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pam_whitbyon

I'm getting tired of my daylilies now

pam_whitbyon
10 years ago

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with daylilies and this year and my affection for them is decreasing substantially! There just seems to be too much messy business with the foliage. A week ago just as they started to bloom, the leaves are turning yellow. The balance of flowers to foliage just doesn't seem worth it. I almost can't wait for them to finish flowering so I can cut them all back. and maybe dig them all out and give them their own place in a bed that doesn't exist yet.

Of course the climate is way over the top. We've gone from raining and hot, to humid and hot. Maybe that's the problem. Anyone else feeling conflicted about their DLs?

This post was edited by pam_whitbyon on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 21:08

Comments (50)

  • aseedisapromise
    10 years ago

    I am not sure about daylilies either. It is pretty easy around here to get some chlorosis of the leaves, if it rains too much and all the nutrition is washed down through the soil, or just in general since the soil is alkaline. When my mother was alive and I would go back and visit her in Ohio the daylilies, even the ones in the traffic medians, were very pretty and lush and green with all that moisture and humidity. Anything that takes a lot of special attention has to be worth the effort.

  • GreatPlains1
    10 years ago

    delete post

    This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 5:22

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    Everyone is different and I am happy that some people really love daylilies. I also enjoy many of the flowers and sometimes I see a public planting of them and think, maybe I should give them another chance, but I had a few and removed them long ago and saved one. Hyperion which had tall flowers and was fragrant. I've moved it twice and this year I'm looking at it and thinking, I can't wait to get that out of there. The flowers are nothing special and I am not smelling any fragrance this year.

    I see a lot of daylily flowers that are so pretty, but I just don't like the foliage. It gets messy. I've seen a few that had nice thin foliage and that would be great, but the best flowers seem to be on the tetraploids and those have thicker foliage. And in a public planting, they don't always cut back the dead stems and I think that is really an eyesore.

    So that is my story. I'm actually moving more toward replacing perennials with shrubs so I am enjoying other people's gardens who have some pretty nice daylilies.

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    10 years ago

    I love daylily flowers, but the foliage is definitely a big "eh", especially after blooming. As much as I think it's messy, yellows, gets ratty, gets eaten, etc., think it's worth the blooms to deal with it. If I find time I may cut it all back this year. I think several people here have mentioned that they do this and the foliage grows back neater and fresher.

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    10 years ago

    Nothing is perfect. Everything has some drawbacks.

    I use to have a LOT of daylilies, but don't any more. In fact, each year I seem to get rid of a few more. For me the solution was to only keep the ones I really love. Anything in excess can become a problem especially when it comes to daylilies with their ratty foliage after blooming. If you have a few scattered here and there, it's easier to overlook that foliage.

    I take photos of everything I grow. With dayliles, I make it a point to study those photos during the winter and decide then "Is that one really worth keeping?" Come spring, I have made my decisions as to what goes and what stays.

    Kevin

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    You have that right, Kevin. EVERYthing has drawbacks, (g). And right again, in the trick being to keep only what you love. I think if I found a daylily that I really loved, it would be worth it. I tried one time to find just what I was looking for and didn't find it. I had the idea to plant them in the middle of a border where the foliage would not be so noticeable, with a tall stem that would show above the plants in front, but I didn't find one I liked that fit that.

    I think that is true of everything in the garden, to keep only what you love.

  • katob Z6ish, NE Pa
    10 years ago

    I love daylilies when I see them growing in other people's gardens but don't have any of my own. It's because of the yellowing foliage in the middle of summer just when everything else is peaking.
    I do have two species daylilies, I'm holding out to see if they're any better....

  • molie
    10 years ago

    I sure do understand the feeling about daylilies. I've always loved them but not my DH. I was the one who dead-headed them & trimmed out the dead leaves ---- he was the one who complained about the sea of green leaves in the yard and the fact that individual flowers did not last. Many years ago I had purchased groups of 3 and 6 of my favorite daylilies and spaced them throughout the gardens for repetition of form and color. Over the years, these had spread, especially my clumps of Malaysian Monarchs.

    Kevin's absolutely correct about photographing the garden! When I started doing this for identification purposes, I also found that it helped me to "see" my gardens more objectively. The pictures showed that my DH was correct ---hemerocallis had taken over. So we culled them and gave many away.

    Now we have just my favorites, placed in specific areas where the foliage is not so dominant or where their color can really pop. Those with colors that fade in bright sun have been placed near the back or between taller plants. In some cases I use the color of the flower to compliment shrubs around it. I put all of my Canadian Border Patrol daylilies that have a maroon edge near a Crimson Queen Japanese Maple.

    I still love daylilies and even plan on purchasing a few more from a nearby grower. But since the two of us love to garden, our gardens have become a compromise that reflect both of us.

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    10 years ago

    I'm glad to see there are a few other daylily non-fans out there. It's one of those plants that just never "did" it for me- as in I could never see myself collecting them kind of thing. Plus the fact that the plants look so jaded and faded after (and sometimes during!) bloom makes me dislike them even more. I do rather like the foliage texture though...

    I have also noticed this year a lot of them are doing worse. I'm not sure if they need to be divided or need some food, but there are substantially less blooms on majority of my plants. It irks me even more because I see old stands of daylilies around town that obviously haven't been divided and likely are un-fed.

    I'm liking them even less at the idea of having to divide them, LOL.
    CMK

  • donna_in_sask
    10 years ago

    My daylilies look great this year. I think it was a couple of years ago, when we had a lot of rain, that the foliage looked horrible. I admit, if I had that all the time, I wouldn't like daylilies either.

    I did grow tired of my common daylilies, the Stella D'Oro and orange ditch lilies that seem to grow ten times as fast as my more choice varieties...I am in the process of ridding my garden of every orange ditch lily, but it's hard...they have to bloom first before they get turfed.

  • Spicebush
    10 years ago

    May I make a suggestion? Go to a local grower in mid summer or whenever your daylily foliage is looking ratty and observe their daylilies. See which ones have nice foliage. They don't all look bad, at least not here in my zone.

  • mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
    10 years ago

    Agreed. There is a lot of variation in leaf performance in daylilies. Some do look good through most of the summer, some really need a haircut after bloom, and some are just awful. I don't need to keep the bad ones.

    I have a fair number of them for somebody who isn't really a fan. Several years ago, a local arboretum was dividing theirs. A friend worked there, and she kept bugging me to get more. Most of them have turned out to be good plants.

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    10 years ago

    Funny CMK - you are the first one to say you don't like the blooms but you do like the foliage! That's a switch!

    :)
    Dee

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    10 years ago

    I think the early daylily foliage is just some of the best around. Every spring I look forward to seeing it. It's just so perky, optimistic and robust looking. It's just that period later in the season when I want to firebomb every one of them. Some more than others, but most of them.

    Kevin

  • eclecticcottage
    10 years ago

    I have a fair amount of them, including stella and the tiger (ditch) versions. I mix them with everything else in my cottage gardens, although I need more spring/early summer bloomers to compete with all the green foliage. I actually have more than I thought and can't figure out where some of them came from, including one really pretty creamy white one. I thought I had split it from two larger clumps, but those are yellow and red. Hm. I wouldn't want an entire daylily garden though.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    Kevin, you've described the spring foliage perfectly. That is the time I'm the most tempted to add some to my garden, but I resist because I know what comes later.

  • aseedisapromise
    10 years ago

    If you go to the daylily forum, you can see the flower-not-foliage effect, in that all the photos are close ups of single flowers. No photos of the plants in situ with their neighbors, or much of their foliage. I did enjoy pam_whitbyon's photo of a daylily with other plants in the combination post #2, so they can be nice. But I think you can too many.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down for the photo!

  • eclecticcottage
    10 years ago

    Here are my two big clumps with some ditch lilies in there too, in my mixed "getting there" (year #2) garden.

  • crunchpa
    10 years ago

    I agree with some of the daylily negativity. But they make a great groundcover for large spaces, and a cheap solution for a mass planting. As specimens individually, not so much. Weeds are no match for a thick patch of Hyperion daylilies so I look at them as a time saver. I chop them down early Sept and the foliage comes back fresh and not so full. It offers 3 months of a better look. I chop stellas in early August and in a short time they are looking like spring

  • christinmk z5b eastern WA
    10 years ago

    -Dee, lol. I suppose it is a bit against the norm! There is something about the foliage ((before it gets ratty)) that I like. It adds such a nice strappy texture and fountain-like shape. The super spidery daylily blooms are kind of cool, but in general they just don't grab me. I'm a weird-o, what can I say, LOL. ;-D
    CMK

  • gardenweed_z6a
    10 years ago

    Stopped at McD's for a burger this afternoon after a doctor apt and noticed their landscaping included quite a few clumps of DL. Doesn't make me regret that I grow them as well since this time of year they produce beaucoup blooms no matter what weather/pests/diseases may afflict other perennials.

    They're reliable perennials & demand nothing from the grower/gardener. When the temp reaches 97 degrees in July I'm pretty much happy to let Ma Nature tend the garden beds so I can retire inside the house with the A/C.

    Do they always please my eye? Nope they don't since I've never liked orange. Do the blooms of other perennials please my eye more than DL? You betcha. However, they are exquisitely-formed LILIES that hold their own in my perennial beds.

    A perennial bed needs variety, textural contrast and seasonal interest. To my mind daylilies add something vital to that design. I'm guessing that's not a concept universally accepted or approved.

  • browneyedsusan_gw
    10 years ago

    After a daylily clump has finished flowering, I cut down the foliage to about 3 inches and add compost or fertilizer. After a few weeks, they put out new leaves and look fresh again and often re-bloom. I like daylilies because they have beautiful flowers, a tolerate the heat and humidity of the South and require little care.

    Susan

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    10 years ago

    There are some stunning dayliliy flowers. The range is incredible. I have recently been buying some of the spectacular ones and next year, will start rust spraying for the first time.

  • weedyseedy
    10 years ago

    And daffodil foliage looks bad when it's ripening, nothing looks worse than a sea of forget-me- nots and dried up tulip leaves, columbine looks horrible when it goes to seed, goat's beard seeds and astilbe seeds hardly look good in a perennial border (maybe they add texture) and at past 75 I don't look so good either. Oriental poppies turn yellow and die, shrub rose hips are not pretty and I will never leave miscanthus leaves for "winter interest" but this is my D---- old crank day, tomorrow is my cantankerous old F--- day and I will probably have a spat with the old lady in this heat. Life will go on.---------------------Weedy

  • franeli
    10 years ago

    The flowers make it easy to forget about mush mummies and yellowing foliage...

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    I do not get ratty foliage until Early Fall. Maybe it is the kind I have or my weather. I use them to hide the daffodil and tulip leaves. I do not plant them in groups of daylily only. I set my garden up of different bloom times and complimentary foliage. So the green spiky foliage of the Daylily looks good with a blooming plant or behind a Heuculera. They look good around rose bushes. It depends on a garden design and personal taste of how we garden.

    I have seen some garden pics on GW that every plant has a lot of space between them making each plant appear to be a specimen plant. I could see Daylilies not being a good plant for the that purpose.

    I like my plants to flow together and compliment its neighbor. I do not like a specimen plant here and 2 step away another round ball of something. That much space between plants would make me nervous that I do not have enough plants. LOL I also do not use mulch. I like plant groundcovers.

    The number of daylilies out there is endless if you like them there is a daylily that will compliment the garden.

    The reason most people take closeup pics of their daylily is so you can see the flower colors.
    Here are some of mine in the garden at a distance...

    In front of this group is Sedum that will hide the foliage and bloom for the fall. Each plants has it time in the spotlight through the seasons.
    {{gwi:254407}}

    {{gwi:254409}}

    In this situation you can barely see the leaves. The Fern and Hosta cover the leaves.

    {{gwi:254410}}

    The way I garden if I cut the daylily down I would not have a black hole as it would be in a specimen plant garden. It is a compliment plant not a specimen plant.

  • crunchpa
    10 years ago

    diggerdee .....thats a great looking daylily.
    Marquest, thats a great way to use daylilies in a mixed border. I have been looking for a way to get some color variation for mid July and daylilies will offer me an option for an area that is viewed from a distance anyway. The options on daylily colors is endless these days
    {{gwi:254411}}From St V's
    {{gwi:254412}}From St V's

  • a2zmom_Z6_NJ
    10 years ago

    I actually just planted my first ever daylilies last fall. Two are blooming right now and the foliage looks fine.

    I'm with Marquest, I like a very lush look. Since they loook fine where I put them, I'll plant a couple more in order to have a small clump.

    I have to admit though that Stella would never darken my garden. I can't stand the color.

  • aseedisapromise
    10 years ago

    Well, it's good to see the photos of daylilies with other plants, and to read the apologia written in their behalf. I think that when I figure out how to get my acre of quackgrass under control and keep it out of the beds, then I'll have more time to think about how to place plants, and how to create the best conditions in those beds for particular plants. I actually like the ditch lilies some, the tall ones that hold their flowers above the clumps of leaves. It's just those 20 ft long rows of them on the north sides of houses around here where people don't water them and they don't get sun so they don't bloom much that gets me wondering "What's the point"?

  • ilovemyroses
    10 years ago

    i have mixed feelings regarding day lilies. I did buy quite a few this year, and have a 1,400 sf new perennial bed i placed them in. as of now, there is too much dirt/mulch showing. I hope to get it to the lush state, but am not nearly there now, and yes, the foliage is quite ratty. i am constantly pulling dead foliage out, and it doesnt release as easily as iris foliage does, but, the flowers are nice.

    don't know much about pruning, but i think i will trim them down after blooming and see.

    some lovely pictures, enmeshed within the garden. can't argue that THAT isn't pretty! I agree, the specimen situation doesn't work well.

    Grow garden grow. fill out!!! as right now, the daylilies are NOT pretty.

  • organic_kitten
    10 years ago

    My daylilies aren't going anywhere, obvious reason:

    ({{gwi:254413}})

    but a lot of my iris are out of her Similar reasonins as Pam's fatigue with daylily foliage. I'm tired of the iris foliage which is abysmal here. I'm tired of the rot if a few leaves get on rhizomes (even their own leaves). I'm tired of having to weed all the time (too hot) because mulch on the rhizomes will rot them.

    My daylilies is easy to deal with when compared to the iris foliage with it spots and yellowing. Beautiful as my tall blooming iris are when they bloom, I'm downsizing my iris tremendously this year.

    kay

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    crunchpa, I love that effect with the grasses and the yellow daylilies. I was just wondering, what variety of grasses and daylily are they and what does that area look like after the daylilies stop blooming?

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    aseedisapromise, I had a good size patch of quack grass that drove us so crazy, I had to give up my vegetable garden for three years. I tried a few things that didn't work. I actually tried rototilling, what a mistake that was! All it did was cut up the roots into little pieces that all sprouted.

    The only way I finally got rid of it, was to let the area go for an entire season. I had leftover 3ml plastic from an old ice skating rink and I laid that down...a large piece...over the entire area. I was lucky in that it was sunny and hot that year and it just baked it and didn't allow rain on it to some extent. I just put bricks on it to anchor it. It did work in 90 % of the patch. The other 10% was under the dripline of a tree and maybe the shade allowed it to survive?

  • judyhi
    10 years ago

    good point, weedy

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    weedy, You are so right. What perennial looks good once it is done put on its show. If a garden style is order and perfection 12 months of the year. .................That can be solved with some evergreen bushes and mulch.

    No deadheading needed, no leaves to cut, no browning. Just add some mulch between the little round balls in the garden and you have a orderly formal garden.

    If you want a flower garden it has to be designed to garden to have new stars of the garden when one plant is done doing its job.

  • molie
    10 years ago

    Funny and true, Weedy! We all have our "season" of optimal beauty. Even worse than the crispy, hot sun daylily foliage are all the frilled up brown-crisped forget-me-nots. After a while I just get very annoyed and knock those suckers over.

    (Yikes! Will my kids ever look at me like that?)

  • crunchpa
    10 years ago

    Pmoon......thats Miscanthus sinensis 'Variegatus'. The dayllies are Hyperion. The foliage on this variety does not get tired as quickly as others. In Sept I will cut them down to have the new foliage for the rest of the year. I use them as space eaters on borders. If you wanted to go along your garage and needed an inexpensive solution they work fine. In the application in the photo above, they are the back of the border and once done blooming are a grassy appearance groundcover. I use lilies as fillers. I don't have the hate of Stellas that others do and use them as fillers in areas that are not very wide. They are easily divided at any time of the year and a great choice for gardening on a budget. The area in the photo was done with all divisions. The grass, the lilies,the coneflower. The Cannas also. The price of the color for this large bed. Zero. Its an investment of time as you wait for the plants to mature. If your a new homeowner, starting with the basic perennials that can be divided easily is a good move. Then you can leave highlight areas to feature special plants, annuals,etc. A mass of blue hosta or royal standard for your shade garden and leave a space in front for huechera or astilbe
    is cost saving and attractive. If your spaces are small to begin with then you don't really need large space eating plants.
    {{gwi:254414}}From Tims

    I planted this area for a friend and nobody seems to be disappointed with the Stellas.
    {{gwi:254415}}From Tims

    The long bed in the above photo has gaps in the groundcover/mass planting for feature plants. It barely takes any mulch. I use ribbon grass also. Its very aggressive and a bad choice for small spaces. In the right spot its a money saver

  • karin_mt
    10 years ago

    Crunchpa, Hyperion is my favorite daylily too. I agree it holds its looks very well and I am in love with the pure yellow (not orange-yellow) flowers. I had a huge clump in our front porch garden and I divided it into three pieces in mid-June and all three clumps are blooming now. Impressive!

    Your mass planting of Hyperions is terrific! I like that whole area, as well as the photos you planted for a friend. And I agree about daylilies' ability to cover large areas cheaply and block out weeds. Around here the foliage can get scalded in the bright August sun, but generally they maintain their grassy good looks all through the season. In the fall some of them have fun chartreuse foliage. They will always be part of our gardening plan.

    Organic Kitten, I really like those meaty clumps you've got there! I don't have many daylilies with that sort of substance, so I always admire those that do. Beautiful!

  • crunchpa
    10 years ago

    You do not have to be shy in dividing your lilies. With Stellas for example, you can really split them small with the nature of their growth habit. You do not have to dig the plant out, you can just slice a piece out while they are in the ground. I normally lift the whole plant, wash and divide
    {{gwi:254417}}

  • rusty_blackhaw
    10 years ago

    I have maybe a half-dozen kinds of daylilies scattered around the garden, which I enjoy when in flower and ignore later, when the foliage sometimes gets ratty.

    For those who spend an hour a day deadheading and tending 100 or more daylilies, go for it if that pleases you, but I can't fathom getting that involved with a single genus of plants (and one which requires as much grooming).

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    crunchpa, you really know how to put a garden together. Yours suggestions are good ones for people looking how to develop a garden on a shoestring and still have beauty.

    I s use as little wood mulch as possible because of the termite. Extermination is too expensive for that wood mulch look in the gardens. I will not encourage that expense. I can use that money for plants. I use as many plant ground cover as possible. Use a little rubber mulch for edging if really needed.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    Thanks crunchpa, I'm laughing because the only daylily I have is Hyperion. It never occurred to me how they would look in mass like that. I have one lonely one that I just moved that I'm waiting for it to get a little bigger. My garden is pretty much full and not a lot of space left, so I'm not dividing a lot except I'm hoping to divide a lot of shade plants, ferns, heucheras, and epimedium in the fall for a few areas that need a bit more.

    I also try to plant enough to keep the weeds down, but my garden is so dry from so many surrounding trees that it makes a big difference to have mulch down.

    Yesterday in my travels, I thought of this thread as I passed gas stations and supermarket parking lots with daylilies of the ditch variety with ugly orange blooms sticking out of yellow ugly foliage. AWFUL! Definitely not the well cared for, hybrid varieties that I'm sure are in many of your gardens. And a single row of daylilies with nothing else, all the same color, along the front of a pretty wall, hiding most of the wall along about a 300 ft span in front of a new housing unit.

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    I took this photo yesterday. A spot where there would not be any color until my sedum start to bloom. It is a area that otherwise be a boring green while I wait for the my Fall display of sedum blooms.

  • molie
    10 years ago

    Nice combo, Marquest! What is this dayliliy? I like its reflexed petals against the sedum buds.

    But, don't worry, I'm not going to try to find it because ---- completely counter to "daylily-ennui"--- the other day we took a ride up to Bloomingfields Farm, an organic daylily grower in Sherman, CT, and bought two glorious daylilies, "Indian Giver" and "Light the Way."

    That's it! No more $$ spent on plants. I'm waiting for the fall plant exchange.

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    Now that flower is one I could put up with a little foliage problems to have. Very pretty! How does the plant perform?

  • diggerdee zone 6 CT
    10 years ago

    Ooh, if I am remembering correctly, Indian Giver is an absolutely gorgeous daylily. I think Monique, if anyone here remembers her and her stunning garden, had this and it always caught my eye.

    Dee

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    molie, I am sorry I missed your question. The daylily does not have a name. On another garden forum a lady sales her seedlings that she has hybridized hopping to get something to register. So it is a mix of other lilies to make this one.

    She has sent me some pretty different looking daylilies. I think they are better than what I have purchased with names.

  • marquest
    10 years ago

    molie, I am sorry I missed your question. The daylily does not have a name. On another garden forum a lady sales her seedlings that she has hybridized hopping to get something to register. So it is a mix of other lilies to make this one.

    She has sent me some pretty different looking daylilies. I think they are better than what I have purchased with names.

  • molie
    10 years ago

    Lucky, lucky, you, marquest! How fortunate that you acquired such a unique daylily. I think it's beautiful even without a name :)

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