Invasive Plant to Avoid: Daylilies

This week is National Invasive Species Awareness Week. Herring Run Nursery will be focusing each day on one invasive plant and a native alternative.

Don’t Plant: Daylilies

Daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) are so popular in Maryland that it is hard to believe that they aren’t native, but they aren’t. The common orange daylily is Asian and has infested natural sites in every eastern state, usually escaping from homes.

When daylilies overtake natural areas they displace native plants and form dense groups that can hard to remove.

Native Alternatives: Butterflyweed and Irises

Maryland has a broad array of native alternatives to daylilies, which aren’t even actually lilies.

If orange is your color, try butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) instead of daylillies. Not only is this a host plant for Monarch butterflies, but the summer blooms are highly attractive to bees and other pollinators.

Many of our native iris species can be used as alternatives to daylillies. Iris fulva, Iris versicolor, and Iris virginica are all attractive species that perform well in a variety of conditions.

Herring Run Nursery offers both of these native species, and will open its Spring season on April 9th.