Expert: Irritating grass not connected to daylily

Raised garden bed designated for daylilies (and an annual grass, center.)

It was several years ago when I designated a raised garden bed for daylilies.

Daylilies were one of my favorite perennial flowers, with delicate blooms in a variety of tropical colors, just right for my Caribbean-influenced tastes.

The current collection is not just one lonely color. For example, I attended a gardening symposium in Moline and purchased an unusual daylily from a vendor. Called "Wild Horses," it is a creamy yellow hue with a black-and-purple halo. Stunning! It continues to bloom in two spots -- a garden in front of our home, and in the designated daylily bed.

This specified area has grown to be most irritating. I think I weed it several times a year, much more often than other parts of the yard. Last fall, for example, I cleaned it out, pulled a bunch of grass, and divided some of the plants. I repeated this about three times in three months after the weather warmed this year.

Grass continues to be an issue. The long stems of grass are far thinner than daylily leaves but the grass roots are connected under the soil. Pull one stem of grass and it connects to another one, a foot or more away.

I gave some daylilies to a family member, and these were planted in a sunny part of their garden in Walcott, Iowa. So far the family has also needed to weed grass out of the lilies several times this spring.

I finally asked Richard Jauron, state horticulturalist at Iowa State University, Ames: Is there some sort of scientific, or symbiotic relationship between grass and the lilies?

No, Jauron replied in an e-mail message. "There is no symbiotic relationship between grass and a daylily," he wrote. "Grass just seems to grow where it's not wanted.
"Grass is a common problem in bearded irises, creeping phlox and other flowering perennials."

I'm not so frustrated that I plan to dig up that daylily bed. But I'm getting to that point!