Daylilies, A Good Garden Investment By Jill Black At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Daylilies are a clumping perennial with attractive arching sword shaped leaves and tuberous roots. They can be deciduous, semi-evergreen or evergreen. Plants come in a range of sizes from small to tall, and flower sizes range from miniature to singles or doubles up to 15cm across. Hardy, permanent, and easy to grow, Daylilies are one of the finest investments you can make in long-lasting garden beauty for minimal effort.

Daylilies have an attractive lily-shaped trumpet flower that stands above the foliage. The Flowers come in a wide variety of colours from yellows, oranges, reds, white, pinks, maroons, purples and many gorgeous bi-colours. The flowers may be fringed and some are fragrant.

Most daylilies do exactly what they say, flower for one day only, but don't let that put you off, because new buds keep developing in succession on emergent stalks producing a long run of flowers through summer to autumn. Many have 5-9 flowers from each corymb that open day by day over about 2 weeks before another stem emerges.

Daylilies are a useful plant for herbaceous borders, around water features, grown in containers, used as a ground cover, on sloping banks or problem areas where little else grows happily. Plant in big drifts across the garden, up the driveway, or flanking a fence. In the garden they look good placed in the middle of a garden bed surrounded by perennials in a similar colour scheme.

In summer they like ample moisture while in bloom. Mulch well to provide a cool root run and fed with a complete fertilizer during spring and summer. An easy plant to grow, daylilies are generally trouble free and adaptable to wide range of soils - just plant and forget them. They'll multiply on their own.

Plants can become overcrowded over time causing the plant to produce fewer flowers. Dig them up every 5 or 6 years and divide the big clumps into smaller plants very early in spring by pulling apart. Not only will you get more plants, but the bloom power will increase after division. Replant the sections spaced 15-20" apart in enriched soil to give a new lease of life.

Daylilies make a good cut flower lasting about a week in a vase or used to add flair to mid to late summer cut-flower bouquets.

The petals are edible and very tasty. They have a crisp, sweet flavour that goes very well in tossed salads providing colour and texture.

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