A book about lilies.....

This is the very first daylily that I owned. It is plain and simple and came from my neighbors yard. My plants that I have created from it are everywhere, but the mother plant at my neighbors was taken out for a vegetable garden. I have a lot of lilies because of the arboretum that is north of us. A friend of mine from Kindergarten and his wife were at the arboretum one time and we suprising found each other. We hadn't seen them up until the last class reunion. So for a few years we met there at their annual lily sale and we would buy things and go get a meal together. We haven't been free to do that the last two years but I do have a lot of varieties already because of that tradition.
We escaped to the Border's Bookstore today and I browsed through this book. It is amazing the number of lilies that there are out there. The problem with daylilies is that they can be crossbred so readily that there are thousands of lilies out there and probably more variations that have never been cataloged. You create a new variety by transferring the pollen of one flower to another. Then you save the seed in the late fall and plant it and wait two years to see what you have created.
Needless to say that after looking at a few pictures and seeing that there were 1700 different varieties in this book I just got tired of looking at it. I did find that the first lilies came from China and they were around in 2600's BC. I also learned that they have a few categories like single, double, edged and single eyed. There are variant kinds that are more thin petaled and even spiraled. I don't know what I am going to do with this information other than I may look for some of the double ones that look more like roses.
I did learn how easy it is to take them apart in fan shapes and replant them. If I ever move from this property I will be frantically potting up samples of my collection so far. I have two different varieties at my mom's house to collect after they bloom and I still have three that were given to me from my Kindergarten buddy that haven't bloomed yet. It does get to be overwhelming after a while but I would like to catalog the ones that I have so far.
If you ever get to Border's and want to review the book, it should be easy to find. The authors are Petit and Peat. I think it just came out in 2008. Have a great Sunday.........