The ‘Open My Eyes’ daylily is a popular perennial, celebrated for its vibrant presence and adaptable nature in various garden settings. This cultivar offers a unique aesthetic, making it a favored choice for gardeners seeking to introduce striking color and form into their landscapes. Its widespread appeal stems from its beauty and ability to thrive with straightforward care, making it a consistent choice for both seasoned and novice gardeners.
Understanding Open My Eyes Daylily
The ‘Open My Eyes’ daylily (Hemerocallis ‘Open My Eyes’) produces striking, fragrant blooms measuring 5.25 to 5.5 inches across. Each flower features soft orange or pale yellow petals blending into a green throat, dramatically contrasted by a large, deep purple or burgundy eye zone. The petals often display ruffled, picotee edges in the same rich maroon color.
This cultivar has evergreen foliage, with leaves persisting throughout the year in milder climates. It reaches a scape (flower stalk) height of about 22 inches, providing a good vertical element. ‘Open My Eyes’ is a re-blooming variety, offering successive flushes of flowers from early to mid-summer. It is hardy across USDA Zones 3 through 10, making it suitable for a broad range of temperate climates.
Cultivating Open My Eyes Daylily
Successful cultivation of the ‘Open My Eyes’ daylily starts with proper planting. Plant in spring or fall to allow establishment before extreme temperatures. Choose a location with at least six hours of direct sunlight daily, as full sun promotes abundant blooms, though partial shade is tolerated. Daylilies prefer well-drained soil rich in organic matter, with a pH between 6.0 and 8.0. Incorporate compost or other organic amendments before planting to improve drainage and fertility.
When planting, ensure the crown (where leaves meet roots) is about one inch below the soil surface. Space plants 18 to 48 inches apart to allow for mature spread and multiplication into larger clumps. After planting, water thoroughly to settle the soil. Provide consistent moisture, especially during establishment and dry periods, aiming for about one inch of water per week. Avoid overwatering, as saturated soil leads to root rot.
Apply a balanced, slow-release granular fertilizer (e.g., 10-10-10) in early spring as new shoots emerge. A second application after the first bloom cycle encourages re-blooming. Sprinkle granular fertilizer around the plant’s base, avoiding foliage, and water it in. Organic options like aged compost or manure also provide excellent nutrients and improve soil structure without the risk of over-fertilization.
Deadheading, the removal of spent flowers, encourages more blooms. Each ‘Open My Eyes’ flower lasts one day, but the plant produces many buds on each scape. Pinch off individual faded blooms to prevent seed pod formation, which redirects the plant’s energy towards producing more flowers rather than seeds. Once all flowers on a scape have finished, cut the entire scape back to the plant’s base to maintain a tidy appearance.
Addressing Common Issues
Daylilies are robust plants, but they can encounter specific issues. Daylily rust appears as small, yellowish-orange pustules primarily on the underside of leaves. To manage this, inspect new plants, avoid overhead watering, and ensure good air circulation. If rust is present, remove infected foliage and apply fungicides like propiconazole, myclobutanil, or chlorothalonil, rotating products to prevent resistance.
Thrips are tiny insects that cause silvery streaks or speckles on leaves and flowers, leading to distorted growth or buds that fail to open. Minor infestations are managed by spraying plants with a strong stream of water. For more severe cases, use insecticidal soap or spinosad sprays, ideally applied in the evening to protect beneficial insects. Removing garden debris and planting aromatic companions like chives or garlic deters thrips.
Aphids are common, soft-bodied insects that cluster on new growth. Control them by encouraging natural predators like ladybugs or applying insecticidal soap. If daylilies are not blooming as expected, it is often a cultural issue. Insufficient sunlight, inadequate water during bud formation, or an imbalance of nutrients—particularly too much nitrogen, which promotes leafy growth over flowers—inhibit blooming. Adjusting care practices, such as ensuring proper light and a balanced fertilizer, resolves poor flowering.
Integrating Open My Eyes Daylily in Your Garden
The ‘Open My Eyes’ daylily offers versatility for various garden designs due to its attractive foliage and vibrant blooms. Its clump-forming growth habit makes it well-suited for mass plantings, creating a continuous, weed-resistant border over time. This daylily also performs well as an edging plant along walkways, fences, or structures, providing a neat and colorful display. It can be effectively used to fill large gaps in the landscape or to stabilize difficult slopes, offering both aesthetic appeal and practical benefits.
For gardeners with limited ground space, ‘Open My Eyes’ daylilies thrive in containers, provided the pots have adequate drainage and are at least 12 inches deep to accommodate the root system. When incorporating it into mixed perennial beds, its strap-like foliage provides a textural contrast to plants with different leaf forms. The distinctive pale yellow or soft orange petals with a deep purple eye of ‘Open My Eyes’ can complement plants with maroon, blue, or silver foliage, or contrast with plants bearing daisy-shaped or spiky flowers for visual interest.