I personally leave everything until late fall. I have a lot of irises, and I kind of like the greenery. I pull out all that ugly dead stuff, but I don't cut back the other foliage until pretty late fall. Don't know about lilies or your other flowers.

Hope that helps. Good luck Teresa.

With our daffodils I put the craftsman mower to them. Normally about four or five weeks later once the bloom is gone. I understand that leaving them until they die back is supposed to put more back into the bulb in the ground, but every year they come back bigger and more then the last. But from what I understand is your supposed to keep the plant tops until they naturally die off which makes sense. But they end up looking like weeds so off with their heads when the mower comes out!

Teresa, I hate the look of dead folige, but I was told to leave it until late fall for the above reasons. So, I planted a few things that bloom right ater Daffodils due in front of then, and use that to try to "hide" the dead stuff.

I also was told to leave the folliage till it dies back. Once they start to turn brown I cut them back. Spring bulbs that are done blooming, if you can easily pull on the leaf and it comes out of the ground you can cut it back, no more nutrients are going back to the bulb. My iris and daylilies I cut half off, and leave the rest. If you want my mother use to fold the spring bulb leaves down and put a rubberband around them, then they are not as noticable.

Sorry, Teresa, but you need to leave the foliage until it yellows as it is providing energy for the plant. The trick is to plant other things around those plants to hide the less-than-attractive foliage. This is why daffodils and daylilies are such a good combination, for example. Because the daylilies flush out as the daffodil foliage is dying. And, you'll have a longer season of blooms in your garden this way.

Teresa, according to Brent Heath (of Brent and Beckys Bulbs) with daffodils once a third of the foliage (for daffodils) turns yellow you can go ahead and cut them back, you don't have to wait until it is brown. But as Doug points out that's why it is a good idea to pair daffodils with daylilies or if they are in deciduous shade you could combine them with hellebores which also helps to mask the unsightly foliage of daffodils when they die back after blooming. I cut back unsightly iris ...»

I have seen people "braid" the leaves and leave that way...looks cool!!

I might have a photo....I went to a garden tour..and took LOTS of picks!

Teresa, you could probably get away with just a few dayliilies as they have a lot of foiiage and it sort of falls in all directions.

There is a type of day lilly that blooms all summer. They are called Stelladora. Try them for warm weather color.

You have plenty of space in there for more plants!

Another (a bit obsessive) way to deal with the yellowing blades it to fold all of them down with one blade left out with one hand, then take the left out blade and tie the folded ones into a bundle. You can then cover with a light layer of pine straw. (Did this for a May wedding for a client who had at least 300 daffodiles in her back yard landscape)

I was just clipping the the crocus that have finally yellowed and can now be cut down. I hate having to wait until the foliage yellows but up until the foliage/leaves turns yellow and dries up, they're working to nourish the bulb for future flowers. You can tie it up in a ponytail, a topknot and or any other imaginative way to make it look less unsightly although that is also not really good because it reduces the surface exposed to the sun. I've always done it and everything flowers ...»

@Tim S - that's what my day lily's do, only I never knew what they were called. I bought them all at a yard sale.

my mom told me that u have to trim the long leaves half way down so they will grow of course and it will look alot better. give your babies a lil haircut. hope this helps you out . it will look better than they did for you last year

this is a family growing tip. it works for my mom n my gma when she was still here.

good question! was just asking myself that today!!!

I just cut them back half-way and allow other foliage to grow in fron of them until fall.

Wait till they turn more brown. The nourishment for next year is going on now. Then cut them back. Same as for tulips and daffodils...