6 Reasons to Grow Daylilies

I love this time of year.  All of the vegetables have been planted, herbs are being harvested, and we are in the midst of berry picking.  Even though we focus on edibles: fruits, vegetables, herbs, fresh eggs, and honey, we enjoy a bit of deliberate beauty by planting some perennials around our homestead.  Right now, one of the showiest is in full bloom: daylilies!

I spied the first glorious bloom earlier this week.  This prompted me to heave myself from the depths of the patio chair and go in for closer inspection.  There it was… a daylily in bloom! Delirious from this discovery, I checked the rest of my daylilies.  Each clump was sporting a scape (or flowering stalk) with multiple buds.  Even though each bloom lasts but one day, the multiple buds per scape ensure that we will have weeks worth of blossoms.

There are several reasons why daylilies made the short list of perennials in our garden.

Six Reasons to Grow Daylilies

1) They come in a wide range of colors including yellows, pinks, reds, purples, and shades of melon.  How’s that for selection?  You could pick varieties to coordinate with your existing landscape or to add unexpected pops of color against a sea of green foliage.

2) Daylilies are low maintenance plants.  Plant them in well-drained, fertile soil and in a location where they receive a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight per day.  Water regularly for best blooms, but they will tolerate drier conditions.

3) These gems are quite hardy and experience relatively little disease or pests.

4) The flower form (or shape of the bloom) comes in a wide variety.  The forms include, but are not limited to: star, trumpet, spider, circular, ruffled, and my personal favorite… double.  Each shape is definitely unique and adds to the charm of these wonderful little bloomers.

5) Daylilies come in multiple bloom sizes where the bloom is measured by the diameter.  I have several varieties that sport miniature blooms (blooms that are less than 3”).  These truly are petite pretties.  The next size up is small where the blooms range from 3” to 4 ½”.  The last category is large.  Here, blooms range from 4 ½” up to 12”. Now imagine seeing something like that in your backyard!  When these varieties are in bloom, they add a very dramatic effect to the landscape.

6) These perennials bloom profusely.  Daylilies are a guaranteed bloomer season after season.

If you are interested in finding out more about daylilies, check out The American Hemerocallis Society at:  www.daylilies.org.

Tinker’s Garden is another helpful website at: https://urbanoveralls.net//db.tinkersgardens.com this website sports an impressive daylily database.  Simply enter the cultivar name (if your not certain of the name, just start typing and a dropdown list of daylily names will appear) and then hit the search button.  This is a great way to view information about a particular variety and in some cases, see a photo of the plant in bloom.