Customer Reviews

The Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have six books on daylilies, including "Daylilies A Fifty Year Affair," "Hemerocallis, The Daylily," and "A Passion For Daylilies" and grow the "latest and greatest" daylilies available today.

If I could only keep one book "The Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies" would be the one I would keep.

The color photos are the most extensive and complete of all the books published so far. It includes many selections of the new "Unusual Form" classification as well as all of the other classes. It shows many of the new traits exhibited in modern dayliles including sculpting, cordoury, polytepal, spiders and spider variants, "bagels" double edges, and more It also has the most comprehensive coverage of hybridizers to date.

Excellent book full of eye candy for the daylily lover. The basics have all been covered in other books, but what really makes this book stand out is the pictures. And what pictures! The organization of the book was nice too - chapters to reds, pinks, purples, unusual forms, etc. I have found this book helpful when shopping for daylilies (especially on-line) since I can often find a picture reference for a plant I am considering. My one complaint? While the whole book shows efforts of a wide range of hybridizers, quite a few of today's well known and/or top hybridizers are not shown in the chapter "Daylilies of the Future". Were they not asked to contribute? Did they choose not to contribute? I'm not sure of the answer but they were much missed by me. Otherwise - excellent reference and fun!

You will not find another book with such a variety of beautiful photos of daylilies. For daylily growers that want the most comprhensive photo gallery available to date. I would have enjoyed more details about the parentage of these beautiful daylilies. Munsen and Hill are tops for information but Petit's Encyclopedia is by far the pick for beautiful photos. I am sure the five stars this book received from reviewers was based on the hundreds of excellent color and variety of daylily types. If you like lots of top notch photos this is the best!!!

This is a beautiful book but there are so many new varieties that have been developed since publication it has become somewhat dated.

For serious Day Lily gardeners- this book is a must have for their garden book collections. My only wish now is that the authors and Timber Press will come out with a completely new and revised edition .

I was very pleased with the book I received. It was good quality with no defects. The price was reasonable for the great quality product I received. I am happy with this purchase.

Received this book and LOVE it. Filled with tons of pictures of beautiful daylilies. Spent hours going thru my lists, their pages, and my supplier's lists to see what I had and what I could buy next. Lots of fun and for me, definately worth the money!!

This book was just what I was looking for with amazing pictures and great information! I couldn't believe there were so many different daylilies and I think the authors have about captured them all. I want one of each! A truly beautiful book!
Thank You!

This is a well written and comprehensive account of the Daylily. It opens with a Chapter describing the plant and its make up. Chapter Two discussed its History while Chapter three looks at the History of Daylily Hybridising. Chapters four through nine look at the various forms including Singles, Eyed and Patterned, Doubles, Spiders, Polytepal and Small and Miniature Daylilies. Chapter Ten considers Hybridising, Chapter Eleven Cultivation and Chapter Twelve looks at Daylilies of the Future. There are two Appendices: Additional Resources which provides details of Daylily Societies and other sources; and Sources for Daylilies which covers the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. It concludes with a Bibliography and an Index of Pictured Cultivars

An impressive book of generous size, it is illustrated throughout in colour with over 1,200 photographs, many taken by the joint authors. The text is clear and concise, and such matters as the distinction between Diploid and Tetraploid are simply explained. The selection of plants chosen for inclusion (and with so many thousands of cultivars in existence it necessarily can only be a selection), appears somewhat arbitrary other than there seeming to be a preference for broad petalled ruffled forms; it would have been informative to know what criteria were used for selection. It would also have been interesting have a chapter discussing the merits or garden worthiness of specific plants.

It is a well produced book with a clear an uncluttered presentation. Most of the cultivars are illustrated by a single bloom although a few are pictured as a clump giving an idea of the plant and its flower potential as a whole. The standard of photography is generally very good, however there are one or two photographs which are out of focus, and also a few where the lighting leaves something to be desired. However the colour reproduction, frequently a problem with Daylilies, seems for the most part and as far as I am familiar with specific cultivars, to be fairly accurate (yet consider `Elusive Dream', p 81, described as a "pale cream-pink" - yet it is illustrared as a brilliant yellow). It is a predominantly American publication and seems to make little reference to work down outside the States, similarly the list of sources outside the States is scant: only four nurseries listed for the whole of Europe (I can think of around twice that number for the UK alone).

However overall it is a valuable publication, and while any such book can only give a general overview, and with so many new cultivars appearing each year is by definition going to be dated very quickly, it brings us in terms of the history of the modern Daylily light years ahead from R W Munson's useful 1989 publication.

Ted and JP have produced a masterpiece. I can't wait for their next one.
Glorious, glorious pictures of our favorite flower.