Hemerocallis 'Tejas'

Hemerocallis 'Tejas' was hybridised by the celebrated American grower, Hugh M. Russell and first introduced in 1945. It is an exceptionally beautiful spider Daylily with a wonderful metallic brownish-red colour - usually referred to as bronze but actually more like a dark rusty iron - and has a spectacular yellow centre. It flowers from June through to August, reblooming throughout the summer.

Hugh Mortimer Russell or 'Mr Daylily' as he became known, was born in Bessemer, Alabama on August 10 1901 and became interested in Daylilies in 1927. At that time, there were only three cultivars in America and sixteen Asiatic varieties. He established a nursery and garden in Spring, Texas, about 23 miles out of Houston on Highway 75 and started to hybridise Hemerocallis - only the fifth person in the world to have done so at that time. During the Depression, he would often sell his Daylilies door to door and went on to become the largest grower of Daylilies in the world, with 3.5 million plants in his Russell Gardens Nursery. He was the first person to develop a Daylily that would stay open at night or as a cut flower. At the time of his death on February 29 1960, he had created 1287 of the 8000+ cultivars of Daylily in existence, an astonishing achievment.

'Tejas' with its metallic browny-red flower is exactly the shade of colour I think suits exotic gardens so well. Indeed, it is a colour that is stylish yet beyond the whims of fashion and will enhance any garden. Combined with the long narrow petals of its elegant spider form, this flower is a clear winner. Tejas is, of course, the Spanish word for Texas.