“Familiarity breeds contempt.” Or so said Geoffrey Chaucer in one of The Canterbury Tales. Perhaps that is why people hold the common orange day-lily, Hemerocallis fulva, in disdain. This “Ditch Lily” was a favorite of southern farmers’ wives in the 1950s and 60s, who prized their showy blooms and ease of growth. It is this effortless growth and rapid multiplication that causes concern. They “have the potential to become invasive,” per Invasives.org.
The common, orange Ditch Lily occurs in every eastern state. Like other members of the day-lily family, they thrive in full sun and prefer a slightly acidic, well-drained soil. They can be used instead of shrubs as a short hedge. They can also be used as a groundcover on slopes where mowing is impractical, and do a super job of preventing erosion. Ditch Lily flowers last only a single day, but they produce many, many buds so the bloom show goes on for weeks. Once all the buds on a stem have flowered, the naked stem can be removed to prevent seed formation and to make the plant look neater. This may encourage additional flowers.
Hybridizers have produced new colors, shapes, and forms of day-lilies. Colors have reached beyond the common orange to encompass all the warmer shades of the color wheel, from yellow to deep red or even purple, and everything between. Flowers are double, striped, freckled, curved. Some of these are highly valued (read: expensive). I particularly liked those with thick, ruffled petal edges until I heard a plantsman describe it as “chicken fat.” Now, I think of Tyson whenever I see those.
Whether your day-lilies are of the dug-it-from-the-roadside variety or one of the exorbitant specialty type, strands of the long grass-like foliage wilt and brown during the growing season. Growers advise us to remove the dead leaves as they occur, and cut off all the dead foliage once it is winter-killed. Rather than grooming my plants regularly to keep them neat, I follow a more radical (tough love) approach. Once half the foliage has browned, I gather it into a ponytail and decapitate it, leaving about four inches of leaf above soil level. Then I give the pruned plant a dose of liquid fertilizer. While plants will not repeat bloom, they do throw new foliage which is fresh-looking all the way to frost. I have not noticed a reduction in plant vigor as a result of this treatment.
Congested day-lily plants will have fewer flowers. To remedy, lift the entire clump, divide them and replant into amended soil. In fertile soil with plentiful water, you may need to divide every other year or every third year. When you lift a mature clump, you will find that it has formed a series of fleshy tubers, almost like a Dahlia. All divisions should have some of these little taters. After a vigorous division several years ago, I swept the damaged pieces off my garden bench into a bucket that contained discarded potting soil from a spent planter. Several weeks later, I discovered that each of the small bulbs had sprouted new leaves and roots. They are definitely survivors.
Day-lilies are drought-tolerant once established, and not prone to damage from insects or disease, although day-lily rust or leaf-streak may appear, as well as damage from thrips or slugs. Deer find the flowers and leaves quite tasty. I understand that day-lily flowers are edible, but have never sampled them. I prefer to enjoy them in the flower border – whether they are the high-dollar, super-hybridized variety, or the simple, old-fashioned orange Ditch Lily.
