It’s not that the daylilies are pleading with you to come see them. But looking like this, who would have to?

Hemerocallis ‘Poinsettia’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

What’s macro Hemerocallis? Nope, not a superhero. It’s some really cool macro shots of daylilies.

Hemerocallis ‘Chateau Defleur’

Hemerocallis ‘Greta’

Hemerocallis ‘Erin Praire’

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education.

Daylilies start appearing in the garden in June, but the heyday for these flowers is in July. Starting from the beginning of July until the third or fourth week our Daylily Walk is awash with color. This is happening right now at the Garden!

Daylilies are generally grown for their large, trumpet shaped blossoms that jump out at you in a mixed planting, shouting ‘look at me’. And you should; they come in a vast array of shapes, colors and sizes and there are over 52,000 cultivars to choose from–many of them garden worthy companions.

When you are navigating catalogs and descriptions to find a daylily that suits your gardening style there is a basic terminology that is helpful to know. The throat is the interior of the flower, the eye zone lies just above it forming a band of color on the petals, and a halo is a faint band of color.

Some daylilies are bi-colored, some are doubles and some have a graceful recurved (curling backwards) shapes. While size, color and form are generally the attributes that gardeners assess when buying a daylily, fragrance is another factor to consider.

Learn more about fragrant daylilies below.

Celebrating the explosion of color that is the summer garden, one hue at a time.

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

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Celebrating the explosion of color that is the summer garden, one hue at a time.

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen

read more »

This peony is named 'Kevin'. Not that far off from a moss named 'Mark'.

I have been editing a lot of articles for nybg.org recently that involve long lists of the names of the many hybrids and cultivars we keep on Garden grounds. Anyone who has ever edited a long list in HTML can tell you that it is one of those tasks where it really is okay to let the mind wander a little. It has given me a lot of time to daydream about what kind of plant I would like to have named after me, if, you know, someday I just happen to meet the right hybridizer …. And I know I’m not alone in thinking about this, because when I posed the question yesterday on Twitter, “What would you most like to have named after you? A rose? A daylily? A hosta? Tell us!” the responses came fast and furious.

NYC_Living would “love to have a Tree named after me…a very large strong tall with deep green leaves and a long life!”

jmarkowski0 wants “an ornamental grass that thrives in clay and laughs at the nearby deer” named after him. (If you can breed that, we’ll help you lobby for the name!)

thinkingstomach would do with “a fruit tree, some kind of crazy-good nectarine.”

electrobloom wants “a moss! mark the moss has got a nice ring to it!” (It does, actually.)

graceyhearts is a girl who knows what she wants, and it’s “a white lily, like this one.”

garrickdetroit stays true to his urbanist roots and hopes that “any of the cityfied volunteer trees that sprout on (or in) poorly maintained buildings!” could be named for him.

ashleywillhite is hoping for the ‘Ashley Willhite’ hyacinth so that she can be planted in “a garden full of tulips of every color imaginable!” (Sounds divine!)

michele_owens goes subterranean with her wish to give her name to a “New parsnip variety, for sure.”

BloominChick shows her wild side in dreaming of “Something hardy, strong & beautiful. A tiger/wild Lily? (Those striking orange ones).”

There were also votes for a hosta, an orchid, a waterlily, and a butterfly (not technically a plant, but since so many plants can’t live without flowers, we’ll allow it).

And finally agardendiary, RedneckRosarian, AvasFlowers, ambianceflorals, and quite honestly, your blog editor, would all like to have a rose named after us. Rosa rafalko has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

So now it’s your turn, blog friends. Tell us: If you could have any new plant cultivar or hybrid named after you, what would it be?

Today I sauntered down Daylily Walk at lunchtime. Daylily Walk runs from Perennial Way (the road that goes in front of the Conservatory), past the Garden Cafe, down a little hill, and then takes a jag to the left running parallel to Garden Way (the road in front of the Library Building where the Greenmarket is held) (map). Daylily Walk is currently a riot of color and a study in fabulous plant names. Come check out the amazing diversity of daylilies!

Daylily Walk behind the Garden Cafe

'Green Tarantula'

'Silken Touch'

See more amazing dayliles after the jump.