John P. Peat

Another offering from Messrs Peat and Petit, authors of The Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies, published 2000, (and with The New The Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies due to be published 2008), if nothing else brings the story of daylilies on a few more years. The Daylily does cover much of the same ground as their Encyclopedia in that it discuses the original species and its development in the hand of hybridisers. However much more space is given to the growing of daylilies with chapters on Landscaping with daylilies, Cultivation, Pest and Diseases, Hybridising and Exhibiting Daylilies in Shows. There is also chapter a devoted to Award Winning Daylilies; a Chapter each for Daylilies in Australia, Canada and Europe; and a chapter devoted to Daylily Societies and Events. Also included is a list of Sources for Daylilies and a Bibliography. Many of the chapters are not the work of Peat and Petit but contributed by other writers, so even where there might be a duplication of topic at least in the hands of a different contributor we get a new slant.

The biggest single section of the book, 50pp, is given over to A Selection of Daylilies for the Garden. Each cultivar is described in terms of size, colour, flowering season along with other facts, and many of them are pictured in colour; almost all of the cultivars included here are post 1990. A further selection is included, and pictured, in the chapter A Look to the Future.

It all makes for a very useful contribution to the Daylily library. However it Peat and Petit’s apparent preference for rounded and heavily ruffled flowers does mean sadly that there are very few Spiders and UFs included. With the authors extensive knowledge of their subject it would have been interesting to have included some personal comment or evaluation of the cultivars listed.

The more than 200 colour illustrations might sound a lot, but as the authors point out each year over 1,600 new plants are registered, so in Daylily terms this merely scratches the surface; and for those of us outside the USA many of these never become realistically available. So perhaps the real value of this book is that it provides an insight into the direction Daylily hybridising is going, and what we can expect to see in the future.… (plus d'informations)