Do you like orange?
There are thousands of daylilies you could choose from and orange is my least favorite color in the yard. However, free is free!
I feel like in a few years you will have gotten the hang of gardening and everything won't be a difficult decision.
Take the daylilies and plant them. If in two years you hate them, give them to somebody else.

Awesome! Thanks!

If the orange daylilies are what is known as "Ditch Lilies" (Hemerocallis Fulva) just be very careful where you plant them. They're extremely aggressive, will quickly take over your garden spaces and once established are difficult to eradicate because they travel underground by thick mats of rhizomes and will devour everything in their path. You may have seen these growing wild by the sides of roads - and in ditches.

However, if they're Stella d'Oro's (which can sometimes be a little orangy depending on soils and conditions) those are a nice common daylily and is such a good bloomer that it doesn't disappoint. Easy to control and divide, etc.

Ask your workmate for a little more information - are they being given away because they've spread all over the place, etc. That would be a hint they might be ditch lilies.

I don't want to discourage you or be off putting, but it appears you're relatively new to gardening and establishing your home's garden beds. You don't want to make the mistake of introducing something that can become a real thug. If you do take some, plant them in a pot or container and wait for them to bloom, take a photo and post it on the Daylily Forum. They can tell you exactly what they are and whether or not to put them in your garden.

I don't think ditch lilies are very aggressive- I mean it's not bermuda grass. I have never had a problem with them or getting rid of them. If he doesn't like them and digs them up, one squirt with round up will get rid of anything remaining if there is anything left.

I only suggested he take them because they are free and it's all part of the learning curve. Eventually he may want something much better and hopefully not stellas (Sorry, but I gave all mine away :-)

It's all about becoming a gardener, which is a process, or having a "yard" that's finished and is much less interesting.

I moved into a house a couple of years ago with LOTS of ditch lilies everywhere. They are definitely rampant spreaders, but I don't find them uncontrollable. I have left them in areas that don't get as much attention, as they make a lovely filler (E.g. along the back alley behind the garage, along the fence, etc.)

If you leave them in beds you care a lot about, or ones you are trying to "create" you will need to be prepared to keep them under control.

I'm not a huge orange fan either, but they look quite pretty in the right setting. They're a nice complement to certain shades of blue and purple.

Point taken, but free is not always a bargain. Ditch lilies are deemed aggressive in this part of the world (and the OP's z5 is close) - perhaps they're not in SC. Stella d'Oro performs - which is one of it's most endearing qualities until one decides to graduate to the more "desireable" varieties. Yes, we've all given away or composted Stellas by the pitchforkfull - but not because it didn't bloom its little heart out.

We all learn, we all make mistakes during the process of gardening and no one should be discouraged from experiencing the good the bad and the ugly. But a little information never hurts and it's really up to the OP to sift through it all. We all tend to believe what we say is true - and it probably is for our individual experience and situations.

I don't think suggesting the OP pot them up temporarily was too far out of line - think of it as a learning experience in container gardening. :-)

Actually, I'm not sure anymore if I should grab it. I found out that it's 60 miles from my place. I don't think it's worth the time vs the gasoline I will spend.

Yep, I'm very new to gardening but I love it. :)

I moved into my house 35 years ago....and some ditch lilies came over to my garden from the neighbor's. I was several years getting them all out. If you leave one little scrap of root, they will come back and send runners in all directions from that. I did pretty well getting rid of it eventually....and someone else offered me a clump of double orange daylily...because she said "it doesn't stay in a neat clump"..Hah thought I...I don't care!....and planted it and the next spring it was beautiful....but the next spring it was all over! Coming up into clumps of peonys etc....took me another 5 years to get rid of all of that!!
Daylilies are so prolific that there are lots of lovely ones that people give away....skip the orange stuff.
Linda c

Ditch lilies are not the plant to give a friend. Leaving out whether or not one likes orange (in small quantities, thank you) this is an extremely aggressive invasive weed. They are sterile so do not set seed but they have spread for thousands of miles just by little pieces carried along and dropped by the roadside. My sister bought a property infested with them and four years later is still digging and using roundup in order to keep them under some kind of control. The double form is just as bad.

This must be a zonal thing...they're just not an aggressive plant here at all.

{{gwi:234958}}ll orange day lilies are not bad....this is a very nice one.
But those tall ditch lilies are not for planting in a garden.
Someone once said that the sign of a neglected garden is that there is nothing left but day lilies. Even the lovely hybrid varieties multiply like crazy...but they don't run!
Linda C

My neighbor planted one "free" (given by some coworker) root of Ditch Lily on the bed we share with him. In 3 years this monster killed everything else on this bed. On the 4th year it started to break the asphalt on the driveway. That was enough for me. It took 3 weeks of hard labor to clean the bed (2x8'), but it was well worth it. I will never plant it again.

We have orange Ditch Lilies, came with the house. I moved some, put them out in the road ditch! They are extremely nice there, help hold the soil shape for water runoff. We have a large pipe under the road and it really gets roaring with spring and fall rains. Those lilies do a great job, along with the cattails, of breaking the flow, turning the water flow down to softly running along. Prevent the forced water from carving out the side of ditch, eroding the whole field. These lilies don't care if they spend a month or two under water when the ditch floods.

We just mow around them in the ditches and their bed in the yard. It prevents spreading, and I only have narcissis and bushes in their bed, so no conflicts. Narcissis blooms earlier, dries up and disappears when the lilies arise. Bushes are higher, seem ok.

I would not put these orange lilies in a regular, mixed plant bed of perennials. They just out-compete other plants. However mowing the whole bed, preventing any leaf growth will kill them back, along with the dog running thru them and breaking off foliage. I like seeing the orange lilies, just not everywhere, so the lawnmower is your friend.

I was hoping for orange daylily-type spread when I planted my "other color" daylily plants. However they don't spread nearly as well or fast. I wanted the other ditch bank to have daylilies blooming over the summer. Still have lots of seperate clumps, darn it. Still have to mow the grass between them. Some are 10 years old, nice clumps, but still spaced apart. I am THINKING of going to massive fertilizing to get growth and flowers, no mowing.

I just moved a 1/4 of my ditch lilies from the garden (again, came with the house) to the side in the back where they can go crazy if they wish!