HORTICULTURE 



27 

 January 15, 1933 



THE NEW DAYLILY TARUGA 



THE daylily Taruga is a recent selection from many seed- 

 lings having large flowers with distinctly folded and 

 twisted petals. The first noteworthy seedling with this type 

 of flower obtained by the writer was named Wau-Bun. This 

 was first mentioned and illustrated in 1929 and it was more 

 fully described with colored plate in 1930 (Addisonia 15: 

 plate 488) . It is now in the trade. 



Wau-Bun was crossed with about 40 types of the daylily, 

 the object being to obtain a twisted type in varieties of various 

 habits, seasons of bloom, colors and sizes. One progeny with 

 the large-flowered and rather robust variety Yellow Hammer 

 as a parent contained many fine seedlings some of which have 

 twisted petals. Of these the seedling now named Taruga is 

 perhaps most distinctive. It was selected by Mrs. Barnabas 

 Bryan, Jr., in 1931 as the most outstanding and best daylily 

 then (July 14) in flower in the experimental plots or in the 

 collection of varieties at the New York Botanical Garden. 

 Mrs. Bryan suggested that the ancient Peruvian-Indian 

 (Quichua) name Taruga, meaning deer, be used for the hor- 

 ticultural name of the plant. 



Taruga is semi-robust with erect, well-branched scapes and 

 about three feet tall. The flower is spreading to a width of 

 about six inches. The petals are about four and one-half 

 inches long and one and one-quarter inches wide and they are 

 somewhat folded on the midrib and twister. The color is a 

 clear lemon-yellow with a very faint and hardly noticeable 

 tinge of fulvous in the midzone. 



The season of bloom of Taruga is during the middle and 

 the latter part of July, and in northwestern Connecticut the 

 flowering extends into the first part of August. Compared 

 with Wau-Bun, the flowers are less full, the color is more 

 nearly yellow, the flowering period is later, the plant is 

 slightly more robust and it spreads more rapidly in the crown. 

 This is the first description and illustration of Taruga. 



— A. B. Stout. 

 The New York Botanical Garden. 



