Leslie, I tried a relatively new product to keep the deer from eating my daylilies and it seems to work. It's called Deer Be Gone. It smells like cinnamon and cloves and I liberally sprayed my daylilies with it and a month later when we went back to the cottage we found that the daylilies had not been touched and I got to finally see some bloom.

Natalie said:Leslie, when I plant daylilies, I put a handful in the hole, and top dress right then as well. I always top dress in the fall, and then again in the spring. My plants are healthy, and I've been told that you can't use too much. Twice a year makes it easy, and I really can't imagine doing it more often than that. But, you could if you wanted. I just haven't seen a need for doing it more often.

Leslie, we do what Natalie does. We put it around each daylily in early spring (March) before putting down our pine straw. We put the alfalfa pellets far enough from the plant that the pellets will not touch it once the pellets get wet and spread out. We then do a second application in late July/early August. We put it on top of the pine straw. Once it has been watered several times, it breaks up and goes down into the pine straw. It is time for the second application now. I also put it in the hole when planting but put a little soil over the pellets before putting the roots in the hole. I have read that alfalfa puts off heat as it breaks down and could burn the roots. I just rake a little soil over the pellets just to be on the safe side. When planting a daylily, I also top dress with it too. We highly recommend using alfalfa. It has done wonders for our daylilies along with lots of water!

Doris

Thanks, Cindy. I'll look into that.

Thanks Doris...I heard something about burning as well. I see you are in Cartersville which is not that far from me. If it works for Cartersville, it should work for Stone Mountain. With all of this heat and humidity I'm having to water my potted plants everyday.

HI Pat, We are not that far apart. We put in a well several years ago just for watering the daylilies. That is one of the best decisions we have ever made. Right now, we are seeing lots of new fans coming up. This spring we bought a pallet+ of alfalfa pellets from Tractor Supply and used about half then. We should have enough to do the second application soon. If not, we will buy more. We are sold on using alfalfa. I want to also add some to our hostas but need to do that soon. Year before last, I made alfalfa tea too. I want to do that again to water the new Maryott Daylilies that we had shipped a couple of weeks ago. It should give them a boost.

Great...I ordered a few fans from Maryott's as well. I was more than happy with my order. The fans were big and healthy...they were generous with the bonus plants too. I just have two small beds...one in my front yard and a larger one in the back. Were you happy with your order from Maryott's?

PAT, Yes! We were very happy. We have ordered the past several years. We have always received our order in September to avoid planting in the hot, dry summer but decided this year to have them shipped in late June/early July. I am hopeful that we will not have a problem with crown rot and lose any. If we do, then next summer we will go back to Sept. shipping.

Our local daylily club also orders from Maryott for our members' reward program. Members earn points throughout the year and then cash in points for daylilies at our September meeting. Bill is very generous with bonuses, so this helps our club. The club order will come in mid September.