Okay, so they really aren’t brown, but these daylilies have such dusky-orange flowers that I think of them as brown.
I purchased ‘Bucking Bronco Two’ (pictured above) via mail order several years ago and I thought it might not survive. Shortly after I put it in the ground we had a cold rain for days which can sometimes cause new daylilies to rot. ‘Bucking Bronco Two’ survived, but it took a few years before it gave me any flowers. Now that it’s established in my garden, it blooms for weeks in mid-summer. The plant sports big, 6-inch flowers on a just a 20-inch plant.
I photographed ‘Brown Witch’ so many times while on garden tours over the last few years that I decided I probably should just get one of my own. This is a taller cultivar, growing 36 inches with 6-inch blooms. I love the distinct veins on the petals:
‘Gingerbread’ is probably my favorite “brown” daylily. It features interesting, brown-orange blooms on a 22-inch plant. The flowers look like someone roasted them gently over a fire to get a singed look on the petals and in the throat. ‘Gingerbread’ blooms late in the season so it’s my little reminder that fall is not far behind:
