why are my day lillies blooming a different color than last season?

Question

I have had 5 day lily plants in my garden for about 5 years now. Every year they come up the same golden color (almost an orange hue) as the year before but this year they are comming up a light daffodil yellow color. I have made no changes in which I am feeding the garden differently than last year. My other day lillies (I have various colors) are comming up the same colors as they have years before. Even my neighbor pointed out the change in color...does anyone know what could be causing this color change?

Answer 1

Your daylily most likely was propagated by a tissue culture, a science lab method of turning one scape into 100 new tiny plants. Genetic mutations are common.
This site discusses this phenomena:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/daylily/msg0507571417342.html
"Depending on where you bought them, they may have been tissue cultured (probably were). Sometimes a tissue cultured plant can put up a mutated scape that can bloom anything. I had an Ed Murray way way back that alternated putting up true scapes and then scapes that bloomed a red/yellow bicolor spider variant. EM is a black red."

A year later this site continues the discusses on Daylily tissue culture problems: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farnorth/msg0115294412434.html
"My experience is that the more complex (gold edging, color breaks) the daylily, the better the chance of distortion."

BTW, Daylilies don't change their color because they are next to another daylily of a different color.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

This is simple genetics. If your lillies were pollinated by a neighbours plant of a different colour then you hae the possibility of changing that colour, getting speckles of both, or blending the 2 colours to get a mix. It also depends whether the plant you have has had this happened multiple times. Most plants with the reccessive rait will have been kept safe from cross-polination by store owners. After a few seasons the genes will change though. Hope this answer isn't too complicated nor to simple for you.

Answer 3

Your daylillies have depleted minerals in the soil that govern color/pigmentation. They are heavy feeders. If the foliage is not as dark green as it used to be it's an indicator of iron defficiency. Coperas will replenish iron or you can use rusty nails poked in the soil around the plant.

good luck

Answer 4

it may be you soils ph balance. i know that that can change the color of hydrenga. you can get your soil checked at your local ag extention office.