Daylily Care Guide: How to Grow Daylilies in Your Garden

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are a low-maintenance perennial plant. Their flowers bloom during the day, wither by night, and are replaced by new blooms the next day. Typically, daylily flowers have three petals and three sepals—leaf-like petals that protect the flower buds. The blossoms can grow anywhere from three to 15 inches across and come in an extensive range of colors and fragrances.

Daylilies grow from roots and the flowers develop on scapes (flower stalks without leaves) as opposed to stems. Each scape can have anywhere from 12 to 15 flower buds on it, and mature plants can have up to six scapes. Some of these scapes can grow as high as six feet tall. With so many flower buds on each scape, daylilies make great additions to floral arrangements.

There are thousands of daylilies, some of which rebloom throughout the growing season while other, semi-evergreen daylilies remain green through the winter.

1. 1. ‘Stella de Oro’: This cultivar is known for reblooming all season and has many yellow flowers per scape.
2. 2. ‘Little Grapette’: As the name suggests, this variety features a deep purple flower color. It has an early-summer bloom time and grows up to 12 inches tall.
3. 3. ‘Ruby Spider’: This variety has scarlet flowers with golden throats. The flowers grow up to nine inches wide.
4. 4. ‘Catherine Woodbury’: Blooming from mid to late summer, this variety has fragrant, pastel pink flowers.
5. 5. ‘Siloam Double Classic’: This variety got its name because each flower typically blossoms twice, producing flowers within flowers from early to mid-summer. The double blossoms are salmon-colored and fragrant.

Thanks to the hardiness of daylilies, where you plant them doesn’t matter so much as when you plant them.

• Plant daylilies in the early spring or fall. Plant daylilies in the early spring when the soil has warmed enough to be workable. You can also plant them in the early fall, roughly six weeks before the first frost of the season.
• Plant daylilies in full sun. While daylilies can adapt to shadier conditions, planting them in full sun will help you get the most out of them.
• Dig a wide enough hole for the roots. Plant your daylily in a hole wide enough for its extensive root system. Using bare root daylilies, or daylilies sold with their roots exposed, should make this process simple. The crown of the plant (the base of the stem located just above the roots) should be buried about one inch deep in the soil. Lightly pack the soil in and around the crown of the daylily, and water it until it’s well saturated.
• Stagger different varieties of daylily. If you stagger varieties with different growing seasons, you can have flower beds full of daylilies from late spring until late fall or the first frost of the season.
• Water daylilies often at first. Water your freshly planted daylilies every few days until they’ve established their root systems. After that, water them whenever the soil becomes dry—or about once a week. Adding mulch to the flower bed will help keep the soil moist.
• Remove dead plant matter. Removing dead flowers (aka deadheading) will encourage reblooming while removing dead foliage will improve the appearance of your garden.
• Remove pests with water or insecticidal soap. Although pests are rare on daylilies, occasionally aphids, thrips, and spider mites will feed on the flower buds. To keep these pests away, spray the plants with either insecticidal soap or strong sprays of water from a hose.
• Use a sharp knife for fresh-cut flowers. To keep freshly cut daylilies in your home, choose scapes that have a mix of blooms and buds. Cut the scapes with a clean, sharp knife, and put them in lukewarm water right away. The existing flowers will last for just one day but the remaining buds will bloom over the course of a week.

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