This is the time of year my neck cranes a bit as I drive past flowerbeds to catch a 45mph glimpse of daylilies. I like all of them, from the colonized old-fashioned ones along the roadsides, to the shorter extended bloomers, and I love the huge multi-colored tetraploides.

My flowerbeds boast several interesting ones my father planted for my grandmother over the years; from beautiful deep red ones to spider-petaled tall yellows. My favorite is a deep purple which is fragrant.

There are hundreds of daylilies on the market, mainly because they are one of the easiest flowers to breed. Male and female parts are quite prominent and readily cross-pollinate. Daylilies are a favorite target for back-yard breeders.

Probably the most popular daylily, is the golden yellow 'Stella de Oro', a short extended-bloomer bred by Walter Jablonski in the 1970s. Dr. Darrell Apps took these a bit further with the lemon yellow 'Happy Returns'. More recently he has a line dubbed Happy Ever Appsters¨ which boast a bloom period of 55-100 days. They come in a variety of colors from red, to purple, pink and of course, yellows.

Despite the breeding done to extend flowering, I'm still awfully partial to the taller tetraploides that have thicker foliage, much larger flowers, and are often fragrant.

Today two of my favorites are 'Chicago Apache' and 'Sue Rothbauer'. Ask me tomorrow and I'll tell something different.

Care is relatively simple. Remove the dead foliage in the spring, and generally tidy them up about this time of year. A little goes a long way towards preventing most problems.

Space them 2-3 feet apart depending on whether you want distinct clumps. Divide ever 5-6 years or when flowering starts to be reduced.

Grow dayliles in full sun to part shade. More shade will slightly reduce flowering and may stretch the height a bit.

Pests are spider mites and thrips. Mites cause bronzing of the foliage or webbing on the undersides of the leaves. Thrips suck the juices from the buds causing the flowers to curl a bit. Neither are fatal problems.

Foliage also may suffer from 'Leaf Streak' which causes a spotting or, you guessed it, yellow streaking. A more serious problem is rust. Not seen in the US until the last few years, rust is a fungus that forms reddish pustules on the leaves. The good news is it isn't hardy above zone 7. University of Illinois Extension has a good article on the subject. http://hyg.aces.uiuc.edu/secure/subscribers/200410b.html

Whether you enjoy them for three weeks or try some extended bloomers, daylilies will always have a home in my garden.