From Wikipedia: Hemerocallis fulva, the orange day-lily, tawny daylily, corn lily, tiger daylily, fulvous daylily, ditch lily or Fourth of July lily, is a species of daylily native to Asia.
I usually call them orange lilies. My mother-in-law gifted to me these summer beauties a couple of decades ago, as hers were in deep shade. She wasn’t a gardener, but somehow had these growing alongside her driveway, never blooming, but always offering grassy-green foliage on warm spring and summer days. I planted the ones she gave to me–it was only 3 or 4 individuals–and grew them in a part-shade area of my front garden during these past 20 plus years. The lily plants spread, foliage usually attractive (except for deep summers and winters), and flowers always showy. I separated the lilies, giving many away, moving others to varying parts of my garden, with mixed results. Though not native in my mostly native plants garden, these June-blooming lilies have always been easy to grow, requiring little maintenance. Not a huge draw for pollinators, some native green sweat bees will visit the stamens when the flowers open.
After winter storm Uri froze Texas in 2021, and we removed the remainder of the mature, but severely freeze damaged Arizona Ash in the following autumn, I knew these lilies would struggle in the full blast of the Texas summer sun. And so they did: the next summer, the lilies produced puny, dwarfed blooms and scorched foliage. If the lilies were to survive and grow their glorious selves, they would have to be transplanted to a different, more amenable, spot in my garden.
I dug up all the lilies and planted in several spots of my part-shade back garden. Huzzah! The orange lilies have thrived! It’s not really a surprise, as these are ridiculously easy plants to grow, requiring very little–just some soil, occasional rainfall, and the appreciative oohs and aahs of their many admirers.
This little group dances in the breeze, fronting a lush, just beginning its bloom time, Turk’s Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus, shrub. The thin, arching foliage of the lilies contrasts well with the wider, heart-shaped, tropical looking Turk’s Cap leaves.
The flamboyant flowers bloom atop slender stalks that reach one to two feet in height. There are usually 10-15 flowers per stalk, blooming over a period of weeks, each flower open for only one day.
In one section of my garden which now hosts orange lilies, I’ve also planted some companion Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, and I wish I’d planted more. I like this combo of color and bloom type. In autumn, I’ll add extra of both kinds of flowers.
Here’s a nice profile view, augmented by a spider’s web. Do you see it?
Near the pond, the daylilies are keeping company with various metal and wooden birds. Mexican Feathergrass, Nassella tenuissima, is a silvery bed for the lily foliage and flowers, while Inland Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium, serves as a graceful backdrop to the pops of audacious orange.
There are still weeks left in their flowering season, each day supplying fresh orange beauty, and there’s always some promise of a few blooms appearing at the end of summer, after tropical rains. The part-shade from the Red Oak trees will allow the lily foliage to remain sweet green, even in mid-to-late summer’s heat.
The orange lilies of my garden are right at home, once again.
My Gardener Says... 
That’s an attractive double, Tina. You can’t beat daylilies for ease of growing and long bloom period!
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Long bloom time and showy flowers–a garden win!
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How life-affirming that your mother-in-law’s long-ago floral gift keeps on giving. Keep enjoying the lillies’ orange beauty, alongside all your other bloomers.
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It is nice to have plants from family and friends; somehow, they take on an additional resonance. Funnily enough, I’m not a big fan of orange, as a general rule. But I have a lot of orange bloomers in my garden, so I guess I like it more than I conscientiously think!
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We also have some orange lilies and I absolutely love our California Poppies. I think they are called that because they really pop! 🙂
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Orange and purple do make an attractive combination, especially against a backdrop of green.
Some species have one or few common names, while certain other species have many. What you quoted shows that Hemerocallis fulva is in that second group. I wonder if any researcher has tried to find a trait that generally characterizes the plants in one group versus the other.
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Orange and purple are just great together, and you’re correct, especially with green.
I suspect there are genetic variations with daylilies as there’s a whole group of gardeners who collect them and know the heritage and variations. Me? I just like the flowers and mine were a gift–good enough for me!
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Family plants are the best and always gives you a moment to think of a loved one. I bought a bunch of day lilies, planted them all over the yard and they were gone by the next year.
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Lol–that happens. I think pass-a-long plants really are the best, aren’t they?
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Yes and they are guaranteed to grow well.
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For some reason, I’ve never been particularly impressed with daylilies, but I’d never seen such ‘fancy’ ones until recently. A little research just revealed that the ones I grew up with in Iowa actually were native, but the flowers are singles, and not so impressive as these. I especially approve of you combining them with the coneflowers; purple and orange is such a great combination!
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I think most daylilies, roses, irises–they’re all kind of “fake” flowers, aren’t they? Mostly they’ve been bred by humans from whatever/where ever their origins come from (some native plant, from some place). They certainly don’t have the biological depth of native plants: mostly, they’re not particularly good pollinators or critter feeders. Still, each of those kinds of plants can have a place in a perennial garden, and as long as they’re not troublesome to grow, I’m on board.
The native, wild iris, roses, and lilies are all simpler in form, evolution choosing their qualities not to please humans, but to provide for critters. Humans like to create big, bodacious plants!
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