I just got in my 1st ever order of day lilies. The lilies were cut down to nubs so there is no green foliage standing up at all. I'm guessing this is common and the plants will recover but I am having a heck of a time telling if they are doing well or not. I just planted them yesterday. It is very hot and windy here so things are getting dry fast, should I water them everyday in this weather? Without the foliage to tell me how they are feeling I'm at a bit of a loss as what to do with them and I don't want to kill them off!
Newbie day lily help please
No, it's not common to cut the foliage down to a nub, most people leave at least 6 inches or more (some leave about 3 inches). IMHO I would water them every other day if it's really hot and dry, just water them deeply. The foliage should start shooting up in a week or less, around here it usually about 3 days.
If you water them too much to begin with it can cause rot issues. It may be different in your area and I'm sure someone will chime in that is near you. Here we have high humidity along with the heat so rot issues may be more of a problem here than there.
Tink, thanks for the info. I'll keep an eye in the humidity as it can get very humid here. Normally not until later in the year but the weather is so unusual here lately. We got into the mid 90's and very humid just a few days ago and average temps for this time of year should be low 70's. I think we are in for a long dry summer.
Next time you might want to soak the roots in water for a day before planting to rehydrate the plants. Best of luck and welcome to the world of daylilies.
Dick
Thanks Dick, I did do that - it was on the instructions. :)
They should shoot up in no time. I had some that I received that I had to cut back severely (my own fault, I was gone on a trip, the daylilies arrived and sat in the box for over a week at the UPS store before I picked them up). They were pretty brown by the time I unpacked them, although I know that they were nice and green when they were dug and shipped.
The first picture was taken right after I planted them in the pots. The second was taken ten days later (I even have a scape!)
How are they doing now?
Dick
They are doing fine although not much has changed since the last picture was taken 5-22-12 the day before I left to go on yet another trip. I just got back Monday and I don't have any more recent pictures as I was taking only ones of plants that are flowering today. I missed so many the week I was gone :-(.
This message was edited May 31, 2012 8:03 AM
Thank you for that ditchlily, mine look fantastic compared to the way yours did so that is very encouraging. :) I hope I get a scape, I have only seen these on the internet and I can't wait to see what color they really look like.
I hope yours do as well. I was pretty bummed when I saw them, especially since I had done it to myself. Twelve days in a box is not really good for the plants, but the roots were great and I was pretty sure that they would recover. That they have!
A close up of one of the plants. Before and ten days later.
I think mine looked like they might be spiking up a bit today. We had a great cool day today and rain this evening so hopefully they will look even better tomorrow.
I am wondering how long you leave them in pots before you put them in the ground?
It varies. Most of the time I just plant new arrivals directly in the ground, but this time I did not have spots ready (still not sure where I will put them) and I wanted to get them planted right away. Those pots are nice and big so the plants could just stay there over the summer until it gets a bit cooler.
I usually just plant directly in the ground as well, but if I don't have room at the time I will put in pots. Some people grow them in pots and never plant them in the ground.
How on earth do they keep them all watered if they leave them in pots forever??? I have kept some in pots for a while, but even though I water I usually end up losing some in the heat of summer. Seems like the mulch helps retain the water more in the beds................ maybe I am just not doing something right? Maybe larger pots or something?
It has been in the 90s here several days already and everything is bone dry - looks like it might be a battle just to keep things living in the ground this summer!
The pots I have are mostly kept in partial shade so they don't need as much water.
It's growing and I have a scape!
Congratulations!! ^_^
I'm one of them that grow my daylilies in pots. But I live in an area of the country that doesn't get too hot very often. We generally get plenty enough rain that I don't have to water much except for July and August. I have 4 separate areas where I have 'pot beds' where I rotate a sprinkler. My potted areas get 2 hours of the sprinkler every other day when we're having dry weather. It does run our water bill up for these two months. I was hoping to start planting some of them in the ground and in raised beds this year. But DH's hours have been cut temporarily. So we are tightening up the belt and will have to put extra projects off for another year.
Glad to see your daylilies are showing signs of growth dcartphoto. Yeah for scapes!
The ones in pots here get watered daily which is a muct in really hot places or if they get full sun all day. We have a well and a sprinkler system and they get watered for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. If they are located in an area that can get morning sun only and not the hot afternoon sun then they may not need to be watered every day.
I'm glad to hear they do so well in pots. I have a few coming in trade and I have a couple of different locations I am thinking of putting them. I think I will put them in pots when they come. Then I can move the pots around for a bit until I decide where they are going to stay. Much better for them then digging them up and moving them again later.
One thing that I know that others have done is to "plant" a pot-in-pot. You dig a hole just the size of the pot and bury it in the ground. Then you take the pot that the plant in in and nest it in the first one. They have to be close to each other in size. I believe the Fred/Spunky has done this. I did it last year for two plants that I was not sure of the final location and overwintered them that way. They are still there right now and both have scaped and bloomed. It is a little bit more work, but it does help with the watering. It also makes it easier to rearrange plants, but still gives an "in-ground" look.
Close up of the pot in pot.
One of the plant showing the pot in the background: Spacecoast Tigertail Tango.
If you cover the edges of the pot with mulch (something I have not done) you can't even tell that the pot is there.
A shot of the other plant, Spacecoast Francis Busby, that gives a better look at the pots.
This message was edited Jun 3, 2012 8:37 AM
That is a neat idea.... you just doing that to make sure that is where you want it to stay?? if so, then you will remove the pots? I guess I am not that particular about my beds. I started out trying to plan my big bed and have everything in a certain spot, but i would lose a plant here and there and eventually I just ditched my plan and just have a bed of flowers that I love....... I hope to be a little more "planned" in my foundation planting though! :)
Love that SC Tiger Tango - need to add that to my want list.....
Mostly I did it because I was pretty sure that was not gong to be its permanent spot and I did not want to plant it in the ground there. However, I did not just want the pots sitting out all winter if I could help it. I wanted them protected. This was a good compromise. If I decide to leave them there I will remove the outer pot and just plant them directly in the ground.
When I first started my beds I had a plan....now all I try to do is make sure I have the tallest ones in the back and the shortest ones in the front. I do make maps of the beds and will even do it in advance if I have time.
A map of one of the smaller beds.
Fred/Spunky1 does the pot in pot in some of his display areas. He changes these out every so often to have different ones there. It's easier to pick up a pot than to dig a whole clump and replant another one. Also, it's easier to weed; just pick up the pots, spray roundup or whatever and then replace the pots when the spray is dry. In the area around the pond where he has done this he mulched it so you couldn't tell the pots were there.
That's a great idea! Though with the literally thousands of potted plants I have here, it may not be too practical for me? That many more pots? Egads! But it might be a good idea for just a few in certain areas?
Something else to consider is if you live in a cold winter area, it might be too cold to keep your daylilies in pots year round? I have pretty mild tempts year round here.
Well, I love the idea of being able to remove them to weed or spray or whatever.....
Love your mapping system - very elaborate! I started out trying to draw mine to approximate scale on paper - but quickly got behind. Love the idea of having the photos on the actual bloom on there! Not sure if I know how you managed to get those images so tiny.
Thanks for sharing the idea!
I Have a pots in the ground in various spots. I keep changing them out as one starts to bloom and the other is finished. Its a winner of an idea if you have your plants in pots anyway.
I used Microsoft Paint (which came with my computer) to make that one. Making the pictures small was easy, if a bit tedious. (there might be an easier way to do it, but if so ,I am not that savvy).
Pictures 1-4
1. What I did was just copy the picture and then paste it into a Word doc.
2 & 3. I resized it there by right clicking on it and entering the new size (0.5 ").
4. Then copied the resized picture into the Paint doc.
You can copy them directly into the Paint program, but resizing all the pictures there takes longer and is more difficult to get them the same size. Here is a link to an old thread where we talk about making bed maps: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1086973/
This message was edited Jun 4, 2012 12:44 PM
The first map of that bed was not nearly that well done. I hand drew it, which is what I also did first for another bed that already existed. My newer beds were more planned and I decided where the plants were going BEFORE they were planted. They were also planted in lines which made it easier to map.
Here is a scan of the original hand draw map.
Thought I would show an update on my potted plants. The scape bloomed today!
Westbourne The Spice Of My Eye 6-4 FFO
Very pretty. I can't wait for my scape to bloom. :)