I am not an expert but I have a curved border around the back and side of my yard with mostly daylilies and a few other perennials. I also like to sprinkle out some seeds so that annuals can come up in the open spaces. Yes they will look good in a long narrow garden but my preference is to have some curve to it. The groupings work well here. You can hardly go wrong with a daylily. That might be one of the reasons so many of up like them.

I also grow roses, so I have most of my daylilies planted in front of them.

Laurie

I grow a lot of roses,and am now planting daylilies in between the roses,

Jean

My daylilies are integrated into my mixed borders. This year I'll have one bed with mostly daylilies (a dozen new plants from nurseries, and a bunch of my own seedlings). I prefer the mixed garden look, though, so I'll probably edge that bed with some low annuals, and place another tall annual in the middle for an accent. There is no right or wrong in a garden with daylilies - it's just a matter of personal taste.

Laurel

I'd love to see people's 'whole garden' shots, too. I need some ideas. I tend to lean towards the 'daylily farm' look, with nothing but DLs in certain beds. Although someone here posted a GREAT picture the other day, which is, evidently what I'm sorta shooting for.

If you have the space, I say both lol. As far as aesthetics go I think mixing clumps of them in with other perennials and annuals here and there in the garden is much more balanced. On the other hand it's hard to beat the show-stopping power of a daylily mass planting in bloom. So I have a small daylily field off to one side where all of my varieties get lined out and planted in rows. But when they multiply I take extra divisions of my favorites and mix them into the perennial beds near the house. Like down2earth I also favor curves for a more natural look as opposed to straight lines & right angles. Just depends on your preference though.

Squirrellypete

Pump toad,

Daylilies look fine in a long narrow bed, but you need to define narrow and match it to the size of the daylilies. An established clump of dls can easily be 3 foot in diameter. :~) Some of my smaller established dls (16-18 inchers) are half that size. These make great & very neat edgers around curved beds. Some of my spiders also have small clumps of foliage but are quite tall and need careful siting.

I have a long narrow bed on the west side of the house than curves softly from 3 to 4 ft wide. An area like this can be used for a single row of dls which is what a nearby neighbor has done with her space. She planted all one variety (bright red) and it is quite stunning and even somewhat architectural. (I myself would probably use single varieties if using the row method and hope for the best - fundamentally unable to buy one color/variety).

I actually use my space somewhat differently. The wall has 3 trellises with 2 clematis and a variegated porcelain vine in the center. Any purple or blueish variety will do here and look well with most colors of dls.

Then it has about 10 clumps of daffodils spaced out along the wall (right up next to it). I started with 5-7 bulbs per hole. They are up and blooming before anything else is more than a few inches high. Their dying foliage gets lost in the wild foliage that comes later. LOL

Next come a half dozen varieties of lily, asiatic for early, then orienpets for later. I sort of go wild here with colors. Anything in the catalogs that make me say wow.

Next are 3 big clumps of Sunrise echinaces (soft yellow color) spread out to divide the bed into smaller sections.

And finally the bed is edged in new daylily fans, roughly by color, but pretty much anything goes. Once the dl gets good size I can move it too a permanent spot. Or I can take out half or more and let the ones I like best, or the color range I decide on, or or or whatever, and let the rest mature. I'd probably have to set the adult dls back deeper in the bed or widen it some more - who needs grass anyhow!

This is what I'm shooting for...smaller scale, of course...(this is the retirement plan)

Here is a link that might be useful: Slate Hill Farm Pic

I love them mixed in w/other perennials... probably because of the amount of green leaves. I find that they work as "anchors" in my long perennial garden. The eye travels from clump to clump and the colors of each clump become a focus.

Because they do so well and spread, I've found that I end up with so many of them over time. But somehow there is always room for just onnnneee more.... new color, new flower! I'm anxious to see how my "new" Larry Grace, Victorian Lace, Raspberry Winter and Delia O'Bryan Brown look.
Molie

I've seen daylilies grown in every situation you can think of. The beauty of growing daylilies is with different size follage and flowers,the world is your palate. Most of mine are in beds containing spring bulbs that draws attention away from the ugly follage after spring blooms yet adds greenery to spring flowers,than in same beds i have roses,which the DL also adds attraction to. also have all DL beds and in one place i have a solitary daylilie thats almost a blackish red. I did'nt think it needed anything to set it off.
vickie

When I had 100 daylilies or less, I had them mixed in my perennial beds. Now that I have been bitten by the bug, I have put them in rows, in front of my perennials, 3 to 5 deep. These have been on the web before....

Click to see album

{{gwi:678654}}

Byrdlady: I LOVE your yard. I looked at your slide show several times!

Lisa

I too have planted them both ways. Some are planted scattered among the roses in the garden room and in a different area we have a bed full of daylilies. This is a shot of the daylily bed and a link below to my web site that shows more full garden shots of both areas.
{{gwi:678655}}
Marylu

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Garden Web Site

Marylu, I enjoyed your website very much....you have accomplished so much since you began your garden, and it is lovely. Thanks for sharing with us.
Jan

Marylu;I have looked at every photo on your website,and wow,its all so gorgeous.A lot of work there,but your gardens are just beautiful.Thanks for letting us have a peak at it.

Jean

Finally getting back to check my original message and thank you so much for your suggestions.The long narrrow garden that I had a row of tomatoes in is what I plan on converting to a daylily garden. From looking at photo's and suggestions I do believe I will curve it.Plan on buying my tomatoes at a Farmers Market and think daylilys will be more fun!
Lois

Lois, that sounds familiar. :) I just tilled my old vegetable spot up and amended it for planting daylilies. I figured I could buy my veggies about as cheaply as growing them, and like you said, dl's are much more fun!!
Jan

Lois, oh yes, you will enjoy the DLs much more than tomatoes!

Jean and tweetypye...thanks. Glad you enjoyed your "visit".

That picture of the daylily garden on the Slate Hill site on the post above is just a stunner. Don't I wish I could go for a look like that but there is not that kind of room here.

Not sure exactly were Salem, NY is but it has to be way upstate.

It is about 45 min. northeast of Albany,depending on the route you take. Around 30 miles north of Melanie Mason's place.

Betsy

I only have a small suburban garden in the UK which is paved over (I used to own Gordon Setters) so everything grows in pots. I move my pots around so that there is always something in flower in the right spot.

I find that daylilies look particularly good next to dark blue aquilegia (columbines), especially if the columbines have variegated foliage. Snapdragons (Antirrhinum,) also do well in pots and look nice next to daylilies, as do Campanulas and Foxgloves.

I also move my daylily pots next to the gooseberry bushes and the fig tree(also in pots) and that also works well.

As for tomatoes, I grow the cherry varieties in flower pouches and hang them on the wall of the house from hooks. That way I can move them around if they need more sun. I also grow strawberries the same way with great results so please don't give up the fruit, even if you just grow it for the birds to eat !!

Nikki