burned dayllily leaves

[stchr]

I am in Toano, Virginia. We had an unusually warm start to our winter. As a result by blueberries bloomed, my peonies started to come up as did my dayllilies. Some of my daylilies never really went dormant. I covered the daylilies and peonies with pine straw but the daylilies grew almost 6 inches. Now the leaves are burned and chewed. Can I cut the leaves back to the ground now or leave them alone?

[lorijones]

Yes it would be fine to cut the damaged foliage of your daylilies back. You can cut them right to the ground. The "chewed" leaves are probably a result of freeze damage rather than damage from a chewing pest. Recover the plants with the pine straw after you trim them back.

[bevhov1945@gmail.com]

Me too. This warm winter then hard freeze was very damaging. I have a lot of day lilies do I absolutely need to cut them back?

[lorijones]

You don't necessarily need to cut the foliage back. It will put up new foliage later in the spring. The damaged foliage should eventually turn brown and can be pulled off later if you wish. Cutting the damaged foliage back just makes the garden look better.