Purple de Oro is a miniature daylily with 2½-inch medium purple flowers and a bright yellow throat. Dark purple veining, paler midribs and narrow pie-crust edges add detail to the small blooms.
It blooms nearly all summer on a compact plant, making it a natural for edging, small gardens and containers.
What it looks like
Small flowers about 2½ inches across with medium purple petals showing dark purple veining, paler purple midribs and narrow pie-crust edges, smooth white-tipped sepals and a bright yellow throat. Each bloom lasts a day, but many buds open in turn on branched scapes rising to about 20 inches above a fountain of long, arching, strap-shaped medium green leaves. The foliage clump is about 12 inches tall and 18 to 24 inches wide. At peak bloom the compact clump is sprinkled with small purple flowers.
Growing it with lavender
Its small purple flowers blend beautifully with lavender along the front of a sunny, well-drained bed.
Care
Grow in full sun to light part shade (at least six hours of sun for the best bloom) in average, well-drained soil; once established it handles heat, clay and dry spells. Hardy in zones 3 to 9. Deadhead regularly and pull spent scapes to keep new buds coming, and divide crowded clumps every few years.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Hemerocallis
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Flower color: Medium purple with a bright yellow throat
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Foliage: Medium green
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Growth habit: Compact, arching clump
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Mature size: 20 in tall × 18–24 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: full sun, part sun to part shade
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Bloom start: Early-July
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Peak bloom: Mid-July
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Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
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Deer resistance: Susceptible
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Pollinator value: Good
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.