Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Observing rebloom

The double whammy of being entirely a novice at daylilies and unobservant / memory-challenged has made me mostly clueless about expectations for the daylilies that I grow . Throw in my failed attempt at recording names and locations in the garden, and I feel really uninformed about my daylilies . If only ogling gorgeous flowers counted as expertise! That being said, my observations today have shed some light on the subject for me .

What I saw were many new scapes emerging on daylilies that had recently used up all the buds on their early scapes . A little light bulb went on in my brain . It made me wonder, "Is this rebloom?" Even though these plants bloomed last year, I have no memory of a resurgence of blooms . I think too many other things were happening for me to take notice . Plus I was never really clear about the definitions of bloom periods: extra early, early, early mid, mid, mid late, late, very late . I'm not sure if they vary from climate to climate or where the growing season is longer like it is in Florida . Admittedly, I haven't done much reading on this, and perhaps the answers are readily available but I just haven't accessed them . Well, why not do some accessing right now?

Ah-ha, how easy was that! The American Hemerocallis Society has a FAQ that is loaded with information, including what they call blooming sequence . So here it is .
Blooming Sequence
Daylilies bloom from early spring until frost, depending on the coldness of the climate . To indicate when a particular cultivar blooms during the season, daylily growers use the following terms and abbreviations (or symbols):
  • Extra Early (EE). These daylilies are the first to bloom, and vary from March or April in the extreme South, to May or June in the North .
  • Early (E). These daylilies bloom three to five weeks prior to the mass of bloom at midseason .
  • Early Midseason (EM). These daylilies bloom one to three weeks before the height of bloom of most cultivars .
  • Midseason (M). These daylilies bloom at the peak of the daylily bloom in your own garden . This ranges from May in the South to July in the North .
  • Late Midseason (LM). These daylilies bloom one to three weeks after the height or peak of bloom in your garden .
  • Late (L). These daylilies bloom when most others have finished blooming, usually four to six weeks after the peak of the season .
  • Very Late (VL). These daylilies are the last to bloom, often late in the summer in the South, fall in the North .
  • Rebloomer (Re). These daylilies bloom more than one time during a single season . Some of these bloom early (e.g., May or June) and then repeat in the fall . Others have a succession of bloom periods, one shortly after another for several months .
Hmmm, that did sound a little bit vague, didn't it? Not anything hard-and-fast, mark-it-on-the-calendar reliable, huh? So maybe I'm seeing the "succession of bloom periods" now . That's encouraging . Blooms in succession, one shortly after another, are very good things . Let me show you what I saw today .
The next four photos are of two clumps of "Sherry Lane Carr' - I think . One I'm positive of and the other ( the plant in the first photo ) not so sure . I was desperately trying to get the last ones in the ground last year after they had been sitting in pans of water for four months, and I failed to write them down on my chart . But they look alike, so I'm making an assumption . This one isn't really finished with its early scapes, but it has two brand new ones . The plant in the last photos has definitely used up its original buds and has two new scapes full of buds . She's an early mid rebloomer .

A wonderful surprise was the plant in the next two photos . It's a NOID . No identification! My gues-timation is that it's an early mid bloomer . I have two clumps of this lovely mauve daylily that puts out lots of flowers, but I didn't know it was a rebloomer . I thought it was done for the year . I'm sure it didn't bloom again last year . Now it has two new scapes and even a new open flower . To complicate things the second plant has no new scapes .The buds in the second photo are in the upper right of the first photo . ( My cameras has a problem with reds, so just believe me that this flower is a medium mauve. )

The next two photos are 'Pearl Harbor', a mid-season bloomer - obviously not finished with its first bloom and still putting out new scapes . This observation leads me to conclude that we must be smack-dab in the middle of mid-season . So June in my garden is mid-season . Do you think I'll remember that next year?

These three photos are 'Blueberry Frost', a mid-season rebloomer . Yesterday I removed all of the spent scapes on the three plants . This is the only flower they have, and it's the first one open on a recent scape with another new one coming along . The second plant has two even newer scapes, while the third has none at this point . They also have rust on the older leaves which seems not to damage the plant, just make it unattractive. Maybe someone can enlighten me .
Here's a better shot of the flower of 'Blueberry Frost' .
This is 'Fred Ham', a mid rebloomer, all done with its first scapes and adding three or four new ones . Don't know if this is still the first bloom or the continuous rebloom .
I think this is 'Evelyn Lela Stout', an early mid rebloomer, except that she's just started blooming ...unless I missed / forgot that she already bloomed . So frustrating not to think sharply anymore . I love it that she has all those buds .
This, I believe, is 'Joan Senior', a nearly white early mid rebloomer . She's been blooming for only a few weeks, a little later than my other early-mids . The photo below shows the flower a bit better .
The next two shots are beautiful to me in an unorthodox way . I hope you think so, too .


7 comments:

  1. Your sure have a wonderful collection of daylilies.

    Enjoy ~ FlowerLady

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  2. Beautiful post! I'm inspired to seriously consider giving daylilies a try (when time and resources cosmically come together!) I've heard that some can be fragrant. Have you found this to be so?
    They look very happy growing along with your roses.
    Sandra

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  3. I don't grow many daylilies, though I do think they add a lot to the garden. The picture of the daylily and rose blooms together is beautiful. You have some very pretty daylilies. Keeping up with the names of every plant is quite a chore, isn't it?

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  4. Observing rebloom periods sounds like a very good idea to me not only in terms of day lilies. I haven't gotten to it yet, but intent to start to journal them this year. Your yellow day lilies with the ruffles are to die for and I love the whitish ones, too. Both colors seem to go very well with roses.
    Christina

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  5. Lovely, all of them. The No ID mauve one looks a lot like Byzantine Emperor, a popular Munson and a good rebloomer.

    Isolate your daylily with rust from the others and consider giving it the heave. Make sure it really is rust -- does it rub off orange on a tissue?

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  6. Thanks, FlowerLady. I just chose them by the photos. It’s nice to know I have good taste in daylilies. he-he

    Sandra, to me since they’re a very showy flower, they give the roses a run for their money and keep the roses from getting uppity, I think. Some of them are quite fragrant. They smell much like Easter lilies, and earlier in the spring when temps were cooler the fragrance was even wafting in the air. Lovely!

    HolleyGarden, I agree that they add a lot to the garden AND with very little effort. Keeping the names straight is a habit I started with the roses, but I don’t have label markers for the daylilies – yet. I had planned to get them for the DLs but haven’t done it yet. After a short while you don’t need the marker to know what the plant is, but my problem is in a few cases not knowing what I planted where. I guess that bothers me. It’s a personal thing, something about being anal. haha.

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  7. I’m not disciplined enough to keep a journal, Christina, although I did buy to notebooks in January, 2010 – still unused. I hope you do start a journal. The closest I get is looking back at photos. Thankfully, they’re dated. I like those colors, too, but there really aren’t any that I don’t like so far.

    Seedscatterer, how cool. It really does look like ‘BE’. I wonder if it is. You know your daylilies!! The other plant I have (divisions of the original) and a couple others from the same box have not rebloomed yet, but I’ll be watching. What if I don’t want to give it the heave? Can the rust just be wiped off? I guess it must be catchy? I’ll have to get educated. I haven’t done your wipe test yet. Thanks for your help.

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