I would pull off the truly awful-looking brown leaves, but let the rest remain even if not looking great -- if there is any green to the leaf, it is still feeding the plant. If you cut all the leaves off, then not much nutrition is available for the future of the plant. Just MO, as I am certainly no expert!

One must learn to live with less than optimum aesthetics in the garden, especially at this time of year and with the unusual weather we have this year. =)

It depends on where you live. I know daylily growers in Canada who regularly cut the foliage all the way to the ground after bloom without bad results. In the South, if you do that, you won't get many buds at all the next year. If the foliage really looks bad, I will cut it down to 6 inches - any further than that and you rob the plant of nutrients it needs to bloom well the following year.

Debra

Thanks! im in southeastern Massachusetts, and would definitely not go below 6 inches.

I pull off many, many brown leaves but with the lack of rain we are experiencing so many brown leaves! I will avert my eyes.

I don't remove anything. I consider it fertilizer. I typically mulch with pine needles in the late fall, so I just put the pine needles over the old leaves and it looks nice and neat.

I let them die back here and then do a clean up and mulch the beds in the fall. In NYS, I would let the dead foliage stay given the cold temps and clean up in the spring once the freeze has passed.

Julia