Author Archives: Alan Ilagan

This is a deeper, darker variety of the common daylily – that ubiquitous orange beacon currently blooming along many roads and ditches. The plant pictured here has been growing at my parents’ house for at least three decades. For some reason, they always struck me as gorgeously exotic when I would see them in banks and ditches in my childhood. The blooms and foliage would be relatively unremarkable – perfectly fine and pretty, but not of particular note among the variety of grasses and plants that grew beside them – but when they started opening their bright flowers, they were all I would notice. 

Andy and I don’t currently have any daylily plants in the garden, and I am always claiming that I’m going to rectify that. Despite the fact that each bloom lasts but a day, they are produced in such profusion that the entire blooming period should last a couple of weeks. Some varieties even deign to re-bloom, extending the season even further. And that foliage remains green and fine for the entire summer. 

A few years ago I purchased a couple of ‘King Tut’ papyrus plants on a whim, and after drowning them in water and sun they rose to tower almost over my head by mid-summer, pumped up from  a steady diet of moisture and fertilizer, and lined pots that only let a little bit of drainage occur. Papyrus do quite well when they are practically standing in water, and the ‘King Tut’ variety that was available took in all the nourishment, and the regular supply of sun that summer, to soar skyward. 

This year, I found a few papyrus plants at Lowes – an unmarked variety so I had hoped they were less-hybridized, and even taller when treated well – but they turned out to be some dwarf version. Better for a smaller pot or garden, but not the larger trio of urns I’d wanted them to fill. 

That said, they are starting to fill out – sunless days be damned! – and their smaller stature and finer form actually draws the onlooker in, demanding a closer inspection.

Set against the blue water, their bright green hue looks especially striking in the sunlight, which may have made a comeback this week. Echoes of the Nile, and Cleopatra glamour, come with the territory of the papyrus plant. Or maybe that’s just my overactive imagination…