Companion plant for daylilies

Phlox is an excellent border plant and grows well with daylilies.

Their upright stems with full, sturdy, domed-shaped flowers provide vibrant spring to late summer color, which complements the daylily perfectly.

Phlox enjoy the same free-draining soil as the daylily and appreciate full sun or light shade. 

• Botanical name: Phlox paniculata
• Average size: Height 6 inches – 5 feet depending on the variety
• Colors available: Rose, magenta, purple, blue, pink, white
• Popular varieties: David Phlox, Volcano Ruby Phlox, Starfire Phlox

9. Roses

Roses and daylilies are perfect companions. Daylilies come into flower just as the first flush of roses has passed, thus maintaining a continuous colorful display.

In addition, the rose’s growth habits are similar, requiring large amounts of sun and rich, well-drained soil.

However,  take care not to place the daylily in the shade of their rose companions.  

• Botanical name: Rosa 
• Average size: Height 4-6 feet (standard rose) 
• Colors available: Red, white, yellow, pink, purple, multicolored
• Popular varieties: Tea Rose, Polyantha, Floribunda

The purple upright spikes of Russian sage make this shrub a glorious companion to many late-summer perennials.

Grown alongside the daylily or in a central bed position, it is hardy, thrives in well-drained soil, and enjoys lots of sun.

• Botanical name: Perovskia atriplicifolia
• Average size: Height 47 inches, width 39 inches
• Colors available: Purple
• Popular varieties: Blue Mist, Blue Spire, Blue Jean Baby

11. Coral Bells

The foliage of the coral bells comes in shades of gold, green, rose, and purple. This plant is an excellent ground cover and looks great when grown in borders.

It requires full sun to partial shade and likes moist soil that drains well. It’s ideally suited as a companion plant to the daylily and provides delicate bell-shaped flowers in spring and early summer. 

• Botanical name: Heuchera 
• Average size: Height 8-17 inches, width 10-24 inches
• Colors available: White, coral, pink, orange, red 
• Popular varieties: Green Spice, Marmalade, Chocolate Ruffles 

The petunia, with its various shapes and colors, is the perfect bedding or border plant.  When paired with the daylily, it provides color throughout summer into autumn.

In addition, petunias enjoy full sun, fertile soil, and watering in dry conditions.  

• Botanical name: Petunia
• Average size: Height 18 inches, width 3 inches
• Colors available: Pink, purple, white, red, blue, multicolored 
• Popular varieties: Night Sky, Tumbelina, Crazytunia 

The false sunflower requires full sun and can tolerate drought conditions; however, moist, rich, well-draining soil is best.

Grown alongside or positioned as a backdrop for the daylily, it provides color and fullness throughout the summer. 

• Botanical name: Heliopsis helianthoides 
• Average size: Height 3 -6 feet, width 2-6 feet 
• Colors available: Yellow, orange
• Popular varieties: Summer Nights, Prairie Sunset, Asahi

Sedum is an excellent groundcover providing lots of color and interest when grown with the daylily.

This succulent is exceptionally hardy, thrives in drought conditions, enjoys full sun, and requires little moisture.

Tiny blooms appear in the autumn, complimenting the last blooms of the daylily. 

• Botanical name: Sedum
• Average size: Height 18 inches, width 18 inches
• Colors available: Yellow, purple, copper, green, red
• Popular varieties: Sedum acre, Sedum actinocarpum, Red Creeping

Irises require full sun and free-draining soil to prevent bulb rot. Thus, they are ideally suited as companions for daylilies who enjoy similar growing conditions.

In addition, their delicate ballerina-like flowers come in a range of colors, providing gorgeous splashes of color from early spring well into the summer. 

• Botanical name: Iris spp.
• Average size: Height 2-3 feet 
• Colors available: Blue, red, white, orange, pink, purple, multicolor
• Popular varieties: Iris Danfordiae, Iris reticulata, Bearded Iris, Siberian Iris 

Planting companion plants can benefit plants from both a health and aesthetic point of view.

For example, some plants prevent certain pests or diseases and can protect nearby vulnerable plants.

However, companion planting also ensures your garden puts on a fantastic display of color throughout the changing seasons. Happy plant pairing! 

21 Best Companion Plants For Daylilies

There are very few perennial plants better suited to landscape design than daylilies. They come in an astonishing spectrum of colors. They are adaptable to just about any type of soil, and they grow just about anywhere in the landscape that has full sun all day, or bright morning sun with dappled shade in the afternoon. But finding the right companion plants for your daylily garden can be a challenge because of the same qualities that make hybrid daylilies garden showstoppers.

Hybrid daylilies have especially vibrant colors. They can clash with poorly chosen companion plants. The latest varieties of daylilies come in saturated hues. They make a unified garden design more challenging. The unparalleled beauty of hybrid daylilies, and their unusually long blooming season, means that they require more care in placement than many other landscape plants.

Table of Contents

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Planting Daylilies

The first consideration in choosing the right daylilies and the right plant companions is how you want your daylilies to be featured in your summer landscape.

Do you want your garden to be dominated by daylilies? Or do you want daylilies to be a focal point in a broader landscape?

• What is the background of your landscape? Does it require tall, medium-height, or low-growing daylilies? Or should there be a mixture of heights?
• How will the color and size of your daylilies blend in with existing plants?
• Do you want to emphasize a particular blooming season by planting a mass of daylilies that all bloom at the same time, or do you want at least a few daylilies that bloom before or after the peak blooming season?
• Do you need darker colors for a daylily bed with afternoon shade, or maybe a night-blooming Fragrant Lemon Citron Daylily next to a patio? Or maybe dwarf varieties for a rock garden?

Choosing the right daylily is about more than choosing the right color. Height, blooming season, shade tolerance, and the ability to bloom at night all make a difference in picking out the right daylilies for your garden.

Check out our guide to growing Asiatic lilies.

Landscaping With Daylilies

Here are some general principles for using daylilies in landscape design:

1. Use daylilies to make landscape maintenance easier. Put them in areas not well suited to mowing, such as around garden statues and ponds, in rock gardens, and along sidewalks, driveways, fences, and property lines.
2. Think massed, not mixed. A large number of daylilies of the same color blooming at the same time gets a lot more attention than a collection of daylilies of different colors that bloom at different times. For instance, a large planting of red daylilies growing next to a large planting of daylilies in cream or yellow is more effective than a large planting of red and yellow daylilies growing in the same bed.
3. Use either the darkest hue or the lightest hue for the focal point of your landscape. Place increasingly darker or brighter varieties of daylilies around them.
4. Use low-growing daylilies as foundation plantings near trees. Use taller daylilies near buildings or at the back of a garden bed.
5. Choose colors that blend well with backgrounds. Red daylilies show up best against a background of green, white, or yellow. Blue and purple complement yellow and pink. Pink daylilies look good on a background of silver or gray.
6. Plant fragrant varieties in small areas where their scent can be appreciated. They are most effective near sitting areas or at the entrance or exit to a garden.
7. Daylilies love a sunny spot. Planting them against the backdrop of a fence or wall that blocks the late-evening sun will keep them facing forward.

Now, let’s consider how to choose the right companions for daylilies.

Planting Daylilies with Other Flowering Plants

Let’s take a look at the best companion plants for daylilies.

The best way to display daylilies is to plant them in sun-drenched spots in your landscape with other flowering plants that love lots of sun. Spaces between clumps of daylilies can be planted with bulbs and perennials that bloom before them, with them, or after them in late summer.

Daylilies and daffodils are a popular combination. Plant daffodils between daylilies at the back of the bed. The daffodils offer a burst of color in early spring. Then the foliage of daylilies conceals them as they begin to die back.

Perennial companion plants for daylilies

1. Common Yarrow (

2. Shasta daisies (

3. Coneflowers (

4. Columbines (

5. Gayfeather, also known as blazing star

6. Black-eyed-susans

7. Stokes’ aster

8.

9. Bee balm

10. Balloon flowers

A few other perennials that complement daylilies:

11. agapanthus
12. alliums
13. phlox
14. salvias
15. heucheras
16. sedums
17. ornamental grasses

Annual daylily companions

Annual flowers that complement daylilies include:

18. Floss flower

19. Wax begonias (

 20. White petunias

21. Dwarf marigolds

Don’t overlook plants that have striking foliage, such as Russian sage and hostas. Companion plants can keep the whole bed vibrant with color and textures throughout the summer and fall.

What Are The Best Growing Conditions For Daylilies?

It is hard to fail when growing daylilies. They are often referred to as a plant for lazy gardeners because they are so tolerant of neglect.

Or at least this is true of the old-fashioned “roadside daylily” (Hemerocallis fulva), since some modern hybrids are not as tolerant of abuse. Still, daylilies are not as demanding as some other popular flowering plants, such as camellias and roses.

Here are some guidelines for getting the best possible performance from your daylilies:

Watering

Keeping the soil moist, but not soggy, is essential when daylilies are sending up scapes and developing flower buds in the spring. Daylilies can stand mild summer drought, but you will get better results if they never experience water stress.

Test the soil by digging down 2 or 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) with a garden trowel of your fingers. If the soil below the top two inches (5 cm) of the soil is dry, then you need to water it. Clay soils need less frequent watering than sandy soils. Try to water deeply less often rather than giving your daylilies just a little water more often. Moistening the soil to a depth of 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) is ideal.

Avoid overhead watering during the day during the blooming season.

Fertilizing

It is always best to get a soil test from your local Agriculture Extension Office before you choose a fertilizer for your daylilies. Use that test to guide your choice of fertilizer for your daylilies.

Any commercial fertilizer you give your daylilies should have nitrogen in a slow-release form. You want a product that is at least 50 percent nitrogen in a slow-release form. Soluble, readily available nitrogen in 10-10-10 and 12-12-12 fertilizers, as well as ammonium nitrate and urea, cause excessive growth of leaves and stems at the expense of flowering. They can also burn leaves if applied as a liquid spray.

Apply fertilizer in the spring, but not when the plant is dormant. Give plants a low-nitrogen, high-phosphate fertilizer like 3-12-12 or 4-8-12 when they have finished blooming for the season.

Control pH

Daylilies can grow in either alkaline or acidic soils, but they prefer a pH of 6. 0 to 6.5. Lower the pH of alkaline soil by incorporating peat moss when you are setting out your daylilies for the first time. If you skip this step, you can acidify the soil by applying sulfur, but you will need to do this about every other year. Raise low pH by adding lime, preferably in the form of calcium carbonate pellets.

Mulching

Mulching conserves moisture and stops weed growth. As mulch slowly decays, it fertilizes the soil. Choose mulches on the basis of cost, availability, and appearance. Bagasse (chopped sugar cane stalks), shredded leaves, pine straw, and hay are all acceptable mulches.

Keep mulch a few inches (about 5 cm) away from the crowns of your daylily plants during the growing season to prevent water accumulation and rot.

Weed control

The best way to remove weeds is to pull them out and dispose of them in the compost heap. Mulching all prevents weed growth, as does cutting back on the water in the summer.

FAQs about daylilies

Should daylilies be planted in groups?

Daylilies always look better planted in groups, all of the same color. Just imagine mass plantings of orange daylilies, or shades of purple (dark purple, pale purple, deep purple). How about a mass of yellow flowers from a cluster of Stella D’Oro? However, individual plants can be used in odd corners and edges of the garden for contrast or a splash of color. A lily garden is beautiful no matter how you mix the lilies.

Do daylilies like sun or shade?’

Daylilies thrive in full sun. The more sun, the better. Do not try to grow daylilies in locations that do not get at least six hours of sun every day. Dappled shade in the afternoon is OK.

What’s the best type of soil for daylilies?

Daylilies need good drainage. Lightening clay soils with peat moss helps adjust pH. Don’t add sand to heavy clay: the result can be cement!

How often should I water daylilies?

Water daylilies when the soil 2 or 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) below the surface is dry. Give them a deep watering, moistening the soil down to a depth of 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm), and then let the top layer of the soil dry out.

Do daylilies need fertilizer?

Giving daylilies too much nitrogen makes them spindly, and reduces flower production. Use slow-release nitrogen in the spring, and then give your daylilies phosphorus at the end of the growing season.

Should I prune and deadhead daylilies?

Grooming your daylilies is not strictly required, since spent blossoms will fall off the plant in two or three days. However, there is nothing wrong with removing dead flowers every day. Remove seed pods at the end of the season so the plant can direct all of its energies into getting ready for the next blooming season.

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Daylilies and partners

Daylily is an unusually plastic culture!

According to the requirements for growing conditions, it does not differ much from most perennials used in classic mixborders. And thanks to its high landscape qualities, this plant can be called an ideal partner for both low shrubs, conifers and classic perennials in our gardens!

Daylily is self-sufficient and looks great as a soloist or mono planting, but in combinations each variety begins to play with new colors creating unexpected duets and garden plots!

In my opinion, the best partners for sober, elegant daylilies are stylish, discreet, discreet perennials. And most importantly, they do not require special care, that is, like the daylilies themselves, they are suitable for stable and reliable compositions!

In the last season of 2017, I especially liked the following companion partners:

Let's start with astilbe - the perfect complement to the early varieties of daylilies!

Since I appreciate fairly high varieties of daylilies, the peduncles of which rise above the foliage, demonstrating high-quality flowers that are not hiding in the foliage, I try to pick up astilbe varieties that are higher (fortunately, astilbe selection is now aimed specifically at tall new items, so every year you can will create new combinations of these two perennials). So, my favorite variety is Mighty Pip ! A wonderful variety with lush peduncles up to 1 m, a pleasant light pink color. Thanks to strong narrow-pyramidal inflorescences, this is an excellent vertical for a duet with a daylily in pastel cream-pink-lilac tones.

The start of flowering of daylilies is picked up by unpretentious meadowsweet . It is a pity that they are not so often found in garden compositions and in vain! Excellent plants, favorites of butterflies, giving delicacy and light haze to any plantings. My three absolute favorites are Flore Pleno, Elegans and Venusta Magnifica !

The most delicate clouds of meadowsweet inflorescences Elegans dancing at a height of about 1.2 m look like downy feathers thanks to small white flowers with red stamens that make up lush inflorescences! There is not a single variety of daylily that such a partner would interfere with!

Variety Flore Pleno is truly loved by everyone! Indeed, its wonderful pom-pom inflorescences look like snow-white snowballs and, thanks to their color, are combined with daylilies of any shade!

And finally my favorite, the grandiose Venusta Magnifica ! Up to 1. 7m tall, this perennial is perfect with my favorite daylilies over 1.3m tall! Despite a decent growth, this meadowsweet looks light, airy, without weighing down the composition. And most importantly and most valuable is the color of the huge panicle inflorescences! It's not just pink - it's a shade of ash rose! Flowering is very long, even fading, the inflorescences look attractive.

For joyful yellow-orange daylilies, Przewalski's buzulnik is an excellent addition. Slender vertical with decorative foliage, optimal growth for daylilies of any height.

With the highest varieties of daylilies in my collection, such as yellow Jack, One Above You, Banana Smoothie, The Levitatin Ananuki , cream Scandinavia, Purgatoru Mountain and red Heavenly United We Stand - looks great changeable mountaineer (polymorphic) . Despite the general gigantism, the plant is not aggressive, does not fall apart and is an excellent backdrop for gigantic daylilies! Long flowering and a magical honey aroma are additional advantages of this type of knotweed.

For daylilies up to 1 m high, I can recommend such an original companion as whole-leaved clematis Arabella . An absolutely unpretentious variety that grows quickly, does not require the preservation of shoots in the winter and is strewn with chamomile flowers of a beautiful lilac-blue color.

I especially appreciate it with orange and yellow daylilies and of course with all pink-lilac ones. It also looks unusual next to blood-red varieties and rich with purple velvet beauties! And the caramel daylily Up's Again The Sun just shines against the background of the above-mentioned clematis!

And finally, a super-combination - Green Arrow daylily and Arabella!

In the same group, you can add Tradescantia Concord Grape with its dark lilac flowers and, most importantly, sharp sedge-like bluish-blue foliage!

No garden flower garden with perennials can do without majestic, slender veronicastrums ! This plant is a true decoration of the midsummer garden! Elegant inflorescence candles add the necessary verticality to the composition and perfectly complement the tall daylilies.

Temptation is the perfect complement to daylilies 1.2 m - 1.6 m high. Its stormy blue lilac color matches perfectly with daylilies of any color scheme!

Veronicastrum Album milky tone with lush inflorescences and strong stems is an excellent companion for daylilies with a height of 1 m - 1.3 m.

What are the compositions of the second half of summer without phloxes !

Calm monochromatic varieties of watercolors and small-flowered prudes are especially close to me!

Variety Ivan impresses with sky-blue color of large flowers!

Snow-white towers Shneepyramide , scattering of lilac flowers Hesperis and also porcelain inflorescences of variety Miniature in combination with daylilies looks inimitable!

At the word stubble we immediately imagine two-meter giants, but among them there is a more elegant variety - Plenum , a wonderful plant with double flowers collected in large corymbs. My favorite duet is with daylily Say Yes ! See for yourself, isn't it good!?

An underestimated plant by many - beautiful telecia ! I'm just happy that once this treasure got into my garden! It is sown well and when planting wonderful seedlings with warm shaggy leaves, I am happy to use them in many compositions and combinations! Stable decorative all season, not aggressiveness, the highest endurance and golden suns of inflorescences-baskets - a plant with some advantages! Daylilies of sunny colors and aesthetic lilac varieties are just asking in addition to the telecia!

Everyone's favorite echinacea pick up the baton of flowering of medium and mid-late daylilies.

At present, the variety of echinacea varieties is simply amazing, but new items often fall out from me, so I especially appreciate the usual echinacea purple , its variety with white inflorescences and the terry variety Coconut Lime .