Daylily Ruby Spider

These flowers are pure, saturated deep red with a slender golden stripe down the center and a matching golden-yellow throat. The petals have a shape unromantically called "spatulate," sort of flat and spoon-shaped at the same time. All we know is, they're 9 inches wide! Careful -- you're going to give the other Daylilies an inferiority complex if you keep staring like that!

Ruby Spider was bred by one of the premier Daylily plantsmen of our time, Patrick Stamile. It has won too many awards to list. It's the kind of Daylily that gardeners fall in love with and design whole borders around. In other words, it's going to wow you. Unfortuantely, it's going to wow every other gardener gazing at its photo right now too, so please order early, before it sells out!

This early to midseason bloomer reaches 34 inches high, and is a dormant tetraploid,. This means that its foliage dies back in winter, which is an important consideration for northern gardeners. Many Daylilies are semi-evergreen, and when severe winter weather hits their leaves, it can do permanent damage. So Ruby Spider is a great choice for the far north. And it is a "tetraploid," meaning that it has twice the chromosomes of traditional Daylilies (many of today's newer varieties are tetraploid), which accounts for the large bloom size, brighter colors, and greater garden vigor. There is no denying it: this is one pretty terrific plant to have in your garden!

If you're new to Daylilies, welcome to the easiest perennial you'll ever grow! They love sun but tolerate a bit of shade, and they need well-draining soil. Other than that, all bets are off -- these powerhouses thrive despite heat, humidity, drought, cold, poor soil, and just about anything else. Pamper them the first season to get their root system established: plenty of water, rich soil, all the nice little touches -- and then let them go. The only thing you'll have to do is divide them every once in a while as they spread. (After a few years, they'll begin to lose bloom strength if they aren't divided.) Dividing them is as easy as a whack of the shovel, so that's no problem. Try Daylilies among your Daffodils -- they hide the dying foliage of the Daffodils and follow them in bloom, keeping the garden colorful for two seasons instead of just one. They are also nice friends to Bearded Iris, among many, many others.

Get Ruby Spider before it's gone! Zones 3-9.