The world of daylilies, like most other pursuits, has its own unique ‘language’. Listed here are some of the more common terms and abbreviations.

PLOIDY

Dip - Diploid  A daylily with two sets of chromosomes.

Tet - Tetraploid  A daylily with four sets of chromosomes.

FOLIAGE HABIT

Dor - Dormant

 The plant goes into a dormant state during winter. It will lose all of its foliage, and over-winter with pointed foliage buds usually just beneath the soil surface. 

Sev - Semi-Evergreen

The foliage of these daylilies will die back nearly to the ground in cold climates, but will normally retain a showing of green just above the soil surface.

Evr - Evergreen

The foliage of these daylilies will be retained year round. 

SEASON

Because the bloom period will vary depending on the climate, the season of bloom indicators are relative to the Mid-Season, or Peak Bloom in an area. Mid-Season is defined as that period when the largest number of daylilies commence blooming. 

EE - Extra Early     Bloom commences more than 2-4 weeks before mid-season

E - Early          Bloom commences 2-4 weeks before mid-season

EM - Early Midseason Bloom commences 1-2 weeks before mid-season

M - Mid Season     Bloom commences during the peak bloom period

ML - Late Midseason  Bloom commences 1-2 weeks after mid-season

L  - Late          Bloom commences 2-4 weeks after mid-season

VL - Very Late       Bloom commences more than 2-4 weeks after mid-season

RE - Rebloom       Many varieties will rebloom, or put up additional bloom scapes at some time after their initial bloom. Some may rebloom more than once. Rebloom is not considered when calculating season of bloom.

COLOR AND PATTERN

There a number of color patterns in daylily flowers. Patterns refer to petals and sepals. Throat color and color of stamens may be different.

Self      Petals and sepals are all of the same color.

Blend      Flower segments are a blend of two colors.

Polychrome Color is an intermingling of many colors.

Bitone     Petals and sepals are the same color, but differ in shade or intensity. Petals are darker than sepals. A Reverse Bitone has petals lighter than the sepals.

Bicolor     Petals and sepals are of a totally different color. Petals are darker than sepals. A Reverse Bicolor has petals lighter than sepals.

Eyezone    A band of color circling the throat that differs from the     petal/sepal color.

Band      The darker eyezone color appears on the petals, but not the sepals.

Eye       The darker eyezone color appears on both petals and sepals.

Halo       The darker eyezone color is faint or only lightly visible.

Watermark  An area of lighter color in the eyezone.

Edged     A contrasting color on the segment edges. The color may or may not match the eyezone, if there is one.

Picotee     This is another term for Edged.

FORM

Single      Flower with the normal complement of six segments (3 petals and 3 sepals). 

Double     Flower with more than six segments. 

Polytepalous Flowers with more than 3 petals, with a matching number of sepals. The number of anthers will match the total number of petals/sepals.

Spider      Petals and sepals are much longer in proportion to their width. Petal length to width ratio must be at least 4.0:1.

Unusual Form Flower displays unique characteritics on at least 3 petals or 3 sepals, but does not meet the criteria for the Spider classification. Unusual forms include Crispate (pinched, twisted or quilled segments), Cascading (narrow, curling or cascading segments), and Spatulate (segments are much wider at the end).