Hemerocallis Mauna Loa - Daylily

The Daylily or Hemerocallis ‘Mauna Loa’ is a robust and floriferous perennial with flashy flowering. This variety offers sumptuous coppery orange flowers with amber shades and the petal edges are slightly fringed. Repeat flowering from mid-June to late August. It revives flower beds, borders, and bouquets thanks to the good durability of its flowers. Not demanding, this plant thrives in a sunny position and ordinary, not too dry to fresh soil. The deciduous foliage disappears in autumn. Once established, the clump widens over the years.

The genus Hemerocallis belongs to the Liliaceae family or the Asphodelaceae family according to a more recent classification. Hemerocallis comes from the Greek hémera which means day and kalos for good or beautiful, in summary "Beauty of a day". They are commonly called "Daylilies" or "Perpetual Lilies" because their flowers resemble those of Lilies and they last no more than a day. They are perennial and hardy plants with deciduous foliage, sometimes semi-evergreen.

The 'Mauna Loa' daylily is a tetraploid hybrid variety obtained by Roberts in 1976. It grows quickly and forms a beautiful dense clump that will reach 50 to 60 cm (20 to 24in) in height when in flower, with a relative spread of 60 cm (24in). Daylilies tend to spread a little when they like the soil. Carried by rigid stems, the flowers measure 11 to 13 cm (4 to 5in) in diameter. Each one consists of three coppery orange petals and three sepals, velvety, with a central vein of the same colour and an undulating edge. In the centre, six stamens stand out, each topped with a brown anther with two lobes. Each flower lasts no more than a day, but the flowering constantly renews over a beautiful period between late June and late August. The stems are robust and allow for beautiful bouquets. Deciduous, the linear foliage, of a pretty bright green, is abundant during the growing season from April to October, then turns yellow in autumn before disappearing for the winter.

The 'Mauna Loa' Daylily is an excellent perennial plant, robust and generous. It is an ideal choice in the background of a perennial bed or as a border for a shrub bed. Very easy to grow, daylilies thrive both in shade and in full sun. Thanks to their rhizomatous root system and fleshy roots, they easily establish themselves in dry soils, but cooler soils will make them more opulent and floriferous. Some of them are a little invasive, so do not hesitate to divide the clumps every four or five years, preferably in autumn, after flowering. The daylily is often called "the perfect perennial plant," due to its vibrant colours, its ability to tolerate any type of environment, but also because of its lack of modesty, it has a beautiful exuberance that blends well with other perennials. Plant them in generous clumps in the background of your flower beds. All summer bulb flowers can be planted alongside daylilies.

With its multitude of orange flowers, ‘Mauna Loa’ is perfect for bringing a lot of dynamism and cheerfulness to the garden. It pairs well with flowers in soft or pastel shades, yellow, pink, blue, or violet. For a very colourful composition, it can be combined with crocosmias, gladioli, lilies, dahlias. In cool soil, it is ideal near a pond, with Iris pseudacorus, Asian primroses, astilbes. For a lighter touch in a soft and harmonious bed, it pleasantly accompanies gauras, flax, bellflowers, or white-flowered yarrows, as well as grasses such as Pennisetum or Calamagrostis. The flowers are edible, they brighten up salads and decorate desserts.