Product Description

Garden writers Lewis and Nancy Hill share the wisdom of their 40 years of experience growing daylilies. Both beginning and experienced growers will profit from advice on selecting varieties, designing plantings, and propagation, as well as a listing of over 200 popular types. Also includes a directory of breeders, mail-order nurseries, and clubs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87974 in Books
• Published on: 1991-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Daylilies, as the Hills proclaim, may be the perfect perennial. Requiring little maintenance, adaptable to an almost unlimited range of landscapes and climates and available in an extraordinary selection of colors, textures, fragrances and sizes, they proliferate nearly as quickly as they're bred--though each flower blooms for only a day. Now that more than 42,000 varieties flourish, the Hills' guide seems particularly useful. It begins with practical information on how to choose, grow and maintain daylilies, and progresses to more esoteric details, such as how to arrange them ok?/mm and how to preserve them on film. If the latter seems a bit extreme, the authors come back down to earth at book's end with a comprehensive listing of their favorite cultivars. Horticulturists particularly will appreciate chapters on starting new plants from existing ones and counsel on breeding original cultivars. Illustrations and photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
Daylilies -- available in a rainbow of glowing colors and combinations of colors; able to survive with little or no care in a wide range of climates; boasting a variety of shapes and sizes; suitable for any kind of landscape; drought resistant and almost disease and insect free; adaptable to various soil and light conditions. By all accounts, daylilies are, indeed, the perfect perennial. In celebration of these satisfying plants, garden writers Lewis and Nancy Hill share the wisdom of their more than 40 years of experience growing daylilies -- experience that has led the Hills to an unabashed obsession with the daylily.

-- Advice on selecting varieties, designing plantings, and propagation and cultural requirements, particularly useful to beginning growers
-- Lists of over 200 of the most popular types, including dwarf, double, early- and late-flowering, fragrant, and ruffled, which will be of special value to more experienced growers
-- Directories of daylily breeders, daylily mail-order nurseries, and daylily clubs
-- Sixty-five color photos and twenty-five drawings of daylilies and daylily gardens

About the Author
Husband-and-wife author team Lewis and Nancy Hill currently live in Greensboro, Vermont where they own and operate a small fruit farm called Berryhill. Previously, Lewis first started a small plant nursery in the late 1940's where he grew daylilies, hardy plants, fruits, antique apples, greenhouse plants, and Christmas trees. His nurseries were called Vermont Daylilies and Hillcrest Nursery.

Lewis also helped form the Vermont Plantsmen's Association -- later serving as president -- and was leader of a 4-H club for thirty years, sharing his knowledge with over 200 children. He is a member of the National Christmas Tree Association and the New Hampshire and Vermont Christmas Tree Associations. Lewis has written the Storey books titled Christmas Trees, Cold-Climate Gardening, Secrets of Plant Propagation, Pruning Made Easy, Pruning Simplified, and Fruits and Berries for the Home Garden.

The most recent title from the author team is The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual, a landscape and maintenance guide for keeping beautiful grounds year round. Together they have also written Daylilies, Bulbs, and Successful Perennial Gardening.

Customer Reviews

Daylilies in review
As I started reading it, many of my impressions and assumptions about daylilies disintegrated and a whole new concept was formed. They originated in Asia and there are more than 32,000 cultivars. Some consider them to be the perfect perennial because they tolerate a variety of conditions. Culture, pest, and propagation is covered along with requirements for registering new cultivars. It gives advice on which cultivars are best suited for your soil. Lists of cultivars are useful for selection since they indicate what size they are and how hardy they are. Good book!

Helpful for Daylily Addiction
This book is really the "how to" manual for beginning daylily addicts. In addition to a history of the species, it identifies high quality cultivars, describes various steps in planting, and most importantly is very informative about hybridizing. I use it as a reference manual as well as enjoyable reading.

Great Book for Beginners
I purchased this book since I had no prior knowledge of daylilies. This is a good book to provide the "beginner" with overview of daylilies. Only subject I found so far which was missing from this book was a more thorough explanation of when transplanting or planting bareroot daylilies there is a period where the plants outer leaves will die off and new growth will begin. If I hadn't asked on a garden forum about this, I would have assumed I was killing my daylilies. An updated publishing of this book would be better as well but content is still okay.
Overall, it's still a good reference but not for a more experienced daylily gardener.