Tough, low-water plants provide rich garden color over a very long season

By Gary Jones

Get that mental picture of the ubiquitous, narrow-petaled golden daylily right out of your mind. Today’s daylilies are so much more than that.

To begin with, prepare to be bowled over with ravishing colors such as cranberry red, dark purple, vivid pink, blackish-red, butterscotch, burnt orange, ivory cream and startling combinations of other never-before-seen daylily colors.

Next, check out the new hybrids’ thick, wide, waxy petals. These exciting daylilies deliver much more floral firepower than the wimpy ones of yesterday. Some have double flowers, some extravagant ruffles.

You’ll also be surprised with the length of bloom season. Some new daylilies are rebloomers and can bloom right through fall.

Consider also that the new hybrid daylilies come in compact sizes from 10- to 18-inch tall cuties such as Happy Returns, Little Grapette, Little Business, Purple de Oro and Mini Pearl to scaled-down 2-footers like Fairy Tale Pink and Chicago Apache.

These are perfect plants for pots, small courtyard or patio gardens. They are also tidy plants to edge walkways and flowerbeds with.

Finally, imagine a new quality in daylilies — fragrance. Top-scented varieties are Daring Dilemma, a cream-tinted pink with plum edges and centers; Happy Returns, a very floriferous dwarf yellow daylily; Hyperion, with large yellow flowers; and the magnificent, fully double, salmon Siloam Double Classic.

Daylilies are a valuable component to mixed flower borders and shrub borders. The graceful, arching, grass-like clumps are a welcome contrast to the foliage of most annuals, perennials and shrubs. The large, trumpet-shaped flowers rising well above the foliage are an excellent complement to the spikey flowers of sages, lavenders and other summer perennials.

Don’t forget that daylilies are a great choice for San Diego gardens because they’re tolerant of extreme heat as well as partial shade and can bear some drought when you need them to. Few perennials are as low-care, free of disease and insect problems and all-around tough as daylilies.

Daylilies grow and flower best in full sun, but will take some shade — especially in the hottest areas. They’re not fussy about soil type, but will do better in well-amended soil.

The fleshy roots will survive drought, although plants will look better and flower more with weekly watering. Feed them every other month (starting in March) with an organic rose and flower food.

If you have any gardening tips that you would like to share, please don’t hesitate to do so. San Diego weather is warming up and the timing is good to prepare your garden for an increase in temperature.

Next time, we will take a closer look at how to help your plants, trees and shrubs beat the Southern California heat.

—Gary Jones is Chief Horticulturist at Armstrong Garden Centers. Email your drought and gardening questions to [email protected].