Nobody will deny daylilies have beautiful flowers, and few would quibble over the statement that their foliage has landscape merit.
But to get the best landscape effect from daylilies, we should not think of them entirely in terms of their bloom.
Like woody plants, their landscape value is based on the length of time they lend interest in the garden.
For example, we select material with several seasons of interest in choosing trees and shrubs.
Appeal and Uses Of Daylilies
Dogwood is appealing because it has excellent spring flowers, horizontally massed foliage in summer, good fall color, and an interesting branching effect in winter.
No matter where it is planted, the daylily, too, has a long-term interest. In the March issue of FLOWER GROWER, six distinct uses for daylilies were suggested and illustrated.
As edging plants, in the perennial border, by a pool, massed along a fence, planted at the base of a tree, and as an accent in a foundation planting.
In each case, the textural effect of the foliage would create an interesting picture before and after the floral display had passed.
That list of landscape uses could easily have been expanded. But, in fact, the daylily can be used for structural design in any location where winter interest is not necessarily demanded.
So, while the flowers of an individual variety will give you a spectacular short-term color array, daylilies may be enjoyed most of the gardening year for their foliage texture.
Textute of Daylily Foliage
It has a lush appearance until late in the summer, when if it appears too dry and dull, it may be sheared so that a completely new growth quickly appears to carry on the function of textural interest until killed by frost.
The texture of daylily foliage is of medium strength and has an open character and rather weeping appearance, leading the eye to the ground.
Heighten interest in a clump of it by contrasting it with a low-spreading type of plant with solid, deep-green, bold leaves planted at the base of the foliage.
A finely textured plant, such as one of the thymes, spreading between two or three clumps of daylilies provides more interest than when daylilies are used alone.
Occasionally a good bit of showmanship would be the upright growth and feathery, gray-green borage to dramatize the weeping leaves of the daylily.
Experiment and use other plants with daylilies for a complete change of pace. The daylily, beautiful when in bloom, can further be enjoyed for its foliage.
Color is essential, but it is not the only means of gaining satisfaction from your garden, so in the use of the topflight daylilies, don’t fall into the trap of thinking they are good for flower effects alone.
Every plant you order from your catalogs this season will develop into a clump that should be used dramatically and architecturally in your garden.
44659 by John R. Rebhan