GARDEN GUIDE: How to Grow Daylilies that bloom all summer long
A daylily flower only lasts a day, but with these tips you'll get blooms for months in shapes, sizes, and colors you've never seen before.
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Daylilies are one of the most recognizable summer flowers. Or so you thought! It turns out these flowers are incredibly diverse, with more than 100,000 registered daylily varieties featuring blooms in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
True to their name, individual daylily flowers last just one day. But gardeners like Chris Petersen enjoy daylily blooms every day for months. Chris grows more than 600 different daylily cultivars in nearly every shape and size imaginable. She is a member of the Long Island Daylily Society and the American Hemerocallis Society and shared her tips for extending the bloom season for months.
(Below: Chris Petersen's Garden)
Choose Daylilies That Have a Lot of Flower Power
A daylily bloom doesn't stay open for long, but a single plant can produce new flowers every day for weeks. While most daylilies produce all of their flower buds before the first bloom opens, some continue producing new buds while they're already flowering. This trait is called bud building.
Chris says 'Handsome Prince' is a great variety that exhibits this trait, extending the blooming season for weeks. (See photo below)
How to Extend the Blooming Season
The biggest secret to enjoying daylilies all summer is choosing varieties with different bloom times.
Early-season cultivars begin flowering in late spring, mid-season varieties peak in summer, and late-season bloomers can continue into September. Add a reblooming variety, and you may even enjoy a second flush of flowers before fall.
However, Chris warns that our summers are often too short for most reblooming daylilies to put on a reliable second show.
An Endless Variety of Daylilies to Choose From
Beyond the familiar trumpet-shaped blooms, you'll find dramatic spider forms, ruffled flowers, doubles, and unusual varieties with petals that twist and curl.
Despite their incredible diversity, daylilies (Hemerocallis) are among the easiest perennials to grow. (See 'Kathryn's Black' below)
Another reason gardeners love daylilies is that they're easy to divide and share. A single plant will multiply over time, making it simple to trade favorite varieties with friends and fellow gardeners.
A Word of Caution
If you're a cat owner, be aware that daylilies are toxic to cats. Although they are not true lilies (Lilium), which are highly toxic to both cats and dogs, any part of a daylily plant can be dangerous if ingested by a cat. Keep these plants out of reach of your feline family members.
On the other hand, daylilies are a favorite food of deer, so preventative measures may be necessary if you want to keep them from eating an entire season of blooms in a single evening.
For humans and most other pets, daylilies are considered non-toxic and are even edible when properly prepared.
