All flowers
Daylily Wikimedia Commons
Asphodelaceae

Daylily

Hemerocallis fulva

Motherhood, devotion, fleeting beauty.

Family
Asphodelaceae
Genus
Hemerocallis
Native to
Asia (China, Korea, Japan)
Bloom season
Summer
Type
Perennial
Height
30–120 cm (1–4 ft)
Sunlight
Full sun to part shade
Soil
Average, well-drained
Water
Moderate
Hardiness
3–9
Lifespan
Long-lived perennial

Did you know

  • Daylilies live up to their name: each flower opens at dawn and is dead by sunset—but a single mature plant can produce hundreds of flowers per season, so the show goes on for weeks.
  • The genus name 'Hemerocallis' comes from the Greek for 'beauty for a day'—a built-in poetic eulogy.
  • There are now over 80,000 registered cultivars of daylily, more than any other flower in the world—an obsessive American hybridizing community has bred everything from miniatures to spider-form blooms a foot wide.
  • Daylily flower buds are eaten as a vegetable across China, Korea, and Vietnam—they taste like a cross between asparagus and green beans and are used in hot-and-sour soup.
  • In ancient China, daylilies were called 'forget-worry herb,' and pregnant women wore the flowers in their belts in hopes of having a son and 'forgetting their cares.'

Color meanings

0

motherhood

1

devotion

2

coquetry

Uses

  • Borders
  • Mass plantings
  • Edible buds
  • Naturalizing