eXtension

Daylilly flowers dying

Asked July 9, 2020, 2:43 PM EDT

I have several varieties of Daylillies throughout my yard. I live in the Metro Detroit area. In years past, the blooms last days/weeks. This year, I'm noticing that I get a bloom that looks awesome on that day, but then the next day it is withered. The following day, it dies and falls to the ground. Is this intense heat causing this? If yes, is there any solution? If it is not, do you have ideas on what is causing this? I have a well sprinkler system, and the gardens are watered at 6:30 am for 5 minutes daily. It is happening with my Stella D'Oro's, my single bloom daylillies, and my tall daylillies. My gardens in front are East facing and shade over by 2 pm, and my backyard gardens get full sun until 6:30 ish, then shade.

Macomb County Michigan

1 Response

Stella De Oro daylilies have such nice vibrant blooms! I bet they are beautiful. If you've been spending more time at home than previously it's likely that you are noticing where they get their name from. Each individual bloom only lasts a day, when it fades it is immediately replaced by a new bloom. This happens at night while you are sleeping and is easy to miss. The drought we have been experiencing may cause plants to wilt more easily and can reduce the number of blooms that plants have making this even more obvious. It might also cause the blooms to drop or shrivel a bit earlier in the day. Luckily they are fairly drought tolerant plants.

If you are concerned about the lack of water, get a rain gauge and place it in the garden next to one of the plants so that you can see how much water the plants are actually getting from the sprinkler. If you don't have a rain gauge, use a leftover can. Tuna cans work in a pinch. An inch of water a week is recommended. Another thing you can do is dig a small hole in your garden after the sprinkler runs so that you can see how dry the soil is under the top wet layer. If you do so, you might find that only the very top of the soil is actually wet. If this is the case, I would consider occasionally watering with a hose or by hand to supplement the sprinkler system.