When it comes to garden decoration, planting flowers is usually among the best-recommended choices. Of all deer-resistant plants, blue daylily has won the hearts of thousands for its charming beauty.
From my perspective, blue daylilies are colorful and stunning perennials that you can add to your garden. Read till the end to discover more about blue daylily, daylily varieties, and how to take care of them.
What Is Blue Daylily?
Blue daylily or Hemerocallis lavender-blue baby is a beautiful and fragrant flower with lavender-purple color, lavender-blue eye, and chartreuse-green throat. The bloom time of your daylily gardens can last about 24 hours or less.
“Lavender Blue Daylily” by F. D. Richards is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Currently, there are over 80,000 daylily varieties available. For centuries, they’ve been utilized in cuisines, cosmetics, and horticulture. European settlers introduced the Asian native daylilies to North America.
People sometimes called these daylily flowers true perennials and admired them for their beauty, resilience, and low maintenance. They quickly become a part of every lovely household lawn and garden.
A walkthrough of blue ridge daylily gardens
Detailed Guide To Blue Daylily Care
Soil
The blue daylily, like other daylilies, can grow in a variety of soil types and pH levels. As a result, these beauties thrive in various soil types, from poor to dry and moist to fertile.
Watering
The blue baby day lily requires a typical amount of water, but not too much because it has a high tolerance of short-term water shortage. Between watering intervals, experts recommend allowing the soil to dry.
The top and roots of your daylily will not rot if the soil is well-drained, but constant moisture will ensure that the plant blooms profusely. Ensure that your daylilies receive a couple of inches of water per week, whether from rain or the hose.
Light
While primitive daylilies prefer shady areas, modern cultivars like blue babies require a mix of bright direct and mild sun exposure. During the time of blooming, this deer-resistant plan requires about 6 hours of sunlight per day.
Humidity
Because blue daylily maintenance is relatively easy, this kind of flower is resilient in a wide range of humidity levels, from dry to moist levels.
Temperature
With the efforts of botanists to cultivate daylilies to develop temperature tolerance in the plants, the lavender-blue baby daylily can endure a wide variety of temperatures across Europe and Asia.
On the other hand, gardeners recommend covering the plants in the garden with protective frost covering during frost. Additionally, if the temperature is above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, you should provide your blue daylily with water and ventilation.
Common Problems With Blue Daylily
Insects
Spider mites
Spider mites are one of the most frequent daylily pests. Although they are most active in hot, dry weather, they can be kept under control by hosing them down.
If it’s necessary to use pesticides, you should not use Kelthane, which is toxic to your daylilies.
Aphids
Daylilies have an aphid that is unique to the bloom and, unlike regular garden aphids, is challenging to manage with soaps. These pests are most active in cool temperatures in temperate zones and the subtropics during the winter months.
Therefore, pesticides must be Kelthane-free and, at a minimum, contain a mildly systemic action.
Thrips
The most effective control approach is to use a Kelthane-free pesticide with a lengthy residual, or systemic action sprayed early in the growing season.
Snails and slugs
Snails and slugs eat the immature tissues of daylilies at night, leaving tears and holes. They hide in cool, moist locations during the day, such as dead leaves, mulch, or under rocks and stones.
In this case, you should use snail and slug pesticides and sanitation to combat the problem.
Besides, daylilies are also known to be afflicted by cutworms, wasps, tarnished plant bugs, Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, cucumber beetles, and cicadas.
Disease
While certain diseases are easy to spot in the home garden, others are more complicated, such as crown and root rot.
A professional laboratory diagnosis may be required in some cases. In addition, a gardener must know what to expect from daylilies in terms of growth and development.
Fungus is the main culprit causing diseases to your blue daylily, especially leaf streak. Yellowing streaks, brown spots, and die-back of leaves without plant death are symptoms of this disease.
However, you can eliminate leaf streaks with the use of suitable fungicides.
Propagating Blue Daylily
Daylily can be propagated in different ways, but people usually plant them through seeds and the division of clumps.
Plants propagated at the end of the summer are healthy, with large leaves and more blossoms. So, if you want to reproduce a blue day lily plant, you should wait till the summer is through.
It’s best to start propagating the plant at least three months before the first frost. This is important to allow the new plant to root, which takes around eight weeks.
Below are the essential steps and tips on how to propagate a blue daylily:
- First, use the shovel to remove a healthy plant from the dirt carefully.
- Cut the root bunches apart now. To remove the majority of the soil, immerse them in a pail of water. Pull the bunches apart gently to avoid harming the plant.
- Locate the crown (the place where roots and leaves of the plant meet). Begin by dividing the outer edge into larger bunches. The number of clump divisions should be less than four.
- Cut the leaves down to almost a third of their original length.
- You should plant the crowns 1 inch deep in the soil.
- Provide the right temperature, light, and moisture in the soil.
- In three to four weeks, the shoots will emerge. This will demonstrate that the lovely blue daylily’s propagation has been successful.
Top Tips For Growing A Healthy Blue Daylily
Planting
Daylilies bloom best in full sun (6 hours per day) and moist, well-drained soil. Dark-colored cultivars should be given some afternoon shade in hot regions to help them preserve their flower color.
Daylilies will flower for years with minimal care if they are planted in the right spot. Other than a yearly infusion of compost, they don’t require any fertilizing.
Before planting, amend the soil with compost. Plants should be spaced 12 to 18 inches apart, with the crown about 1 inch below the soil level.
To maintain moisture and inhibit weed growth, water thoroughly and mulch with bark or straw. Although weed-free and well-watered once established, young transplants should be kept free of weeds for the first year.
Dividing
Dividing daylilies is one of the few recurring care tasks required when growing them. Depending on their growth, your daylily clump will become crowded after 4 to 5 years, and flowering will decrease.
Late summer is the best time to divide daylilies in most locations. Early spring is an alternative in the north, especially if the weather turns chilly soon in the fall.
In addition, individual clumps should be dug up and placed on a tarp—separate healthy young plants (fans) with robust root systems with a sharp knife or spade. C
ut down the foliage and replant it as soon as possible in compost-added soil or containers for storage.
Winter Care
Late October is an excellent time to mulch newly planted daylilies in northern areas. This is critical for young plants that would otherwise be wrenched out of the ground during the first winter.
Unless unhealthy, dead foliage can be removed in the spring. In that scenario, it’s preferable to take it down in the fall.
Conclusion
It is no exaggeration to say that the daylily’s exquisitely perfumed blossoms entirely seduce you in complementary tones of blue and lavender.
We hope you can gain deep knowledge about the blue daylily and become a master in growing this particular plant with all the above information. Don’t forget to revisit us for more valuable tips on gardening and planting.
