I have a feeling this topic has been discussed here, but my searching has turned up limited information, so I am wondering if all you experienced daylily growers have any advice for me.

I have purchased several pink cultivars (Wineberry Candy, Jolyene Nichole, Chorus Line), and they have all bloomed peach, not the clear pink I was expecting. In addition, the first bloom on my Susan Weber last year was picture-perfect (white with pink edge); later blooms were orangey. I gather this color problem is due to the clay soil I have in my yard. I read somewhere that Epsom salts might help this problem, so I amended the soil around the plants with Epsom salts. I wasn't sure how much to use. I just dug in a few handfuls around each plant.

The only one that has bloomed for me so far this season is Chorus Line. The first bloom was quite orange; subsequent blooms have been a lighter peach.

Any suggestions? Should I dig in more Epsom salts? Is there something else I could try?

I was thinking of digging up Wineberry Candy, washing off all the soil, and potting it up with commercial potting mix as an experiment. It's not thriving where it is anyway. I have already decided to call a moratorium on additional pink varieties.

I had never heard of adding Epsom salts to make a bloom more pink. I have read that the soil can make a big difference in the color of the blooms, but I have never read anything saying there was a certain soil that would produce certain colors in daylilies. It will be interesting to see what answers you get. I have some seedlings I was trying to decide on what color to call them, pink came to mind but to me they really were not pink. Maybe a nice clear bright pink is a hard color to create?

I read somewhere that Epsom salts will make colors clearer. The evidence sounded very anecdotal. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

Here has been my experience with pink daylilies and clay. When I lived in MD, I was growing daylilies in clay and could never understand why FAIRY TALE PINK was more peach and not pink. It wasn't until I moved to NY and started growing daylilies in clay free dirt (plenty of rocks though), that I saw FAIRY TALE PINK as pink. Clay certainly contributes to the peach/orange in pinks. I have never heard Epsom salts being added to assist in bloom color. I do apply Epsom salts in the spring to all of my daylily beds because I heard that it assists in greening up the foliage.

David

In my opinion, the older "pinks" are all peachy pink. Chorus Line was always peachy pink here too. Making a true pink took many years for hybridizers to accomplish. I now grow several newer pinks in my clay soil that are really pink: Bubblegum Delicious, Pink Lemonade Party, Pink Aloha and Princess Diary come to mind as being truly pink.

Thanks so much. This is exactly what I hoped to find out.

I would agree that the older ones are more peachy. I don't have any newer ones but I remember thinking the same thing when I first got into daylilies.

As for Epsom salts, it's magnesium sulfate. If your soil is low in magnesium it might help because a deficiency causes interveinal chlorosis of the older leaves (although there are better ways). Generally giving more of something than is needed doesn't help and may cause a deficiency of something else if in excess. Of course if you look on the internet you'll find it's a "magic bullet" for everything that ails your plants!

If you want to test your hypothesis, when you next come to splitting fans, put some into pots with potting soil and some back in your dirt. If the ones in pots turn pink and the ones in the soil stay peachy, then you have your answer that your dirt is to blame. Then you can make raised beds with purchased dirt, should you wish to.

I live in NYC and Fairy Tale Pink was always pale pink for me both in a pot with potting soil and in the ground. However, Annie Welch has always been pale peach.

Prickly Sensation almost always starts blooming pink and eventually the flowers turn orange. Why? I have no idea. It isn't related to fertilizer, water or temperature as far as I can tell.

Fiji always blooms pink for me unless I give it extra water and fertilizer. Then it turns more orange.

Little Red Warbler turns bicolor (red/orange) with low water and no fertilizer in sandy soil (my neighbor added sand to his raised bed that spills into my bed). When I moved it to more normal soil and a spot where I remember to water it on a regular basis the flowers are deep red.

My conclusion from all this: some daylilies are just very variable and others aren't. If you find something that keeps your daylilies the color that you want, keep doing it. Otherwise replace them with a daylily that is more stable if you don't like the color you are getting. The vast majority of my daylilies don't seem to change color no matter what happens.

Another newbie question: Is there some kind of list of recommended vendors linked somewhere on the forum?

I would suggest you start with www.daylilydiary.com which is a treasure chest of vendor information

SunriseSide said:I would suggest you start with www.daylilydiary.com which is a treasure chest of vendor information

I bookmarked this!

Nan, do you know what your soil pH is?

sooby said:Nan, do you know what your soil pH is?

No, I don't. I should probably get that tested.

DeweyRooter said:

No, I don't. I should probably get that tested.

I was just remembering that when I lowered the soil pH temporarily for a few daylilies that had a micronutrient deficiency I thought that the flowers on 'Chorus Line' were a better colour. That's just an impression I had that may not match with reality since I didn't have an untreated CL with which to directly compare, so was going on memory from the year before which is always risky. Before doing any tweaking of individual nutrients it's best to get a soil test.

For the record, I grow almost all of my daylilies in pots. The medium is soil conditioner (finely ground pine bark), Sta-Green blue bag potting soil with fertilizer, a handful of Epsom Salt, a handful of fertilizer, and a few handfuls of Milorganite per batch.

My Wineberry Candy blooms peachy ivory:
My Strawberry Candy blooms, well...peach:
My clearest pink is a NoID (unidentified):
Another clear pink is Walter Kennedy (2008), which is admittedly registered as "cherry red" and has an edge and eye. The base color is Pepto Bismol PINK, though:
Another that's consistently pink is Pink Super Spider (1982):
And then there's Mabel Nolen (1984), which is hardly a new cultivar either:
Add to this a caveat that cameras can be hinky about capturing pinks, which I think may account for some of the pinky-pink-pinks in the plant database here. I know that my Coming Up Roses and Corryton Pink always capture as ultra-pink, which they are definitely NOT.

Both bloom ROSE pink, a color I'm fast learning to detest. Some of my purples bloom more pink than my pinks, which is disappointing for a whole other reason.

shive1 said:In my opinion, the older "pinks" are all peachy pink. Chorus Line was always peachy pink here too. Making a true pink took many years for hybridizers to accomplish. I now grow several newer pinks in my clay soil that are really pink: Bubblegum Delicious, Pink Lemonade Party, Pink Aloha and Princess Diary come to mind as being truly pink.

Debra, what is the DL in your profile pic?

My soil is extremely acidic which seems to help the pinks stay pink and the purples stay purple ( and the Hydrangeas be bright blue)

My version of Wineberry Candy


Prairie Blue Eyes


Hydrangea Endless Summer and Buttered Popcorn

I second Debra's recommendation of Pink Aloha for a pure pink daylily. It has a lovely clear pink color and the substance is awesome even in 90F+. The other pink daylily that consistently blooms pink for me is Dancing Flamingo. If you like pink eyed daylily, Purify My Heart is a lovely one. Antique Rose is another nice pink one. These won't turn peach in clay soil which I have.

Pink Aloha


Dancing Flamingo


Purify My Heart

These are all lovely! I'm now on a hunt to find some of them!

I used the link Dave provided above (Charlotte's Daylily Diary) to find some vendors in-state. One of them carries this:

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Palmetto Princess')

Does anyone have this one? I also really like the pictures of Pink Lemonade Party.