The Colour Encyclopedia of Daylilies [ The Color Encyclopaedia of Day Lilies ]. This item is unavailable.The Colour Encyclopedia of Daylilies [ The Color Encyclopaedia of Day Lilies ]

Double daylilies are a passion for many gardeners and hybridizers. The extra petals add a greater sense of fullness and depth to the flower, creating a beauty that has captured the imagination and hearts of flower lovers and breeders. Like double flowers of other genera, such large, full flower form adds a new dimension and gives a completely new look to the flower.

History of Doubles
Double daylilies are by no means a new flower form. Plants of the Hemerocallis species found growing in China included H. fulva var. kwanso and H. fulva 'Flore Pleno', both doubles. Unfortunately, these flowers are triploids, which are sterile, and could not be used in creating modern hybrids.

The hybrid double daylily was created from single daylilies that sometimes had double tissue. These doubles, often only semi-double, began as narrow-petaled flowers without ruffling. As hybridizers worked on improving the doubles, the new flowers emerged with wider petals and ruffles, giving them a more finished look. Through generation after generation of double breeding, the blooms became more consistently and fully double. During the 1980s and 1990s double tetraploid daylilies emerged, with heavier substance and clearer, brighter colors. Like tetraploid singles, initially there were no tetraploid doubles with which to work, which made the first efforts of hybridizers such as David Kirchhoff, Betty Hudson, and Ted Petit slowly created breeding lines. At the time of this writing, less than 100 double tetraploid daylilies are in commerce. Currently, hybridizers are interested in bringing some features of the modern single flower into the double lines, such as gold edging and heavily crimped ruffling. They have also attempted to produce double daylilies in all colors, as well as flower with eyes, watermarks, and contrasting edges.