Daylily, Rapid Eye Movement
June is here and with it lots of record setting heat and virtually no rain. This year looks like it will be a record breaking year, but not the good records. Even the weeds are having a tough time this year. The good news is that daylilies and iris are both drought tolerant once they have been established. Your plants may look a little peaked, but they should be able to pull through to the fall when they will rebound nicely. There are a couple of strategies that can help them get through the heat.
The first is to make sure that when you do water, you water deeply. Water once a week and at least an inch water around your plants. If you use drip irrigation so much the better, because you won’t be losing water to wind or evaporation. Also you can help by watering either late in the day or early morning. I prefer late in the afternoon/evening because that way the plants will have all night to soak up the water.
The second thing you can do is to add a 2 – 4” layer of mulch around your plant (but not touching the fans). The mulch will help insulate and keep the plant a little cooler. If you have your plants in pots, move the pots where they can get afternoon shade. Your pots will need more water than your plants in the ground, but again drip irrigation will help.
I also know of a friend who trims his daylilies back to about 6 – 9” in the heat of the summer, so the roots don’t have to support as much top growth. I will be doing this on most of my daylilies to help them get through.
With bearded iris, moving or dividing is done in August and September, at which time you would trim them back before re-planting. If you are keeping your bearded iris in place, you can also go ahead and trim any brown tips off or just cut them back to about 4 – 6 inches now.