How Day Lilies Lost Their Longevity

Isn't this a beautiful day lily? The name of the day lily is "Joan Senior". It is a near white flower with a yellow and green throat that is 6 inches across, ribbed and lightly ruffled.

I came across this story about day lilies in my garden file. I have had it in my file for a long time and do not know the origin of the writing. I find the story to be very whimsical, but at the same time interesting, especially when I note the title of this blog - Everydaydelight. After you read the story, you will see how the blog title partners with the story!

How Day lilies Lost Their Longevity

Thousands of years ago in the heart of the Orient, in a kingdom that has long since disappeared from the earth, there grew a flower - - a delicate and fragrant lily called aionioncallis meaning "beauty forever". It received its almost unpronounceable name because of the amazing longevity of its blooms; picked or unpicked, aionioncallis lilies remained fresh and bright for years, often outlasting the people who gathered or grew them. To give you a better idea of how long these amazing flowers did remain unwithered, imagine a modern plastic flower's life, and multiply that by a hundred!

Furthermore, these lilies were so strikingly beautiful, so pure in color, so very fragrant, so downright elegant that everyone grew them in their gardens and included them in festival flower arrangements.

No one enjoyed aionioncallis lilies more than the beautiful Princess of the Royal Family, who loved to wander daily through her garden, which, incidentally, contained nothing but her precious lilies, in all colors. Although she was very conscientious in caring for her aionioncallis, the Princess was careless about almost everything else. In fact she had a very annoying habit that drove her parents to distraction; this otherwise delightful girl seemed incapable of doing anything promptly. She put things off, kept on putting things off, in spite of all parental reminders, urgings, and threats. She put off feeding her peacocks, put off writing her than you notes to her relatives, often put off even coming to dinner. All these normal obligations of a royal princess she kept procrastinating, to the helpless dismay of her parents, of her subjects, and eventually of the gods who controlled all their destinies.

Although the princess's bad habit did create much annoyance in the kingdom, it caused no real pain to anyone until she received her first proposal of marriage. An attractive, well educated, courteous, and very athletic young son of a neighboring king had heard of the princess's great beauty and way with flowers, but had not heard of her bad habit. Promptly he wrote her a long letter, presenting his credentials as a prospective groom, and proposing an immediate marriage. Her parents were delighted with the prospects and urged her to accept at once.

But the princess thought to herself; "Maybe tomorrow I'll decide. Yes, tomorrow I'll probably give him my answer. But for now, I'll just take a relaxing stroll through my precious garden and enjoy the fragrance and beauty of my aionioncallis lilies." And that's exactly what she did that evening, and the next, and the next . . . for weeks.

Meanwhile the prince, anxiously awaiting an answer became depressed over the apparent rejection of his offer, caught a bad cold which turned into flu, which developed into pneumonia. In a matter of a few more days, he was dead. His parents were heart broken to lose such a promising son. Her parents were understandably dismayed to lose the prospects of such an attractive son-in-law. But the gods, who had been watching the whole situation with increasing disapproval were enraged.

This young lady must be taught a lesson," they agreed. "Of course she must be punished a little too, but more importantly, she must be reminded daily, for the rest of her life, of how foolish it is to procrastinate." They further agreed; "And while we're at it, we might as well remind everyone else every day of their lives, to make the most of every day before the sun sets." Eventually they devised a brilliant strategy. They would let the beloved aionioncallis flower with its phenomenal longevity, become their silent teacher.

We shall, from this day on, take from the aionioncallis flower its long life," the gods announced, "and give it instead the life of a single day. It shall be renamed as the hemerocallis meaning 'beauty for a day', and shall keep all its loveliness, all its diamond-dusted brilliance, and its pure, and bright colors - - but only until nightfall. Then it shall wither away - - like the day's opportunities wasted, like the day's promises unfulfilled, like loved ones lost forever."

Finally, so as not to punish to harshly the weakness of a thoughtless princess, the gods designed the new flower to bud in grape like clusters, so that each day or so a new flower would unfold, offering everyone another and another, and yet another opportunity to marvel at the beauty of one of nature's perfect patterns, and to be reminded of the briefness of its life - - and our own.

The fence behind the white day lilies is covered with fragrant and flowering star jasmin. I can smell the perfume of the flowers in my house, especially in the evening! And, it is so nice.

CHERISH each day!