'Moses' Fire' is a beautiful, hardy and consistent daylily for northern gardens. I have grown this double in my garden for over 15 years. Hybridized in Georgia by Jan Joiner (1998), this dormant tetraploid thrives in our unpredictable Wisconsin winters. The six-inch red blooms have a subtle gold edging that really adds emphasis to the delicate ruffled look. The flowers double 95% of the time and the bud count is 16-20.

Moses' Fire is a perfect front-of-the-border plant that grows 24" tall in my garden. Bloom time last summer was from July 2-28. The length of bloom time is typically less than most of my other daylilies, but this plant looks so amazing at peak bloom bursting with such large, dramatic flowers that I don't really mind the shorter bloom.

American Daylily Society Awards:
Award of Merit: 2005
Honorable Mention: 2001
Ida Munson Award for Outstanding Doubles: 2008

If there's ever a classic daylily, 'Fooled Me' qualifies for that title. This vibrant masterpiece is one of those perfect plants that is a sure thing in every northern garden. It's a reliable, vigorous bloomer that consistently looks beautiful on any given day. The cheerful, bold bloom colors are a standout in the landscape.

Close to twenty years ago my sister-in-law, Sandra, gave me a division of Fooled Me from her garden. Over time I've been able to pay it forward and give my friends divisions of this plant to enjoy. It's one of those plants that every gardener should have.

Hybridized by Philip Reilly and Ann Hein (1990), this dormant tetraploid grows 30" tall in my garden (registered height is 24") and bloom size is 5.5 inches. Fooled Me has extended bloom and occasionally re-bloom. In my 2020 garden, bloom time was mid-season, from July 7 through August 6. It's also worthy to note that Fooled Me has 202 child plants on the records, which indicates genetics that many hybridizers value.

American Daylily Society Awards:
Stout Silver Medal: 2005 (the most prestigious award a daylily can win)
Award of Merit: 2001
Honorable Mention: 1998

Meet 'Banana Freeze,' one of our Wisconsin Daylily Society plant sale purchases. While shopping at the sale, it was recommended to Ange by one of the Society members who grew it in his garden. What a great tip! We've only had this daylily for a couple of years, but I can already tell it's going to be a rock star! This front-of-the-border unusual form (UFO) embodies every characteristic I look for in a daylily. From the day we planted our two fans they took right off. The 7.5" blooms are thick and waxy, consistent, and plentiful. At 7 am or 7 pm the flowers look exactly the same, whether it's rainy, hot or windy. The foliage is really nice, in addition to the amazing the greenish bloom color. And you've gotta love the cute curls on the sepals!

Hybridized  in Wisconsin by Jean Bawden (2007), this 24" tall, dormant diploid can handle any extreme weather thrown its way. In my 2020 garden, Banana Freeze bloomed from July 9 to August 12. This is not a well-known, celebrated daylily cultivar, but it is definitely one of our garden favorites.

'Wilson Spider' is a wonderful dormant diploid daylily that was introduced in 1987 by Bill and Stewart Oakes at Oakes Daylily Farm in Corryton, Tennessee. I have grown Wilson for over 25 years and it is consistently beautiful and winter-hardy in my Wisconsin garden. I originally received a division of this plant from a friend and over the years I have been able pay it forward by sharing divisions with my friends.

The spidery 7.5"  blooms are registered as a bitone or reverse bitone. In the landscape it's a valuable later-season bloomer. In 2020 bloom was from July 22 to August 23. Scapes are registered as 28" tall, but in my yard they grow about 35" tall. (Happy plant!)

Wilson Spider has 98 child plants on the books that include Concorde Nelson, Desperate House Cats, Long Legged Cowboy, Politically Incorrect, Shoo-Fly Pie, and Small World Jack in the Box. If you love spiders, this daylily is definitely a sure-thing and will not disappoint.

American Daylily Society Awards:
Award of Merit: 2009
Honorable Mention: 2006
Harris Olson Spider Award: 1994

For a Valentine's Day blog, this vibrant red daylily is the perfect subject. 'Via Dolorosa' checks all the boxes for a must-have daylily. At the beginning of the day the bloom color is darker as in the first photo. Towards the afternoon it resembles the second photo. I think both the am and pm colorations are equally beautiful. My plant grows happily in 100% sun.

Via Dolorosa was hybridized in Minnesota by Karol Emmerich (2009). A dormant tetraploid, it grows 30" tall and thrives in a northern climate. The lovely green foliage is a nice contrast in color to the rich red flowers. Blooms measure 6.5 to 7" in size and are fragrant, early morning openers (bud count: 21-25). Last summer Via Dolorosa bloomed from July 9 to August 9 in my garden. This daylily also exhibits instant rebloom.

American Daylily Society Award: Honorable Mention 2020

'Wow Factor' is a perfect name for this striking daylily. I was definitely 'wowed' when the huge 8.5" - 9" blooms first appeared in my garden (bud count: 16-20). You've also got to love the cream/white shark teeth that appear on both the petals and sepals of this flower.

Nan Wilkerson hybridized this showy, dormant tetraploid in 2010. It is categorized as a UFO crispate (an unusual form cultivar with petals that give a pinched or folded effect). Wow Factor is registered as being 34" tall, but it must be exceptionally happy in my flower bed because it grew 42" tall for me. Wow Factor bloomed last summer from July 13 through August 9.  The bloom time should increase as my plant matures. At peak bloom, you can't miss this tall, beautiful daylily in the landscape.

Wow Factor was a serendipitous 'pretty photo pick' for me from the Wisconsin Daylily Society Sale in Madison, a few years back. I am 100% happy with my impulsive choice.  It's a keeper!

'Willow Dean Smith' had been on my wish list for a long time before she arrived in my garden a few years ago. This Kentucky girl has a feminine vibe with lovely pink-edged ruffles. The ruffles fade to a lighter pink in the afternoon. Both versions are equally beautiful.

Hybridized by John Rice in 2007, Willow Dean Smith is a dormant tetraploid that grows from 36-38" tall. As delicate as this daylily appears, it is winter-hardy in Wisconsin. The pristine blooms measure between 6-6.5" in size and are very consistent, waxy, and sturdy in all types of weather. A late-season flower, Willow Dean Smith bloomed in my garden last summer from July 17 through August 23.   

Willow Dean Smith does not  have the most rapid increase, but that doesn't bother me in the least...I'm willing to wait. I love this daylily! It's a tall, dazzling stand-out in any garden.

American Daylily Society Award: Honorable Mention 2011

'Bloom Where You're Planted' is a perfect metaphor for all of us as we begin the new year.

This hardy daylily does exactly that! 'Bloom Where You're Planted' was hybridized in Minnesota by Karol Emmerich in 2013. I think this dormant tetraploid is just about perfect in every way possible. The showy 5.5" blooms are consistent and have good substance (bud count: 21-25). On cooler days the colors remain just a bit darker. The fragrant flowers are early morning openers, even when the temperatures are in the 50's and 60's, and the plant is a reliable re-bloomer, even in Wisconsin.

Last summer, Bloom Where You're Planted grew 32" tall in my garden and bloomed from July 13 through August 21.  This peach and red beauty was planted in our front roadside garden for the last couple of years. It was so stunning that last fall we decided to move it up by the back door of our house so we could appreciate it up-close.

'Blueberry Breakfast' is a very unique, distinctive daylily. Its coloration tends to vary with the weather. Some days it looks chalky lavender/purple and other days, vibrant pink. Occasionally it even exhibits spots, as you can see in the second photo. This beautiful dormant diploid cultivar is perfect for  the front of the border as it only grows 22" tall. Hybridized in 1988 (Rose), Blueberry Breakfast has five-inch flowers and is a midseason bloomer. In my garden, last summer's bloom was from July 7 through September 16. (The latter date included late-season rebloom.) This daylily is very hardy and grows very well in Wisconsin. It's a perfect northern daylily!

American Daylily Society Awards: Honorable Mention: 2002

A spider daylily has flowers whose petal length is four times the petal's width or more, a ratio of 4.0:1 or greater. The long, narrow petals give the blooms a spidery-like appearance. Spider daylilies are currently more prevalent in diploid daylilies. Diploids appear more delicate and graceful in their appearance (as opposed to tetraploids that are more sturdy with heavier petal substance).

My experience tells me that most gardeners either love or don't love spider daylilies. There is rarely ambivalence of opinion. Spiders can, however, become an acquired taste, much like black coffee. I do know gardeners who have slowly come around to appreciating them over time. I really love spiders; the more bloom diversity I can have in my garden, the better.

Here are photos of seven beautiful spiders. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Daylilies Pictured: Red Ribbons, Heavenly Flight of Angels, Holly Dancer, Miss Jessie, Suzie Cream Cheese, Waxed Legs, and Wilson Spider

2020 marks the first year that I did not purchase any daylilies since about 1990! My lifestyle has changed over the past two years, and to that end I have done more downsizing. It was hard to make these decisions, but on the positive side, it warms my heart to know that each and every one of these plants went to a really good home and will be taken care even better than what I could have!

Downsized plants include: (Pictured alphabetically from top-to-bottom )

• Frances Joiner
• Hold On My Friend
• Magnificent Rainbow
• Paha Sapa Thundercloud
• Roswitha
• Something Angelic
• Spacecoast Cherries and Cream
• Strawberry Candy
• Sweet Summer Heat
• The Band Played On
• Timeless Majesty
• Wilson Spider

'Grey Witch' is one of those unique daylilies that you can look at and never mistake it for another. It has an unusual grayish-lavender coloration that can even look chalky some days. The color was definitely inherited from its famous parent, 'Trahlyta.'

This 36" tall spider was hybridized in 1999 by Margo Reed at Woodhendge Gardens in North Garden, Virginia. (It grows taller than its 30" registered height in my garden.) Grey Witch is a very hardy dormant diploid that grows wonderfully in Wisconsin. It's a robust plant that increased rapidly for me. I had a good-sized clump in just a few years. Blooms are 6" in size and bloom time last summer was from July 9 through August 9.

American Daylily Society Awards:
Award of Merit: 2009
Honorable Mention: 2005

Note: Over the past four or five years I have been a daylily foster mom for Grey Witch. At the end of the 2020 season, Grey Witch moved back home. Due to aggressive downsizing this year, I made the difficult decision not to keep two fans. It is, after all, a fantastic plant! No worries...I can visit Grey Witch any time I want :)

Every entity has its own set of terms and acronyms, and daylilies are no different. Daylily details can be very helpful when purchasing plants because it helps you narrow down exactly what characteristics you want, to avoid disappointment later. (Perhaps you want only a late-season blooming daylily, for example.) Many of these terms are listed on a daylily's name tag, or if you purchase online some or all of the registration information is typically included.

This list is in no way comprehensive, but it does cover the most commonly used terms and acronyms that I've come across.

So here's the 411...

Hybridizer:  The person who bred the hybrid daylily by hand pollination, and in most cases introduced or registered it with the American Daylily Society

Ploidy:  The number of sets of chromosomes of the daylily

• DIP: A diploid daylily has two complete sets of chromosomes in each cell, 22 chromosomes
• TET: A tetraploid daylily has four complete sets of chromosomes in each cell, 44 chromosomes

Tetraploids are typically more sturdy with heavier petal substance, while diploids are more delicate and graceful in appearance. When hybridizing, a diploid cannot be crossed with a tetraploid and vice-versa.

Foliage:  This refers to whether the foliage stays green instead of dying back through the fall and winter

• DOR: This daylily foliage becomes dormant in the winter
• SEV: This daylily has semi-evergreen foliage
• EV: This daylily has evergreen foliage

Fan - A complete division of the plant which consists of leaves, crown and roots
SF/DF = Single Fan/Double Fan
Scape - The flower stalk above the crown
Scape Height - The mature average scape height

Bloom Season: Approximate time of flowering (determined by the hybridizer at their location; this may vary slightly if you live in a different location)

• EE - Extra Early
• E - Early
• EM - Early-Midseason
• M - Midseason
• ML - Mid-to-Late season
• L - Late season
• VL - Very Late

Bloom Terms:

• CMO - Cold Morning Opener - Some daylilies are reluctant to open if it's cold. CMOs are great for those of us in northern growing zones
• DBL/Double  - A daylily which has additional petals and or sepals. Single daylilies have only three petals and three sepals. Doubles are layered or have the extra petals/sepals sticking up into the air
• EMO - Early Morning Opener
• EXT - Extended Bloom - Flowers which stay open over an extended period of time
• FFO -First Flower Open - Usually the first flower of the season for a particular plant
• FR - Fragrant - Most daylilies don't have much fragrance but a small percentage do
• Miniature  - Daylilies with flowers less than three inches
• NOC - Nocturnal - This is a daylily that opens or begins to open late afternoon or in the night
• POLY - Polymerous (outdated term was Polytepal) - A daylily which has four or more petals and four or more sepals in a flat whorl
• RE - Rebloomer - A daylily that will rebloom and send up new scapes later in the season. This happens more often for early bloomers, or for plants that have a longer growing season
• Spider  - A flower that has petals at least four times longer than the width of the petals
• UF/UFO -  This is a daylily that has unusual characteristics on three sepals or petals

Daylilies pictured: 'Webster's Pink Wonder' and 'Lounge Lizard'

'Bass Gibson' has been growing in my garden since August 2017 when I started off with two small fans purchased from The Lily Auction. This year, Bass finally decided it was truly happy in its new home and really took off.  Wow, what a showstopper! (Note: This is why it is so important to allow a daylily to grow in your garden for *at least* three years before deciding to keep it or part with it.)

Hybridized in Kentucky by John Rice (2006), Bass Gibson grows 32" tall. The 5.5" blooms are sunfast, prolific and consistent (bud count: 21-25).  The large fringed/toothy yellow edges are over-the-top striking. This dormant tetraploid bloomed in my Wisconsin garden from July 12 through August 12.

Bass Gibson has 86 child plants on the record, which indicates how popular this daylily is and that its genetics are much sought after by hybridizers for their future introductions.

American Daylily Society Awards:
Award of Merit: 2012
Honorable Mention: 2009

'Greywoods Disco Dana' is so cheerful and unrestrained when it blooms. Each one of these large, unique flowers looks like it is disco dancing! The petals and sepals fling themselves around in a wild, uncontrolled manor. Each bloom is headed in a different direction. This makes Greywoods Disco Dana quite an impressive sight in a large clump!

Disco Dana is categorized as an Unusual Form (UFO) Crispate daylily. Hybridized in 2003 in Massachusetts by Darlyn Wilkinson, this dormant tetraploid daylily grows 28" tall with 8" blooms (Bud Count: 21-25).  In the morning this wild and crazy gold-yellow blend has a vivid green throat, and as the day progresses the bloom mellows and the edges fade to a cream color.

Disco Dana is a hardy grower that quickly clumped-up for me without any special attention. In 2020 this lovely plant bloomed in my garden from July 15 through August 16, at which point the opportunistic deer finished off the remaining blooms. Our bad; we slipped up by not re-spraying deer deterrent after a short burst of rain.

I bought 'The Bodacious Ms Billadeau' on a whim (it was a 'pretty picture' purchase) at the Wisconsin Daylily Society sale in Madison three years ago, and what a WOW this plant turned out to be! It has large, beautifully textured, 6.75 to 7 " blooms that are vibrantly colored, and I love the added bonus of the white-ish buds for visual interest. The blooms are consistent and look great in any weather situation. In 2020, this prolific daylily bloomed in my garden from July 9 through August 26! You can't really ask for more than that. Call me happy ;)

Bodacious was hybridized in North Carolina by Paul Owen in 2012. This 27" dormant, tetraploid daylily thrives in our crazy Wisconsin climate, as do all my other Owen daylilies.

Note: 'My Friend Charlie,' also an Owen daylily, grows behind Bodacious. They look great together!

Guilty! Luckily, each daylily I bought just for the name turned out to be an amazing plant! Here are six of my 'I love the name' daylilies (pictured in alphabetical order):

• 'House of Misrepresentatives' - Enough said
• 'Legislating Life' - Because we have an attorney in our family
• 'Lounge Lizard' - Who could resist that name? And I have to wonder if one evening this daylily will escape and make a beeline for the bars.
  
• 'She's Got Legs' - Gotta luv ZZ Top!
• 'Three Bad Pigs' - This cute name always makes me smile. What mischief will it get into?
• 'Waxed Legs' - I love waxy-textured daylilies, so I took a chance on this one and was immensely pleased. The name couldn't be more perfect.

What about you? Have you bought any daylilies based solely on their name?

'Marchioness' is a daylily you probably haven't heard much hoopla about, but she's always been one of my keepers. Many years ago a friend gave me a division of Marchioness and said, "You'll love this daylily for some August color." He was spot on! I have grown this beauty in my garden for almost 20 years now. Marchioness is a consistent, reliable, late-season bloomer that more than earns her garden space. Last week my husband was helping me deadhead daylily blooms and he commented on how pretty this plant is! (He doesn't often make these comments.)

Hybridized in 1996 by Steve Moldovan (Ohio), this dormant tetraploid has six-inch blooms and grows 28" tall in my garden. I love the dainty gold edges on the soft pink blooms! In 2019 Marchioness bloomed from July 24 through September 14. In 2020 she started blooming on July 27 and is still in bloom today.

I grow two other Moldovan daylilies in my garden, 'South Seas' and 'Strutter's Ball,' which I love every bit as much as Marchioness.

In May 2016 I purchased 'Paha Sapa Thundercloud' at the Daylily Society of Minnesota plant sale in Minneapolis. Paha Sapa means "Black Hills" in the Lakota Sioux language. The Lakota Sioux consider the Black Hills the center of their universe, where their culture began. The Black Hills were at the center of the Great Sioux Reservation, and considered home by the seven Lakota Sioux tribes.

What a great choice Paha Sapa Thundercloud turned out to be! Hybridized in 2003 by Gary Schaben in Minnesota, this dormant tetraploid has been a very hardy grower for me. In fact, it is so vigorous that it grows 37" tall --  a whopping 10" taller than its registered height! Paha Sapa gets no special attention or fertilizer, either.

Blooms are 5" in size (21-25 bud count). The bitone blooms are beautiful, rich in color, consistent, and have a heavy, waxy substance. They always look perfect whether it's a hot sunny day, if there's high winds, or torrential rain. This plant is tough! Also note the neat pink-ish purple anthers in the bloom. In my 2019 garden, Paha Sapa Thundercloud bloomed from July 22 through September 14. In 2020 bloom started on July 17.

American Daylily Society Award: Honorable Mention: 2007

Check out 'Eyes on the Prize,' hybridized in 2002 by Karol Emmerich in Minnesota. I bought this daylily nine years ago as a birthday gift for my friend. And I liked it so much that I bought one for myself, as well. Good decision! After all, when is buying an additional daylily *ever* a bad decision?

This semi-evergreen tetraploid grows 18-22" tall and has 5.5" blooms, which is a perfect size for a front-of-the-border plant. In 2019 Eyes on the Prize bloomed from July 9 through August 7. This year's bloom started on July 1. You can't go wrong with this eye candy!

American Daylily Society Award: Honorable Mention 2008