I have some day lilies that bloom in late April and early June, since we have had 9 days of 100*and no rain they are getting dry leaves now, I have been watering every other day, can I trim these leaves back? if so how far?

Wanda

to answer your question, my instinct says to cut off anything brown and leave what is green alone.

bana's right as far as I'm concerned too. That green is storing food in the tubers so the plants have enough to produce blooms next year.
I don't bother with mine...when they die all the way back in the fall/winter, I'll clean up the brown leaves then. And mine don't get any water other than rain either....unless other things nearby are getting watered too...and that would be after about a week or more without rain.

I asked that ? to lady at daylily farm & she said ~~Oh just pull off that brown stuff ~ Its how they grow & nothing to worry about!

Glad to hear that Muddyshoes!! Just got back from our Kansas place where I did just that. They were so ugly before I did that & now they're so skinny looking. Oh well.

Yep, just pull off the brown, dead foliage (and the brown, dead flower stalks). A firm tug will do it.

they will pop out new foliage right soon, if you cut them back now.... I don't know how much this stressses the plants, but I do know that hubby started that with his vast expanse of daylily and now we have rust affecting the whole batch.... and to be rid of it, we need to cut them back to about an inch and drench fungicide..... now, the question is, do it now or wait for the real die-down in fall?.... sigh.... I dunno!!!...anyone else deal with this rust mess?....

Luckily, the rust stays down south, at least for now. Hybridizers that I know all say to throw out any plant with rust or else your entire daylily collection will be ruined BUT the American Daylily Society site says that rust will not overwinter in zones 6 or colder and that appropriate fungicides can be used. So, Toots that's my input. One more thing, do you know any growers in your area that might be able to answer your question? I always defer to my local growers who really know what works and why.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 16paws,

quote:

Originally posted by Toots:
the question is, do it now or wait for the real die-down in fall?.... sigh.... I dunno!!!...anyone else deal with this rust mess?....

I would trim the foliage and drench it now rather than take the chance of the fungus overwintering when the foliage dies back in the fall just to re-appear with new growth next spring.

Here's a good article on Daylillies & Rust:

http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...ry/daylily_rust.html

excellent article, Jewel!!.. thank you!!!>.

with the number of plants he has, he's gonna be busy for a while!!.....

any idea if Stella D'Oro gets rusty or not?.. we've had such a dry season, they look ratty, but they're putting up the fresh leaves that don't look to be affected.... I'd hate to cut them down now if I don't have to...????

Don't water it everday, they dont need that much water. Just trim it a little bit that it would look amazing.

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