If you're looking for a reliable plant to add color to your perennial garden, Daylilies are a great choice. Daylilies thrive here in Zone 5, often under less-than-ideal circumstances. The daylily's botanical name Hemerocallis, means "beauty for a day" and it's true the individual daylily flowers open in the morning and are often done blooming by nightfall.
The good news is, each flower stem (called a scape) has multiple flower buds, so the plant stays in bloom for several weeks.
Your daylilies will grow and flower best when planted in full sun and well-draining soil.
Begin by preparing the planting site. This includes digging the planting hole twice as wide and once again as deep as the container the new plant is potted in.
Plan to amend the planting site with organic materials at the rate of fifty percent existing soil and fifty percent organic material. Once the planting hole is dug and amended, fill it with water and make sure it drains. If the water tends to pool at the bottom, add more organic material.
Next, incorporate a mycorrhizal inoculant into the planting hole soil. Mycorrhizae are beneficial soil fungi that form a relationship with plant roots. They help roots grow faster and bigger. This increased size improves water and nutrient uptake.
Mycorrhizal inoculants are available as single products or incorporated into a fertilizer such as Happy Frog Steamed Bone Meal.
Plan to plant in the evening, after sundown. This will give the new plant time to begin acclimating to being in the ground without the stress of direct sunlight and high temperatures.
Space your daylily plants 12" to 18' apart, so there will be plenty of room to grow.
Fertilize daylilies every 3-4 weeks during the growing season, using a fertilizer that emphasizes blooming, such as 11-15-11 or 4-9-3. Avoid fertilizing during hot weather. Besides watering and monthly feeding during the growing season, daylilies don't require much maintenance, other than to cut back the flower stalks once they are done blooming.
Plan to divide daylilies every 4 to 5 years. You'll know it's time to divide them if they don't bloom as well as they used to, and the plants look overcrowded. Fall is a really good time to divide daylilies. Once replanted, they will have all fall to re-establish. Use a garden fork to dig up each clump, then divide them and replant.
Daylilies are very reliable, low maintenance plants that will reliably provide color to your garden for many seasons. They are the ideal perennial for your garden because they are available in a variety of colors, and they thrive with little care.
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