Lets Grow

Daylilies are Pretty and Tough

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Hemerocallis Night Embers
Exotic Daylilies like “Night Embers” are cousins of the hardy “ditch lilies” lining country roads.

Colorful Daylilies Are Tough as Nails

Daylilies are such a popular perennial we often take them for granted. We’ve all seen colonies of orange “ditch lilies”, also called “tiger lilies”, growing by the roadsides, but today’s daylilies have become very exotic with stunning colors, ruffled petals and complicated bloom shapes.

Daylilies get their name from the fact that each flower bud will bloom for one day and then wither. Healthy plants have many buds on each stalk, and multiple stalks on each plant, so they provide color for quite a long season even though each flower lasts less than 24 hours.

The daylily is often called “the perfect perennial,” due to its dazzling colors, drought tolerance, hardiness in many zones, and generally carefree nature. Daylilies make a terrific ground cover on banks and under fences, crowding out weeds. Most daylilies do best in full sun, but darker-colored varieties need partial shade because they absorb more heat.

Daylilies are so easy to cross-pollinate that amateur gardeners have been hybridizing them forever, and dividing clumps of daylilies is one of the easiest ways to start a perennial garden. There are over 60,000 registered daylily varieties, most of which were introduced within the past 100 years or so. The first daylily to achieve mass popularity was “Hyperion”, introduced in the 1920’s and still available today. Hyperion is lemon yellow, extremely tall, and has a distinctive “spur” on each stem. It is stately and graceful, one of my personal favorites.

Another personal favorite, “Happy Returns,” starts with a full, compact, emerald green plant that looks like ornamental grass. By late May it’s covered with frilly, bright lemon-yellow blooms. In fertile soil it will bloom until frost. Happy Returns represents the new trend of “re-blooming” daylilies, of which the golden yellow “Stella D’Oro” is the most popular.

To get the best performance from re-bloomers like “Stella D’Oro” and “Happy Returns”, fertilize with Espoma Bulb-Tone when planting and again during the summer. A midsummer haircut, cutting the entire plant off at ground level, makes re-bloomers bounce back with all new foliage and heavier bloom. Every four or five years, dig the clumps up and divide them, mixing Bulb Tone into the loosened soil. You can cut through the matted clumps with a bread knife or a sharp spade, or pry them apart using two digging forks back to back.

Daylilies are extremely forgiving, almost impossible to kill. They come in an amazing array of pretty colors, so it’s easy to get addicted and want ever more varieties in your garden. Because they are so easy to transplant, you can divide, share and swap them with your friends and neighbors at any time of year.

Steve Boehme is a landscape designer/installer specializing in landscape “makeovers”. “Let’s Grow” is published weekly; column archives are online at www.goodseedfarm.com. For more information call GoodSeed Farm Landscapes at (937) 587-7021.

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