Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sunrise Lily

Common Daylily
(Hemerocallis fulva)


There are daylilies growing and blooming everywhere here in the summer, in garden plots, ditches and dry moats, on road allowances and by abandoned farmhouse doors. Apparently there are thousands of different cultivars and groups all over the world devoted to the study and appreciation of these splendid immigrants from Europe, Korea and China.

The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek ἡμέρα (hēmera) "day" and καλός (kalos) meaning beautiful, and daylilies are sun worshippers of the highest order, opening at dawn to greet the rising sun and withering gracefully away at sunset. The blooms last only a day, and each blossom makes the most of its brief time on this earth by flowering in in magnificent fiery hues and dancing in the wind on its elegant attenuated stem, whole colonies swaying together in gentle summer breezes like dance companies.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Common and commonly beautiful. How lucky to see all this.

looking for beauty said...

The wonderful thing about these "common" flowers is that there is nothing common about them. They are spectacularly beautiful You've taken some lovely photos here.