Growing Daylilies

I have several varieties of Daylilies in my garden. To me it’s really one of the most perfect perennials. These beautiful flowers are very easy to grow, winter hardy and thrive in full to part sun. Here are my tips on how to grow daylilies.

The most common daylily are typically orange, but the range of colors and species is amazing. Plus there are some varieties that have fragrance and even rebloom – guaranteeing color in your garden all season long.

The bloom only lasts a single day – that’s why they’re called day-lillies. While it’s not necessary to remove spent blooms, it can help give your garden a tidier look. I like to remove the spent blooms, since sometimes the dead bloom can get wet and soggy after a rain and ends up caking a new bloom. However, be careful when you snap the spent blooms off. The buds grow in a group and you can end up snapping off a potential bloom by accident – sadly, I know this from experience.

Growing in a clump, the green foliage is great to grown near daffodils and tulips, since the fresh leaves will help hide the dying foliage of spring bulbs. By the time summer starts to wind down, daylilies can begin to look a little ratty, but a quick clean up and trim will help tidy everything up.

Planting & Care

Daylilies are sold in two ways, either a bare root or they are potted. When looking for daylilies in a garden center, try to purchase plants that haven’t bloomed yet. It’s easy to get swayed by a gorgeous flower. Don’t do it. Get the one with all green foliage. 

Once home, make sure to amend your soil with lots of compost and turn over the soil to help break it up, this helps give the roots a chance to spread out. Remove your daylily from the pot and untangle the roots a bit, then set in a hole and fill the soil in and around your plant. Plant daylilies at about 24″ apart and make sure to set your daylily with the top a little above the level of the soil. Add mulch to keep the soil nice and moist.

For bare root plants, the steps to plant are similar to potted plants. Make sure you cover the roots, but let the stem stick out of the ground.

Daylilies love water! After you plant your daylily give them a nice drink, make sure to soak the water to get them acclimated faster. 

Caring For Daylilies

Did I mention that daylilies love water? Well they do, but they’re also very drought resistant. While you don’t need to water them everyday, make sure to water them deeply at least once a week – sometimes twice if the weather is exceptionally hot and dry. By watering regularly, the plant will reward you with gorgeous blooms.

When the clump sends up a stem of buds, this is called the scrape. There are usually multiple blooms on one scrape, but once all the buds have bloomed, the scrape can be cut back. 

During the summer, after the bloom time, the foliage can look a little dried out and sad. Freshen the plant and your garden by removing dead leaves and spent scrapes. Be careful when pulling out scrapes, if you yank them out to early, you can pull the plant out of the hole – I find it better to cut them down to the plant base.

If after your initial clean up, the daylily still looks scraggly, you can actually cut the foliage back to about 10″ – 14″ above ground level. This will help new foliage grow back, but if you do this and there’s a dry spell, make sure to keep watering.

At the end of the season, after the foliage turns brown, you can cut it to about 4″ above ground level. Some gardeners leave the foliage to serve as mulch throughout the winter and remove in the spring. I’ve done both and it’s really up to how much time I have to spend in the garden – sometimes there’s another chore that’s more pressing.

I typically fertilize my beds with compost, but I will sprinkle a slow-release fertilizer early in the spring and throughout the growing season. Stop fertilizing as the end of summer approaches, the plants need time to slow down and prepare for dormancy.

Dividing Daylilies

After a few years, your clump may become a little overgrown and not produce as many flowers. This signifies it’s time to divide the plant. While you can divide a daylily at any time, the best time is the spring. With all the early rain and cooler temperatures the clump seems to perform better and has time to establish a healthy root system. If you do divide in the summer, just make sure to water, water, water!

To divide a clump, use a shovel to dig up the whole plant. Then taking another shovel or spade you can stab the clump in the middle and split it apart. You may be able to break a clump into 3 or 4 plants, depending on how big it is. Don’t worry about slicing the daylily in 1/2 – it will still live, they’re very resilient.

Breaking apart a clump doesn’t mean you have to move the baby lilies to another part of the garden, sometimes it just means you need to give it a little more growing space where it originally was. I usually put them back in ground as a little colony, with at least 4 to 6 inches between each plant. In time they will appear to grow together, but they’ll still have enough space to prevent over crowding. You can also choose to use the plants to expand your garden or give them away as gifts.

Lastly, did you know that you can actually eat the flowers? Blooms and buds make spectacular garnishes and are edible, but only if you don’t spray with an insecticide. (which you rarely have to do, since they’re very resistant to pests too)

There are so many varieties and colors to choose from. If you end up planting a large variety of daylilies, you’ll be able to enjoy this beautiful, fuss-free flowers for several weeks in the summer. Happy planting!