Tag: Daylilies

If you’ve ever purchased daylily tubers, they were probably stored for months before they reached you, so you don’t need to worry about the uprooted rhizomes surviving a few months out of the ground, as long as you prepare them properly.

Before we get our hands dirty, if you need a refresher on how to grow and care for dayliles, check out our guide. Then come back here, and we’ll get to business.

Are you ready to get your hands dirty? We’re going to dive right into the following topics:

When to Winterize Daylilies

The only time you need to do anything for daylilies in the winter is if you are growing them in a USDA Hardiness Zone that they aren’t suited to.

You can find daylilies suitable for climates all the way down to Zone 3 and up to Zone 9, so in most temperate areas, they’ll do just fine.

You can add an inch or two of organic leaf litter or wood mulch over the area to help reduce frost heave and damage, but they don’t need any additional care beyond that.

But perhaps you picked a beautiful cultivar that is rated for Zone 6 and you live in Zone 5, you may be able to leave them in the ground, topped with three inches of mulch covered by a layer of cardboard, but it’s risky.

In this case, or if you’re growing them as annuals, it’s much better to dig up and store them for the winter months.

The other time it’s advisable to dig them up is if you live in an area with soggy, wet winters.

The nonstop rain can lead to saturated soil that drowns the tubers, causing rot and even death. So even if you live in a warmer region, it’s a good idea to lift them if you experience a lot of rainfall.

Don’t lift the rhizomes too early in the year. You want to wait until the first hard freeze is on the horizon. We want to remove the tubers before the ground freezes and winter takes hold.

Lift the Rhizomes

When you have the timing right, the first step is to dig up the tubers.

To do this, cut down any remaining leaves to the ground. Next, use a shovel to dig a wide margin around the leaves, at least four but preferably six inches, to ensure you don’t damage the root system.

Dig about six to eight inches deep and then take the shovel and gently wedge it upwards to lift the clump from below.

Once you have your clump out of the ground, gently knock or brush away the dirt surrounding the roots.

If your plants are over two years old, you may want to divide your daylilies at this point. To do so, gently tease apart the clump into equal sized pieces.

We have a guide to dividing daylilies if you’d like a more indepth look at the process.

Before setting them in storage, make sure you remove as much of the dirt as possible from the plant material.

Trim what remains of the foliage further if the leaves are longer than an inch. Inspect the rhizomes and cut off any diseased or rotting tissue.

If you used a hose to rinse the soil off the roots, make sure that the rhizomes are dry before putting them into storage.

Storage

Now that you have the tubers out of the ground, you need to put them in storage. Grab yourself a cardboard box and some straw or sphagnum moss.

Lay about three inches of the material in the bottom of the box and set the rhizomes on top, spreading them out if possible. Cover them with a layer of three inches of additional material.

If you wish, you can put another layer of tubers on top of the first layer, but in this case, cover the lower layer with an extra inch of straw or sphagnum moss to ensure the layers won’t touch.

You can keep three or four layers of rhizomes in each box. Just be sure to top the final layer with about three inches of material.

Keep the box in a cool, dark area. You want the temperatures to be above freezing but below 50°F if you can manage it. That means an attached, unheated garage or basement is probably ideal.

They will be quite happy all winter provided that you prepped and are storing them properly.

Spring Planting

When the last predicted frost date has passed and the ground has thawed, you can put the tubers back in the ground.

Don’t worry if they’ve started to sprout while in storage, that happens sometimes. Just make sure you get them into the soil before the leaves are six inches long.

If they start growing too long, and the conditions are still not suitable for planting out, put them in a container filled with potting medium and place it in a sunny spot near a window while you wait to plant.

Prepare the planting area by digging in some well-rotted compost and then dig a hole deep enough to bury the top of the tubers by an inch.

Gently lay the tubers in the hole with the leaf section facing upwards and cover with the soil you removed. Water well.

Container Care

If you keep your daylilies in containers, cut any existing dead or alive foliage back to the ground and move the container into an attached garage or basement.

Anywhere that stays below 40°F but doesn’t drop below 30°F and is protected from wind and excessive moisture is ideal. Let the soil dry out completely between watering.

If you don’t have extremely soggy winters, you can even leave the pots in place and just cover them with a few layers of frost cloth.

Just keep in mind that you should treat your container-grown plants as though you live in one Zone colder than where you are.

So if your daylilies are suited to Zone 5, you would need to live in Zone 6 to keep them in a container outside.

The plants have a fountain-like growth habit, with slender, arching foliage and leafless scapes bearing multiple buds that bloom in succession, each for just one day. They prefer full sun placements and tolerate a variety of well-draining soils.

Our guide to growing daylilies has all you need to know to grow them in your outdoor living space.

This article discusses the practice of deadheading and whether or not it is beneficial for daylilies.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Let’s head out to the garden!

What Is Deadheading?

Deadheading refers to the removal of spent or faded flowers before they have a chance to set seed.

Removing spent blooms causes the plant to redirect energy from seed production back to foliar growth and, hopefully, more buds and blooms.

The practice can be tedious with plants that produce copious quantities of blossoms, but even occasionally removing the spent ones can help extend blooming.

It also tidies up appearances, giving plants a youthful, early-season freshness.

Learn more about deadheading blooming plants in our guide.

How to Deadhead Daylilies

When a flowering species has one blossom per stem, such as bee balm, we remove the entire stem when the petals fade.

For those that produce multiple flowers per scape, you need to pinch off each wilted bloom at its base taking care not to disturb the fresh ones.

Deadheading multiflowered scapes like those produced by daylilies can be a bit of a challenge because as they close and wither, the petals become limp and sticky, often adhering to other parts of the plant or adjacent flora. Keeping on top of deadheading can help prevent this.

In addition, you’ll need a steady hand to avoid knocking off unopened buds while removing faded blooms. Hold the scape with one hand, grasp the spent blossom at its base, bend it downward, and snap it off. It’s okay if the short stem, or petiole, remains.

It’s best to wear gloves when handling your daylilies as they contain sap that can irritate sensitive skin.

Removing Scapes and Seed Pods

When an entire flower scape finishes blooming, it’s important to remove it so the plant redirects energy to new growth.

To do this, clean your pruners with a solution of nine parts water to one part bleach, rinse, and dry them. Snip off the scape as close to the base as possible without damaging nearby foliage.

Without deadheading, late-season scapes produce green seed pods. Snip these off before they turn brown to redirect energy to the roots to support next year’s floral display.

If the pods are allowed to dry and disperse seeds, the plant will still produce flowers the following season, but blooming may not be quite as vigorous.

And because today’s garden varieties are almost all cultivated hybrids rather than species plants, the seeds are virtually useless, as they will not produce replicas of parent plants and may not even be viable.

If you simply want to divide your daylilies and leave some in place, we have a guide to help you do that. This guide is focused on moving the entire plant without leaving any behind.

Here’s what we’ll talk about to help you make that happen:

Daylilies aren’t true lilies. They’re part of the Hemerocallis genus and more closely related to aloe than true lilies.

If you need a refresher about how to grow daylilies, check out our guide.

When to Transplant Daylilies

Technically, you can move your plants any time the ground can be worked. But this process tends to be the most successful if you do it in the spring or fall.

In the spring, wait for the shoots to just start emerging. That way you can see where the plant is, but it hasn’t grown so large at that point that it’s going to be difficult to work with.

In the fall, wait until the plants stop blooming. If you have a type that blooms until the first frost, you’ll just need to trim off the blossoms.

Before you transplant, cut the foliage down by about half or wait until the leaves have died back on their own.

If you opt to move a plant in the summer, just be aware that it might not bloom that year.

Ideally, wait for a cool, overcast day to do the work. This reduces the amount of transplant shock that the daylilies will experience.

Avoid working when the soil is soggy and wet because this increases compaction.

Prepare

Preparation is key anytime you move a plant. I always dig the new hole first so the daylily doesn’t have to spend too much time hanging out with its roots exposed.

Dig a large hole that is at least half as deep as your plants grow tall, or at least a foot deep as a minimum. Make it a bit wider than the width of the plant.

Work some well-rotted compost into the soil you removed from the hole. This is a good way to add some nutrients and loosen up clay or add texture to sand.

While you’re at it, remove any rocks or weeds that you come across.

Then, if you’re working with a daylily that has mature growth, prune it down but cut by no more than half. Remove any flowering stems.

Start Digging

Use a shovel to dig up the entire daylily, roots and all. You most likely won’t be able to dig up all the roots, but so long as you dig up a majority, the specimen should be fine.

Make sure to take up all the stolons or rhizomes if your goal is to completely relocate the plant and eradicate it from the existing area.

It’s okay to leave some of the fibrous roots behind, but if any of the rhizomatous roots remain, a new plant will likely emerge in that spot.

If you have a big patch that you’re working with, you might need a wheelbarrow, wagon, or a tarp that you can drag along the ground for easy transport.

Replant

Add some soil to the bottom of the hole so that the depth is roughly equal to the size of the roots.

Lower the removed plant into place in its new home. You might need to adjust the amount of soil in the hole to ensure that the plant sits at the same height that it was initially.

Fill in around the roots and firm it back up. Add some water to plump those roots back up and settle any air pockets. As the soil settles, you might need to add some more soil.

It’s Moving Day… Lilies!

Pack those suitcases and hand over the keys, because it’s moving day! Oh, wait. Never mind, wrong kind of move. Grab that shovel and garden gloves, because it’s moving day!

Daylilies are one of the easiest plants to move, in my experience. They don’t suffer terribly from shock and they reestablish themselves readily.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…

A friend was changing up her garden and offered me a bunch of adorable daylilies. I dug them up, drove them to my house, and unpacked them onto my driveway in the afternoon sun.