Hemerocallis ‘Challenger’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Ahem. Just wanted to chime in with a small reminder: this is happening all along Daylily Walk. Right now.

Hemerocallis ‘Red Joy’ — Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

If Daylily Walk is our Yellow Brick Road, that would make the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory the Emerald City, right?

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen

Ever grown a daylily? For flower gardeners, it’s likely; they’re now some of the most ubiquitous flowers kept among horticultural circles, rivaling even roses in their widespread adoration. From the 20 original species found in the wilds of India, Japan, China and Mongolia, we now have tens of thousands of recognized cultivars on the market–the fan following of this flower is nothing to scoff at. But we owe the modern fame of Hemerocallis to a single man, one whose work at The New York Botanical Garden birthed an industry.

To this day, Daylily Walk‘s early summer show can and does sneak up on us. The sloping path begins along Garden Way, the road that runs past the Library Building. From there it branches in a curving swoop around the Garden Café before joining Perennial Way by the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. The walk leads you through thickets of conifers, bordered in late June by hundreds of daylilies in the colors of sunset, pomegranate seed, and safety cone orange. Think of a ribbon of rainbow sorbet connecting two of the NYBG’s most iconic pieces of architecture.
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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.

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.