Daylily Hemerocallis Stella Citron

Stella Citron belongs to the compact repeat flowering daylilies, the group that changed how these plants are used in Australian landscapes. It forms a low fountain of narrow strappy leaves and carries soft lemon yellow trumpets on short stems just above them. Each bloom opens for a single day, but a settled clump pushes buds up in succession, so the display runs through the warm months instead of arriving in one burst. That is what makes it a mass planting plant for driveways, verges and the front of a border.

Full sun, and that is not negotiable

Daylilies grow almost everywhere in Australia, from the cool south to the tropics, and they take heat, reflected warmth off paving and indifferent soil without complaint. Loam, clay or sand all work provided water drains away rather than pooling on the crown, and water needs are low to moderate once established. Plant about three to a metre for a solid ribbon along a driveway or path. The failure mode is shade. Stella Citron wants full sun, and the pale lemon flower makes the shortfall obvious: in a half shaded bed the clump stays green and healthy looking but throws a fraction of the scapes, and the few flowers that do open come on weak, leaning stems that fall across the edging. People usually blame the fertiliser and feed harder, which makes it worse. Move it into open sun instead. The pale colour is worth siting deliberately as well, because lemon carries at dusk and against dark green foliage in a way that a red daylily simply does not.

Lemon, tangerine or red

The three Stellas here differ mainly in colour, and colour does real work in a mass planting. Stella Citron is the one to use where the bed is seen in the evening, against dark green shrubs or a dark fence, or where a hot orange would fight with red brick. Stella Tangerine is the warm orange for a bed looked at in full sun, and Stella Rouge is the red, which wants some afternoon protection to stop the dark pigment scorching. All three share the same habit and the same care, so pick on how the bed is lit rather than on the catalogue photo. More in low maintenance planting.

Deadheading and a spring feed

Snap spent flowers off with your fingers every day or two, and cut the whole scape back to the base once its last bud has opened, which keeps a clump looking deliberate and stops it wasting energy setting seed. Feed in early spring as growth starts and again in midsummer, using a complete fertiliser with potassium in it rather than a high nitrogen lawn food, which drives leaf and reduces flowering. Lift and divide congested clumps every three or four years, in autumn or early spring, when the flower numbers begin to drop. Snails chew the emerging fans, so bait or pick them early in the season.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 140mm, at $16.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to low water gardens.