Yeah, well, I kind of knew I wouldn't win too many cool points here in the daylily forum with my little confession... but maybe someone will have some ideas for me... thanks for the reply!

I'm guessing you are after smaller plants like Stella's. I suggest you look for Mini Pearl, Happy Returns, Rosy Returns and Going Bananas. These common varieties don't tower over the foliage. Nothing is maintenance free, so plucking browning leaves from the bottoms of the plants will help their appearance later in the summer. The "returns" daylilies would probably rebloom later in the season depending on your zone. The second blooms are not at prolific. You could try an internet search to see if these might appeal to you.

Sherry

Going Bananas is a softer color that blends well in the garden. Also, bigger blossom than Stella.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but is your primary goal just the foliage? Do you like blooms as long as they're down in the foliage or do you just like them down there so that they're "hidden"? As far as being tidy, my guess is that the ones you've seen are groomed...can't say for sure as I don't have Stella d'Oro. If you don't like the blooms you should probably either look for a foliage plant (hosta maybe...non-flowering liriope if that's a thing...) or get a daylily plant you like and just cut away scapes. I feel like you shouldn't get a plant you don't like just because "you feel like you should like it". However, if you do like the blooms, just prefer them against the sea of green, there's probably something out there for you :)

Yes, jeanerz, I like the blooms but prefer them against the green - that's a good summary. I have a few areas in my yard where daylillies work *very* well, but I'd prefer some variety in the blooms (other than only having Stella D'oro). It's not that I'm primarily after foliage, but rather that I actively dislike the foliage of lots of daylilies. And it's not an issue of grooming. The best I can describe is that the edges of a lot of the larger variety daylily leaves have a waviness to them that bothers me visually. Sorry - I know that's weird. I like the straightness of the Stella leaves. Maybe this is an issue of size? I'll have a look at the smaller varieties mentioned above.

Ming Toy is a short one that you might like.

You know I am a daylilly person.But I agree with Julia.Ive never liked the daylilly foliage.Its really unattractive.But the 1 month blooms do make it tolerable for the other 11 months lol..I have about 150 daylilles and 24 of them are stellas..The stellas are really pretty now(Mine are in full bloom).I have them all grouped together.Will try and get a pic tomorrow

I didn't really think it through when I chose what to put in my flower bed. I picked a bunch of daylilies that I liked...they all happen to be July bloomers. So I have nothing but green in the front half of the bed from spring until July...then some nice flowers for a couple weeks...then green until late fall / early winter...then a bare area... At some point I want to get it redone but there's so much that needs to be fixed with this house it just isn't a priority....

Re-reading my post , I thought , I wasnt particularly helpful ( sorry about that ....can I blame it on being overly tired from digging all day ?) Well maybe not but I thought I should do some reasearch and although I am still unable to suggest daylilies that bloom down in the foliage i found this article that might be of some interest in maintaining your Stella D'oro daylilies or perhaps even other daylilies that you decide upon . Here is the link : https://dengarden.com/gardening/How-To-Keep-Stella-De-Oro-Daylilies-Blooming-All-Season-Long

This link also may help you find a number of reblooming daylilies that might fit your criteria : http://snyderfarm.rutgers.edu/pdfs/TG-AppstersDaylilies.pdf

Hope this is of some help .

This is a REALLY OLD post but I found it because I am doing the same search as Julia. Stella d'Ora is the perfect size day lily and has nice foliage. The only reason I'd like to replace it is that I don't like the goldy colour of the flowers. I'm also looking for the exact same plant, but with different coloured flowers.

I can recommend two that might suite your needs: Stella's Little Sister (available from StarDreamer Daylilies) and Black-Eyed Stella. Similar, but with different flowers - not solid gold

I have about 40 - 50 daylilly varieties. I seen one 2 summers/yrs ago and wanted it asap . It was a daylily called going bananas. What I loved about it was I was seeing it blooming like 4-6 weeks after mine quit blooming. I would drive by a couple of landscapes on my drive to work with them in it and I wanted some They was blooming way after mine had quit blooming. So after a little research I found out the name. The color is right, Its a bright yellow banana color.I bought 2 one gallon plants and already have about 15 plants just by dividing them and these I have now I could easily divide again and have 45 smaller plants easily. They are still blooming but for me in my own landscape this time :) Highly recommended.!!

Wow I just realized this post was from 6 yrs ago lol.

Heres a pic I just took of my going bananas. All my other dayliiles have been quit for about 4-5 weeks now. You can see I still have blooms coming on sept 7th. The plant in the middle is a hot pocker plant, And just for refernce I am in north Georgia. I see people on youtube from around boston whos daylillies are in full bloom as of now.

It seems you want just straight leaves, not blooms in the foliage...I grow a lot of them and due to where I live, I have very long seasons...Take a look at Chicago Star The blooms are much larger than Stella, but the foliage is very neat and stays that way.

Another idea is to look back at some f our posts and see if you find a plant you like

Also, You can look back through posts from this year and see if you find foliage that appeals to you

Kay