Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Friday, February 26, 2010

My Yellow Daylily and The Edible Golden Needle Flower


Eversince joining Blotanical, I had always admired the gorgeous daylilies that Lynn of Best In Bloom Today blog grows in her garden. There are so many varieties of hybrids and colours and mix of colours, I really envy her and wish I can grow them in my garden too. I usually see beautiful pictures of daylilies from photos and magazine pictures and I even have some fake ones in a vase at home. We do get to see the real ones at the florists and especially during Chinese New Year season where they sell the white and red ones.


Botanical name: Hemerocallis spp (Hemerocallis hybrids)
Common name: Yellow Daylily,
Chinese name: Golden Needle Flower ((金针花)
Family : Hermerocallidaceae
Native of: Europe, China, Korea and Japan

During my recent Chinese New Year shopping at the Sungei Buloh nurseries, I was extremely delighted to come across these yellow beauties and I couln't resist myself. So I bought them home. The flowers of my daylily only last for one day but it is replaced by another new one from the cluster that comes from a single stalk. There is hardly any fragrance.


Before I buy, I asked the nursery owner whether it will live long in our hot Malaysian climate. Well, of course, he said yes and he ended up a little richer and as for me, I was so happy to bring it home. I didn't believe him when he told me that it was called the gum jump far (金针花)or golden needle flower in Chinese. He can't even tell me the English name of this plant. Here they rarely tell us the botanical names. They like to use the common name or nick name. For example, a senduduk (Melastoma malabathricum) I bought turn out to be a Tibouchina or princess flower and a Thai Jasmine turn out to be Wrightia antidysenterica.

We use the gum jump far which is actually the dried daylily buds in cooking. Wendy of Greenish Thumb blog has just written a post about it and she has included a recipe. To read more, please visit here.

To view more lovely daylily pictures, do visit Lynn of Best in Bloom Today blog by clicking here.
My post today is dedicated to Ms Darla from Florida, USA of More Family and Flowers Blog. She was the first commenter of my previous Wordless Wednesday post, Dwarf Arundina Grass Orchids. I love to visit her happy, interesting blog.

Post publication update: Here's an interesting vegetarian dish recipe on video. I haven't try this recipe before but I like to eat vegetarian dish with golden needle flower, the ingredients of which are stir fried with red soya bean paste. Do you think the video is useful?

Does it take too long to load my webpage?



This is my entry for Blooming Friday, 4th week of February 2010. The theme this week is "Something Old and Something New." My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

43 comments:

  1. Autumn Belle, I have a passion for daylilies and was afraid I would never be able to grow them again after moving to Florida. But there are in fact "evergreen" daylilies that can be grown in Zones 9-11. Wonderful news!!! I have been experimenting with daylilies for 5 years down here now and have found a handful of vigorous growers here in my Zone 11 heat. I have lost a few as well, but that's okay. All in the experiment!

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  2. Interesting that you worry about the heat keeping you from growing things. Where I live we worry about the cold preventing us from growing plants. Daylilies are very hardy where I live and I look forward to planting some in my garden this spring.

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  3. Autumn Belle, Daylilies are among my favorite flowers, and I'm especially partial to the yellow ones. I have about two dozen different varieties of yellow Hemerocallis in my garden, some of which have a lovely fragrance. They provide great pleasure during high summer in my garden. -Jean

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  4. Hi Autumn. What a beautiful spot of sunshine they are. So pretty. I hope they do well for you. i planted so many last fall and I am anxious to see them bloom. I hope I can keep the deers from eating them.
    Beautiful pictures!
    Lona

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  5. Interesting about your nursery not giving you English names -- botanical names should be universal, but some even here do not want to bother with learnng scientific names.

    In the US daylily community, there are thousands of registered cultivars. On the other hand, 'garden names' are common. It's not acceptable to sell a daylily by its garden name. I have some that I call things like 'Old Red' because it has always been here in my recollection, and 'Miss Billie's Scapes' named for the source until I could identify it for sure.

    As mentioned above, the evergreen daylilies are most suited for hot, humid climates. I do have some dormant daylilies that have done very well here.

    Your yellow daylily should persist and multiply. I hope so.

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  6. A lovely colour and nice find but i did not realise you could eat the flowers.

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  7. Autumn Belle Day lilies are one of my favorite flowers. I had first seen them at Disney many years ago and was love at first sight. I ordered some from a nursery in South Florida . They are still growing in my garden however only the yellow ones have flowered. They are the evergreen types and one day hopefully they will all flower. I have divided and moved them around the garden hoping to find the right spot.

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  8. Thanks for stopping by and saying Hi to me today. I guess I just got overhelmed and had to take a break.

    I love these Yellow Daylilies. I wondered how that recipe of Wendy's tasted...I don't think my kids would eat it but my husband would definitely try it...he will eat most anything. I am lucky that way.
    Take care,

    Rosey

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  9. Oh I like it!!
    I've got them in orange.
    Happy Blooming Friday...Luna

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  10. girl...that is an absolutely gorgeous flaunt this week! I am loving the bright color!!! have a wonderful weekend friend

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  11. You are just the sweetest!! Thank you so much and if these yellow lilies are like mine they smell yummy! I smelled mine by accident and now my nose stays covered in pollen when they are blooming!!

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  12. Just gorgeous! I just have orange ones. Interesting that you can eat them, good to know
    *hugs*deb

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  13. Autumn Belle, i wish to be the first to comment but maybe their waking up time prompted them to always post first. I haven't seen that yellow one here, it is beautiful. If only we are near i will ask a bulb from you. And your photos are very good too, the composition, mood, tone, great. I also love the way you organize and make your script. About it as food i read that it is dried by the Chinese, maybe that is the one we thought of as dried banana flowers, which we normally put in 'pata tim'. I will research on that.

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  14. Wonderful lilies. Mmm, did not know that kum chum far = lily... but I've never seen it fresh...

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  15. What a beauty and for once;-) a lovely yellow colour. Have a nice week end!

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  16. I love when you talk about the heat. I have so much snow at my place like never before. Nice pictures. Have a nice weekend/Gela

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  17. I was just at the florist the other day admiring... day lilies! Glad to see them here too. What a nice plant to have in the garden! Yellow blooms are always the most attractive one. Enjoy your garden and have a great weekend!

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  18. Came over from Tootsie's. Haven't been around for a while but sure felt the need to see some beauties and yours sure are. The photographs are excellent too. I have day lilies all the way down the edge of my driveway. They take a lot of care during the summer. Stop by for a visit when you can. Blessings
    QMM

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  19. Lovely post, the day lilies are wonderful. I've sown some from seeds and this is year three so perhaps they will give me flowers this year...what do you think? Is it to soon?

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  20. Your daylily picture really inspires me to get some of my own! By the way, I also make that wood Ear, Gold Needle, and Egg Stir Fry dish sometime. It is one of traditional chinese dishes. My kids who were born in US seem not too interested in though...haha

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  21. Hey Autumn Belle! Thanks for the shout-out! You're too sweet :)

    I'm thrilled you have your first daylily!!! From the shape of the petals and elongated buds..it may look to be a species daylily by the name of Hemerocallis altissima..a diploid. I've collected some species as they are often overlooked by gardeners..who tend to go for the really bold, contrasting eyed, full rounded flowers(usually tetraploids)..which I am certainly guilty of..hehe! Don't deadhead all of your spent blooms..fun to see if you get seedheads! :)
    Thanks for your visit on my blog..I'm editing some photos today for a post...finally!! Have a great day.
    Big hug,
    Lynn

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  22. Thank you for your comment about my orchid pictures!!
    Yes, they are wild orchids, one of the 300 orchid plants growing on the Island of the Dominican Republic. No name, sorry!!
    - Cheers Gisela.

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  23. What a beautiful one, I love the buttery yellow! I had no idea the pods were used in cooking.
    PS Your blog loaded very quickly for me.

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  24. Great post! Being an American, I also thought it was Weird (with a capital W) and never tried it until very recently. It has a slightly sweet taste and a great texture. I think most people buy them dried, but my parents have lots of space and a large area dedicated to the flowers. The gum jum fa they eat is usually fresh, though they do dry for eating in winter months too. Thanks for the link! :)

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  25. I enjoyed this post - and the links - a lot! I have H fulva and I think I'm going to taste te buds this summer.
    Happy Blooming Friday!

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  26. Whenever I buy flowers and plants for my backyard, I always ask if they would do well in foggy and cold temperature because San Francisco does not have good weather. I wish I have hot weather to grow a decent garden. It's pitiful now :( I'm seriously considering to buy a small green house so I can grow some fruits trees.

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  27. Your Daylily looks like a yellow one that I have. I'm just starting to get more interested in them and purchased a bunch last summer. The gal I got them from was selling them so cheap I bought 20 and had no idea what colors they were. LOL So far they've been keepers and some duplicates that I sold. I didn't realize there were so many pretty ones so now I have to have more.
    Your post loaded fast.

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  28. The day lily is beautiful. I had a different idea about day lilies. I have the pink and yellow, that last for a day but look lovely in a bunch...this one in a cluster from a single stalk is quite a beauty.

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  29. I hope your daylily thrives in its new home. I was told that if I couldn't grow daylilies I shouldn't be gardening. Guess what? They hardly flower for me, even with full sun. I'm not sure if our summer is too short for them to really get going or not hot enough.

    Christine in Alaska

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  30. Lovely pictures of the daylilies.
    I love them but have not yet tríed to eat the buds.
    Birgitta

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  31. Those buttercup yellow day lillies are just fantastic. Your photos capture their essence so beautifully.

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  32. A big thank you very much to everyone who came here with comments on the daylily. I have collected a wealth of information regarding this fave flower of mine, the real thing of which I could not have earlier. I am so happy it is now sharing a place in My Nice Garden at home.

    Frankly speaking, I have to keep my fingers cross and hope for the best from now on because at the moment, things doesn't look good for my baby. I just repotted it and found the bottom of some leaves starting to turn black.

    I saw some daylilies during my visit to The Secret Garden but at that time, Dr. Francis Ng has still not got it on flowering mode yet. He was also wondering why. Haha, I just let the cat out of the bag... shhhhh...hope he doesn't mind me telling :P

    The wonderful part is that it is really the golden needle flower that the nursery owner told me.

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  33. What a fascinating post. I never knew that day lilies were edible.

    I love it when a post entertains me and educates me at the same time.

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  34. Great video very clear pic and audio. Flowers can be good veg meal. Loading your webpage is just as normal its OK. Nice entry. tQ

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  35. Eatable? I guess we up in North are to scared to taste flowers, intressting thou.. Day lilies are beautiful, the Yellow one you are showing no exception to that rule. Congratulations to your new plant :)

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  36. Hi Autumn Belle~~ Beautiful, delicate daylily blossom. I hope you have much success with growing them in your climate.

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  37. Before to me its just another flower but since reading your blog for some time I have picked up some nick name & Chinese flower names and some names that I have no idea at all. You have got nice yellow 'gum jump far' (daylilies). thanks

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  38. Daylilies are fabulous, so I'm really glad that you've gotten one. They're like potato chips though...you can't have just one!

    i couldn't see the video for some reason, but I do find those yellow flowers falling down across your blog seem to give my browser some problems. Does anyone else tell you that? It was the same with the snow that some people had--it also causes the computer to heat up because it's a constantly running 'movie'. But it's not a huge deal to most of us, I suspect.

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  39. Im cautious with daylilies as they really need good sun to bloom. Good to know that you can use it for cooking but do not use it yet as it might contain chemicals (pesticides) and what not.
    Wait for the next flowering.

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  40. Thank you for the kind comment left on my blog. I am so happy to meet you. I have been clicking and looking for more gardening blogs and I found yours.

    So nice of you to feature my blog this week. What an honor.

    Love love love those lilies. They look so perfect. I'm so glad you were able to get them for yourself. Lucky girl.

    We don't have nurseries like that here. Wish we did have more varieties to choose from like your oriental nurseries.

    Have a good gardening day. Hope you are having some good weather.

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  41. I like the local names of your lily, which is very beautiful. I did not know they were edible. I have learned something!

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  42. My dear friends. Thank you very much for your inspiring comments.

    I never knew the gorgeous daylilies were actually the golden needle flower (dried form) that I eat. Now it is like a puzzle solved for me. I eat the dried golden needle flower quite frequently.

    As for my yellow daylily, I will wait for all the buds to blossom. to admire the blooms, so I'll just have to settle for the dried ones at the moment.

    For a start, if you haven't try the golden needle flower before, try this video recipe which is fast to cook and very easy to do. Wendy's recipe is just as great but need a little bit more ingredients. For new tastebuds, the dried flower may taste a wee bit sour. It is this exotic taste that gives the dish an oriental touch.

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