Daylily Design Garden Element

Several years ago I healed in some daylilies that caught my eye in a garden center. I knew I wanted to have a section of daylilies in another area of my garden once I finally got rid of the bindweed. Since I had no clue how long that would take I decided to purchase the daylilies and find a temporary place for them to live. That has taken more years than I care to admit, however this spring when I finally got a

chance to finish chipping that area of my garden and start moving some other plants around, I decided where I would dedicate the space to a variety of daylilies. I have a few in other areas that will stay there but the two that I knew I put in temporary locations have a place to go to now.

I was not actually planning to develop a design in this newly designated daylily area because late fall would be the best time to move the plants. So what happened? I knew this was the time of year that I might still find some daylilies in bloom in garden centers so I kept my eye out for some that would go well with the ones I want to move later. I found one and was just going to keep it potted until fall when I spied another that I brought home too. That did it. I was motivated to figure out a design. I could just mass the daylilies and

let their variety of blooms play off each other. That would be very showy while they were in bloom but a bit boring the rest of the year. I needed another design element. This could have been garden art but my go to is often rock, so I took a trip to the local rock yard to see if anything jumped out at me. I found a nice piece of obsidian and some granite boulders with subtle color variations. I looked for stones that had a flat base for stability and settled on three small granite boulders of different shades and shapes.

When I got the rocks back to my garden I arranged them to create separation between the daylilies. The mounding form of the daylilies will contrast nicely with the angularity of the stones. I placed the two

potted daylilies I had recently purchased and used a newly purchased rain lily and a sign stake as stand ins for the daylilies I will transplant later this year to ensure that I liked my rock placement. At this point I added a couple of small pieces of basalt that I had lying around. Soon I will tuck in the potted plants. There is also room for me to pick up a few more daylilies in the future that speak to me and sneak them into this area of the garden.

Daylilies are a wonderful choice for many areas of the country. I have found most varieties to be very drought tolerant and reliable perennials in my garden. They even have varieties now that will rebloom so that you aren't limited to enjoying their beautiful flowers once a year.

Dependable Daylilies

Some of the most dependable non-native plants in my landscape are clump forming hybrid daylilies. Daylilies are adaptable to a wide range of conditions and hardiness zones. In catalogs they are often shown as adaptable from zones 4 through 9, however some daylilies can be even be found for zone 1 or up to zone 11. Some cultivars have been developed to withstand colder winters, drier conditions, etc., so it is a good idea to source your daylilies locally if possible or read the mail order descriptions in detail to see if a particular variety is likely to do well in your area. And oh my, the different varieties that are available! You can find short through tall, early to late blooming, and evergreen to name a few different characteristics, each in a rainbow of colors. Some of my favorites are the very ruffled edged varieties whose edges are outlined in a contrasting color.

One word of caution however, there is one species of daylily that was introduced to the US 100-200 years ago that while well adapted (good), it is very invasive (bad). It is known as the common orange daylily or Hemerocallis fulva. This plant spreads aggressively, in my experience, by underground rhizomes and will quickly form an ever widening dense mat that crowds out other plants. I definitely discourage its use, but with so many other amazing hybrids of adapted, non-invasive daylilies available, this is no hardship.

The daylily varieties that I have in my zone 8 garden are very dependable bloomers. I have early and late bloomers as well as others that will even rebloom. Daylilies are very drought tolerant. I have found that the darker colored flowers will fade some in direct afternoon sun. While daylilies do need a half day of sun to flower reliably, you can plant your darker colored ones where they will be shaded in the afternoon to avoid this. Each bloom only lasts one day, however the plants send up stalks with multiple buds that open over a long period. All in all, my hybrid daylilies are beautiful, low maintenance and very well behaved, increasing in size very slowly and don’t threaten to take over their neighbors.

If you are not currently growing daylilies in your garden, I encourage you to try this low maintenance beauty. Be forewarned however. You can become addicted to continually adding new varieties once you realize how easy they are to grow. Your garden could become overrun with them, not because any one plant takes over but because you keep finding different beauties to add to your garden. If for some reason you have no room in your garden for daylilies, you can still enjoy their beauty through my photographic art daylily images on bookmarks, note cards and matted prints.