color/patern change?

11 years ago

I bought some daylilies 3 yrs ago. They bloomed last year and while I didn't look up their names to make sure the colors were correct, I was pretty sure they were. This year however they seemed a bit "off" to me so I looked them up and sure enough the pictures of the names I have are not what they look like. Baja, Bama Bound, CHICAGO APACHE, and Sunday gloves. Now I know I bought Sunday gloves and I know not only is it supposed to be white but it was most definitely white last year, I remember because it is my favorite one, and it is my only white daylily! But this year it is more of a light lemon/cream with yellow edge, I am sure it is true to name but does this happen every year, change colors back and forth from white to cream/yellow? Also all the others I looked up were solid shades of red I am pretty sure last year they were solid. This year is really strange (now bare with me as I do not know the names of the petals) the "front" three petals are the red color with the "back" three petals being cream with the tips faint red. I still have one more daylily to bloom and I am wondering what is going to come up. I was starting to really like daylilies and there are some really pretty ones with "teeth" but if the ones I have can change then I am not so sure I want to spend $30 and it may or may not come up like they are supposed to. I am beginning to think hybrid daylilies are not necessarily for the great white North.

Even my new daylilies are a bit wonky, although I should really give them more of a chance as how many daylilies still flower right after they have been sliced and diced, shipped in a box, and plunked in the ground like a sack of potatoes.(I received them the week of all that rain/flooding and they were not happy waiting till it slowed down a bit. I am actually really surprised and impressed that they flowered only weeks after I put it in the ground.

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Comments (6)

shive
11 years ago
Temperature, sun intensity and moisture amounts can affect the colors of daylilies. It sounds like the sepals on your red daylilies may have been bleached by the sun. Have you experienced a recent heatwave? It has been so hot here that many of my daylilies have had lighter sepals (back petals). In some cases, the flowers were so light they were not recognizable. This is not something that has happened very often in my 15 years of growing daylilies.

Debra
nancykvb
11 years ago
The lack of rain and the heat has caused my dayliles to be shorter than usual, color is off and the bloom size is smaller. Even though I watered, it wasn't the same. We received just shy of 2 inches of rain this past week and the difference in the bloom color is amazingly better!

Nancy VB
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lisa_3
11 years ago
I agree with Debra and Nancy-we've had abnormal heat and not enough rain here and the plants are showing it. Many have had smaller/shorter blooms, good doubles don't double, colors lighter and sometimes even darker than normal. New ones have to be babied (also freshly moved ones) because they just aren't getting any rain. If next years weather patterns return to normal so should your plants. :)
mizellie
11 years ago
Ditto! My daylilies ave been really crazy this year. I missed a lot of rebloom and the blooms have been puny in a lot of them. Watering doesn't help unless you can really soak them, which I can't. Better luck next year to us all!!!! BTW, I think the whites are whiter when the sun is hotter. Some of my near whites were ok after the heat wave, then some rain. Ellie
alyciaadamo
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you so much for the replies. It's funny, I went out and checked again and one actually bloomed properly but all the others the same-wrong sepals(ty). Yes we have had a dry spell and very hot too. Normally we stay in the mid 90s-this year it has been staying in the triple digits. I thought everything was fine because my ditch lilies are over 5 feet tall when every one else, they are only 3 feet.
hoodriver
9 years ago
I live in Hood River, Or. Several years ago I planted several Re-blooming daylillies in shades of purple, pink, light peach and cream. (Sorry, I don't remember the names-I plant by color) Each year they were perfect. Last year I divided & replanted. This year a large number in the front of the house changed color to orange/red with dark veins. I've read enough in this site to figure it had something to do with the propagation but what I really want to know is how/if to change them back! Interestingly enough, all the plants I relocated to the back yard bloomed in the proper colors. Can I add something to the soil? I don't want orange/red & will have to give them away if I can't change them. Thanks.