A CHINESE VEGETABLE POTPOURRI - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 102

Appearance
Daylilies grow from fleshy, tuberous roots and form clumps of slender, straplike leaves.
The cheery flowers are funnel-shaped, and stiff stalks hold them well above the clumps.
The flowers of the common daylily (also called the tawny daylily and tiger lily) are
burnt orange and grow on stems up to 3 feet tall, though the foliage clumps are only
about 2 feet tall.
How to Grow
Getting started. If you don't know someone who has daylilies, it's worth checking with
a local garden club. Anyone who has them will have enough to share. Otherwise, you
may need to order them if you want the common species. Every nursery sells potted
daylilies, but they'll be a newer variety. If you order from a catalog, you'll tend to get
them either in the spring or fall. If you dig them from a friend's yard, you can take
them anytime, but they're easiest to handle in the spring when the shoots are about 3
inches high. They aren't fussy about being moved; you can even transplant daylilies
when they're blooming, as long as you water them in well.
Planting. As long as they're not in full shade or don't have wet feet, you can put day-
lilies anywhere and they'll reward you with abundant blooms. You can naturalize day-
lilies, put them toward the back of a flower bed, or give them their own bed. The fleshy
roots should be set at the same level as they were growing, with the crown (where roots
meet shoots) just below soil level.
Growing needs. Dig in some compost before planting, and water well after planting.
Once established, your day-lilies won't need any watering. A little admiration occasion-
ally is a good thing for a person, pet, or plant; otherwise daylilies require no care. The
common daylily dislikes rich soil, and the clumps don't need dividing more than every
five years or so. Even then, you don't have to divide them, but you'll get even more
handsome plants if you do. Modern long-blooming daylily varieties such as 'Happy
Returns' and the ubiquitous 'Stella d'Oro' need supplemental feeding to keep up their
impressive show, but species and older varieties don't. Some compost every year or two
is beneficial but not essential.