I also have not seen hummers go on the daylilies and the bumblebees seem to only pick certain ones to go on. I noticed that they seem to like my yellow daylilies the best. I will sometimes get a butterfly land on one but not often at all.

I'm one of those who has to race the bees (carpenter bees in my case, I believe) for the pollen. They certainly love the yellow daylilies, but also the peachy polychrome ones too. In my garden, the first raided daylilies are the yellows and peaches, so long as they are in the sun. Daylilies (of any color) that get some amount of morning shade get raided later in the day.

We don't get many butterflies or moths here; those that we do, ignore the daylilies.

The hummingbirds will sometimes come to the daylilies. I think I read somewhere once that daylilies are considered an "alternate food source" for the hummers. Years ago, I gave some 'Quick Results' to one of my friends; she told me one morning that the hummingbirds were going after the blooms.

I was going to agree with everyone who said rabbits don't bother daylilies. There are rabbits everywhere around here and they'd have to be rather taller to eat off daylily buds, or else the daylilies would have to be short. I've never noticed any damage from them.........but what I hadn't accounted for was scapes leaning out at the side of a clump so that they can be caught hold of and pulled down. That's exactly what I saw a young bunny do this morning. I took a picture of the scene of the crime:



It didn't eat the buds, having chewed them off. Just left them there and moved on to eating grasses. You can see in the pic how it had munched through the scape just below the buds. I'm not sure if it didn't like them, having chewed them off, or whether I had sprayed those buds with deer repellent. I rather doubt it was the latter since it was a low scape and I don't remember spraying one that low down. Maybe just being a young bunny it wanted to give daylilies a try and didn't like the taste.

Sue, that is awful! I'm extra thankful now that the bunny in my daylily garden hasn't done this!

Wow, Sue!

As though the deer, and the critter hunting dog, weren't bad enough... now I've got to worry about the rabbits?!!

Fortunately that clump has lots more scapes, and I haven't seen other buds on the ground - I guess that leaning scape on the outside of the clump looked worth a try and was easy to reach. I suspect (hope!) it was just a youthful experiment and it discovered it didn't like them. There are certainly plenty of rabbits around and plenty of daylilies that have only been attacked by deer up to now (or they'd have to have been bunnies on a trampoline or with a stepladder ). I'd never have realized it was a rabbit that did it if I hadn't seen it happen.

I think these young bunnies lost their mother on the road as I used to see them with a parent, but not since an adult bunny was a traffic casualty nearby.

I'm happy to report that my concerns were premature. The buds are coming in nicely and even blooming. These 2 pics are from today.

This is the first year I have had the issue below. Does anyone know what would cause this to happen? Of course the first daylily it happened to happened to be one I paid $50 for and I had never seen it bloom. Whatever did this, did it to all of the buds on this plant. Now I have been seeing it sporadically amoung the daylilies. Also, only in the front yard which has newer beds and not protected by a fence. It cannot be a rabbit because some of the scapes it happened on are over 40" tall.

Deer more than likely.
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Thank you for that article - that is exactly what mine look like and it is mainly near the street in my new bed. The next bed hit is the next one closest to the street.

Deer!!

Definitely deer is what I say, too. They really wander around on these well lit full moon nights. I was tired when I turned on the water at the spigot but forgot to turn on the device for the water cannons that guard my yard, and they not only got some buds, but also 4 prime tomatoes that were just right for a grand BLT tomorrow. It's interesting that they bypass seedpods until later when they are just ready for harvest. Nasty creatures!

In my humble opinion, having both rabbits and deer, we watch our "pet" rabbits almost every second day, and they virtually only eat weeds, although clover is plentiful! They have been inside our many fences and still ate the same fare. Deer, however, another matter, and if you are missing hostas, apple tree limbs, lilies, tomato tops, you know it is deer. Here at least, our rabbits could not stand up on their hind legs to eat anything and keep their balance. (kinda like me) LOL. We personally do not have woodchucks here where we are, but our friends 60 miles away do, and they claim that same just chew the tops off everything there is in their garden, everything! ( They trapped 5 of them and relocated them 20 miles away. Two days later, there was another one in the same lodge. When they trap this one and relocate, they will put a little dye marker on the fur, to see??? However, I am in agreement with so many others who have pointed to Deer as the culprit. Look for hoof marks! I just went out and photographed the tops of my plants that had been lopped off by deer, including daylilies. Looks Identical! Cheers!

Natalie said:Bees adore daylilies, but the hummingbirds, at least at my house, aren't interested, and neither are butterflies. They do check them out occasionally, but don't stay long. I always see butterflies in my garden, but they are flying right past the daylilies and almost never stop.

I see hummingbirds checking out the daylilies too. They much not get much from them, because their interest is fleeting and rare.

Natalie said:I hybridize daylilies, and before moving to my current house, I had a race a bumblebee every morning to get to the pollen before it did. It was really funny! That thing was so weighed down with pollen that it could barely fly! It knew were the all-you-could-eat buffet was, and it was in my backyard. That bumblebee and I learned to co-exist though. If it got to one part of the yard first, I'd hybridize in the other part. The next day, we would swap places. Worked well for both of us, but some mornings I had to get up just as the sun was coming up and race out there before it arrived.

My nemesis is the Carpenter Bee, a big, glossy, solid black bee which resembles a Bumblebee, with a voracious appetite for pollen. Fortunately, the mornings are cool enough so that I can usually beat them to it if I'm out there before 6:30. I seldom hybridize this early, because most of the pollen sacs aren't open, and the pistils don't appear ready, so I just do a fast pollen collection before it's time to brew & enjoy a cuppa. 9:30-10:00 seems to be the sweet spot for hybridizing.
Because the Carpenter Bees make such a big mess, if I want to set a pod on a flower I have to strip and discard every stamen, otherwise they'll dust the pistil tip as they work. Last week I saw that one of them had learned a disturbing new trick—after stripping the stamens, it would swing over to the pistil, shinny to the tip and grab whatever I had put there. It's the only one I've seen doing that.

Honeybees aren't much of a problem, as they appear in the afternoon, and seem to only target the nectar at the base of the pistil.

Polymerous said:Wow, Sue!

As though the deer, and the critter hunting dog, weren't bad enough... now I've got to worry about the rabbits?!!

Do you have roving flocks of turkeys like we do? I don't know if they'd eat the foliage or buds, but I imagine they might cause a lot of problems while foraging.

Hmm, I think I saw something similar to Lynette's picture in my garden this morning. Not sure if it was a growing pod or a bud though. I was making crosses before work and didn't have time to inspect. I'll have to check when I get home.

But if it was a bud then it can't be deer. There are no deer in NYC (well, we get an occasional wanderer but they freak out in the city and have to be rescued). I was thinking what in the world could do that since the scape was pretty tall. The only damaging critters we have are skunks (digging up plants), stray cats (knocking over scapes & lying on fans) and squirrels (eating daylily pods and lily buds). I'd have to cross the squirrel off my list because the scape wasn't damaged (they'd have to jump on it which would have knocked it over or broken it). If it isn't pouring rain I'll try and take a picture.

I'm getting some undeserved "thumbs" for a daylily that is long gone.