Growing Daylily Plants

What kind of soil do they need? Yes. :-) They need soil but not much of it. I’ve seen them growing (stuggling) in cracks in rocks. I’ve seen them in clay and sandy soils. I’ve seen them thiving along ditches in gravel. So, yes they require soil and if you have a rich, organic soil, they will thrive and flower profusely but they will survive in almost any kind of soil. Note that surviving doesn’t always produce large numbers of flowers. To get a really good flower show, you have to give them decent soil (average garden soil), some compost and adequate water during bud production and opening.

What light levels do daylily plants want? Full sun is best but I’ve grown them successfully on the north side of a house in sun from 8-11am and then sun from 4-8pm with no slackening off of flower production. And I’ve seen them growing in less sunlight than this. But for real perennial flower production, do give them full sunshine.

What pruning do they require? Pruning??? Hmmm. I guess I’ve cut off the spent flower stalks once all the buds have opened and I often cut the leaves to the ground in the late fall but other than that, my pruning shears never went near this plant.

Do you have to feed or water daylily plants? Do you want a lot of flowers? If so, then yes. Compost and a weekly deep watering will give you great flowers. But don’t worry about them or fuss over them. This is a no-fuss cottage gardening plant.

Do I have to protect them for the winter? Unless you’re trying to grow the shorter evergreen varieties in a cold climate, the answer to this question is no. The tougher taller varieties will grow comfortably right up into a USDA zone 3 with no problem. The shorter evergreen varieties can be a little miffy and won’t like cold weather. And sometimes in a cold climate, the everblooming varieties will only give one flush of blooms rather than continuing to bloom all summer long.

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What’s the best variety to grow? Hmmm, how high is up? I’ve never met a daylily I didn’t want to grow and my old garden had several hundred varieties. The older varieties would throw one flush of bloom and this would last for approximately 21 days. The newer (and more expensive) varieties throw several flushes of bloom and these can last for 60 days. Look for reblooming varieties for sure.

The best known of these – and the oldest – is ‘Stella D’ Oro’ a yellow repeat bloomer. There are better varieties on the market now but the price of Stella is usually pretty low so it is a good entry-level plant to the wonderful world of repeat blooming daylily plants.

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