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| This retired vet raises 215 daylily varieties (Spring 2005) |
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Dr. Daylily
When Wilbur Dellinger retired from his veterinary practice in 1998, his friends assumed he would spend his time hunting, fishing, breeding and training his bird dogs, tying the occasional fly, and creating his award-winning watercolors. He does. But there are 24 hours in a day, and the non-stop Dellinger (think Energizer Bunny crossed with a Jack Russell terrier) is delighted with his daylilies.
“They are a thing of beauty,” says the Gainesville, Ga., Renaissance man. “Fish, birds, and flowers have the three brightest colors I know. I bird hunt and fish, why shouldn’t I have flowers?” He adds, “In the summertime I work in the daylilies, in the winter I work my dogs and the daylilies multiply while I’m fishing.”
Daylilies are a natural for Dellinger and his wife, Bevelyn. In 1995, a neighbor took the Dellingers to a daylily farm where they were an easy sell. They came home with a dozen and promptly planted them. “They are beautiful, they are easy to grow, and they don’t require a bunch of watering,” says Dellinger. “I don’t know anywhere else you can get this many pretty flowers for this little work.”
“They are so tough,” says Auburn University horticulturist Raymond Kessler. “They are almost no-brainers to grow and will grow just about anywhere. Even if they only get a half-day of sun, they’ll bloom. The only soil that won’t work for daylilies is boggy soil—soil that is permanently wet.”
I’ve even recommended them for ground cover,” says Mary Meyer, a University of Minnesota horticulturalist. “You can plant them on slopes or other places that are difficult to mow. They also have a heavy root system that can compete with trees. Daylilies don’t have many pests or diseases, and they have a broad spectrum of heat and cold tolerance. They are really a plant for the whole United States.”
Beauty for a day
Meyer also agrees with Dellinger on their beauty. “Hemerocallis, its Greek name, means ‘beautiful for one day.’ Even though each individual flower lives only one day, there are a lot of flowers on each plant and it gives the effect of a lot of flowers over
a long period of time.”
Although Dellinger is known for completely immersing himself in his passions, he is managing to stay happily casual about his daylilies. “When it comes to daylilies, we do more enjoying than anything else,” he says.
“We went to a daylily meeting and some of these people are so intense about it,” says Bevelyn. “They have shows, and they find themselves worrying about them—are they
going to bloom today? We do it just for fun.”
The Dellingers also skip daylily breeding, or hybridizing, that interests many. Not known for his love of the early morning, Dellinger says, “When you hybridize, you have to get up early every morning and play bumble bee.”
They do keep the 210 to 215 varieties in their woodland yard labeled and categorized, though. “We assign each one of them a number and put it on a metal label stuck in a PVC pipe,” Bevelyn says. “Then I don’t have to get down on my hands and knees to see them. I have a map and a diagram, and I catalog them and cross-reference them. In my book, I have them listed alphabetically and numerically.”
The Dellingers also keep the daylily flowers mulched to hold down weeds and hold in moisture. After the first year, they apply a long-term, absorbent fertilizer. They also keep them deadheaded, which is the process of pinching off spent flowers. “Deadheading helps keep them blooming, and they do look better,” says Dellinger. After frost, they keep the beds tidy by clipping the dead stalks.
Divide and multiply
Since daylilies multiply rapidly by the roots, Dellinger divides the plants every three years. “I stick two forks down and separate them.”
“Daylilies have a fibrous, temporary root and a fleshy, permanent root,” says Auburn’s Kessler. “Retain as many of the permanent roots as you can when you divide them. Dividing is best done in the spring. There is less stress on the plant and the roots have time to get established in their new location before it gets hot. And like a newly planted daylily, don’t fertilize them the first year.”
If you are starting from scratch with purchased daylilies, Kessler says, “The ones bought through mail order are usually shipped bare root and are planted in early spring. I shake the peat moss or dirt off them and soak them in a pail of water for not more than an hour. I form a cone in the hole where I plant them and spread the roots over the cone. I plant it to the depth it was originally grown—on the bare root plants you can usually see a dirt line. The first three or four weeks, pay attention to the watering. Stick your finger in the soil once or twice a week to see if it is moist.”
The Dellingers sell some of their extras and charge $5 to $15. “That’s in the range most people are willing to pay,” he says. “We just want to make enough to maybe pay for the fertilizer, but some of the cultivars go for $100.”
“Don’t buy any daylilies you don’t like,” Wilbur adds. “They are like art. There is no need to buy an ugly picture—you may have to look at it awhile.”
“The different cultivars are unreal,” Wilbur says. Currently there are about 13,000
varieties available.
“They come in a staggering number of colors and sizes. Some are quite large, their foliage is three feet tall or so, and the blooms are even taller. There are also dwarf varieties.”
Favorite daylilies
There are so many gorgeous varieties in their garden, the Dellingers admittedly have a hard time picking a favorite. Still, when pressed, Bevelyn says, “I tend to lean toward the reds. One of Wilbur’s favorites is Sparkling Orange.”
Their favorite part of the daylily experience, however, is sharing the beauty. Every June, they send out dozens of invitations to friends and neighbors, asking them to drop by and stroll through their colorful blooms. “A neighborly visit is worth the most,” says Dellinger. “You can’t put a price on that.”
Dig into Daylilies
Want to learn more about daylilies? Try the American Hemerocallis Society at www.daylilies.org. Their Web site shows the location of more than 325 American Hemerocallis Society display gardens all over the United States and in parts of Canada.
Membership in the society includes a subscription to The Daylily Journal. In four issues a year, the magazine features pictures of new cultivars, how-to articles on care, feeding, and hybridizing, and news of upcoming meetings.
Local connections
Membership also includes regional newsletters to keep daylily fanciers in touch with others in their area.
Your county Extension service also has free horticulture publications or access to Web sites. In addition to Extension employees trained in horticulture, many offices have a Master Gardener program that can put novice growers in touch with trained volunteers.
Your local nursery or botanical garden can often be a good place to get a first-hand look at different varieties. And don’t forget the old standbys—seed and plant catalogs, where you can window shop to your heart’s content.
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