Multiply Your Daylilies
Early fall, in the months of September and October are excellent times to divide your daylily plants. Hemerocallis, the official Latin name for this tough, but beautiful perennial, may also be divided in early spring. But I favor fall planting, since they bloom from early to mid summer.
Dividing daylilies is the best way to create more of these perennial plants for the garden. Daylilies are both beautiful and practical plants in your landscape, from borders to dooryard spaces. Their beauty is obvious, aided by hybridizers who have increased the characteristics of height, color, flower form, and even length of blooming season.
Practical because daylily plants are so hardy, disease free, and tolerant of many difficult conditions, they are a landscaper’s favorite.
How to Divide a Daylily Plant
Using a garden fork it is easy to lift the clumps. The roots of the daylily, Hemerocallis, are fleshy tuber like growths and should be handled with enough care to keep them as undamaged.
Cut the clumps apart into 6 to 8 inch clumps, and plant them into prepared ground about 2 feet apart. These large clumps will produce a good show of blooms the first season after division.
Another way to get a much larger number of plants, although they may take more time to get to prime blooming size, is to tease out individual fans of plantings for new starts. This method would be better if your clumps are not overgrown, but you simply want additional plants. A fan of leaves with roots attached should be planted on 6 inch circles. Keep them moist.
Fall is a good time for dividing and planting clumps, spring is a good time for that method or the small fans.
The US Arboretum advises on “Dividing Daylilies” : “The best time to divide daylilies is shortly after they have finished flowering in late summer to early fall.”
It has a step by step how-to with pictures and method. So if you have some dayilies to divide, take a look at this helpful resource.
Now is the time!
