Growing Hemerocallis - water needs?

Nollie

I have bought a few H. Stella d’Oro and want to plant them fairly close to a group of roses. I am slightly confused on water requirements once established. Most sites say don’t water hardly at all, so would they get too wet by association, given the roses need a huge amount water in summer?

Alan Clark2 in Liverpool

In America wild Daylilies are known as Ditchweed, and it is said that water is the best fertiliser for them, so you cannot over-water them. Despite that, they are also very drought tolerant.

Obelixx

Go ahead and mix them up with your roses but beware of slugs and snails, especially in spring when the new leaves emerge.

They are drought tolerant but I find it reduces flowers and their leaves go brown at the egdes.   Never a probem in the Belgian garden where they had loads of flowers (helps to dead head) and bonny foliage.   I've seen them planted along a stream and very happy with damp feet.

Nollie

Great, thanks Alan and Obelixx. I will also add them to my snail patrol - no slugs here. I really must stop saying that, tempting fate! 

Alan Clark2 in Liverpool

I have slugs and snails here but they never do any harm to my Daylilies. Apparently slugs prefer weak or young plants, healthy mature plants should be safe.

Hostafan1

I've never noticed any slug damage on mine either

Obelixx

There is a fine colony of fat snails living in a raised bed here - stone built jobby the previous owners planted with the original orange day lily, now fighting it out with arum pictum.  Too dense for us to dig out given the shape and depth. 

I do toss on bowls of veg and salad washing water to help them along but I am debating weed killer as, while the flowers look great with the bright orange berries on the arum seed heads, the foliage is very unbecoming as it turns increasingly brown and tatty.   

I was thinking herbs would do better as they'd be a lot closer to my kitchen than the current bed.

floralies

I don't do anything with mine apart from divide them every three years. We have clay soil which bakes in summer and and is very claggy in winter, they cope with both conditions.

Hostafan1

I've just driven past a hedgerow full of flowering hemerocallis. I'm guessing the only water they get is rain.

Nollie

There is a huge patch of the orange ones outside an abandoned ruin near me that do fine on their own too. My concern was they would get too soggy courtesy of rose watering, but sounds as if they are pretty adaptable on that score.

Thanks all.

Bee witched

Hi @Nollie,

Mine are in a damp bed and do really well. 
Each Spring I put a decent dollop of wood ash around the base of the emerging foliage and they flower their socks off.

Bee x