Looking at various daylily images on the site here and noticing there are quite a bit of difference in many images of the same daylilies which leads me to wondering if soil ph has anything to do with the color differences shown in images of daylily posted . Is it similar to hydrangeas ? Can you control the colors by adding different minerals or additives? or is it simply to do with camera settings.

There are many, many factors that contribute to that. Some flowers are more susceptible to color changes than others. Things that affect flower color are soil, temperature, location, weather, time of year, early or late bloom on the same plant…pretty much everything. And some Daylilies appear to be completely unaffected by any of that, looking exactly the same in every yard.

In my gardens, blues and purples are pretty bright. I have a high acid content in loamy soil that has a minimum of red clay. The same flowers might look reddish in Southern gardens.

I have one flower, Country Vista that is literally a different shade every day that it blooms. It's clearly highly affected by temperature and light. I know stability of bloom type is a desired trait at Daylily shows but I love the surprise factor of a bloom like Country Vista.

And then we have those deliberately bred to be color changers during the course of a day,.e.g. 'Pigment of Imagination'

Here is a similar thread:
The thread "What in soil causes changing colors?" in Daylilies forum

Or this one:
The thread "Can cool temperatures cause this?" in Daylilies forum

Thanks so much for your insight Zoia . I appreciate you taking the time to offer your experiences.
I had thought there would be many more people sharing their observations but it seems this is not of interest to anyone else. I myself grow in very heavy blue clay and I decided a long time ago to go with what I have rather than trying to import soil that is different than what is naturally here . It can be tough on some of the daylilies but for the most part they do pretty well here but often the images I see online are not necessarily what my plants look like here , thus the inquiry in regards to whether color can be altered

Thanks Orion ! I will definitely check these links out .

Hi Dave , yes , I am aware of the color changers . I do grow Pigment of Imagination here but I was more referring to just regular colored daylilies and whether or not adding something to the soil can affect the color . I am more referring to real differences shown in the images on the database . For example , say Desperate Housewives .....the images range from a deep pink almost florescent to a rosy pink to a fairly intense red . Could this be due to the ph of the soil ? If it is then picking a daylily for its color may be more involved than just seeing an image on a sellers website.

I have noticed that in my clay soil, pink daylilies tend to be more peachy in color.

The thread "Pink Daylilies Blooming Peach" in Daylilies forum

Like Nan, I think my pink daylilies look more peachy sometimes.

Different cameras, camera settings, computer monitors, etc., definitely affect the color. Two people can see the same picture and see a different color, so our eyes play a part too.

Sorry, double posted.

signet said: If it is then picking a daylily for its color may be more involved than just seeing an image on a sellers website.

Regardless of whether adding amendments to the soil can cause the color to change on daylily blooms, there is always a need to compare how blooms look in your garden compared to how they look on any site online, especially hybridizers sites. I don't think manipulation of bloom colors is as prevalent now as it was at one time, but I do see images still that look like they have been "photoshopped".
Blooms online that show an almost pure white base color will appear not nearly so white in my garden. I can't tell anything I add changes that difference, and I have not noticed much difference consistently here between pot grown and garden grown plant's bloom color. I am not saying that changing PH could not have some slight affect on daylily bloom color, but I don't think it would be worth the effort to try and change bloom color by manipulating PH. I think it is good to compare the bloom colors of plants grown in your garden to online photos try to detect any pattern in the color differences, then you will know more what to expect when looking at hybridizers bloom photo colors.

Seedfork ...checking my plant blooms growing in my garden compared to hybridizer's images is kind of like shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped .I have already spent the money only to discover it is nothing like what I thought I was purchasing . I am more interested in whether the bloom is going to look like the hybridizer's before I decide to buy it . Let's face it , I am not looking at the foliage when I am browsing images trying to decide if I want green foliage or blue green foliage. I am looking at the bloom and deciding if I want that face in my garden. If I buy it based on the bloom and on the hybridizer's website it is a pale pink and I buy it for that and then discover a whole year later when it actually blooms in my garden it is more of an icky greyish pink that is not what I wanted.
I have made the decision to purchase after perusing the many images here and on the net not just the hybridizer's image . Again using the example of Desperate Housewives based on the pictures shown here and on the net I would not buy this plant as there are far too many differences in the faces so unless it is being sold at giveaway prices I would not spend big bucks on this plant based on the images I am seeing .
If I could discover that if I added some amendment that would bring my pink daylily ( just the example I am using ) that would assure me that I would be growing the plant that most similarly looks like the bright almost florescent pink bloom shown here then I would buy it . Otherwise my choice would be to find an alternative that suits my color choice based on more consistent images , price and ploidy that would most successfully grow in my gardens and be closest to what my original color choice is. I think I will play with this PH idea this season and see from past photos I have taken in the gardens if there is any difference in the same plant after my interventions.

I love this thread, although I can't offer any suggestions. I am only aware of a color difference for certain plants compared to online photos or descriptions after I have gotten them, as was stated. Hard to tell how many thousands I have spent... and then didn't really like it! Perhaps it was too small, too short, too fussy- or not the right color. I have always advised people to visit other gardens in that area to see if they see things that do well or are the color they want, but a good many of my orders are for newer plants that aren't widely distributed yet. And this is precisely the reason why I started making my own crosses! I can choose whatever I like... and can always change my mind later- at no extra cost.

My biggest issue has always been with reds and purples. Some reds tend to go pinkish after a few hours, and some people might call them purple when they are actually a dark cherry. That dark red color is actually one of my favorite colors, but when I am buying "purple", I want it to be purple! When I am buying "red", I want it to remain red. I think that might actually say more about me than the grower... but that's OK.

signet,
My comments were for future purchases not past ones. If you find you are ordering from a photo showing a beautiful pink but after ordering in a few you see they are all a muddy pink in your garden, then avoid that pink color in the photo. It is a method of elimination and even that would not work in all cases.

As far as I have researched the question of whether the soil pH can affect the colour of flowers I have not found any plant other than some hydrangeas where this is known to happen. With hydrangeas the effect of soil pH is indirect. The soil pH affects how much aluminium the plant can absorb and the amount of aluminium affects the flower colour. For those interested in the details for hydrangeas see
https://www.americanscientist....
The author indicates that "The hydrangea's bloom color reveals the pH of the soil, but with its distinguishing colors being the reverse of those for litmus paper. The hydrangea is unique among plants in this ability to indicate soil acidity. "
Two things that do affect the colour of daylily flowers are the temperatures during the time that the flower is developing and the amount of light during that time. Both temperature and light are known to affect the colour of other flowers as well. The time at which those aspects of the weather may affect flower colour might not be simply any time but there might be critical times during the development of the petals and sepals. There is no published research on the effects of temperature or light on daylily flower colour.

Below are photos of some extreme examples of the effects of temperature and/or light on the flower colour of some daylilies. It may be important that the effects of temperature and light are noticeable on flowers that have the reddish-purple pigments (anthocyanins). Daylily flowers can have both anthocyanin pigments and carotenoid pigments.
Differences in the colour of these flowers are so extreme that they have happened only a handful of times in the last 25 years. Much less extreme differences may happen during the same flowering season. All photos of each cultivar were taken of flowers of the same clump.

The effects of temperature and light may be long term, happening many weeks before the affected flowers open or more recent, for example, a week before the flowers open. A test of whether light or temperature may have effects the day before a flower opens might be testable by cutting the flower the day before it opens and keeping it in a refrigerator overnight or in the dark at room temperature, etc.

'Midnight Magic'

'Bela Lugosi'

'Norman Lee Hennel'

If I remember correctly, @Vinity (Robyn), amends with a tiny amount of Epsom salts (as well as uses horse manure) to enhance blue/purple colored eye zones.

But too much of any amendment can be toxic to your plants if your soil does not actually need the amendment. So be gentle.

Seedfork , Wish I were rich enough to do what you suggest but I am not ,so , needs be that I find something that exhibits a more constant product ( bloom) than experimenting by just buying and hoping and buying and hoping ..and buying etc.

Maurice , thanks for your input. I was hoping you might have some interesting info to share. I am intrigued by your mention of temps when blooms are forming . Perhaps something like that can be controlled if plants are grown in pots in a greenhouse while the blooms develop?

I do have several plants here that do exhibit bloom color changes similar to ones you show above for example Trahlyta which can be quite a purpley color or then a greyish purple on occasion. I do find it interesting that per my observations , most changes involve either purple or pink blooms .

signet said: Maurice , thanks for your input.

You are very welcome.

I was hoping you might have some interesting info to share. I am intrigued by your mention of temps when blooms are forming . Perhaps something like that can be controlled if plants are grown in pots in a greenhouse while the blooms develop?

Yes, growing the plants in a greenhouse while the buds and flowers are developing would prevent unusual temperatures from having effects. That assumes the greenhouse has effective temperature controls. Unless lights were also used there would still be the possible effects of different light intensities on flower colours. One problem greenhouse flower growers may have is that flowers that develop on plants growing in greenhouses in the "north" during winter may not be the expected colours because of lower light intensities during the winter than during the spring and summer. Using a greenhouse to grow the daylilies only after winter has ended and light intensities are no longer near their minimums might avoid light intensity effects in the "north".

One year I bought a potted daylily from a local supermarket. It had been kept in a greenhouse over winter and under shade while waiting to be sold. When it started blooming here its flowers were completely different from its published photos. Flower after flower opened and I started to disbelieve that the differences were because of the light intensities it had experienced while the flower buds were developing. As more abnormally coloured/patterned flowers continued to open I began to think that it was not true to name. And then it bloomed perfect true to name flowers - and continued to do so until there were no longer any buds left. It did not bloom unusually coloured flowers in later years. I decided that the target period when light intensity and/or temperature might have large effects on flower colour was early in bud development but not so early and long that all the buds on a scape had to be affected.

I agree with Maurice re: pH only directly affecting colour among hydrangeas, not other plants (in my 30+ years of gardening). But one note I do not see (above) is that, while many daylilies present consistently in a specific garden but differently from other gardens (ie, hybridizer's photo vs home garden) ... Others are seldom to never the same in the same garden, same conditions, same year... or even same plant, same scape, same day! Chorus Line is notorious for presenting consistently inconsistent colours!

I posted a pic from my own Chorus Line (a couple of years ago) showing two unmatched blooms side by side on the same scape...

The difference in tone from pastel to deep was not caused by the lighting, the blooms were in fact completely different shades. I have even had them bloom in different colours (pink vs coral) on the same scape at the same time. The colours range from pink to coral to almost sherbert orange, at least in my gardens.



While I do think Chorus Line has more of a reputation for its range of colours and changing blooms, I am more surprised... considering the range of zones and temps and assorted growing conditions (east to west, north to south) ... that some daylilies are so incredibily consistent throughout many gardens.

Just as, in the north, chevron patterns tend to be more intense and fade out as temps warm to the south... I think some colours also are less intense in the heat.

One of my very favourite daylilies, Guava Jelly, is spectacular here in zone 3... photos do not do it justice...

In the south, it barely passes pastel tones...

I would say, as many here have remarked, that before buying a daylily based on its gorgeous colour... check as many online gardens as possible and as many pictures here in the database, to see what it 'really' looks like in many gardens.

That's not to say that hybridizers are faking photos - far from it! It's just that those precise growing conditions may be what is needed for that particular look, and unless you see that it is stable in other gardens and other growing conditions, you may be destined for disappointment.