THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407140036
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, GARDENING COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
WHAT'S BLOOMING, despite heat and drought? That never-fail flower, the daylily.
You can buy daylilies that bloom from June through August. Some even come back to bloom a second time in September. And you can plant them any month of the year.
Even with this summer's heat, you can plant daylilies now if you keep them watered.
If you already grow daylilies, divide and replant them now.
Darrel Apps, a leading hybridizer of daylilies, says many homeowners like the dark-flowered, or new ``eyed,'' daylilies.
In the May issue of Nursery Manager magazine, Apps says popular colors change, much like fashion. Pinks and lavenders have been most popular daylily choices the past two years, he says.
The newest color in daylilies is white. ``While yellow used to be the favorite, whites will be the color for the future,'' Apps says in the magazine.
In choosing daylilies to plant now or in fall, Apps recommends using eyed daylilies as specimen plants, not in mass. ``If you do a mass planting of eyes, they tend to look dirty and don't have that nice clear color,'' he explains.
For mass plantings, he recommends bright reds (with green or white throats), pinks, whites and yellows.
What does Apps look for in a daylily? He likes plants that stay in bloom for at least four weeks. ``We have a good number that go on a lot longer than that,'' he says. He also recommends repeat bloomers like his ``Happy Returns'' and ``Pardon Me.''
Rebloomers like ``Stella d' Oro'' and ``Black Eyed Stella'' are the current best-sellers.
Reblooming daylilies require fertilizer, plenty of water and frequent transplanting for survival. ``After two years in a clump, `Stella d'Oro' is just not going to rebloom as readily as if it was redone or divided annually,'' Apps says.
There are 36,000 cultivars of daylilies. Apps works with Centerton Nursery to test and select outstanding cultivars to be trademarked under the Trophytaker label. So far, he has chosen 35 top performers. Look for them soon in garden centers or in Apps' Woodside nursery catalog. MEMO: For more information, write to Darrel Apps, Woodside nursery, 824
Williams Lane, Chadds Ford, Pa. 19317.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
RICHARD DUNSTON/Staff
Even with this summer's heat, you can plant daylilies now if you
keep them watered.
by CNB