Funny name - Pretty plant

While you are out and about the plant sellers this spring you might run across this lovely little shade lover.  Lungwort may sound like a ghastly disease, but as you can see it’s a lovely plant.  It thrives and persists in full shade and spreads slowly (that is it does NOT become invasive) – those pretty little (1/2″) pink and blue flowers are one of the first harbingers of spring, and the silver/green foliage looks good all summer long.  Lungwort will thrive right along side your hostas and elephant ears.  Ours is probably 15 years old and requires no care at all, and can be divided yearly if wanted.

photo credit: audreyjm529

Donna, I have day lilies that I have been nurturing in the garden for a few years to multiply, now I’m ready to transplant them into the landscape. My question is this – 90% of the time they are foliage at best, and ratty foliage at worst so I Don’t really want them to be the dominant plants in a big area. How do I place them so that they can be seen when they are in bloom but not be unattractive the rest of the time?

Also, what companion plants (annuals for example) will be compatible with soil, water, and fertilizer requirements of the day lily plants?

Finally, any transplanting tips? Is now (September) the best time or should I wait until full dormancy?

Think about the height of the BLOOMS, not the height of the foliage. Many daylilies have quite tall scapes, so you can place them deeper into the bed where taller plants in front will hide the foliage when it looks ratty. But also, remember that when the foliage looks bad, usually right after they bloom, you can go through your beds and pull off the bad looking leaves, or even cut the entire plant down. They will make nice fresh foliage again inside of two weeks.

Fall is an excellent time to divide daylilies. It’s not too soon now. And, by the way, many hybrid daylilies bloom much better if they are divided every two or three years. I have one, “Beautiful Edgings”, that will literally bloom all summer if it is divided every year.

To divide them, dig up the entire clump by cutting a circle around the clump with your spade, cutting down at the outermost reaches of the foliage.

Shake off the soil and then look down into the center of the clump. You will see that the foliage forms fans. Each fan is a division, but I usually leave three or four fans to each division so that I’ll have plenty of blooms the next year.

Some daylilies can be divided by simply pulling the fans apart. Many are tougher. You can use a serrated knife or pruning saw to cut down between fans, or (and this is better than cutting) you can plunge two pitchforks, back to back into the center and then pull the fork handles down to leverage the fans apart. Daylilies are tough and will recover quickly from this rough handling as long as there are some roots still attached to the fans, and they are replanted in good soil.

Once you have the clump divided, it’s time to replant. Daylilies should be planted two feet apart. ALWAYS add some good organic compost or rotted manure to the holes. Daylilies are fairly heavy feeders. I usually add about half a bag of composted manure to each hole. That would be 20 pounds.

Pour the organic matter over the hole area. It should be two to four inches deep. Start digging and turning the soil where the plant will be so that it’s loose and the organic material is well mixed into the soil to about a foot’s depth.

Then dig out a hole about 12 to 18 inches wide by a spade’s depth. Form a mound of soil in the bottom of the hole so that the top of the mound comes up to the level of the surrounding ground. Place the dayliliy division on top of the mound with the roots laying down and around the sides of the mound. Hold the division upright with one hand and scoop the amended soil you removed from the hole back into the hole with the other hand. Fill the hole in, bringing soil up to the bottom of the plant’s crown (the place where the roots meet the leaves). It should be level or slightly higher than the surrounding ground level. Firm it in with your hands.

Now spread two to four inches of organic mulch around the plant, leaving about an inch of ground clear of mulch all around the crown. Water it in well.

Some people cut the foliage back by half, others just leave it as is. I have done it both ways and it doesn’t seem to make much difference. Either way, some of the outer leaves on the fan will turn yellow and die over the next few weeks. This is normal, and I just pull them off to make the plant look better.

Daylilies are so easy to grow in so many conditions that almost anything can be used as a companion plant with them. Daylilies are at their best with all day sun, but they will still bloom with as little as six hours. They are at their best with regular moisture, but with a good mulch, they tolerate drought very well. I have seen them planted with hostas in the shade and with roses in full blazing sun. This is just one more reason that they may just be the single most popular perennial.

I particularly like to use companions that have a different foliage form for textural interest. In other words, don’t plant another “grassy” foliaged plant right next door to them.
Here, daylilies bloom at the same time that shasta daisies bloom. I plant the daisies right behind the daylilies so that when they’re done and cut back, the daylily foliage hides them.

Daylilies are often my “second row” in my borders, and are planted right behind annuals. Think about the blooms of each individual plant. Say you have a daylily that has a pink bloom with a yellow throat. Plant an annual in front of it whose bloom matches the yellow of the daylily. Then, plant them both in front of a plant that has yellow foliage, say Isla Gold tansy.

Or, plant something that has a tiny little pink bloom on spikes (like penstemon) behind the daylily and then something low with a yellow bloom in front, like melampodium, marigolds, Moonbeam Coreopsis. See? The trick is to make sure the pinks are the same and the yellows are the same.

Rather than planting one long row of daylilies, design little “vignettes” of plants that echo the colors that are in each daylily bloom. This is a really fun and easy way to get some knockout scenes in your garden.

Sometimes you won’t get the combination right the first time. Maybe you get a cool yellow and a warm yellow next to each other and they are jarring. Plants are very easy to move around, and I do alot of it, even when things are blooming. As long as you dig out a large rootball and water them in immediately, they rarely ever miss a beat.

I like to plant early spring flowering bulbs between daylilies. The daylilies go at least partly dormant in the wintertime when the bulbs are coming up. (therefore, no empty ground) Then when the bulbs have bloomed and their foliage begins to ripen and look ratty, the daylilies are coming up nice and fresh and green to hide the bulb foliage. (Bulbs are also good under deciduous shrubbery like roses and hydrangeas for the same reason.)

Daffodils, snowflakes, and spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) are especially good companions. I usually plant a cluster of 3 to 5 bulbs exactly halfway between the daylily clumps so that later, when it’s time to dig daylilies again, I will know where the bulbs are and get them up before I cut them with my spade.

Daffodils on the University of Nottingham campus

Finally! At last! Autumn has arrived in East Central Mississippi! I know my brother, David, is enjoying the spectacular fall color in his central Tennessee home. I try not to think about that too much, and just enjoy being able to get outside without worrying about heat stroke. Besides, our color will show up in about another month. For now, I am grateful for temps in the eighties.

So…I’m celebrating fall by thinking…spring. The early spring garden relies heavily on flowering shrubs (azaleas, especially), cool season annuals like pansies, and bulbs. There are very few perennials that get blooming much before April, at least not here in the deep south. This makes me even more aware of the importance of bulbs, not to mention how early some of them get going! I get very, very hungry for flowers once Christmas is over. And nothing satisfies that hunger like Daffodils.

Did you know? By planting a variety of daffodil types, you can have those lovely golden and white trumpets coming continually from early February all the way into April. Not bad! The trick is to choose the right kinds. Many of the daffodils you see in bulb catalogs just don’t do well, at least not for very many years, here in the south. In general, the jonquils and cyclamineus divisions are our best bet. These tend to be smaller blooms, but don’t worry. They can still pack a real punch of color! Just plant them in groups and stand back and see!

Here is a list of my personal favorites. (This is not comprehensive of all the dafs that will do well here, but I can personally vouch for these.)

Early bloomers:

Campernelle (Narcissus odorus Linnaeus): Most years, this is my first one to bloom. It’s lovely, very fragrant, has fine foliage that disappears fast, and multiplies quickly. My very favorite one.

February Gold: Solid yellow and fragrant.

Mid Season bloomers:

Jetfire: Yellow with a red-orange cup. A real traffic stopper.

Ice Follies: Pale yellow with a white cup. One of the few large cup bloomers that do well in the deep south. Lovely!

Quail: Bright yellow, blooming in bunches.

Late Season Bloomers:

Thalia: a snowy white bloomer with lovely blue-green foliage. Naturalizes fast.

Hawera: Unique yellow-green tiny blooms that hang in clusters from grass-like foliage. One of my favorites.

“King Alfred” is probably the best known daffodil in the south, but in actuality, most King Alfreds are not King Alfreds at all. They may very well be “Carlton” which is another large cup bloomer that does well in the south. It’s the classic daffodil: solid yellow-gold, about twelve to eighteen inches high. It blooms early and naturalizes too.

And this brings me to my favorite source for reliable daffodil bulbs. Look around you in the spring. Are there daffodils blooming in ditches? Pastures? In your neighbors’ yard? Get permission to dig a few and transplant them into your own garden, being very sure to leave some where you found them to replenish themselves. The ones that grow locally are already proven winners, and they will appreciate an occasional dividing. Next spring, mark your calendar for about eight weeks after you see them blooming. Then go dig. That will be long enough for the bulbs to ripen, but you’ll still be able to find them.

So, you have your bulbs and you’re ready to go….Not so fast! Stop and think a moment. Where do you really want your daffodils? Some strategic thinking can really pay off. First of all, daffodils need sun and plenty of it. But only in the winter and spring. Once they die back and go dormant, they don’t mind shade at all. This makes them ideal to plant in deciduous woods. Also, keep in mind that although the blooms are beloved, you also have to contend with the foliage after the flowers fade and fall. If you cut back the foliage (because it’s ugly), you will kill your blooms for next year. Braiding the foliage doesn’t allow the leaves to be exposed to enough sunlight, so that’s a no-no too. You need to let that foliage stand, grow, and photosynthesize for several weeks so the bulb can grow, develop flowers, and have baby bulbs. You’ll know they’re ripe when the leaves turn yellow.

I have learned over the years to think deciduous. I plant daffodils (and other bulbs) under the branches of deciduous shrubs and under perennials that don’t wake up until later in the spring: roses, hydrangeas, hostas, and in between daylilies. Don’t be stingy. Plant lots of bulbs: four per square foot for daffodils. A small rose bush that is three feet high and wide covers nine square feet of space, giving you room for three dozen daffodils. I prune my roses in late December or early January, just about the time the daffodils are coming up. They bloom, then the foliage stands firm and green awhile; but the rose begins to put on new growth soon, and by the time the daffodil leaves start to flop over and look ratty, the rose is quickly stealing attention away from them. Not only does this method make better use of the space, and camouflage the rotting bulb foliage, it also fills in space in the garden that would look empty with the bare branches of summer blooming shrubs in it.

Another great place to plant daffodils is in groundcovers. If you have an area of jasmine, euphorbia corollata, vinca minor, etc. consider planting your bulbs in it. The ground cover will create a beautiful backdrop for the blooms and the dying foliage will just blend in to the ground cover. Some people plant daffodils in their grass lawns. Think twice about it. The grass wants to be mown most years before the bulb foliage has ripened. So, you have two choices, kill your bulbs or have a ratty looking lawn. I have a large area of euphorbia corollata. In the winter, it turns bright red, so I planted white dafs, not yellow in it. The first year, I learned to cut the ground cover back nice and short in the late fall so that it wouldn’t be unsightly before the bulb foliage ripened.

So…you know where to plant your bulbs. Now, how? You can, of course, use any digging tool to plant bulbs: a shovel, a trowel, etc. But, like most jobs, the right tool makes it easier. My least favorite tool for planting bulbs is the handheld bulb planter. It will work you to death and strain your wrist! I like to use a bulb planter that has a handle as long as a shovel. You just step on it, and it pulls out an ideal sized plug from the ground. But, the easiest way to plant bulbs yet is to use a hand-held electric drill with an auger attachment. This makes fast work, especially if you’re planting hundreds of bulbs.

Regardless, of how you dig your hole, here’s the process:

Dig a hole about 3 times the height of your bulbs, plus one inch (typically 4-6 inches deep), and three inches wide, removing the soil. Add a teaspoon of bulb food to the bottom of the hole and mix with about an inch of loosened soil with the fertilizer. Push the bulb into the loosened soil, roots down, pointed growing tip up. Add the soil you removed back into the hole and over the bulb. Firm it down. Done! Nothing to it! If your fall has been dry like mine, it’s a good idea to water your bulbs once they’re planted. Unless you have serious drought, they should be fine with the rain that falls after that.

I like to plant at least 3, and better yet, five bulbs to a clump. If you have room, make a larger clump and mix early, mid, and late bloomers together so that there will be color in the clump for an extended period of time. Put the early bloomers at the back of the hole, then mid, then the late ones up front. This way, the mid and later blooming bulbs will hide the empty foliage of the early ones.

Plant your bulbs about six inches apart. You will probably find that many of them are “doubles” or even “triples”. These are bulbs that were making baby bulbs (offsets) when they were dug. You can break these smaller bulbs off to increase the number of bulbs you plant, or you can leave them attached. You may get more than one bloom from the bulbs you don’t divide. These offsets are why you leave six inches between your bulbs. As they multiply, the new bulbs will need that space.

Once your bulbs are planted, the only maintenance they should need in years to come is a sprinkling of bulb food in the fall. Bone meal used to be the recommended food, but the new bulb booster formulas are better. They contain a slow release nitrogen, as well as some potash for healthy roots. Water the fertilizer in after you apply it. If you tend to be forgetful, it’s a good idea to make a note of where you planted your bulbs on your calendar to remind yourself each fall when it’s time to fertilize.

Update – I’ve noticed several inquiries here by people looking for one of the drill powered bulb planting auger widgets that Donna mentions in this article.  I saw one for sale in our small town hardware store and looked up the company – it’s called a garden auger and you can order one by following the link.  However you might check around – the “low factory direct prices” are about double the local off the shelf price.