They are pretty for sure! I am in Massachusetts
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If you are interested, I can send you a box of the roots… probably later in the summer after the blueberry, strawberry, and tomatoes slow down.
Let me know… 
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Thanks a lot, that would be great!
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Asters. Technically it’s a massive family of hardy plants that have a high percentage of beneficial US natives. From fleabanes (often thought of as weeds but bloom little purple, white, yellow, red… flowers) to liatris. Shasta and oxeye daisy are common not US native asters.
Non-native plants attract and feed non-native pests that may not have a good predator in your area leading to more crop damage or irritation for homeowners. Areas with more native plants have a greater diversity of insect including predatory insects and insect eating bird species than areas filled with flowering plants that are not native. By adding some natives we no longer have to watch for and spray paper wasps because something appears to be eating them every time they start a new nest. Assassin bugs and preying mantis appeared to wipe out whatever was nibbling on all cherry species leaves. We also have documented many efficient native pollinators on our plants including mason and leaf cutter bee species. We were debating paying money for some next year.
Liatris in general are salt tolerant, have a variety of species for different growing conditions, and spread by seed and bulb. I bought a plant a few months later into the season than usual and by then the supposedly single plant that had been potted and shipped to a nearby nursery in early spring was working on making it’s 5th bulb and the pot had more roots than soil.
Some of the mist flower species also performed the best in a test comparing road salt tolerant aster species.
Many other natives are easy to start from bulk seed quickly. Blanket flower and coreopsis are very common groups of native species for fast, colorful groundcovers and most are salt tolerant. I’m sure there’s a native lupine, phlox (aside from one contested species all are US natives), or perennial milkweed species that would effectively and rapidly cover that area. A very popular native plant nursery has seed mixes specifically for “lousy soil” or affordable mixes for covering large areas in beneficial, durable, and decorative native plants.
Prairie moon also includes a sterile wheatgrass hybrid called Regreen for temporarily suppressing weeds while establishing more desired plants with some seed mix orders.
Many common natives will spread far faster than daylily if you remove some of the competition first and are actually useful for wildlife and the ecosystem instead of damaging it with invasive species. “Ditch lillies” as those common orange lillies have come to be referred to are on many states invasive or noxious weed lists and may even be illegal to plant in some places due to the damage they have caused to native plants and wildlife habitats. Many people think of them as a weed from how easily they’ve spread to unwanted or unmaintained areas and some spend years digging them out of their property. Volunteers just spent half a day nearly every day for a month this past spring removing them and other things like some non-native clovers from along roadsides due to people using them as well known filler plants that easily escape. There is no reason to plant daylillies besides you recognize them better than an even more suitable native plant and they don’t require reading any extra info.
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In my world it is very prone to very native rabbits! I had to put a fence around few bulbs I planted last year to save from to be eaten to the ground…
I try to avoid seeds, I need something I can weed around and mulch. I never had any success with just dropping the seeds over troubled area, even if I prepare the soil and water. Only few actually germinate and the rest of the space is just gets covered with weeds. With all my respect to natives, I will let them be in the nature - at my place I want neat appearance and less ticks.
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Then you didn’t plant the right seeds. Many natives are used specifically for their high germination rate and fast growth to suppress weeds. I covered about 100sq ft in seedlings that are now a few feet tall with blanketflower and prairie clover in a matter of months. I used 1/4th a seed packet and small bag with filler in it already to help spread the seeds out. The bag of blanket flower was 2 years old. In about 3 weeks it was a solid mat of green seedlings and the area has been so dry and compacted clay it was actually preventing the nutgrass from spreading across much of it.
If you want as neat as a typical garden bed though you are going to be weeding those bulbs for the next 20 years before you deplete the seed bank with only daylillies for competition. They’ll still get weeds even when you get enough bulbs in an area they are pushing each other out of the ground. A large daylilly patch in my experience is a mix of daylilly and weeds that no one has cared to manage. Another reason many classify them as weeds themselves.
You didn’t say you also want it to be wildlife proof. You can just open any of the numerous native plant databases and click the deer or rabbit resistant options among the rest of the criteria. Milkweed is a common suggestion for a daylilly replacement if you want to avoid wildlife eating it, get orange blooms (or a whole lot of other variety of colors) and with over 30 species of perennial milkweed in North America and most being hardy to a variety of soil conditions including salty soil there is generally one for any area. I did not mention them because like daylillies they will spread too slowly by bulb or rhizome even though they seed better than daylillies and you will still have to supply a bulk seed cover crop or spend all day weeding for years to fill the space.
No, thanks. Had it in a side of the road, and its seeds all around my garden beds. Daylillies may be weed, but they do not grow 5 feet tall and do not send air flown seeds all over the place. This way we will come to dandelions as ground cover. No, thanks .
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I cannot imagine any ‘wildflower’ seed or seed mix competing with my soil bank of redroot pigweed, cocklebur, Jimson weed, ragweed or yellow nutsedge… though larkspur and coreopsis self-seed, and put up a pretty good fight. I’ve largely abandoned any hope of just sowing seeds anywhere and getting anything… start 'em in pots and transplant… sure, but just tossing the seed on a prepared or unprepared spot… I’m not holding my breath.
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I agree that native plants and wildlife habitats are very important. However, I think it may be useful to take a more nuanced perspective here:
People plant the plants they plant for a lot of reasons. Personally, I plant daylilies for several reasons and with several considerations in mind.
- I think they’re pretty. (My wife thinks Queen Anne’s lace is prettty. My daughter thinks dandelions are pretty. We’re weird like that.)
- They remind me of my grandparents’ house.
- They’re easy to grow in a place where other things have been hard to grow.
- They were cheap, and so am I. (Actually, they were free.)
- They’re in a place where they’re surrounded by road and sidewalk and I’m pretty confident that they’re not going anywhere.
- In any case, daylilies have been naturalized in New England since the early 1800s, and there’s evidence that they do have some wildlife value (for example, see this article from North Carolina Extension). My observation has been that they do attract bees, etc. in our setting.
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I established an acre of upper Midwest wildflowers. If I want to plant some daylilies in the ditches or anywhere else on my property, I’m going to do it.
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And the wild daylilies, Hemerocallis fulva, are edible.
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the devil strip I filled with the ditch lilies, it’s killed everything mentioned in this thread. full grown plants, seed, seedlings. I started with native plants, then “drought” plants, then aggressive spreaders- it’s killed mint. Jerusalem artichokes died. clover and yarrow won’t grow there.
until I threw the ditch lilies in there, it was skeleton rushweed and quack grass, and they too would go brown and die in August every year.
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Just wanted to let you know, if anyone is looking to buy Daylilies right now, Smokey’s Gardens has a special for 35% off your order. It expires 7/10/23 and the coupon code is JULY. If your order is over $100 after applying the discount, you’re entitled to free shipping too.
I bought one of their 100 daylilies assorted lots a couple years ago and was happy with their product and service.
Thanks! The problem is, my soil is not ready to be planted, still under black plastic. Temporary plant large lot is a big task.
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Found the ones your after and it ships for about the same price any of us could send them to you. If they live closer than Kansas shipping might be cheaper.
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Thanks!
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By 1 at $5 each. Does it means that buy one bunch of 10 plant, it will cost Galina $5x10 = $50 plus shipping?
Also, tge site gets only 50% positive reviews!!
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Very deceptive it looks like 10 for $5 , good question. I’m not sure how they have a 50% rating with 57 reveiews and 2 are negative. It might be best if i send 10 of my orange ones at least we would know they would be good.
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Thanks for the offer! I will let you know closer to fall if I still need more after I search for local ones!
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I know this isn’t really what you’re looking for, but this post keeps getting bumped back up so I am too tempted to share. I’ve been growing and evaluating hybrid daylily seedlings. Many of them go to the compost, but this orange one has been a favorite so I’ve decided to keep it. The flower petals actually taste like thin slices of carrot. I love it!
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