Ruby Stella Daylily Care Tips for Beginner

Ruby Stella Daylily is a hardy, easy-to-care for perennial, repeat-flowering shrub that produces sizable, three-foot wide, lightly, white sweet-smelling flowers in a single-petal, triangular shape. It has moderately heavy petals, has a slightly oblong shape, and is highly day-bloom. These traits make it ideal for indoor vases and containers. It will tolerate most potting mediums but avoid shaded or shady areas during the warmer summer months.

The blooms burst open in late spring, but you should be able to pinch off any stalks before they wilt away. Each flowering stem has two or three flowers and blooms usually appear in groups of four, with one flower per stem. Each plant has narrow white stamens and an equal number of petals. The blooming period is from early spring through late summer.

To ensure a healthy plant, be sure to remove all leaves except the large cluster at the top of the stems. This blooming mass of stems provides the plants with much needed, supplemental lighting. The blooms are highly receptive to air, which makes them somewhat dim, but not totally invisible. To encourage flowering, provide bright sunshine for at least one hour before you plant your selections. Be sure that your plants receive plenty of light, as sunlight is required for successful blooming.

Because Ruby Stella Daylilies is highly annuals, they do not do well in drought. Most of them only bloom for a few weeks each year, although a few have been known to last for up to three years. They are best planted as singles or in a group. When planting them, be sure to place them about a foot apart so that they receive equal amounts of sunlight. In dry climates, they will benefit from being planted about a foot away from each other, with the highest flowers coming from the tips of the plants. On humid days, however, allow them to grow closer together, as the leaves can overheat.

How do You Keep Ruby Stella Daylily Blooming?

For successful long-lasting blooming, keep your ruby daylilies happy and healthy by pruning them regularly. You can remove any dead and decaying branches and allow new ones to grow in their place. Be sure to prune the plants as needed throughout the growing season.

To give them a boost during the colder months, top off your flower spikes with a cluster of red berries. Ruby Stellas is very sun tolerant plants. In extremely hot temperatures, you can pinch off the flower spikes and let them burn down a bit, but most will survive that treatment. They enjoy lots of sun and will go right along with your planters when you try to plant them in large mass plantings. In the shade, the ruby Stella will flourish under low temperatures, with only a few days of temperatures above eighty degrees being required for the plant to flower.

When caring for ruby Stellas, you should keep in mind how they grow. These beautiful plants have upright stems and long leaves, with the shortness of their roots typical of most species. They usually grow in dry soils, where the sun-loving short stem produces sugars that are used as a food source for the lower soil levels. When watering, take care to water only over the tops of the short stems. The sun loving short stems will dry out and burn if watered repeatedly.

Unlike most plants, ruby Stellas will bloom when the ground is warm, not just while it is raining or a cloud is in the sky. In early spring, the blooms begin to open, revealing a mass of long thin purple, pink, or red flowers. Once these blooms have come to the top, the plant’s fragrance becomes all consuming, attracting hummingbirds and other birds. Ruby Stellas are an attractive addition to any garden with their full sun luster and vibrant colors, but they also attract insects like hummingbird caterpillars and beetles.