Daylilies are one of the most attractive and rewarding perennials that we can grow in our
garden and they're quite easy too.
Their main requirement is that they want lots of good sunlight to bloom well.
Every few years, though, you'll notice that your daylily clumps get a little crowded and
the blooms will start to diminish, so it's time to divide those daylilies and then you'll
have lots more daylilies to put in other areas of your garden or share with your friends.
It's fairly simple to do.
I like to do this in the fall.
Typically, you're going to divide plants in the season opposite the time that they bloom
so fall is ideal for the daylilies.
You may still have some blooms on some varieties of day lilies but you can go ahead and divide
them even if that is the case.
You can divide them just about any time of year, but I think in the fall they have a
better chance to recover when the temperatures are a little bit cooler and then they'll still
have time to set buds and have wonderful bloom for the following spring.
When you have a large clump of daylilies, you'll use a spading fork and just gently
pry up the clump going all the way around the plant and loosening that soil, and you'll
pull out a big clump that looks like this.
I like to set these aside and put a damp sheet over them while I prepare the soil, and I
like to get the soil prepared before I go into dividing the daylilies.
So, that's what I have here.
Now, I like to take a water hose and just wash most of the soil off of the daylilies.
You can knock off what you can and then wash off the soil, and it's easier to divide those
roots because the roots tend to get very interlaced together and it can be a little bit difficult
to divide.
One thing you might find on some of your day lilies is a flower scape that looks like this.
I do like to cut the old flower scapes off, but some day lilies will actually form new
plants along the old flower stalk.
So, you can cut this flower stalk here and stick that down in the soil.
This little stem will anchor it, and if it has contact with the soil, this will produce
new roots and you've got a new plant.
Then this one would do the same thing.
So, that's kind of another fun way to get new day lilies from your plants.
Here are some plants that I've cleaned the roots.
If you've got any broken roots or roots that look brown or shriveled, you'll want to trim
those off and sometime you can just pull the plants apart.
Sometimes that's not so easy, so you might take a screwdriver and just work that through
to gently pry those plants apart.
Sometimes you'll end up with a group of two daylilies together and you can leave that
if you need to if they seem like they're too stuck together.
Then you're going to prepare your soil with lots of compost—a good, well-balanced fertilizer
because they do appreciate some food.
Have a nice loose soil and, again, full sun is very important.
One problem with daylilies is that deer love them so if you have a garden that is full
of deer, you'll want to just avoid the daylilies in a deer garden.
When you get the daylilies all divided, take some scissors and just give those leaves a
little bit of a haircut because you've trimmed away some of the root hairs and it's going
to make it easier for them to produce again and recover from all this dividing.
Make a nice little mound in the soil and then you're going to put the daylily root in, and
I like to line them up so that the daylilies will show up better as they're starting to
bloom.
Then I just, very lightly, cover the roots of the plant.
You don't want to go more than about an inch above the base of the plant with your soil
and mulch.
So, consider that you're going to be adding a little bit of mulch so you don't want to
pull the soil up too much.
Press that, firm it in the ground, and then water it very deeply.
You can give it a light sprinkling of seaweed or fish emulsion and fertilizer and these
plants will just take off and do beautifully for you, and you'll have wonderful blooms.
Now, the blooms of daylilies are edible too.
They're a great cut flower and they come in every color from yellow to orange to even
reds now that are really fabulous.
You can buy expensive daylilies or you can find some of the old wild varieties of daylilies.
There are just so many different daylilies that you can enjoy in your garden so give
them a chance.
They'll really be a spectacular bloom for you.