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Hello!
WELCOME TO DAYLILY E-NEWS, a free electronic newsletter brought to you by the American Hemerocallis Society, also known as AHS. Daylily E-News is for all who share an interest in daylilies, including members of the American Hemerocallis Society and other horticultural organizations, educators, garden writers, news media, and anyone who loves to garden. In this issue, Susan Okrasinski, an avid daylily gardener from Kingsport, Tennessee, shares her adventures with a praying mantis in her garden.
To continue the theme, see if you can find all the praying mantis on various daylilies captured by observant photographers from all over. Notice which color daylily seems to be their favorite.
Be sure to click on the Facebook "like" button and share this issue with your friends! If they don't already subscribe, click here to let them see for themselves!
If you are not yet a Daylily E-News subscriber, sign up via the link at the AHS website: Daylily E-News.
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We hope you enjoy
Daylily E-News!
Elizabeth Trotter
E-News Editor
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Thank you to our advertisers for sponsoring this issue of Daylily E-News!
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 Electronic Media Award
The AHS Technology Committee and Awards & Honors Committee jointly
administer this award, designed to recognize individuals who have performed outstanding service to the AHS membership and the general public in the area of electronic media. The electronic media should create interest in, educate, and
promote the AHS to members and the general public. Nominees may have designed and created websites, blogs, electronic magazines, or mobile applications, as well as emerging technologies not specifically listed or included in other award categories. This award is presented at the National Convention each year.
Rules applying to this award are as follows:
All nominees must be AHS members.
Any AHS member may nominate a member from any AHS region, including international members, for this award. If several members have collaborated on the creation of the electronic media, they may be nominated as a team.
All nominations must be sent to the AHS Technology Chair, technology@daylilies.org, no later than September 1 each year.Nomination letters must include a website address or a link to the electronic media that can be viewed online.
In addition to describing the merit of the electronic media and the candidate's worthiness for the award, nomination letters must address the merits of the electronic media relative to the following criteria:
- Effect on furthering and promoting the mission of the AHS
- Potential effect on membership
- Educational merit
- Innovative use of technology
- Technical difficulty
- Ease of use and navigation
- Aesthetic appeal
The AHS Board will select the winner at the fall board meeting each year. The winner is awarded a certificate, signed by the AHS President, and a special electronic logo denoting the AHS award that may be used on the website, mobile app or electronic magazine denoting the AHS Electronic Media award and year awarded. The award recipient will be recognized in The Daylily Journal and Daylily E-News.
A member may be nominated for and receive this award multiple times, if merited, but not for the same project.
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FUN AT NATIONAL
AHS Youth Group with Paul Owen at
Slightly Different Nursery
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Matthew George, winner of Christine Erin Stamile Youth Award
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Christopher Monschauer,
recipient of Bertie Ferris Scholarship
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CONTEST TIME
PHOTO CONTEST
Shoot daylily and garden photos this summer and submit them by November 1. Details at Youth Photo Contest.
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I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST MY
IMAGINATION
by Susan Okrasinski
I would like to share with all of you one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had, thanks to my early daylily addiction. It happened the summer of 2005, when I was in the garden all day working in the daylily beds and taking photos of everything that moved with my brand new digital camera. This was the summer I bonded with a praying mantis - and I thought it was just my imagination.
I had set a lawn chair for my coffee breaks right next to a butterfly bush in one of my daylily beds that was full of colorful blooms and fluttering activity. I soon noticed that a small praying mantis had taken up residence there also. (Daylily beds seem to be a favorite "hang out" for mantis in my yard). I began to look for it every day and took lots of close-up photos of it.
It moved around the bush but never seemed to leave it. At first it seemed like it was afraid of me, but after a few weeks it didn't seem to mind my proximity. By this time I started to worry because he (I thought it was a male because it was brown) seemed quite unskilled at capturing prey. I actually saw a skipper butterfly hit the mantis' head with its wing before it realized Count Olaf (yes, I even named him) wasn't a twig. About this time one of our crabapples had a big tent caterpillar infestation, so I decided to offer Olaf a twig full of caterpillars, which he greedily enjoyed. This seemed to cement our friendship. He would look at me when I arrived at his spot each day, and he would wave his front arms at me. I thought I must be imagining things.
So the Count got much better at capturing food and fattened up alarmingly ... REALLY alarmingly. About a week later he revealed the fact that he was actually a Countess by laying an egg case in the butterfly bush that she called home. I was lucky to get a lot of photos, as the whole process took many hours.
When she was finally done, she rested a bit and then clambered over to a neighboring clematis trellis. This was the first time she left "her" bush. She then faced me, reared back on her hind legs (I know you are going to snort when you read this), and waved her front legs around just like a toddler wanting to be picked up! She opened her wings and flew towards me, at which point I panicked and hopped around squealing, so she veered off into the wild blue yonder. That was the last time I saw Countess Olaf.
Two days later I was back at my job as a teacher's aide in an elementary school. I decided to look in the library for information about praying mantis, and this is what I found in an old, out-of-print book:
An adult female mantis makes an interesting pet. It's important to have a female, not a male. The male mantis never seems to be "friendly" with people. He won't sit on your hand and gaze at your friends. He won't hold out his front legs as though asking to be picked up like a female will.
Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I read that. So maybe it wasn't just my imagination. The book went on to say that a female mantis will be very happy living all summer on a curtain in your room as they rarely fly. They will drink water from a spoon and you can feed them insects and tiny bits of raw meat on a toothpick.
Since that golden summer I have been on the lookout for another female mantis but haven't run into any. I would love to try befriending another one. Who knows??? It might even be a descendant of the Countess!
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To order your copy, visit:
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| The American Hemerocallis Society, Inc., is a non-profit corporation organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes, and especially to promote, encourage, and foster the development and improvement of the genus Hemerocallis and public interest therein. |
| AHS Daylily E-News Committee: Elizabeth Trotter (KY), Editor, E-News; Sue Bergeron (ON, Canada); Ken Cobb (NC); Julie Covington (VA); David Kirchhoff (KY); Nikki Schmith (IL); John Ware (VA). |
| Daylily E-News © 2014 by the American Hemerocallis Society, Inc. |
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Hemerocallis 'Point of View' (Roberts-S., 1992). Click photo for larger image.
| | Locate an AHS group near you! | |
The American Hemerocallis Society is all about daylilies and people.
AHS is organized into 15 Regions including USA, Canada, and International designations. Each offers a variety of regional and local club daylily activities.
When people join AHS, they also become a member of the AHS Region in which they live. AHS Regions do not charge additional dues. Most AHS regions publish their own newsletter and mail it to all regional members at no extra charge. Members often participate in events outside their own region.
To learn about daylily activities and events near you, visit the webpage:
AHS Regional Activities
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Hemerocallis 'Seminole Wind'
(Stamile, 1993). Click photo for larger image.
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Why Join AHS?
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Learn about daylilies.
Receive the quarterly publication, The Daylily Journal.
Receive a regional newsletter 2-3 times per year.
Enjoy a members-only social networking site with forums, blogs, calendars, and more.
Meet daylily growers and hybridizers.
Vote for favorite daylilies in the Popularity Poll.
Participate in daylily exhibitions.
Become an AHS Exhibition Judge.
Become an AHS Garden Judge.
Have an AHS Daylily Display Garden and/or AHS Historic Daylily Display Garden.
Attend daylily symposiums, garden tours, meetings, conventions, and more.
Participate in on-line discussion groups.
Join special interest snail-mail groups.
Become a better gardener.
Form friendships for life!
AHS members belong to one of 15 U.S./Canadian regions. Those outside the U.S. and Canada may join as International members. Over 180 local clubs form the backbone of every region, and you may find that one of them is near you. If not, meet with local gardeners and form a daylily club of your own!
It's easy to become a member. Just use this link: Join AHS
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Hemerocallis 'Mascara Snake' (Bachman, 2002). Click photo for larger image.
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What is the AHS Membership Portal?
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The AHS Membership Portal is a feature-rich website operated by AHS for the benefit of its members.
In 2013, the Portal was completely redesigned for easier navigation and user convenience. A new tour of the Portal's features and benefits has been created by Portal Help Desk member Michael Bouman, with recorded narration for every slide. A video of the tour is available for people who don't have PowerPoint on their computer. Both the PowerPoint download and the streaming video are posted on the Portal's Help Page. (The "Help" button is located on the right side of the listing of drop-down buttons near the top of the page.) The Portal home page is located at www.daylilynetwork.org.
We hope members will take a look around the site to see the changes that have been made. If you are having a problem accessing any of the features, hit the "Contact Us" button at the very top row of buttons on the right of the page or click on the "Contact" button just to the left of "Help" in the row of buttons near the top.
If you are not a member of the AHS and are interested in joining, you can do it right from the home page noted above.
Want to learn more about the benefits of joining the AHS? Click on the "Membership" button near the top, pick "Join/Renew" from the drop-down menu, and then pick "Membership Benefits."
We hope you enjoy the new look of the site!
Mary Collier Fisher,
There is something for everyone on the AHS Membership Portal.
Discover it today!
Visit:
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Hemerocallis 'Oh Great One' (Benz-J., 2005). Click photo for larger image.
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SPELLING LESSON
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How to spell
"daylily"
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The word "daylily" is properly spelled as one word. Many of today's spellcheckers and media style books incorrectly use the old-fashioned spelling "day lily" instead. The single word has been the preferred spelling for decades.
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Hemerocallis 'Medieval Splendor' (Salter, 1991). Click photo for larger image.
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What is a Daylily?
| A daylily is an herbaceous perennial that will return year after year in a suitable climate. Some are evergreen and will retain their green foliage throughout the year in a mild climate.
Daylilies may be hardy or tender, depending on genetics, so gardeners should choose cultivars based on their local growing conditions
Daylilies belong to the genus Hemerocallis, from the Greek meaning "beauty for a day." A typical daylily bloom lasts for one day, but an established clump will produce many flowering scapes with plentiful buds that will produce a fresh flush of blooms over many days.
Daylilies do not form bulbs (as do members of the genus Lilium, otherwise known as "true" lilies).
Due to the distinctive characteristics of Hemerocallis, taxonomists have removed daylilies from the family Liliaceae and placed them in their own family Hemerocallidaceae.
Daylilies form a crown, with fibrous roots below and foliage and flowering scapes above. The daylily crown is the essential growth center of the plant. Neither true daylily root structures nor daylily foliage will grow without a piece of the crown.
Some daylilies form rhizomes - special underground structures with scales and internodes - that can produce new plants. The species or "wild" types often have this trait. Many modern hybrids do not form rhizomes, although there are some that do.
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Sandy Holmes Seedling
Click photo for larger image.
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