I am planning a bed of daylilies on the street side of my fence. I'm in central Ohio, zone 6 and am looking for bright colors, no pastels. They need to grab attention for people driving by. Which ones would you suggest? And where do you order from? Thanks!

The brightest that comes to my mind 1st is Primal Scream. Orange Velvet grabs a lot of attention too. I suggest you look for growers in Ohio area, I am sure there are several. That way you will know what works well in your area.

I'm not going to offer any advice for which ones to choose but I'd recommend thinking about at least a couple of things before going on a spending spree.

First, are there going to be other plants nearby that you would want to coordinate the colors with? If no, then pick any color that you like. If yes, try to pick plants that will give you color combinations you like.

Second, how big is the bed? Would you have room for a row of tall daylilies in the back and short ones in front? Would you only want ones with large flowers (over 5") so that they can be more easily seen? Make sure you check scape height and flower size before ordering.

Third, do you want the bed to have flowers for an extended period of time? If so, choose cultivars that bloom early, early-mid, midseason, mid-late and late. If you choose all midseason bloomers (with no rebloom) your bed will look spectacular but only for a relatively short period of time.

Fourth, do you want/have time to deadhead. Many people don't like the look of the faded flowers (especially when the neighbors can see them) and spend a lot of time taking off the spent flowers either that evening or the next morning. They also want to encourage more blooming by not having pods set on the plants. Think about whether or not you'll have time to do this on a daily basis. Some plants look awful with spent blooms because they can hang on opening buds & prevent them from opening properly. Other cultivars form lots of bee pods which you may not want.

Definitely check out any daylily farms in your area. Nothing beats getting freshly dug clumps that you can transplant right away. You can also see how well some colors hold up in your climate as some reds and purples look great first thing in the morning but awful later in the day if they are in full sun.

I'm sure there are things that I'm forgetting but if you plan you bed carefully you'll have an amazing display!

Julie, you should use alfalfa pellet mixture for your daylilies.
I am enclosing directions.

When are you planting?

I will give you some: however, I always wait until the first blooms to confirm the idification. I have Primal Scream.

Alfalfa mixture for both hostas and daylilies.

I use pellets because they are easier to hydrate.
For Hostas, alfalfa is most fantastic. It feeds up to five years and increases the rate of growth.
Before I plant Hostas, I soak the pellets overnight in a five gallon bucket; 20% pellets to 80% water. The hydrated alfalfa will look like diarrhea.
In the hole in the ground, I put the mixture, place the hosta on top, and finish up with soil. Water well. For established Hostas, work the mixture around the plants and water well.
Miniature, 1 cup
Small, 2 cups
Medium, 3 cups
Large, 4 cups

Of course I use alfalfa with daylilies. Daylilies need for frequent application.
As with hostas, when first planting a daylily, I use the mixture in the hole and place the plant over the mixture and cover with soil. When I am finished with all new planted daylilies in that area, I water all the plants.
Follow up feeding is a little simpler: I scatter four cups on the ground near the base of the plants and I water all. The pellets start to hydrate and eventually, they dissolved. Follow up early spring, and if you time, again after blooming.

@Julieseward1 the daylily auction is a great place to get some good bargains right now.
I recommend "Morning_star daylilies" The owner Mary Burgent also has a website under the same name. There are others. Go there and browse around. There are some great sales going on right now in our classified section. Celeste has some wonderful bargains. The possibilities are endless
I would suggest throwing in some late blooming asters, Mum's etc

The first thing that comes to my mind is water. Daylilies are tough and drought tolerant after they are established. But they need water to bloom and grow. I water my beds by hand. So I mostly choose early-midseason bloomers because I know by Jul-Aug I'm going to be tired of it and may not give late bloomers enough water.

I also get tired of removing the dead flowers every morning; another reason for early bloomers. But if you want a long bloom season, you can find daylilies that bloom early, midseason and late. Stella d Oro, short, yellow, blooms almost all summer.

I mostly stay with moderate heights (25-30 inches) because we have a lot of wind. Though the wind doesn't seem to bother my Wild Horses at 37 inches.

Like you I prefer the bright colors red, orange, yellows. I buy from local nurseries, Wal-Mart, Lowe's.....Most of my mail orders are from Oakes in Tennessee.

https://www.oakesdaylilies.com...

Their prices are not always the best, but I have never been disappointed with a plant from them. Their shipping rates are reasonable and they send a minimum of three fans. They have a good assortment of "under $10" plants. But if you can find a local supplier that would likely be best.

One of my favorites is Mauna Loa, a burnt orange; Fooled Me, yellow with a red center; Indian Paintbrush, another orange; Good Impression, yellow; Don Stevens, yellow with a rust throat. I have found some red's are not bright red. There are several threads on this board of good red's. I like Christmas Ruby, bright red. I have been disappointed in Little Business and Pardon Me.

Do you have critters? I would be concerned that alfalfa pellets might attract rabbits, deer or other hungry critters to your flowerbeds.

South Seas is a great grower, popular and easy to fine. I haven't posted a picture, but here is one from the database.

@Flowersgalore you brought up a good point. Julie how far away is the closest spigot ? Running drip irrigation to this site would be beneficial. There are many daylilies out there that are self cleaning. Those could be researched to minimize the need for dead heading.

Julie, do you have a picture of this fenceline? Would love to see the before and after pictures. I was also wondering how long and how tall this fence is. If it is long enough for a repeating pattern of daylilies, I would choose some that would bloom at different times. This would decrease the amount of deadheading that would need to be done all at one time.

All great suggestions here and it is a lot to think about. My first thought was to choose daylilies that are the right height in proportion to the fence height.

I love South Seas and think it is an excellent suggestion. I have often wondered what it would look like to intermingle daylilies of the same height if one did not care about names. Then the colors and bloom times would be varied in the bed. Wouldn't that be interesting!

Heather Grace is ad odd color, Southern Dazzle, RFK, Dancing Flamingo, Living Legend, Small Carbon Footprint, Absolute Ripper are just a few that come to mind.

Homestead Farms in Owensville MO

http://www.homesteadfarms.com

Don't buy anything over ten bucks for the first couple of years. I've spent lots of money on plants, and the cheaper ones ended up being my favorites, more money does not mean you will like them any more, or that they will perform any better than the less expensive ones. If you decide later you want to invest more in them, then go for it.