"Near-white" daylilies...drop the "near", dear!

 In many plant families there are white-flowered horticultural forms around.  Roses?  Check!  Hibiscus?  Check!  Hostas?  Check!  Tulips?  Check!  Daffodils?  Check!  Carnations?  Check!  Zinnias?  Check!  Daylilies?  Well, there's apparently only "near white" and as most growers know, the near-whites are very pale yellows or very pale pinks.  This is pretty much true of many other plant families, but daylily hybridizers and growers are loathe to call a daylily 'white'.  Why?

Check out Facebook and see some 'pink' daylilies. There are peach, salmon, rose, old rose, silver pink, puce, cerise...you get the point?  There are very few that are truly pure pink.  I hear about this often, since it is a pet peeve of Nancy's.  If you call it 'pink', it better be pink!  Are you color blind? Sloppy? Lazy?  That is SO OBVIOUSLY 'peach' and NOT pink!  "Pink" daylilies are very rarely pink.

Look up descriptions and photos of 'red' daylilies.  Some are rose, deep rose, scarlet, carmine, geranium, brick, blood, wine, garnet, etc..  There are actually 134 descriptive names in the dictionary for shades of red.  Very few 'red' daylilies are the same shade, but they are lumped together and are unapologetically called, 'red'.

The list could go on to others such as separating orange and yellow daylilies, with a great deal of overlap between those colors. Is 'golden yellow' actually yellow, or light orange?  The same with purples and violets.  Don't even get me started on 'blue'!

The point is that other plant families call their blooms white when they are ivory, light yellow, cream, etc.  Why are the growers and hybridizers of 'near white' daylilies so hard on themselves?  Go with the flow!  Describe it as 'white', post an accurate photo, and let the reader criticize that your description doesn't match what he would say. He will anyway!  

Thanks for listening to today's pet peeve.  Just drop the 'near', dear... and Nancy says 'thanks!.

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