How do I care for my daylilies? 

It’s a common question and sometimes daylilies can seem confusing with respect to their maintenance.   Hemerocallis, the daylily, is not a true lily and that fact is itself a source of confusion.  To compound matters, the variability within the genus Hemerocallis is quite remarkable.  Daylilies grow from fibrous root systems and will send new growth from the expanding crown as well as from the spindle-like tuberous roots.  These swollen roots are storage features that enlarge to hold a reserve of food, helping the daylily to grow and spread.

Even though each flower lasts only a day, the flowers themselves come in a variety of colors and shapes.  A great resource regarding daylilies is the American Hemerocallis Society and the organization has a great page of frequently asked questions about caring for daylilies.

Of the frequently asked questions I received on the sales floor, people asked how to care for their daylilies.  They’d bubble with excitement at seeing a big daylily that looked like this (right). 

Don’t be deceived, I’d warn them, this is almost finished with its bloom. 

It was a teachable moment as I described how to remove the seed pods to extend the season of bloom to its fullest extent.  If it looks like a walnut, pick it off.  If it looks like a torpedo, leave it alone–it’s a flower bud.  It’s a pretty memorable rule of thumb…or green thumb.

Removing seed heads, often called deadheading, is particularly important for extending the bloom season of daylilies like Stella d’Oro, Happy Returns, Just Plum Happy, etc.  Removing the walnut shaped seed pods, and indeed the entire stem/stalk/scape after all the blooms of the stalk have finished will ensure that your repeat bloomers will be more likely to give you their full season’s worth of beauty.  It also makes the plant more attractive than with a myriad of dead stalks waving in the breeze, proclaiming “Look at me!  I’m done blooming!”

As the first flush of bloom is winding down, I become intentional about making sure it has a well balanced fertilizer with added phosphorus (a blooming plant fertilizer with a higher second number such as a 15-30-15) so that it won’t really pause too much with the heat of summer.  I find my Stella d’Oro and Happy Returns want to go dormant during the hottest part of the summer, but fertilizer and plenty of moisture help to mitigate that tendency.

You can find helpful lists of extended season bloomersalthough many garden centers will carry the plants locally. 

At the end of the growing season, as the frost kills the foliage, I remove all the dead leaves so that only the crown remains for the winter.  Fall, before the frosts arrive, is a good time to divide and transplant daylilies although the early spring before they are fully leafed is fine as well.  Once the clump is formed and leafed out, division will delay—if not prohibit—bloom and will result in a misshapen clump instead of the neatly rounded clumps that form naturally.  Some daylilies, particularly the one growing wild in parts of the Midwestern United States, can be rather invasive so careful location and planning–while always wise–becomes imperative.

Daylilies are a remarkable group of plants and are easy to grow, faithful to bloom, and can tolerate a wide variety of conditions.  It’s why daylilies have been a staple of every flower garden I’ve ever had.

When I worked at Home Depot, there was always confusion when the Asiatic lilies went on sale.  People would arrive at the registers with all kinds of things—calla lilies, day lilies, peace lilies, even lily of the Nile.  What’s in a name?  Aren’t all these things lilies?

Every plant has a common name which serves kind of like a nickname.  But each plant also has a Latin name for classification purposes and this is what we rely upon most often to help us understand what plant we are discussing.  Just as many children can be nicknamed Princess or Sport, our legal, given name is much more specific.

Plants have a legal name, if you will, that consists of a genus (larger group) and species (subgroup).  Beyond that, certain cultivated varieties (cultivars for short) will have a name in quotes which makes it even more specific.  The Oriental lily  Lilium ‘Farolito’ shown here is a cultivar.  Lilium x ‘Kiss Me Kate’ would be a hybrid lily denoted by an ‘x’ to show that it is a cross between a longiflorum lily (like an Easter lily) and an Asiatic lily.

In the case of true lilies, there are types (Asiatic and Oriental, for example) both in the genus Lilium. Yet Asiatics will display similarities to each other because they are Asiatics.  Each species within Asiatics will have different characteristics—flower colors, markings, fragrance, height, etc.  Asiatic and Oriental lilies, being closely related (like siblings), have many features in common and can be hard to tell apart.  There are a few web sites discussing the differences, often times that Asiatic lilies open upward and Oriental lilies open outward and are more highly fragrant.  Beyond that, if I desire specifics, I look them up on the grower’s listing since it simplifies matters greatly.

Other plants we commonly call lilies are actually in different genus altogether.  Calla lilies are in the genus Zantedeschia; Daylilies are Hemerocallis, Peace lilies are houseplants in the genus Spathiphyllum, Lily of the Nile is an Agapanthus.  All are wonderful plants, but none of them are technically lilies.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:28-30

What’s in a name?  Quite a bit actually. 

They grow differently in form—lilies (pictured on the left)  are flowers emerging atop leafy stalks, daylilies (right) form clumps.  They originate from different structures—lilies arise from bulbs, daylilies grow from fibrous root systems that will enlarge into spindle-like roots resembling tubers.  Lily flowers are long lasting and open from the lower buds to the upper buds.  When the buds have all opened, the flowering is completed for the year.  Daylilies, on the other hand, have a short bloom—each lasting only a day, hence daylily, however the season of bloom may be quite extensive.  Lily bulbs must be planted at a sufficient depth to protect them from the harsh winters, but not so deep that the plant must struggle through an endless stretch to reach the soil surface.  Daylilies are planted so the crown is at the soil level with the fibrous roots and tuberous spindles are stretched out just below the soil surface.  Lilies will grow larger clumps by growing increasing bulb sizes as well as by dropping bulbils (present after bloom in the leaf axils) off the stem onto the ground.  Daylilies, depending on variety, can be downright invasive…emerging anywhere there’s an opportunity within the range of the mother plant.

Before you buy any old lily for your garden, it always helps to consider:

What’s in a name?