HERE IS A VIDEO ON HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LILY AND A DAYLILY
Daylilies and Lilies share a similiar name, and are classified differently. Daylilies come from the genus hemerocallis and lilies are part of the genus lilium.
We put together a video for you to compare and contrast our two favourite perennial plants that you can watch here.
Lilies and daylilies share the type of flower that attract pollinators and hummingbirds. The main group of lilies we grow here, Asiatics, enjoy part to full sun. Daylilies also will thrive in those same sunny gardens.
Both plants have a variety of flower forms, shapes and colours. They both shine in a wide range of shades emerging from yellow, orange, red and pink. Lilies exhibit spots at times, while daylilies can have very ruffled edges. Both can have interesting eyezones like our own daylily ‘River Walks and Lattes’ and ‘Easy Dance’, a lily.
Lilies have an upright stem with leaves protruding along its length until the flower head at the top of the plant. Daylilies have strap or grass-like leaves emerging from the crown of the plant located at ground level. A scape holds the flowers above the foliage of the clump.
The flower of a daylily does only last one day before closing up, making room for the next flower to bloom. Lilium flowers last much longer until their petals eventually fall off. Lilies make great cut-flowers because of their long lasting blooms.
Underground, daylilies and lilies differ as well. Lilies have bulb and stem roots that bring water and nutrients to the lily bulb. Daylilies have roots that can store water and bring in nutrients. In both cases the roots help anchor the plant in the ground.
Both daylilies and lilies reproduce vegetatively and by seed. For vegetative reproduction, the plants multiply under the ground, creating more bulbs in the case of lilies and roots for daylilies. Each make seed pods if they are pollinated. Both set pods easily by cross-pollination from a different variety. The resulting seeds will be a hybrid, not a clone of the plant. Lily seeds are brown and papery, daylily seeds are black and somewhat round.
I hope this helps you identify some of the same characteristics of daylilies and lilies as well as their differences.