The Allure of the Black Daylily

Over the last six months, I found myself fascinated with black daylilies. I wasn't exactly sure how their color would match up in the real world, but the photos were certainly captivating. Boy was I surprised with these. They were some of the first daylilies I bought that bloomed, and there has pretty much been one black daylily in bloom for a couple weeks. They are something to see in person. I was afraid they might look more like dark burgundy or dark purple daylilies. Many of the black versions of popular flowers are actually just very dark versions of reds or purples. These have actually gotten very dark through selective breeding.

One thing to keep in mind with black daylilies is that they are definitely more of a fun curiosity than a landscape display flower. Most daylilies that you see in the average garden are in the orange or yellow range and are definitely designed to be a bright pop of color. The black daylily is not like this. They need to be situated at the front, without a lot of color competition, or they will be lost in the greenery. That's why sellers of black daylilies will advise you to plant where they are sure to be noticed. If you plant them in the back or among brightly colored daylilies or other flowers, you might not even notice they have bloomed. I would recommend these for any gardener for ease of growing and something very unique that your neighbors probably don't have. 

Note, there is a range of blacks. If you're going for REALLY black, you'll need to spend some time researching the darkest varieties and finding out which sellers have them available to ship. Normally you might order them in the same way you buy say a dahlia tuber, months before they are shipped. Then you often forget you ordered them and randomly the post office shows up with a package of roots in April.