Ted L. Petit

This is a well written and comprehensive account of the Daylily. It opens with a Chapter describing the plant and its make up. Chapter Two discussed its History while Chapter three looks at the History of Daylily Hybridising. Chapters four through nine look at the various forms including Singles, Eyed and Patterned, Doubles, Spiders, Polytepal and Small and Miniature Daylilies. Chapter Ten considers Hybridising, Chapter Eleven Cultivation and Chapter Twelve looks at Daylilies of the Future. There are two Appendices: Additional Resources which provides details of Daylily Societies and other sources; and Sources for Daylilies which covers the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. It concludes with a Bibliography and an Index of Pictured Cultivars

An impressive book of generous size, it is illustrated throughout in colour with over 1,200 photographs, many taken by the joint authors. The text is clear and concise, and such matters as the distinction between Diploid and Tetraploid are simply explained. The selection of plants chosen for inclusion (and with so many thousands of cultivars in existence it necessarily can only be a selection), appears somewhat arbitrary other than there seeming to be a preference for broad petalled ruffled forms; it would have been informative to know what criteria were used for selection. It would also have been interesting have a chapter discussing the merits or garden worthiness of specific plants.

It is a well produced book with a clear an uncluttered presentation. Most of the cultivars are illustrated by a single bloom although a few are pictured as a clump giving an idea of the plant and its flower potential as a whole. The standard of photography is generally very good, however there are one or two photographs which are out of focus, and also a few where the lighting leaves something to be desired. However the colour reproduction, frequently a problem with Daylilies, seems for the most part and as far as I am familiar with specific cultivars, to be fairly accurate (yet consider ‘Elusive Dream’, p 81, described as a “pale cream-pink” – yet it is illustrared as a brilliant yellow). It is a predominantly American publication and seems to make little reference to work down outside the States, similarly the list of sources outside the States is scant: only four nurseries listed for the whole of Europe (I can think of around twice that number for the UK alone).

However overall it is a valuable publication, and while any such book can only give a general overview, and with so many new cultivars appearing each year is by definition going to be dated very quickly, it brings us in terms of the history of the modern Daylily light years ahead from R W Munson’s useful 1989 publication.… (más)

Considerably expanded and updated on the original The Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies, published in 2000, The New Encylopedia of Daylilies follows very much the same format. Authors Ted L Petit and John P Peat, both daylily hybridisers amongst other things, have also made several changes and additions to the original. Firstly it is considerably enlarged; there are around 100 additional pages, and many more pictures, over 1700 of which 1400 are new to his edition. There is a very large chapter on daylilies of the future, and looking the other way there are more of the older varieties of significance included. While the chapter on Hybridizers of Today is noticeable extended, much of the information however in other chapters under the main headings The Daylily Plant and The History of the Daylily remains basically the same, with just some minor edits.

With around 60,000 registered daylilies to choose from, up by some 20,000 since the original publication, the authors not surprisingly admit to the difficulty of choosing which to include. They explain that their choice is based on those which, through their own experience, they believe are the most worthy and worthwhile cultivars. They have also considered other sources such as the popularity polls of the American Hemerocallis Society and winners of AHS awards. They have also taken into account those plants which are most widely grown based on information in the Eureka Daylily Reference Guide. With the seeming popularity of Spider, Variants and Unusual Forms it is a little surprising that this particular section is no larger than the original edition. I suspect Messes Peat and Petit have a preference for the rounder and ruffled forms. The section Daylilies of the future is very large and contains many beautiful unnamed seedlings, but showing so many is rather like putting child in a sweet shop and telling him he can’t have any, for without the names we will never in fact be able to have them.

This book is certainly a valuable addition on the subject of the Daylily, and it is a handsome and generally well produced volume. I have a coupe of criticisms, firstly for some reason the alphabetical arrangement of the cultivars appears in places to have been abandoned; secondly, and this was a criticism of the original edition too, that a few of the pictures are of suspect quality with either poor focusing or lighting. The reproduced colour of some of the daylilies might also be call into question, but they are notoriously difficult to photograph accurately being very subject to the effects of the lighting; the colour and form is also affected by climate and even the length of time the plant has been growing – so it is difficult too be to critical here. But that aside it is a worthy publication.… (más)