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.
In choosing trees and shrubs, for example, we select materials with several seasons of interest; the dogwood has great appeal 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.
Here are six different suggested uses for daylilies:
- Edging plants
- In the perennial border
- By a pool
- Massed along a fence
- Planted at the base of a tree
- Accent in a foundation planting
In each case, the textural effect of the foliage would create an exciting picture before and after the floral display had passed. That list of landscape uses could easily have been expanded.
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 the major part of the gardening year for their foliage texture.
It is good foliage. It looks especially inviting early in spring when the young leaves are just pushing their way through the soil.
It has a lush appearance until late in the summer, when if it appears to dry and be dull, it may be shared so that an entirely new growth quickly seems to carry on the function of textural interest until killed by frost.
Foliage Texture Of Medium Strength
The texture of daylily foliage is of medium strength and has an open character and somewhat 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 proper growth and feathery, gray-green borage to dramatize the weeping leaves of the daylily.
Experiment, use other plants with day-lilies 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, please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that they are suitable 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.
4964 by NA