The Day Lily by Barbara Carvallo

The taxonomy of the day lily includes the following:

Kingdom – Plantae – plants
Division – Tracheophyta – vascular plants
Class – Magnoliopsida
Family – Xanthorrhoeaceae
Genius – Hemerocallis L. – the day lily

There are many species, a number of hybrids and dozens of cultivars.  They all share a common genetic foundation, a family in fact, and yet they are all different.  They have different sizes, different shapes, different colors, some scent and some don’t. In the garden of a day lily aficionado one might expect to find 50, 60, even a hundred varieties – they are as passionate as any rose grower.

The moral of this story of the day lily is that nature will not tolerate intolerance.  She mandates diversity.  As gardeners we can’t imagine a world where all flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses looked alike.  It is in the nature of gardeners to seek imperfect balance and perfect chaos because that is the definition of beauty. 

Gardening is a spiritual craft, a prayer planted in the soil, nurtured with the hand and heart and made manifest through good will and faith.  I have never understood the blindness that would rob the world of diversity that would make all flowers, trees, shrubs, grasses and people the same. Such sightlessness is spiritual suicide, prayer without hope, profound neglect, a corruption of the will and the antithesis of faith.

Behold the lovely day lily, Goddess’ testament to the magnificence of diversity.