Yellow leaves

Question

I am having an awful time with my daylilies. I live in a townhouse. I have a small personal use space. There is some landscaping planted in it and then rocks on top of weed fabric. There is a tube-type watering system under the fabric; but I cannot tell if all, or any, of the tubes are working. I am not supposed to disturb this little area. But I did anyhow. I moved out some rocks, made a little path, and dug down and removed some weed barrier cloth, improved and built up the soil, and planted some things.

The daylilies have a problem. When it is very hot, like now, 102 degrees yesterday, and I water, the leaves turn bright yellow starting from the tip and the yellowing goes down about halfway on the leaf. This condition affects most of the leaves. This makes them look very bad. I don’t know if they will bloom this year or not with this condition. They have been in about 3 years. The first year they were in they did not do this thing very bad. I know they get some reflected heat from the building, which I cannot get away from. The daylilies that the landscapers planted out in the commons area, which is covered with weed cloth and then mulched, look fine. It’s just mine that look really bad.

Other things I have close by are a shasta daisy, which is doing fine, no yellow leaves, and two peonies, which are doing OK, I think, but at least no yellow leaves. A couple of irises are OK. There are shrubs and roses by the house, also fine. I have some daylilies in a whiskey barrel out aways from the house, and they do not have this yellowing problem, though some of the leaves are whitened in places from the heat. I have tried watering early in the morning, waiting till they are fairly dry, watering more often or less often, watering in the evening, but nothing has helped.

Can you give me some help? Thanks very much. I have never had this problem before when I gardened in a regular garden at my single family home.

Answer 1

When was the last time you fertilized? Daylilies are pretty hardy once established and these are establsihed so they should not have any issues related to planting. I am thinking it is a nutrient issue or that the water is not getting to the roots for some reason. After you water, check the roots and see if they are actually getting water to them. The landscape fabric or mulch could possibly be repelling the water so its not getting to the roots.