What is a spider daylily?
Spider daylilies are defined by the ratio of their petal width to their petal length. If that ratio is 5:1 or greater, then you are beholding a true spider. Should the ratio be 4:1 but less than 5:1, then you are looking at a spider variant. Spiders can also come in all three sizes, but there are few to choose from at the small end. ITSY BITSY SPIDER (Bishop) and NUTMEG ELF (McCabe) are two that come to mind. Both are lovely, and both are dainty yellow versions of big brothers like KINDLY LIGHT (Bechtold), SPIDER MIRACLE (Hendricks), and CAROLICOLOSSAL (Powell) which happens to be 10″ across! STOPLIGHT (Lester) is an older but still lovely and hardy red spider, as is MISS JESSIE, which is a bicolor lavender and cream. Newer spiders include YABBA DABBA DO (Hansen) in rose and lavender, CHIN WHISKERS (McRae) in shades of orchid and purple, and the appropriately named LONG TALL SALLY (Trimmer).
