Daylilies

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Daylilies are like explosions of color. They open, flash their vivid
hues and are gone in a day, having served as the fireworks of the flower
world.

Daylilies have been known for 400 years and hybridized for more than
100. From the original intense orange has come a paintbox of
unbelievable colors—lavender, apricot, amber, yellows that challenge
the sun, dazzling reds, delicate cream, soft rose, burgundy, melon,
peach, purple, and dramatic combinations of these.

Like the flowers it portrays, this book is a burst of intense color.
With a minimum of text and more than 50 full-page plates of daylily
varieties shown in close-up, the work hammers home the message of color,
color, incredible, intense color.

The flowers were photographed at a farm east of Toronto where the
owners specialize in breeding daylilies suitable for the Canadian
climate and produce more than 10,000 new seedlings yearly.

The text is a brief essay on the history of the daylily, from its
origins in Eastern Asia to the hybridization being done today in Florida
and Ontario.

Quotations from classical literature add another layer of interest to
this album devoted to the form and color of what John Milton called
“flowers worthy of paradise.”