I’m up early each day to enjoy the summer magic of dawn in my garden.  It’s the only chance I get to immerse myself in the tranquility of the morning.  I walk a little through the garden but mostly just to get to the far back corner to sit near our pond and waterfall. It’s a peaceful and beautiful place to watch the sunrise, see and hear nature come alive, and drink my Diet Pepsi before the day's garden work begins.  Birds flitter here and there catching insects while butterflies wake up to nectar on flowers, hummingbirds give me a quick buzz around my face, and a mother raccoon meanders in with 4 kits (babies) to steal my cat's breakfast. There are morning glories and cypress vines winding around the frame of a nearby swing, Rose of Sharon ‘Blueberry Smoothie’ invites the hummingbirds for a feast,and just introduced in 2022, paniculata hydrangea ‘Little Hottie’, grows along the path to my potting shed.  And, around the bend is a large area of Kwanso Lilies.   

I love my Kwanso Lilies with Telstar Dwarf Dutch Irises growing among them, a beautiful combination for a long blooming time.  The irises add spring colors of deep purple with yellow throats followed by summer blooming Kwanso Lilies with double “orangie-tan-yellow” flowers planted on the downside of our sloping backyard. This is an appropriate location for these ‘ditch’ daylilies, they can handle the rain and slow down the run-off.   But beware, a planting of these ditch lilies can eventually morph into an enormous clump that can threaten to devour your entire garden…that’s what ditch lilies do!   

The orange lily is the common daylily seen along roadsides and in old home gardens and is referred to as the ‘ditch lily’. It is the ancestor of numerous modern daylily cultivars. The single-flowered ditch lily is the original and most common type.  While the double-flowered varieties have existed for a considerable amount of time, they most likely evolved due to genetic mutations like the ‘Kwanso’.  Many people think the old wild orange ditch lily ‘Hemerocallis fulva’ is native to North America but most hail from China, Korea and Japan where they have been cultivated for at least 4,000 years.   Eventually, the plant arrived on our shores during the colonial period by early European settlers and was so popular as a pass-a-long plant to family and neighbors, that it now grows from coast to coast. When the wagon trains went west, the ditch lily rode along. Big clumps of the lily roots were tossed on the back of wagons and made the journey along with the rest of the families…tough, durable roots.

The orange ditch daylily ‘Hemerocallis fulva’ is known by several common names, tawny daylily, corn lily, tiger daylily, ditch lily, Fourth of July lily.  Additional names like railroad and roadside daylily, including outhouse and washhouse lily were common in the south. The genus Hemerocallis, is derived from 2 Greek words, hemeros, meaning ‘day’ and kiallos, meaning ‘beauty’, referring to the beautiful flowers that last only a day.  

There are 2 variations of the orange ditch daylily with double flowers that exist in the wild, Kwanso (old double orange) and ‘Flore Pleno’ (orange-yellow-gold), both the oldest and most often seen in ditches, spread rapidly and are beautiful.  The primary difference between the two is that Kwanso has 12 to 15 petals resembling a pom-pom, fragrant, produces typically sterile seeds while Flore Pleno has 15-18 petals more elegant, no fragrance, uncommon to see a seed pod.  But they look so similar that it can be difficult to know which one you are growing in your garden, even for experts. Both spread primarily by underground runners and rhizomes. They can quickly colonize an area. 

These ditch lilies are easy to maintain in full sun. Just give them about an inch of water a week during dry spells, fertilize with 10-10-10 in the spring after the last frost, and deadhead spent flowers.  

 Beyond their aesthetic appeal, ditch lilies also play a role in our ecosystems. Their hardiness means they can spread quickly, often helping to stabilize soil and prevent erosion in areas where other plants might struggle to grow.  My ‘Kwanso lilies’ or are they ‘Flore Pleno lilies’ you decide, grow in an area of our garden where erosion is now stabilized.  But be careful where you plant them because they can overtake other plants.  Once you have them, they can be difficult to eradicate.  Digging them up is not an easy task with their root system.  If they are growing in an area where no other plants exist, you can mow them down and cover them with a thick layer of mulch to smother them, weed killers work, too.     

So, don’t judge me, you decide if they are friend or foe.  Their flowers are colorful and attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and an occasional hummingbird. Besides, I enjoy seeing them in the mornings, it energizes me and adds to the magic of my garden, Diet Pepsi helps, too!

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