Procrastination 1: Daylilies -or- The Cult of Hemerocallis

(Click to enlarge.)

I hope this won't shock you, but I have to confess:  I don't really like daylilies.  They are everywhere in summer, though, because they are so surpassingly easy to grow.  There is even a species which grows and thrives as a wildflower, the Hemerocallis fulva, but which originates in Eurasia and simply escaped cultivation.  (Click to enlarge.)

I do not like daylilies generally, and I especially do not like Hemerocallis fulva.  The worst daylilies are all like this one, weedy and thready looking even before they bloom on long, leafless stalks that just get longer as the month of July progresses, taking and needing little or no care but always looking like they need something, like they are just barely hanging on.  Scroungy looking.  (Click to enlarge.)

Of course, my rented yard is full of daylilies.  Of course, Hemerocallis fulva are the exact daylilies my landlord's wife planted most of, in a deep bank right up front and scattered amongst the shrubbery, 20 years ago when the two of them lived here with their young children.  (My landlord's son, recently graduated from university, has even told me he remembers when his mother planted them.)  So of course that means they are sacred and untouchable, all of them.  (Click to enlarge.)

I have found ways to photograph them that make them appear less hateable.  As with many other things, the trick is to narrow the composition drastically, to really close in on  some redeeming detail or other.  (Click to enlarge.)

Seen closely, all tunneled in, lots of things look more interesting, and even sometimes more beautiful.  (Click to enlarge.)

Or sometimes in order to reveal loveliness in something so ordinary it makes you want to scream what works is total deconstruction, accepting the happy accident of a little windy tossing, just refining it slightly with some creative cropping 'til all you have is a block of pure gradient exuberance.   (Click to enlarge.)

Fortunately for daylilies, most people don't seem to share my distaste for them, which, to be fair, is really just ennui born of oversaturation combined with a simple aesthetic preference for other forms.  There are even rabid daylily enthusiasts.  No accounting for tastes.   (Click to enlarge.)

As a result of the number of people whose passions are stirred by these simple plants -- which are called "day" lilies because each blossom blooms only for one day and then is enzymatically digested and replaced by another further up the stalk -- there are entire societies devoted to the adoration and avid cultivation of Hemerocallis.  As a natural result of that, there are thousands of species of Hemerocallis, with new ones being presented to the public every year.

I do not understand these people.  I see nothing remarkable about these flowers; I also can't seem to get away from them.

Or at least, that's how I felt until last Friday.

Imagine my surprise.  I never thought it would happen to me.

But it did.  Look at this:  (Click to enlarge.)

Understand that this blossom is nearly a foot wide.

So are each of these.   (Click to enlarge.)

"Ah, sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you..."   (Click to enlarge.)

I must have her.  I must.  Please, won't someone take pity upon me -- poor creature of lust that I have become -- and tell me her name?

Comments

[MNLacer]

Not the same but close? A lily named "Mandalay Bay Music". http://carolinadaylilies.com/parents/2006/mandalay_bay_music.htm

[Sara]

Very pretty -- and definitely more to my taste than H. fulva -- but not even close.

This flower was not lavender but a delicate pale peach, the color of ballet slippers from England only paler, with all the gradients from ivory to rose and gold very fine, no picotee edging, no really severely contrasting star in the middle, and the yellow at the center just sort of brushed in. Petals were thick and fleshy, and the most open flower -- which didn't trumpet particularly but was somewhat flat like it was thrusting itself into life, blooming with all its might -- was about as large as my head. (My regular readers know how big that can get.)

Gigantic. Dinnerplate. But classy, not the slightest bit flashy.

Thank you for trying. The closest I've seen, 'cause you'd better believe I went immediately to the nursery after that, was something at Mahoney's called a "Trophywinner," which I guess is somebody's brand for a new set of hybrids in several colors. Some of those were in bloom, though, and even though the colors were closer, the size of each blossom was something like half or three-fifths the size of this one.

[Passin' by]

I stumbled on your entry. I was like you once; I hated daylilies. I thought they were boring and ugly. I didn't start to like them until I finally was able to grow my own stargazer lilies(potted, indoors, away from those damn squirrels). I was looking on google about lilies and then stumbled onto pictures of different sorts of daylilies. And to my surprise, I found I could have the look of lilies, in many colors, without nearly the fuss(I am the epitome of lazy). Now, I'm all about them, haha!

Anyway, I like the pics of these particular daylily. I'm no expert, but, looks like they may be what's called "Timeless". 8" blooms and pale pink- I'm pretty sure these are your dayliles. Here's the link:

http://smokeysgardens.com/scripts/Itemdata.php?FLNAME=Timeless

BTW, I've ordered from them and couldn't be happier. You know... I think I may get some of these for myself, :)