What kind of mulch? I have never heard of mulch harming plants. Mulch is very good for the plants and the soil. More likly the hot weather and lack of rain caused the brown leaves. Water, water, water.

You have to be careful NOT to put the mulch up too close to the crowns of the plant or else it will cook them. Mulch the ground around the daylilies but keep the mulch pulled back from the crowns! I'm always careful to keep the mulch back a couple of inches from the crown of the plant - would think with the temps in TX, that this is a must.

You do have to be careful with wood mulch up against the crowns. It will cook your plants and can lead to crown rot. Pull the mulch a couple of inches away from the plants NOW as Floota recommends. I've found pinestraw to be far less harmful than wood mulch, and started switching to that two years ago.

Debra

I agree with floota and Debra. Pull the mulch away. The only times I've mulched completely is after the ground freezes. I had that tip from Margo Reed & Jim Murphy, who cover their plants with 2-3 inches of mulch consisting of dried, crumbled leaves I believe, but only for the winter. I had the same advice from Luddy Lambertson. But the key is to pull the mulch away early enough in spring.

Your plants might be OK, Barbara. Feel down around the crown. If the crown feels solid & firm, the plant should be fine. If it's getting soft, you can try to rescue it. Don't come to me for advice about that part, as I've managed to kill every daylily that had rot. Every. single. one. But other people have been quite successful...dig up the plant; cut out all the soft, rotted stuff; you then do all or some of the following: air dry, dust with antifuncide (someone once recommended that stuff people use for their feet), soak in a bleach solution. I'm not even sure what order those last steps should be in. Oh, and finally, if you feel around and there's nothing there to feel, you probably have lost that plant.

Good luck, and don't despair.

It was wood mulch, and I surrounded the plants. I am back home now. Its been 2 weeks since I put the wood mulch down, we are going back down this coming weekend. I will try and find where the plants where, and move back the mulch. I hope its not too late. This may be hard since there is no sign where the plants actually were, the entire bed looks like a bed of mulch. I wish I had a computer down there, so I could have posted this question two weeks ago. I just got home last night. I thought I was doing something good for my plants. It did not seem to hurt the plumeria, birds of paradise, or desert roses, everything else looks burnt. Thank goodness, I only did the 3 beds that were in full sun. I still have hope that maybe some of the dayliles will be alive under the mulch. I can't wait until we go back so I can find out. What kind of mulch keeps the ground cooler? Barbra

All mulch will cool the ground, although personally, I like to use dried, crumbled leaves; I've used dried grasses and such; I've used aged compost on top of the soil as a mulch. But, don't forget, I'm up north, and leaves are one of the more easily obtainable mulches. You probably have access to material that I don't have.

But as Debra and floota have said, the key is to keep the crowns free. I think you should still be able to find the crowns by feel. Kind of a messy job perhaps, and time-consuming. But you may have an idea where you planted the daylilies. Or a garden map or labels to guide you?

Thanks everyone for the information. I will post what I find when we go back. I am going to stay a week and dig up my dayliles. If any plants are still alive, I will put them in pots and move to the shade. I can't remember it ever being this hot and dry. I thought the mulch would be an answer to my problem, but instead it made the problem worse. I wish I would have never read that article. Barbra

Many of my daylilies die down to the soil, the leaves all die, not the crowns, after they finish blooming. They all start putting up new growth within days of the final leaf dieing off. I've thought that I was loosing some of my plants too, only to have the new growth start in a few days. I grow most of my daylilies in pots but I do have some in the ground and they do this in both pots and ground. I think that it just gets too hot and dry(of course I water my plants in pots but nothing compares to good old rain) for the plants to support the leaves and the crowns, so the leaves die off and the plant continues to feed the crowns until better weather arrives. I saw a lot of this happening this year when the days were over 100 degrees for 3 weeks.

I've been putting pine bark mulch on my pots for about 4 years. I try to be careful and keep it from being right against the plants, but this is going to happen when plants are in pots no matter how hard you try. Especially when you have over 1000 pots. I've lost one plant to crown rot in 4 years, it was Mort Morss and it was the first winter after having gotten it in late fall. I've not lost another to crown rot since.

I do grow most of my pots in some afternoon shade. I also keep all new arrivals and recently repotted(500 and counting now) under my big old oaks in pretty heavy shade. I'm sure this helps out by not being in that 105 degree sun. It was only 100 in the shade!!!!

If your mulch wasn't totally green chips, you should be ok. Also, see if you might have critters eating the crowns and roots. I did lose one completely this year to voles and the little stinker managed to eat about 20 fans on other pots before I learned to watch for him and I pulled most of my partially underground pots up and made sure they were above the soil line.(No more trying to keep the pots insulated by burying them partially in the soil!!!) This was the first year I had this happen. I mean the little stinker(I'd love to say what I said when I found out he had killed my Spc Cranberry Kid totally!!) ate every fat root and all the crown up into the leaves!!!! Maybe your plants are just hiding from the terrible heat.

I wish you good luck and please do let us know about your plants. Blessings to all, Mona