Stellas? Yellow ones?

I have only one clump of dailily that has been blooming for two weeks now. This one has very large, fragrant soft yellow flowers. The clump makes an eye catching specimen among my hosta. I had Stella d'Oro but could not stand its eye popping color so I dug them up and threw them out.

I do have a large collection of lilies that bloom in succession beginning in early June with Asiatic - various trumpets - orientpet - orange tiger - finishing the lily season with speciosum in August. That makes 3 months of lilies in my garden. I especially enjoy the trumpets' intoxicating fragrance. I also prefer their delicate colors to those of daililes. Since they don't take up as much room as dailily, I tucked them among perennials. I won't give them up for any dailily.

My brother planted 30 daylily varieties--in strait rows--in a 30 ft. square bed near my southern boundary back in the 1980's. They still come up every year and bloom profusely. When I redesigned that bed as well as many others on my little green acre, I incorporated more daylilies since they're (a) trouble/maintenance free; (b) not bothered by pests (such as red lily beetle); (c) stunning in bloom. The faded blooms don't need to be removed unless you're bothered by them for more than a few hours.

When designing the new beds I planted, I added more daylilies, paying close attention to bloom color, bloom time, height & price. I ordered from two mail-order sources and am currently enjoying the beauty of my choices as they really pop in various beds. Hemerocallis 'Ann Warner' is one of my all-time favorites. She currently has close to 40 buds waiting to open.

My daylilies now number between 50 & 60. They ask for nothing from me but admiration. They add structure, color & drama to the beds and ask for nothing in return. Seems like a pretty fair trade-off to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Images

I bought re-blooming day lilies from Cottage gardens off of QVC. There were 5 plants in the order with 5 different colors (supposedly) they are 3 years old this year, they are all pale yellow.According to the description they missed their first bloom cycle, they were supposed to bloom in June. The first year only 2 bloomed but I didn't fuss, I figured they would do better with age. . . now all I have is a bunch of pale yellow day lilies. . . I rarely buy mail order for this reason. . .

I also grow several different types if lilies to extend bloom period.

I enjoy the few day lilies I have, but they just don't have the same impact as lilies.

In my yard I struggle with critters eating both plants. This year the lilies have fared better.

I got burned out on daylilies as they were all over the place where I used to live. They are long bloomers for sure.

My lilies here have really multiplied and need to be divided this year. They put on quite the show....

This post was edited by lilsprout on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 13:37

Gardenweed, if you were happy with your orders, do you mind sharing the names of the mail order companies you used to purchase daylilies? I'd love to add some.

Here is an Easter lily that popped up this year. I had been looking in the back yard where I thought I planted it. No wonder I couldn't find it...it was on the side yard lol.

Behind it oriental lilies are ready to pop..,,

My daylilies get ratty brown foliage after they bloom, not to mention the brown scapes. The clumps look awful unless I go along pulling out all the dead stuff. It takes me a couple of days to clean them up after each bloom cycle. The oriental & asiatic lilies bloom for only about a week but the foliage looks cool all season so I think those are actually the lower maintenance lily choice.

IMO you can't determine a plants worthiness simply by how long it blooms. I don't want to look at the same thing blooming in my garden for weeks and weeks on end. I like the variety, the succession of blooms, the ever-changing garden.

My Bloodroot only blooms for 3 days or so in early spring. Does that mean it's not worth the effort? I don't think so. I look forward to it every year and wouldn't be without it.

Lily vs. daylily: I like them both in moderation.

Kevin

Several spots around town have large day lily beds. They do look spectacular right now. I think they were a good choice for the spots I have seen them. In my yard I have just a few here and there and they don't stand out as much. Hmmm, that's it! I need a bigger area of them. I do have lawn that could be converted to garden areas...although I also told DH that I wouldn't be making any additional garden beds until I got the ones I already have under control. Day lilies would be easy though, right? Then would I attract more deer or would I have so many that I wouldn't notice the deer browsing?

"They do look spectacular right now."

But what until late August. They will look like crap if that's the only thing planted there.

Kevin

Daylilies don't smell like those other lilies either. I have some Stargazer lilies and the smell is awesome. Daylilies look ugly after they bloom too. They look all ratty. Some of the other lilies actually look nice after blooming. Why not just enjoy both?

Phlower Power, I have to spray the daylily buds with Deer Stopper or there would be no flowers. Daylilies are deer candy and they eat them preferentially. Planting more daylilies may attract deer to your yard if you're in an area with a resident deer herd.

StellaMarie, I have bought daylilies online from Sterrett Gardens. Their prices are extremely good, they have a huge selections and the plants are very healthy. I planted 6 this year and several are already blooming (and this was after I accidentally forgot about them and left them in my hot garage for 2 weeks.)

I love day lilies, but a good perennial garden has different blooms and interests going on all the time. No need to choose between lilies and day lilies.
Those who complain about the chores of tidying up perennial gardens, there are nice plastic flowers you can get at Walmart and stick in the ground and you never have to trim or deadhead.

wow Lucille, that was really mean. Some perennials require more attention to look nice and that's the way it is. Telling me to grow plastic flowers because my fifty year old knees don't like crawling around pulling ratty daylily foliage was cruel.

I love lilies for their stately appearance and scent... but hate the red lily beetle battle. We live along a river and worry about pesticide run off. So there are only two clumps in our yard.

However, we do have many varieties of daylily. These are one of my favorite flowers... but my DH is not crazy about them. He thinks the long slender leaves and the same green tones look boring. The compromise was to place them among plants with different leaf textures and colors. And I have to agree with him that this helps to hide the ratty look of day lilies as they mature. (You're so right about that, Kevin.)

A favorite new day lily is H. 'Light the Way' which I found at Bloomingfields Farms in Gaylordsville, CT. These are magnificent! The stems are very tall, which means the plant can be tucked behind shorter plants and the whitish blossom will peek out above its neighbors. Here is what LtW looked like the other day in our gardens. The flower color is more like the second shot...green and white tones.

{{gwi:253323}}

{{gwi:253325}}

One "problem" ..... day lily clumps can get enormous and crowd out other things, even when divided. That happened in our small yard. The 6 tiny Hemerocallis 'Malaysian Monarch' fans that I planted years ago spread like the plague. We gave most of them away to a friend with lots of property.

Molie

Cecily I was obviously not referring to you in particular, since you specifically said that lilies have less maintenance in your opinion over day lilies, and you could and can make the choice to have less needy plants.
It was humor.

I sometimes wonder if the "rattiness" of post-bloom daylily foliage is related to zones or humidity or some other climate issue. In my neck of the woods, the only way to tolerate daylilies is to cut the foliage to the ground after the plant has bloomed. The new leaves will look young and healthy. Then, I often have to do it a second time in late summer. Oakes Daylilies, one of the foremost growers, is just about 30 min from me and a visit to their open house in early summer will take your breath away. But, I promise you, by this time of the year, its just an acreage of ratty leaves.

I've never seen a "ratty" looking day-lily. Maybe a picture of what qualifies as "ratty" in the opinion of those who perceive rattiness in their day-lilies might be useful to the rest of us?

I love day-lilies. Perhaps the varieties I have grown were older or something, but to me, day-lilies do have a distinctive and pleasant scent. Just walking out of a city building the other day, I suddenly started swiveling my head around and sniffing to track down that scent. My son thought something was wrong with me.

Nope, all is good, its just that there was a daylily blooming in their perennial bed. LOL! I will say, the scent is nowhere near as sickly-sweet and overbearing as lilies can sometimes be. It's a bit ... greener? Woodsier? Whatever, I find it to be pleasant and subtle.