I have tried very hard to keep the weeds down to a minimum in my daylily beds. But somehow every year, there will be some weeds of enormous proportions that seem to magically appear fully grown and totally out in the open. This morning when I walked down to the garden collecting seeds and deadheading and taking photos I was totally surprised to find 'Gentle Shepherd' totally hidden, completely overpowered by a clump grass. Now I pull little tiny weeds just showing every morning, of course I will miss a few and get them the next day or so. But being I walk this path almost every day, and being I have been thinking of digging up 'Gentle Shepherd' I have looked at it quite often.
Here is what just staggered me when I found it in my garden today.

How is it possible for this to happen? I was totally blind to it and when I went back to get tools to dig it out, I could not help but see this clump of grass from the top of the hill way before I got back down to the garden.
It seems to happen every year with some type of weed, the weed just blends in with the other plants till one day it is huge and I can't help but notice it.
I had to dig the huge grass clump and the daylily then wash and separate them, the roots of the grass looked very much like the fine roots of the daylily, so I was very careful to clean them up carefully.
Finally when I got through cleaning this is what was left of 'Gentle Shepherd'

I left the clump soaking in a bucket of water. I am hoping that by soaking it, then letting it dry it will cause the roots to untangle a bit. The only way to separate it as it is now would be to just chop it into pieces and I don't want to have to do that. I tried to separate the fans on the outer edges, but they are so entwined I could not even began to loosen them.

@Seedfork
I had a pot of daylilies that looked just like your first pic. The fans were originally nice healthy plants from Maryott's, but they started to look bad. I thought they all had died and I placed the pot to the very back of my yard over in a corner. After a few weeks I saw a bit of green peeking through. I water every now and again but mostly let nature handle them. After a few weeks I had a pot full of tall grassy looking plants. I'm not sure if they are the original daylilies or something else. They were extremely tall...I cut them back for now while trying to wait and see what's really going on. I hope I haven't been watering a pot of grass!

You might dump the clump out of the pot and just see what the roots look like. The grass clump had no tuberous roots, only fine roots.

The same thing happens here too. I don't tend to have too much trouble with weeds in my daylilies, just in 1 bed really. But Johnson grass or something gets in a daylil y every year, overnight it seems, just very sneaky.

I have had that happen to me too, Larry. I had a tree growing in my casa blanca lilies and didn't see it for a long time.

Could that grass be nutsedge? I hate that stuff! The light green nutsedge is easily distinguished once I start looking for it, but because it resembles daylily leaves, it can go unnoticed for quite a while.

As far as getting the clump of Gentle Shepherd apart, as much as I would hate to, I would probably try to use a screwdriver and get them apart or cut them apart. My fear would be that the grass roots are also intertwined in there somewhere.

It was not nutsedge, I am constantly finding that but this clump was huge and is more like a swamp grass. I took the 'Gentle Shepherd' clump out of the soaking bucket today, and I did use two large phillips screwdrivers to help me pry it apart. I did not find any more of the grass roots mixed in. I planted the largest separation in a new location and potted the other fans.

I have quack grass that infests one of my DL beds. The roots are wiry and vigorous and will even dig right through a DL root or rhizome. The only way to get it all out is to soak the DL for quite awhile, gently tease it apart, soak some more, etc. Freshen the water from time to time and it doesn't seem to hurt the DL.

A mess for sure Larry. I've been dealing with this and another issue of tree roots. I didn't take any pictures however, but I've been using the high pressure jet setting on my garden sprayer and blasting the roots. Then gently teasing them apart. In doing this I wind up lining fans out. Not my original intention, but hey, I'll have fans to share or donate to the club events next season.

We have an similar issue in our clubs Memorial Garden with rocket grass. It's choking the Daylily's out. The root don't stop there and shoot straight down to the core of the earth. Ok exaggeration, but the stuffs terrible. We have to come up with a plan to eraticate this stuff before it takes over and destroys the garden.

Stan that would be a great names for one of your futures. "Shoot Straight Down and
Core Of The Earth"

@GaNinFl
I am not familiar with rocket grass, but maybe try something like Ortho Grass B Gon?

Thanks for the tip Larry.

We're fortunate enough to have one of our members of the club, be the Horticulture Extension Agent of our local office. Going tos him to take a look and make some recommendations.

I try to keep the weeds down, but there are always a few that I miss until they are huge:)

That happens to me, as well. When I was weeding this past week, I took out a little tree. How I could have missed that is beyond me.

Valarie, I'm always plucking little oaks from my beds. Stinking tree rats, sole purpose is to plant acorns next to my Daylily's.

"I took out a little tree."

It was between the rows and was about a foot tall. How I missed it, I don't know!

I have a Rose of Sharon that drops seeds by the hundreds. I've plucked so many little Sharons from one bed. And yeah, I have a little tree in another bed... AND CREEPING JENNY ARRRGGGGG! It's everywhere... Built a raised bed, put in 12 inches of dirt/compost- and up comes that dratted weed!

Diana, which Creeping Jenny do you have that is so bad? Could we get a pic?

Josieskid, it's common name is field bindweed. I've also called it morning glory, and another name for it is lesser bindweed. This is from my "weeds" book...


That whole "9 m" deep part!

Diana, I have that too! I can't tell you what I call it