Landscaping with daylilies is one of the most simple as well as satisfying ways to enhance your land...

1. Landscaping with Daylilies
Landscaping with daylilies is one of the most simple as well as satisfying ways to enhance your
landscape. Daylilies are a tough plant that can stand a lot of abuse. They can be cut to the ground,
trampled upon, even lost sight of and still come back to their former glory the following year. They
are available in so many stores, mail-order, farms, and your neighbors. If you're completely
penniless you can find "ditch lilies" (a nick name for common orange daylilies) almost anywhere a
house once stood or highway right of way.
Imported from Eurasia these beautiful flowers have been part of the American landscape for many
years. Called "daylilies" although not a true lily but likely given that name because the flower looks
like Tiger Lilies and the bloom only last one day. Hemerocallis (a combination of the word "sun" and
beautiful" in Greek) is the scientific name of the common name "daylily". Hemerocallis fulva is the
name of the orange daylilies you may have seen growing wild in places along the road or old
gardens. Hemerocallis citrine, Hemerocallis esculenta, Hemerocallis multiflora are examples of
scientific names of hybrid varieties and there are many; over 20,000 different varieties of daylilies.
The American Hemerocallis Society is an organization dedicated to the love and perpetuation of
daylilies. It is amazing on their website all the different aspects of the "culture" surrounding a flower
species such as exhibitions, conventions, daylilies database, publications and more.
Growing daylilies isn't difficult since this plant is very forgiving. The roots are a potato like tuber
amongst a web of stringy fibers holding together like a little nest. The roots are true survivors; I
have dug them up in mid-summer during hot dry weather and thrown them into dry baked almost
barren soil and seen them growing the next season. Of course amended soil works much better than
dry baked clay. Adding soil conditioner or yard debris (grass clippings, leaves, compost, aged
manure, etc.) will improve your chances of more flowers. A pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is necessary because
daylilies need a slightly acidic soil. A mulch of oak or hardwood leaves and clippings is preferred
because as it decomposes, it acidifies the soil. Placement in your yard, sunny or shady depends on
the color of the flower. Dark reds and purples need shade. The lighter the shade of the flower the
more sunlight needed. Another consideration about placement concerns cross pollination.
Hemerocallis fulva or "common" daylilies are beautiful but can cross with an expensive hybrid
daylily and cost you some heartache and money. Some hybrids can cost you $300 or more, there's no
sense in mixing and matching the common orange daylily with a large beautiful yellow ruffled hybrid
daylily.
So that brings up the subject of "types" of daylilies. Colors include the common orange to different
shades of orange. Yellows, reds, pinks, purples, violets, greens, are the main color schemes. "Forms"
of the flower shape include names describing the many shapes and types of the flower. Single,
double, sculpted, triangular, star, trumpet and other kinds of geometrical forms the flower is shaped
as. "Habits" of daylilies as to what happens to them in winter is that some are dormant, the foliage
dying back to the ground and some are "evergreen" and "semi-evergreen" which will retain their
foliage through the winter. "Size" of daylilies varies from 6 to 8 inches to almost 4 feet. Bloom size
also varies but as you can imagine, the taller the plant the larger the bloom usually. The season for
daylilies depends on the species but from after the last frost until the first frost of fall you can have a
variety blooming if you plan it right.
This flower is one of the hardiest most pest free plants there are but certain animals can destroy the

2. flowers; the main plant can die back to the ground and come back next year but the flowers are
more susceptible to destruction. Deer can come in the night and eat every single bud ( the unopened
premature flower) on the plant. They can come in a herd and eat every bud you have in one night, so
take some precautions. There are sprays available at any garden/home improvement place as well as
recipes you can find online. From organic to homemade there are repellants to keep critters at bay.
I've tried many things and this year I'm trying a product called Liquid Fence. Notice I said "trying". I
may have to update this article later if it hasn't worked as expected. I'm also "trying" because I've
already tried many concoctions that were guaranteed to work and didn't. Egg shells, hot chilies,
human hair, a fertilizer called "Milorganite" are a few I've tried that failed. A 10 foot fence works
best in deer country by the way. Another bit of advice is to wait until your flowers are spent or gone
for the season before fertilizing. Deer seem attracted to newly fertilized plants of almost any kind;
they love tender new shoots.
Another problem you may have never thought of as a problem for flowers are kittens and puppies,
sometimes even large grown pets with mow down your prize daylilies as soon as the foliage is up
about a foot or so. Evidently, they like the feel of the fresh green grass like leaves and cannot resist
making a bed out of them. This year I saved my lilies from destruction by using last year's tomato
cages.
I use concrete remesh wire which is very heavy duty wire that comes in a roll and is used for pouring
concrete. It's official uses is that the metal wire acts as steel reinforcement within the poured wet
concrete and when dry, reinforces the concrete by keeping it "whole" by having a metal counterpart
within the block of concrete so the metal is very heavy duty. This wire lasts a long time and has large
spaces between its squares making it just right for trellising tomatoes and I found out this year;
laying them horizontally over newly formed shoots of tender daylily outgrowths. When the new
plants emerged about the same time the kittens emerged from under the porch I took my 60 inch
wire "tubes" and carefully laid them on top of the new daylilies. The kittens could easily have gone
through the wire openings but didn't; it worked; a little unsightly but not as unsightly as ruined
daylilies. The lilies thrived in the horizontal cages and the foliage has grown over the metal.
I grow my daylilies in small beds arranged around other plantings in the front yard. I'm constantly
beginning a new bed due to the fact that daylilies need to be divided about every four to five years.
Daylilies can be grown from seed collected off the plant in fall and planted in spring. Within ten
years or so you can have a large collection from just a few starter plants. Many people grow daylilies
in rows or lining something like the driveway. Common inexpensive daylilies look nice on both sides
of a long driveway or path. They can be grown close to each other naturally crowding out weeds or
grasses.
I prefer to keep certain kinds of daylilies together according to height, variety or other
considerations. Most of our daylilies are in full sun except the colors red and purple. Red and purple

3. daylilies cannot thrive in full sun. The purple flower actually melts in the sun. This should be good
news for some of you who may not have much full sun in your yard; buy red or purple daylilies. Reds
are the colors I prefer.
It's best to buy your daylilies from reputable gardeners preferably from their garden. I was cheated
once mail ordering daylilies that didn't bloom true to what was advertised and I haven't ordered any
since. I like to see what I'm buying. If you don't have a source in your neighborhood at least research
some before you order. Get in touch with one of the many daylily societies, groups, and websites and
get some advice. Most gardeners thoroughly enjoy the ease of growing these hardy plants and I hope
you will too.
References include AmericanMeadows.com, American Hemerocallis Society