I believe the shade cloth is only for hybridizing. Tetraploids especially are fussy in extreme heat and pods won't set.

Yes, I am really hoping to get something set up so that my big "blast furnace" garden can make it through the July temps and still bloom. Here is a recent garden tip about Shade Sails, with a very attractive photo of how to shield plants in extreme heat with shade cloth that doesn't look like shade cloth!

http://garden.org/ideas/view/C...

So, yuppers, I hope to have my most distressed garden daylilies under some sheltering artificial shade/cloth some day...

My best friend has shade sails, and they are wonderful! They also look really nice! I would love to use them here, but with the high winds that we get, I can see part of my property sailing away with them!

Those look nice. I imagine they also have the option of taking them down when they are finished hybridizing too.

Thanks for all the input about full sun vs. partial shade. It is already hot here in central FL. I wished I had planted my youngest seedlings in the shaded raised beds instead of the full-sun raised bed. All the daylilies in the shaded beds are looking so nice and green without hardly any rust or pests. I am really surprised! This was so unexpected. I see numerous scapes, too. More in the partial shade than the full sun garden beds. This was a real fluke that I planted many of them in the partial shade raised beds that I built this past Winter. I was really worried about them not getting full sun all day long. Sheesh! As hardy as most daylilies are, they still could use some shade apparently.

Just a comment from someone who spent his first 30+ years in the San Jose, CA, area and then moved to Georgia and have put another 30+ years living in the Macon and Augusta areas. "Full sun" in San Jose and in Georgia are two entirely different things. For example, geraniums do fine in full sun in San Jose but burn in full sun in Georgia. My daylily years did not start until I moved to the South, but The same goes for daylilies. The SF Bay Area can have full sun without a problem. In Georgia, 6 hours probably is enough direct sun. As my and my neighbors' yards continue to grow, I have some daylilies getting less than 6 hours of direct sun and they may not have as many blooms per scape, but neither do they have summer dormancy. I have adapted a bit by having more of by dark color daylilies in the shadier areas where they do not fade or 'glaze over' as quickly.
Larry

Thanks Larry! I have to agree with you as the heat here in FL just melts the blooms by noon time.

beckygardener said: Thanks Larry! I have to agree with you as the heat here in FL just melts the blooms by noon time.

All of our daylilies are in full sun all day long, and by midafternoon, the blossoms show it.

I've heard, for many years, that daylilies do well in full sun, but do equally well in "high scattered pine shade." Which. I've always taken to mean extremely tall and old pine trees spread loosely.

FWIW

I have visited several large display gardens in Georgia and they are about equally split between those that grow in some shade and those in full sun. Maybe more use of shade in South Georgia than in north Georgia. Tim Bell's garden in South Georgia has tall pines as well as some lower trees, but he also has beds outside the main "showplace" garden, some covered and some not. Bill Waldrop just north of Atlanta is out in the open although he has a big greenhouse too. I have not been to gardens in Florida, but I think I have read that most of the big hybridizers use shade cloth over their hybridizing areas or have greenhouses in which they hybridize.
Larry

LarryW said:I I have not been to gardens in Florida, but I think I have read that most of the big hybridizers use shade cloth over their hybridizing areas or have greenhouses in which they hybridize.
Larry

Ted Petit uses shade cloth over his blooming plants and lines the seedlings out in rows in a greenhouse with open sides once they've sprouted and are growing well.

The Salters have their breeding stock in pots in a greenhouse, and that's where they do their hybridizing.

Nicole has all of her stock in pots in the open, but I don't know what goes on in her greenhouse - it was sealed off from access during last year's Mecca.

Floyd Cove has their seedlings out in the open, much of their stock under shade cloth, and I'm not sure what they use their greenhouse for.

At Watermill Garden there was a small greenhouse, but it was empty during the Mecca.

Reilly gardens doesn't appear to have a greenhouse.

FWIW

I wrote a lengthy reply yesterday citing merits of specific plants. My overall experience makes it easy to conclude that there can be highlights and pitfalls regarding too much shade or too much hot sun. Some hybrids are more tolerant of one or the other. Gardening at home is all just a grand experiment and sometimes just moving a specimen 5 or 10 feet can make a dramatic difference. Folks growing commercial quantities face a much larger challenge.

I would lean for too much hot sun here in 6a before burying something in shade but that can't be true in warmer climates. Those best producers in your landscape probably have as much to do with balance as individual hybrid traits. I just experiment, and without naming names many of my daylilies like a little shade. Several of my favorites get baked with the mid-day blast of sun pinned between a concrete walk and house foundation. With enough water they're happy so they stay where they are. I move others around until I'm happy. The gardening experience...er... experiment.

Wes said: Several of my favorites get baked with the mid-day blast of sun pinned between a concrete walk and house foundation. With enough water they're happy so they stay where they are. I move others around until I'm happy.

We've learned the hard way that some of the delicate pastels, especially those with patterns, fade badly the minute they're in full sun.

chalyse said:Becky, I am in the same 100-degrees+ summer as you and I try to grow mine with some kind of shade to shelter them from "too much" sun! Some can hide from the worst heat and sun by the side of our shed, some get a bit of help from some 5-foot shrubs, many are kept on or in the shade provided by a raised porch with lattice panels, and just as many are grown under deep shade trees.

This year I am also trying to keep up with early watering, really soaking the unprotected beds, but even now they are drying out very quickly. I know it might also help to put those water-absorbing crystals under the roots, but I really want to avoid synthetic, artificial or assistive materials in the garden soil.

Will be interested in hearing how others achieve some protection for their high-heat/sun daylilies ... in our zones, the accepted wisdom about sun-loving daylilies can leave us with melting, bleeding, wilting, bleached out flowers that stop appearing as soon as the temperatures rise. What is more distressing is to see how battered the roots and fans get after the prolonged exposures.

On the other hand, I do now rotate my "best" daylilies to the "heat furnace" section of the garden to track their performance. Slowly but surely I am finding which of my best daylilies also have some real fiber to them - and it is sometimes quite a surprise which ones really benefit a garden the most.

I'm in the same situation with regular rains ending by early June and Temps running up to 100+ in July and August. First, getting into the habit of early and deep watering will help. One question I had which I didn't see anything about: Are you using mulch around your daylilies? The last two years I've gotten proactive at mulching my plants and they are surviving much better (still need deep watering, just not as often). The plants have stayed large and while they did end up looking kind of challenged after heavy May-early July blooming, they've picked up now in August when the temps decreased and we've had some rain. One big thing is the mulch keeps the soil much cooler than areas without it and you can tell there's more moisture (without it's like a desert!). I'm using pine nuggets, shredded pine bark and shredded hardwood (as well as some oak leaf mulch). Also, I've used 3/8-inch soaking hoses and left them dripping 2-3 days at a time for deep watering. A good hose can be run underneath the mulch for better performance.

Some of my daylilies are in direct sun (both morning/midday on east side and afternoon sun on the west). I've just taken up some Knockout roses that were in a high shade area that weren't performing (though that appears to be due to soil not being properly prepared before planting). I'll be improving the dirt and planting daylilies there. This will be the first "shady" read but fortunately it's high shade from some old oak trees about 20 feet away with the lowest branches about 25 feet up. The spot gets some morning and afternoon direct sun but mostly dappled sunshine. I plant to plant 'Dallas Star' which I understand performs well for many people with shady locations.

jrbales - to the Daylily Forum!

Finding a good balance for the benefit of the daylilies is challenging during those hot scorching summer months. We got our Spring rain in Summer (July) and now with the tropical storms we are getting MORE rain! All this rain has worked out well for my daylilies this year! I mulch mine too, but you have to keep the mulch away from the base of the daylilies and that is harder to do than I realized. I have found that the best thing to do is try to let the daylilies grow large and the plant itself will shade the ground beneath them which helps to keep the roots cooler and moist.

I have Dallas Star in partial shade and it does do well for me.

Arisumi looked at the effects of temperature on daylilies. Unfortunately he only looked at one cultivar but below is a photo of the effects of five temperatures on daylily growth.


The temperatures left to right were 55, 65, 75, 85 and 95F (click on the photo to see all five plants).

He described the effects of the different temperatures.

"At 55° F. growth was retarded and the plants did not attain maximum size during the experimental period. The plants were full grown in approximately 3 months at 65° and in 2 months at 75°. At 85° and 95° the plants grew rapidly during the first 3 to 4 weeks and then became progressively chlorotic and the older leaves dried prematurely.

and

"Except for 4 plants at 85° F, flowering was obtained only at 75°."

and

"None of the plants forced at 65° bloomed during the experimental period. However, when the experiment was discontinued on April 10, 50% of the plants brought in the greenhouse in November and December had immature flowering scapes. These plants bloomed from 2 to 3 weeks after April 10 when the prevailing temperature averaged 75°. From these bloom dates it can be reasoned that at 65° it would have required at least 170 days to first flower for plants forced in November and 140 days for those forced in December.
At 85° most of the flower buds were blasted and only a few misshapen flowers bloomed. The scapes were weak and about half the size of those formed at 75°."

"The flowers pollinated at 75° and 85° were maintained at the same temperature until the seeds were harvested. Most of the capsules matured within 40 to 50 days after pollination. Seed set was good at 75° and poor at 85°."

I would guess that the optimum temperature for daylilies is about 80F or less.

chalyse said:Yes, I am really hoping to get something set up so that my big "blast furnace" garden can make it through the July temps and still bloom. Here is a recent garden tip about Shade Sails, with a very attractive photo of how to shield plants in extreme heat with shade cloth that doesn't look like shade cloth!

http://garden.org/ideas/view/C...

So, yuppers, I hope to have my most distressed garden daylilies under some sheltering artificial shade/cloth some day...

Those shade sails look like they'd be a wonderful idea for shading an outdoor deck or patio. Beautiful!

After hearing hearing all the stories about hot gardens i feel pretty lucky growing daylilys here in the midwest where cold winters kill rust spores and 100 degree days are very few. In fact we have yet to have one this year. A few weeks ago we were under average temps at low 70's for daytime high and now we are above the average for this time of year at at high 80's so we never know what to expect as one year is never quite like the next and sting can be a crap shoot also.
Have some plants at back of house morning sun only and doing very well. Chicago Apache was stunning in part shade getting bigger and blooming more than i ever seen it do. Have some under a pear tree for dappled afternoon sun and they are not doing well at all. Vast majority in full sun most of the day but with worst summer being drought and mid 90's we are better off than the deep south or southwest would be at any given year.
Was always a bit jealous of southern growers with all the mild weather during winter but now i have come to realize that we up north can always start anew with reinvigorated plants, chilly and rainy spring time and most summers that do not try to kill off everything green.
I think part shade can be a good thing even up here as long as its not too far under a tree where the poor plant is forever trying to reach for the sun.

Another issue I have found with shade is the tree roots. I am having to move over 70+ daylily seedlings because my Oak tree roots have grown UP into that bed. Grrrr ...

I hear you Becky and maple is just as bad. I tried planting some annuals under the our 6 year old maple where Frans Hals are growing and the roots are already there so it was hard to dig and i finally gave up. The daylilys under there are established so not too worried about them. The pear tree out front does not seem to present the same problem and i have many different plants growing under it.
I wonder if weeping willows would be as bad as far as roots? I think they might provide some dappled shade.
My brother in law is into hostas but again tree roots are his problem also and he needs more shade.