Spiders, Variants, & Unusual Forms Of Daylilies

As the saying goes, everything old is new again. The daylily species first offered simple, narrow-petaled flowers. Then hybridizing began in earnest in the 1940s, and breeders invested more than 50 years toward widening the petals to create a full-formed, round flower. Narrow-petaled flowers definitely became passé. But styles change, and the narrow-petaled daylily is in fashion again-spiders are all the rage. However, the new spiders have a number of features that set them apart from the species. They are narrower than the original species, with longer petals, creating flowers that look like spiders, indeed they are more open and flatter than the species and show little or no overlap in the throat. Again, hybridizers have had to start from scratch in their attempts to produce tetraploid spiders, a relatively new commodity. They are some of the most avidly sought-after daylilies-difficult to find and expensive to buy.

The spiders have grown more interesting in the last few years, getting larger and narrower, with new features such as ornate shark-toothed, tentacled, and gold-braided edges. They also have increased twisting and twirling and complex eyes and edges. Spiders even come in double and polytepal forms. In fact, every nuance existing in the modern daylily is being adopted into the spider, spider variant, and unusual form. Today's spiders have little or no resemblance to the early species, rather they reflect the continuing search for advancement and distinction. But with this increased interest in the spiders has come increased scrutiny. Many flowers can have narrow petals, but are they narrow enough to be considered a spider? Flowers that look like spiders, but are not quite narrow enough to actually be spiders, are called spider variants. To clarify this difference, the American Hemerocallis Society wrote a definition for spiders and spider variants. They concluded that a true spider must have a petal length-to-width ratio of 5:1 or higher. A spider variant must have a petal-length-to-width ratio of at least 4:1, up to but not including 5:1.

Another group of daylilies at first glance might appear to be spiders or variants, but they have wider petals than spiders, and the floral segments appear to have consistent "movement". These are grouped under the designation "unusual forms" and have gained a following of their own. In response to the new interest in unusual forms, the American Hemerocallis Society developed a definition for them as well unusual form daylilies fit into three categories-crispate, cascading, and spatulate. The crispate category is further divided into three subcategories-pinching, twisting, and quilling. In flowers with crispate pinching, the floral segments have sharp folds giving a pinched or folded effect. Crispate flowers with twisting have floral segments with a corkscrew or pinwheel effect, and those with quilling have floral segments that turn upon themselves along their length to form a tubular shape. Cascading (or curling) flowers have narrow floral segments that display a pronounced curling, revolving upon themselves like wood shavings. Spatulate flowers have floral segments that are markedly wider at the end like a kitchen spatula. Any daylily showing one or more of these categories or subcategories, known as movements, in their flower segments is qualified to be an unusual form daylily as long as it does not meet the official definition of a spider or spider variant.

Comments

Back To Top