We are on water restrictions as well. I think those restrictions will probably be permanent because the recent drought removed complacency about the reliability of the water supply for the population. The result is I have a mosquito farm (love the messy mud swallows). I catch roof run-off and recycle a lot of the water that drains out of a container. I've been known to take a 5 gal. paint bucket into the shower with me. It is one reason for growing daylilies in containers. Those plants aren't having to share water with anything else. So it gives me more control about water usage for them. Most pots are too large to move easily, but newer plants, seedlings and plants with only 1-4 fans tend to be in smaller pots until they outgrow them or are eliminated and those can get put in areas with more shade where less heat preserves the moisture. I also mulch, which makes me a lot more nervous about the health of the plants than them growing a scape. It risks rot forming, I think, but it also holds in the moisture in the dry, windy conditions they have most of the time. A wet, cool and relatively humid spring like we're having this year is making me watchful. I'm hoping I don't let the crowns keep too much moisture around them. It's sort of a trade-off, but so far I've only lost one plant. I don't worry about the roots. I've been keeping some containers in pans where they sit in the water and those thrive.
I've about decided that daylilies are almost a marsh plant where the surface is spongy but aerated and down below the crown stays pretty wet.
