Hemerocallis 'Siloam Fairy Tale'

I purchased this Daylily 'Siloam Fairy Tale' at the Home Depot garden center last year. Actually, I bought two of them because they were on sale and had not yet bloomed and wanted to add to the collection a gardening friend had given me. I've blogged a lot about the pros of buying plants in your neighborhood big box garden centers but there are also cons.


I'm not an expert Hemerocallis breeder or even a serious grower of these popular perennial garden plants but even I can tell that one of these blooms should not have made it past quality control. These plants were grown by a nursery called Hampshire Farms that is located in Hampshire, IL. Whenever I see plants at the garden center by this grower, if I have a choice, I purchase them. Even though I'm purchasing at a big box store buying plants grown by Hampshire Farms makes me "feel good" because I am supporting a local grower who in turn hires people in my state and we all benefit.

But sometimes I come across a dud like the Daylily above and it makes me want to reconsider my pseudo "buy local" gardening philosophy. I purchased these plants because of the photo on the plant label and the description on the back that reads:

'Siloam Fairy Tale' bears pale ivory pink lily flowers with deep orchid eyezones and green throats on erect stems above clumps of grass-like, green foliage.

Sounds nice, huh?

The tag should be amended to say that the colors and blooms will vary and not look like the flower pictured on the other side. If you combine both blooms you get something that looks closer to what is on the plant label minus the distorted petals in the first picture. When I first noticed the imperfect blooms in one of the plants I thought it was charming and convinced myself that I liked ugly things and could find beauty in anything.

A year later I find myself resenting the first plant like a red-headed step child and avoiding eye contact with the flower. I keep playing catch with my nephew in close proximity to it in the hopes that he will trample it to death and give me an excuse to buy another plant. But so far only some poppies and nasturtiums have fallen victim.

The lesson I've learned about buying an important plant like a daylily is to buy it when it is in bloom or buy it from a gardener with a passion for breeding these plants.