecoast Color Scheme' and H. 'Bali Watercolor' have opened, too.  Oh, it is going to be a great year for daylilies...

This is stippling.  Or spreckling.  Or spotting.  Or plicata.  Or splattered.  Whatever you call it, it is fun!  There are hybridizers who are breeding for this "polka-dot" characteristic and we are seeing it more prominently in daylily collections.  This is H. "China Veil'.  It was introduced in 1989 and the official description does not mention this "tye-died" characteristic.  It is a 6" bloom.  

To see some other AMAZING examples of patterned daylilies, click here.

The redesign of the AHS Daylily Dictionary is amazing. The photo examples are stunning.  If you ever wanted to take a crash course in daylilies, spend an hour or two just scrolling through and reading the definitions.  It is an outstanding resource and I still cant believe that it is free!  WOW!

In my daylily collection, I look for each plant I choose to be different than something else I own.  If I have a rich yellow double daylily that is spectacular, I dont bother adding many more rich, yellow doubles to the garden.  I let that specimen speak for the group.  

These stippled daylilies are unique and I have a few.  I wasn't sure that I loved this stippling at first because I'm such a sucker for saturation.  But a few started to grow on me and now I'm noticing that I like the whimsy.  I also grow H. 'Spacecoast Freaky Tiki' and H. 'Speckled Trout.'  A friend has promised to share some of her H. 'Drop Cloth', which is very exciting! 

Vive la difference!

H. 'Spacecoast Freaky Tiki'