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

Here’s wishing a happy (if belated) Fourth of July to anyone who was too busy with cook-outs and pyrotechnics on Wednesday! It sort of feels like we had two Fridays this round, didn’t it? And I suppose that also means two Mondays, if you want to be a pessimist. In any case, the fireworks continue into this weekend with color of a less combustible sort. So jump into something summer-appropriate and be liberal with the sunscreen: these flowers like it hot!

Seeing as the scene along Daylily Walk is so ripe with painted color, we thought we’d do a little more to highlight the hands-on horticulture behind the daylily. Visit the Home Gardening Center at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for a gardening demonstration with one of our staff experts, all set to fill you in on the growing techniques behind this hardy summer perennial. We’ll also share some pointers on many of the latest and greatest Hemerocallis cultivars–with over 45,000 of them to choose from, a daylily obsession can easily become a lifelong passion. (Trust us: our NYBG scientists all but created the craze.)
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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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Hibiscus ‘Fireball’

Hemerocallis ‘Bess Ross’

Photos by Ivo M. Vermeulen