Daylilies. There are hundreds of varieties of daylilies available in catalogues, from private hobby growers and breeders, neighbors whose gardens have been filled as well as local nurseries, and ach one seems to be more beautiful than the last. One of the best mid- to late summer flowers for gardens they are often overlooked as a desirable garden plant because of their past reputations. The older varieties are often messy or invasive, dying back early and growing rapidly into neighboring plants, and the bloom season is thought to be too short to make them worth while, and flower colors were limited, usually some shade of orange or yellow.
That is true of many of the older varieties, but many of the newer varieties show improvement in all these areas including pleasing fragrances. Some new varieties are very slow to multiply, taking several years to establish a clump large enough to provide a good display. An advantage of daylilies in the garden is that they are both fairly drought tolerant and moderately deer resistant, depending on how hungry the deer are. Just ask Marvie whose backyard daylily display was devastated by the neighborhood deer herd last summer and again this year, just as they were starting to bloom. A good deep watering every other week, even in hot weather, is usually enough to keep daylilies going, and they don’t seem to demand much in the way of nutrition or soil, adapting to sand and clay with equal ease.
Modern hybrid daylilies range from very very dark purple to nearly white. White being a relative term for plant breeders. I’d go with pale yellow to old ivory. The trick to nearly white daylilies is to plant the “white” one near truly yellow flowers and the contrast will make the “white” look whiter. There are even double flowers, like this bright yellow from Grace's bed.
The best display of daylilies in Missoula is at the Reserve St. Post Office behind Costco. And right now they are in full bloom so drive by if you have a few extra minutes. But even when the display is not spectacular individual plants and flowers can be beautiful, even spectacular.
