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Edges, Chicken Fat, and Eyes; Oh My!

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By M Fitzgerald (MitchF)
October 21, 2007 Mail this article
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Views: 1,345

In all the plant world there is one flower known for its eyes, edges, and every so often you find some wonderful chicken fat edges. What is this wonder of the plant world? This wonderful flower is none other than the wonderful daylily.

Gardening picture

Daylilies and the sun go hand in hand. Some of the darker daylilies cannot take the full daytime sun but they still need at least six hours of sunlight. They are very forgiving plants, they love the heat, and will even take a little dryness if they are planted in the right areas. Daylilies will grow in any soil but I have seen here that they spread faster in soils with more sand and stay in smaller, tighter clumps if they are in clay soils. Daylilies love compost and this is the only thing that I give my daylilies to feed them. They love the extra food and I don’t have to worry about adding chemicals to my yard.

Keep the soil moist in the blooming season, but not overly wet. Daylilies that stay too dry will not put on a show of blooms but, on the other hand, daylilies that sit in water will rot in the soil. The best way to do this is to care for the soil first with lots of compost or manure in the soil to help it drain faster. Take care of your soil also by placing mulch over the soil after you plant the daylilies. Mulch will keep the weeds down and help to keep the soil moist.

Weeds are a major factor when you are dealing with daylilies. Some weeds might find the daylily patch the perfect place to hide. One major offender in some areas is Bermuda Grass which, in a mature bed, cannot be hoed or killed out but must be pulled. Still, once established in a large area, you will not have to worry about very many weeds.

Daylilies come in all colors except all blue and all white. The color of the bloom will differ in garden to garden and even from one section of the garden to the next. A bloom that looks strongly white in the show garden might look yellow, tan, or even pink in your garden. The designs in the flowers and strong mixes of colors available in daylilies make them a wonderful plant to have and grow in the garden.

A word of caution should be mentioned about daylily seeds. On many well-known auctions you can buy seeds of great daylilies. What is not said in these auctions is that the seeds will never grow into the same plant as the mother plant. Planting seeds of daylilies will give you wonderful new plants that might bloom stunning flowers that everyone wants or might give you the ugly duckling of the daylily world. If you are looking for a daylily, it is well worth the effort to go out and buy the plant you are looking for rather than growing from seed.

Daylilies are a wonderful addition to the garden and it seems that every gardener is bitten by the daylily bug at least once in their lifetime. Though people don’t always grow them by the hundreds, there are those who get addicted to daylilies and dedicate their whole garden to growing these wonderful garden plants. To learn more visit the Daylily Forum here at Dave’s Garden.

About M Fitzgerald

I am a pentecostal preacher, gardener,husband, and a father. I love natives, daylilies, iris, and roses. I love teaching others, be they children or adults, about the garden and plants.

Subject: Yes, it is an addiction-help me

Posted by chalhydrabat (from Redford, MI) on October 25, 2007 at 8:19 PM:
I just became fascinated this year with daylillies, and have a few different types about the garden. I get a lot of stuff from perennial exchanges, etc. and last summer at a farmer's market, paid way too much for a few daylilly bulbs called "Lights of Detroit." They didn't flower, as something else that I had planted from last year went crazy and grew over that corner. We moved the lights, and they have even gotten bigger leaves at that spot. My question is, is this a legitimate daylilly, or something someone named on a lark? They are supposed to bloom into brilliant yellow lillies.
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 25, 2007 at 8:24 PM:
Look it up in the plant files or at Tinkers... I have to tell you that you can spend up to several hundred dollars for a Daylily.
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Posted by Calif_Sue (from San Jose, CA) on November 5, 2007 at 6:56 PM:
A bright cheerful older yellow on it looks like. Hope it does better for you next year.

[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]

Below is the official Daylily Registration database while DG and Tinker's can contain errors. But these are the sites to go for the pictures!!

[HYPERLINK@www.daylilydatabase.org]
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Subject: Good article

Posted by bluegrassmom (from Lewisburg, KY) on October 23, 2007 at 12:24 AM:
Hi,
You should join us more often in the daylily forum. What is the name of the spider at the very top. Lovely eye pattern.
Teresa
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 23, 2007 at 8:02 AM:
I used to be over there a lot - I am not sure what the top is - right now a noid... all my photos got mixed up.
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Posted by Calif_Sue (from San Jose, CA) on November 5, 2007 at 6:57 PM:
Teresa, spidery image is Pat Stamile's picture of AERIAL DISPLAY
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on November 5, 2007 at 6:58 PM:
Calif-Sue Did you hit every thread for this article?
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Posted by Calif_Sue (from San Jose, CA) on November 5, 2007 at 7:04 PM:
Whoops, sorry Mitch, I realized after I sent them that you would get all the copies but the others were asking what the daylilies were in several different threads and I figured they wouldn't see the other threads at all so I just copied while I had the info open in front me.
My bad.
Great article by the way and it was nice to see several new to daylily people asking questions, Aireal Display which is such a striking bloom, now has several folks that hit the Wanted function most likely from this article.
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on November 6, 2007 at 7:26 AM:
No problem Calif-Sue - and I glad you came in to help with the names... I have been very bad with names of late just wondered if you knew you hit them all. You are more then welcome to help out with anyth9ing in my articles any time - never a problem!
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Subject: Spider Lily picture.

Posted by Waterpondlover (from Columbus, OH) on October 22, 2007 at 9:19 AM:
I loved the spider daylily. Do you remember where you got it?
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Posted by Calif_Sue (from San Jose, CA) on November 5, 2007 at 6:51 PM:
The spidery image I recognized right away as Pat Stamile's picture of AERIAL DISPLAY
[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]

A 2004 intro so probably a bit pricey still.
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Subject: Great article Mitch.

Posted by frostweed (from Arlington, TX) on October 21, 2007 at 9:10 PM:
Those Daylilies are gorgeous, no wonder people go crazy about them.
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Subject: So, what's chicken fat mean?

Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on October 21, 2007 at 8:18 AM:
I thought you were gonna explain the terms......lol
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 21, 2007 at 9:01 AM:
Chicken Fat is the thick yellow curled edge on a Daylily
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Posted by threegardeners (from North Augusta, ON) on October 21, 2007 at 9:03 AM:
thank you!!!
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 21, 2007 at 9:32 AM:
No problem - the article was to give a general over view of the Daylily - I hope in the future to give more details.
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Posted by JaxFlaGardener (from Jacksonville, FL) on October 21, 2007 at 11:18 AM:
Interesting to learn that the daylilies can be different colors in different gardens. I have been a bit perplexed in the past when I ordered daylilies from catalog companies, and when they bloomed, they were similar to what the catalog had shown but not really the same in color tones. Maybe that explains the changes in color from what I expected to what I got.

Jeremy
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Posted by McGlory (from Southeast, NE) on October 21, 2007 at 11:31 AM:
Beautiful photos, Mitch! Doesn't a daylily photograph nicely? Calling for a chicken fat closeup. LOL!
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Posted by pajaritomt (from Los Alamos, NM) on October 21, 2007 at 12:50 PM:
Your daylilies are gorgeous but do you know the cultivars? I especially covet the rose colored one, though that spider one is nice. Never heard the chicken fat term before, but it makes sense! Thanks for tips on daylilies' needs. Sometimes the simplest stuff is hardest to find.
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Posted by critterologist (from Frederick, MD) on October 21, 2007 at 1:49 PM:
Thanks for a great overview of one of my favorite flowers! I'm not obsessed enough to know what "chicken fat" means, either, so I'm glad somebody already asked... that was my one remaining question after reading the article. ;-)

I loved the photos you chose... great job with the layout, too!
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Posted by KyWoods (from Melbourne, KY) on October 21, 2007 at 2:08 PM:
Oooo, lovely pics! Wonder who first used the term, "chicken fat" for daylilies...LOL, it looks great on them. You daylily addicts are bound and determined to turn me into one of you!
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Posted by tortoisekeeper (from Cookeville, TN) on October 21, 2007 at 2:08 PM:
very nice article Mitch. and BEAUTIFUL blooms
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on October 21, 2007 at 4:27 PM:
I too was perplexed by "chicken fat"...glad I checked here for the answer! Beautiful article Mitch!
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 21, 2007 at 5:11 PM:
Thank you - Mitch
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Posted by Riverland (from Northeast, LA) on October 21, 2007 at 9:04 PM:
Mitch please tell us the names of the photos you posted.
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on October 21, 2007 at 9:05 PM:
Wish I could - got them all muddled right now. I am trying...
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Posted by HoustonRick (from Houston, TX) on October 22, 2007 at 12:55 PM:
Nice brief overview. Makes me want to see more & will consider salt & peppering my garden with some clumps. Beautriful, enticing pix!
Rick
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Posted by Calif_Sue (from San Jose, CA) on November 5, 2007 at 6:49 PM:
The first spidery image I recogized right away as Pat Stamile's picture of AERIAL DISPLAY
[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
The rose and eyed ones I know I've seen before, I am thinking they are also Pat Stamile's older images or perhaps images by Bill Jarvis, just not sure which ones, perhaps the eyed one is from his Candy series Mitch?

The yellow one is A BIT OF SPICE
[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
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