What do you do with the old blooms you pick off?

My daylily mentor always carried a bucket and put the old blooms in it. She did this daily and I've done the same. My DH keeps saying throw them in the bed under the plant to "enrich" the soil by decaying. Thoughts? Thanks.

I throw mine in the garden bed it would take me much longer to deadhead if I would collect them in a bucket plus I don't have to carry a bucket around with me. My garden beds have plenty of foilage to hide the spent blooms. Folks that have display gardens might not want them laying around.

I have done it both ways, it just depends on how much time I have. Also, if you keep throwing them in the bed (if you have a lot of daylilies) it can pile up and be an yucky mess that stinks and attracts gnats and slugs (at least here anyway). we water every day so the old blooms stay really moist before they break down. If your beds dry out in between waterings then it may not be a problem.

This message was edited Jun 19, 2012 7:49 PM

There is plenty of room in my garden that they never pile up even though we have lots of daylilies they just dry up. We never water every day so our garden does dry out between waterings.