The common "ditch lilies" you see along the roadside are Hemerocallis fulva, a species daylily introduced in the US from Europe. It is considered quite invasive although I do enjoy seeing them along the roads. There are some particulary lovely ones along Ebenezer Road in West Knoxville.
More at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daylily

I'm shocked that they are considered invasive. Sure, I see them popping up here and there along roadsides, but I have yet to see huge, huge ground covered masses of them.

Kudzoo, english ivy, and other vines... those things blanket and smother everything from grasses to trees.... but lilies???

It's hard to work up a sense of urgency about 'em. That's all I'm saying.

My mother planted a clump from the roadside and within a few years, completely took over her entire flower bed by runners. I would leave them at the roadside, not in my gardens. I stick to the cultivars that stay in a clump.

Rebecca

I'll bring another 50 gal trash bag of them to the Fall MTPS if anyone is interested. Some of mine are doubles! My clumps stay together pretty well. I have three of them (large clumps) in one of our beds and they have been well behaved. But the LAST thing I'm going to do is disagree with our Daylily Duchess! Doug and Bec have forgotten more about Daylilys than I'll ever learn.

BTW, thanks for the camel burn!!! That was cold-blooded girl.

I would be interested in that. I'll go find the MTPS web site to see when it's scheduled.

The fall Middle Tennessee Plant Swap will be Saturday, Oct. 20th.

As with many plants, they are more invasive some places than others. When we first got the farm here in Tennessee, I was surprised to see single-flowered daylilies along the roads. The ones we had in Louisiana were all double-flowered. I've dug up many of those from LA and have moved them over here to the farm. Do they spread? Yes, but very slowly. I do not consider them invasive.

In Lincoln County two country roads have been quite beautiful with the single flowered daylilies - one south of Kelso and one south of Kirkland. Hawever, the last couple of years I've seen many people digging the ones near Kirkland and that ditch area is getting quite denuded.

Daylilies are edible. Some of the research I've done on them indicates colonists coming to America brought them as a food crop. If you feel they are being invasive in your area, you can always consider them to be free food and pick the buds for sautéing (we're going to have some of those with tonight's dinner). The flowers, known as Golden Needles, are used in Asian cooking. Tubers can be used like potatoes. There are many other ways to eat daylilies, if you are so inclined. I'm pretty fascinated with all edible flowers. Here are some links that might be useful:
Having your flowers and eating them too
Stalking the Wild Daylily
thread in Herb Forum on GW
Daylily Wine

Becky

I made a few photos while I was out gathering buds for dinner.

Becky

When we moved to this house, there was a nasty ugly fence between the yards. I dug up alot of the wild tiger lillies. The orange and black ones.
We have been here for 17 years now and they have been the best thing around. They keep the fence from having to be weed wacked.And they have wonderful flowers on them. I never have had a problem with them spreading. I have been moving and getting more to add to the back fence now. I just wish I had more colors to add to them.

I was told that 'ditch' lilies or what I've always called Tiger Lilies are sterile and so cannot reproduce other than by spreading. Theoretically, there's a mother plant somewhere from which all these billions of plants have come. But how did they get so widespread? A similar tale can be told of knotweed --- but I prefer the Tiger lily in my garden rather than the knotweed.

I read that the reason you see them so often on roadsides is because they are one of the few plants that can tolerate road salt, so most of the competition is killed off by the road salt and the lillies thrive.

I love these but have a lot of weeds mainly broadleaf weed (not sure if what it is called)in among them any suggestion to kill weed not lilies

Tenn. Orange..