Dividing Daylilies

Daylilies are tough, dependable workhorses in my garden.  They are very low maintenance and every few years, they generously provide new plants I can use to fill spaces in my own garden or give to friends.  

There is no magical time to divide daylilies.  Technically, any daylily that has two or more fans can be divided to obtain one or more additional daylilies.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, though, the harder you divide them, the longer it takes for them to bloom again. 

So, when is it necessary to divide daylilies?  The general rule of thumb is that if the daylily is in optimal growing conditions, e.g. full sun if it is one that requires that, soil rich in organic matter, etc., and it isn’t blooming its best, it might be time to divide it.  Another indication that it is time for some dividing is when the foliage in the center of the clump becomes thin and straggly, along with fewer flower stalks and less blooms per stalk. 

Daylilies are tough as nails, so they will survive dividing and transplanting virtually any time.  The best time, though, is shortly after they finish flowering in late summer or early fall.  Here in North Dakota, I usually like to have my daylilies divided and re-planted by mid-September at the latest.  That gives them time to get their roots established before the ground freezes for the winter.

Daylilies can develop some pretty massive root systems and may require some muscles to get the root ball lifted so it can be worked with more easily.  It’s easier to do this if you clear away mulch, leaves, and other encroaching plants first.  I also trim the foliage back to about 6 to 8 inches, so that it isn’t flopping around and in my way.  Then, with a sharp spade, I dig straight down about 10 to 12 inches from the outer crown of the plant, doing this completely around the clump.

Once I’ve loosened the soil with the spade, I either use the spade or a garden fork to lift the clump from the ground, knocking off as much loose dirt as I can so it’s easier to lift.  I set the large clump to the side of the hole and then, again using either the spade or the garden fork, slice down through the center of the clump, dividing it into two parts. 

Now, here I have a confession to make.  I know a lot of people tell you to carefully tease the root clump apart to avoid damaging the roots.  Here’s my confession – I don’t baby my plants.  And, I think most people who have seen Wiese Acres will tell you that my plants don’t really seem to mind that.  So, I’ve been known to take my sharp spade, set it in the center of the clump, and give it a good whack right down through the middle of the clump. 

After the “whack”, I remove any roots or tubers that are badly mangled, or any that are mushy, shriveled or look otherwise unhealthy.  If it’s a very large clump or if I want a large number of divisions, I’ll more gently divide it down further, to about three to four nice sized fans. 

Only if it is a young daylily that has a small root clump and I'm dividing it just to get an additional plant, do I use the gentle teasing apart of the roots method to preserve the majority of the root ball. This is most easily accomplished using two garden forks to "wiggle" down between the roots to separate them, and then gently pulling the clump apart.
 

The next step I will take is to rinse the old soil off the root ball with a garden hose.  Then I soak the roots and tubers in a 10% bleach solution (1 cup bleach to 10 cups water) for about 10 minutes before re-planting.  With all the spring moisture of the past couple years, my daylilies have been prone to some fungal diseases, such as leaf streak.  The bleach solution may (or may not) help give them a fresh start in their new home.  Sources differ in their opinions on the value of the bleach soak, but bleach is cheap and 10 minutes isn’t very long, so I figure “why not?”

Then I plant the divisions just like I plant new bare root daylilies; water them in; give them a little TLC for the first few weeks; and place a 3 to 4 inch layer of wood or straw mulch around to protect them from the freeze and thaw cycles of winter.  Then I sit back and wait for next year’s glorious show!

 

Planting Daylilies

Now that we know the terms to describe the blossoms, colors, foliage types, and more, we’re almost ready to start planting daylilies, whether they are divisions from a friend, bare root from a supplier, or potted from the local garden center.  Before we start, though, there are just a few more terms it will be helpful to know.

Daylilies grow from long, thin, fibrous roots, which over time thicken into spindle-shaped tubers.  These thick, fleshy roots absorb and store water and nutrients to feed the foliage and blossoms of the plant.

The crown is the solid white core of tissue that joins the leaves and the roots of the daylily plant.  The crown produces the leaves from its upper surface and the roots from the lower surface.  Most daylilies must have a crown with each propagated piece to be able to establish a new plant.

 

Daylily leaves are grass-like with a center rib that is prominent on the underside of the leaf.  The leaves are attached opposite each other on the crown and form a fan.  Multiple fans form a clump.  Daylilies can be divided down to a single fan or left with multiple fans in a clump.  The more fans left in the clump, the sooner the daylily will bloom again, but also the sooner it will need to be divided again. 

 Finding the right location for the daylily is important.  Most daylilies prefer full sun, although more and more cultivars are being developed to tolerate part shade.  Light yellows and other pastel colors need full sun to show their best colors.  Darker colors, like reds and purples, may benefit from partial shade, particularly from the hottest mid-day sun.  These dark colors have a tendency to lose their vibrancy when exposed to the hottest sun.  Too much shade, though, will keep the daylily from blooming its best and may cause the foliage to become limp and floppy.

Daylilies are not particular about soil type.  In fact, daylilies are great in my heavy clay soil because the thick roots and tubers act as “clay-busters”.  They are said to prefer a slightly acidic soil, but they thrive in my highly alkaline clay.  They do require a location with good drainage and they like to have a fair amount of organic matter in the soil around them.  I top dress mine with a couple inches of composted manure at least every other spring.   (Top dressing is simply a matter of spreading the compost over the top of the existing soil around the crown of the daylily).

Daylilies prefer evenly moist soil, but are quite drought tolerant once established.  About the only thing they really don’t like is too much moisture.  In extreme conditions, the tubers can rot.  In less extreme, but still too moist, conditions, they are prone to fungal diseases such as leaf streak, white mold, or Rhizoctonia crown rot.  Bacterial soft rot can destroy the daylily if the soil remains too wet.  We’ll talk about controlling diseases of daylilies in another blog.

Daylilies can be planted anytime that the soil is workable, e.g. anytime the soil isn’t frozen solid.  They tend to do their best if planted in early spring, while moisture is more abundant and temperatures are a little cooler.  I have successfully planted daylilies, though, in the hottest part of the summer – the key is to give them a little extra tender loving care in the form of good, even moisture and a little mulch around the planting area to help keep the roots cool.  Daylilies planted in late fall need protective mulch covering them for the winter in harsher climates.

Daylilies  should be planted in a hole that is large enough to hold the roots without twisting, bending or crowding them in any way.  It may be helpful to mound the soil in the middle of the planting hole, then set the center of the crown on the mound and spread the roots down the side of the mound.  This helps assure that the roots stay straight and uncrowded when the planting soil is filled back in the hole.  The daylily should be planted so that the crown is about one inch below the surface of the soil. 

Most daylily cultivars benefit from being divided every three to four years.  Some, like the Stella d’Oro, are vigorous growers and require dividing every other year to continue to perform their best.  Dividing daylilies really isn’t difficult, but there are a few tricks to make it easier and assure success.  We’ll talk more about those in my next blog installment.

 

 

 

More About Daylily Terms

Well, gosh.  Who would have known there is so much to know about daylilies that it almost entails learning a new language?  I sure didn’t years back when I walked up to one of the ladies from the daylily society and asked “Can you answer a few questions about daylilies for me?”  Could she ever, and her enthusiasm for this particular family of plants grabbed hold of me and stuck for all these years.

 And, I’ve learned a little bit of the language of daylilies – enough to help me select just the cultivar I need for any particular spot at Wiese Acres.

 We talked about scapes; bloom size, season, and habit; ploidy; foliage type; throats; and bud counts and branching.  Today we’ll talk about terms that describe the blossom itself.

 Here’s how another of my favorites is described in the AHS cultivar database:

 

'Strutter's Ball' (Moldovan, 1984)

scape height             28 inches

bloom size                 6 inches
bloom season           Midseason
ploidy                       Tetraploid
foliage type                Dormant
bloom habit               Extended
flower form:                Single

 Color: black purple with very small silvery white watermark and silky halo above small lemon green throat

 The fact that Strutter’s Ball is a tetraploid tells me that when it says the color is “black purple” it means that it is a true, deep, rich color.  The 6 inch bloom size tells me it is going to really stand out in my garden.  Since the scape height is 28 inches, I’m not going to want to plant it where anything tall will stand in the way of my view of this remarkable blossom.   Extended bloom tells me I will be able to enjoy each blossom for at least 16 hours before it fades away.

But, there are some descriptors here that we haven’t talked about yet.  What does “flower form” really mean?  The AHS uses this to describe the shape or structure of the flower.  It recognizes five different flower forms:  single, double, spider, unusual form, and polymerous.

Strutter’s Ball is a single flower.  This means that it has three petals (the upper part of the blossom); three sepals (the lower part of the blossom); six stamens and one pistil (the reproductive organs of the flower).  Double daylilies have extra layers of petals, giving it the appearance of a flower within the flower.  A spider is a flower whose petals are at least 4 times as long as they are wide.  These are usually very airy looking, loosely formed flowers.  An unusual form is a daylily where the petals or sepals have unusual characteristics, such as pinching or twisting.

 Strutter’s Ball has a watermark.  A watermark describes an area just above the flower’s throat which is lighter in color than the rest of the petal.

 An eye or eyezone refers to a darker colored area on the petals and sepals just above the throat.  The silky halo that is described in relation to Strutter’s Ball tells me that this blossom has a relatively small eyezone that is not really very distinct.  Silky tells me that it probably a very smooth transition with only slight variation from the lighter colors of the petals and sepals to the darker color of the eye.

 There are a few other terms used to describe flowers that do not apply to Strutter’s Ball.

Choo Choo Fantasy is a good example of a bicolor.  The top and bottom flower segments of a bicolor are completely different colors, in “Choo Choo’s” case,  rose pink petals and cream colored sepals.

 

 

There are also bitone daylilies, where the upper and lower segments  are different tints of the same color. A bitone has lighter sepals and darker petals.   A reverse bitone has the darker tones on lower sepals and lighter coloration on the upper petals.  A blend is a mixture of two or more colors, also referred to as polychromatic. 

A daylily, like Meadow Mist, that is referred to as having a complete self is one where the entire flower – petals, sepals, pistils, anthers, throat and all – are the same color.

Some flowers have a glittery appearance on the petal surface. When the sparkles appear white, they are called  diamond dusted; if they appear gold, they are referred to as gold dusted.  Apricot Sparkles is a diamond dusted daylily.

Every leaf, petal and sepal on a daylily has a midrib, the central lengthwise vein of the segment.  When a midrib is mentioned in a daylily description, it is usually because it is a different color than the rest of the petal or sepal and adds a striking feature to the blossom.  Apricot Sparkles has a faint cream midrib.

Now, of course, you can buy some beautiful daylilies that are perfect for your garden without knowing any of these terms.  But, I like to have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to look like before I go to the work of planting it.

We’ll get to the planting part on Thursday.

More on Daylilies - Useful Terminology to Know

Not everyone has the desire to be a daylily hybridizer.  I'm one of those folks.  I don't have the patience to do a task one year and then wait several years to see if it results in what I hoped it would.  Many of the terms you'll find if you look at the dictionary of the American Hemerocallis Society (the organization that registers and tracks daylily cultivars), are only needed if you do desire to be a hybridizer.  There are a few, though, that it's handy to know just to understand exactly what you can expect from a daylily you purchase. 

Here is a daylily description from the American Hemerocallis Society's website:

Lynnabelle (Adams-Schock, 2005)
Scape Height:  28 inches
Bloom Size:      5 inches
Bloom Season: Midseason - Late
Ploidy:              Diploid
Foliage Type:   SEV
Bloom Habit:   Diurnal
Bud Count:      23
Branches:          3
Color:   cream yellow apricot polychrome with darker apricot eye and gold picotee edge above yellow green throat.

Without understanding a few basic daylily terms, it's really hard to know exactly what this daylily looks like, or even how it grows.

So, let's start with scape.  A scape is simply a flower stalk without leaves.  It's the long sturdy "blossom holder" of the daylily.  Low scapes are from 6 to 24 inches tall.  Medium scapes are 24 to 36 inches tall and tall scapes are taller than 36 inches.

Bloom size measures the diameter of the flower.  A miniature bloom size is under 3 inches in diameter.  Small blooms are from 3 to 4 1/2 inches and any bloom larger than 4 1/2 inches is considered large.

Bloom season tells us when in the summer blossom sequence this daylily is likely to bloom, but not exactly when it will bloom because that varies from location to location.  Bloom season is classified as Extra Early; Early; Early Midseason; Midseason; Late Midseason; Late; Very Late; and Rebloomer.  Midseason to Late tells us that Lynnabelle is going to start blooming towards the end of the peak of daylily blooms (Midseason) and into the late summer or fall.

Ploidy.  Now that's an interesting word and not one we are likely to use in everyday conversation.  Ploidy refers to the chromosomes in the plants.  Most plants  have two identical sets of chromosomes per cell and are known as diploids.  Tetraploids have four sets of chromosomes per cell.  Tetraploid daylilies usually have larger, more intensely colored flowers, with sturdier scapes and more vigorous growth.  Diploid daylilies are still the most common, especially in pink daylilies, as well as spider type and double daylilies, and provide many beautiful flowers and healthy plants.

 

We talked a little about foliage type or growth habit in Tuesday's blog.  As a quick refresher, SEV means that Lynnabelle is a semi-evergreen variety.  Other varieties are DOR or dormant and EV or evergreen. 

 

Bloom habit refers to when the blossom opens.    Most daylilies bloom for a single day, beginning in the early morning and lasting until the evening and are referred to as diurnal.  Nocturnal daylilies open in late afternoon and close the following late morning or early afternoon.  Extended bloom refers to a daylily whose blossoms remain open 16 hours or more.  Extended bloomers may be diurnal or nocturnal in nature.               

Bud count often isn't included in a description you find at the garden center, but it is important to know if you want to fill your garden with the best of the best in daylilies.  Bud count is the number of buds, seed pods, and bud scars on a scape.  It's important because each blossom only lasts one day, so the more buds you get, the longer the bloom time for the plant as a whole will be.

Branches are the number of times a scape separates.  Lynnabelle typically has three branches per scape.  More branching means more buds and more buds mean more blossoms.  That's always a good thing.

Lynnabelle is a cream, apricot, and yellow polychrome color.  This means that there are at least three different colors (cream, apricot, and yellow, in this case) intermixed on each of the petals (the top three flower segments) and sepals (the bottom three segments).  The darker apricot eye means that there is a darker colored area on both the petals and sepals just above the throat.

The throat is the innermost center of the flower, where the pistils and stamens attach to the back of the flower.  The pistils and stamens are those threadlike projections that contain the pollen and reproductive organs of the flower. Lynnabelle's throat is a yellow-green color.

A picotee edge refers to an edge around the petals and sepals that is a completely different color than either the petals or sepals.  In Lynnabelle's case, the picotee edge is a golden color.

So, even though I understand what all these terms mean now, it's still helpful for me to see a picture.   Putting the photo together with what I know of its growth habits, number of flowers it's likely to produce and all the other information I have tells me pretty much exactly what to expect from this daylily once I have it in my garden.

And, if I ever have questions, I can easily ask, the "Schock" part of the Adams-Schock hybridizer team who created and registered this daylily. She lives just a ways down the road from me. Now how exciting is that to know the creator of one of the best producing daylilies in my garden?  And yes, I got my Lynnabelle directly from her.

We'll cover a few more terms in next week's blog.

Daylilies - An Introduction

People often ask me which plant in my garden is my favorite.  That’s a tough one.  I usually tell them I can’t name a favorite, although I have discovered a few that are not my favorites.  But, if forced to name favorites, daylilies would be sure to be on that list.
 

"Destined to See" daylily; EV; 24 inches tall, early bloom

Daylilies are tough, versatile, long-lived, low-maintenance, drought tolerant, and beautiful perennials.  I’m not sure you can ask for much more than that from any plant.  Add to that the fact that there are nearly 40,000 varieties of daylilies, which sport some pretty cool names, in virtually all colors except blue and pure white, and they are nearly irresistible.

Daylilies are not true lilies.  They are members of the genus Hemerocallis, which literally translated means day (hemera) and beauty (kallos), or “day of beauty”.  They came by the name Hemerocallis  or“daylily”, because each blossom, as beautiful as it is, lasts only one day.  A blossom typically opens in the morning, reaches its peak by mid-afternoon and begins to fade in the late afternoon heat, closing up by late that evening or early the next morning.  Some newer varieties have been bred to be a little more long-lasting, with the buds opening in the evening and remaining open until the following evening.  These night-opening cultivars also tend to be some of the most highly fragrant daylilies.


Brushed With Bronze, 24 inches; DOR

While it seems like a waste to plant something that will only bloom for one day, that’s just not true with daylilies.  High performing daylily cultivars put up many “scapes”, or flower stalks, with many buds per scape, and can produce several hundred flowers per season.    These scapes come in different heights, ranging from the miniatures that are less than a foot, to giants that reach heights of nearly four feet.  The flowers come with ruffled edges, plain edges, and  glittery,  diamond-dusted edges; they might have “eyes” in the center of the bloom and a throat which may be a highly visible different color from the petals.   Some daylilies have different color sepals (the bottom three segments of a dayliliy flower), and petals (the top three segments of the daylily flower)  on the same blossom and are called bi-colors.  Flowers range from tiny to gigantic; they may have curled under petals or long, narrow, spidery looking petals; some have double flowers.  Many of the newer hybrids are highly fragrant.  There is truly a daylily style and color for every taste.

There are also daylilies that bloom early in the season, in the middle of the gardening season, and those that bloom late into the fall.  There are some that bloom early and then re-bloom later in the season, although those are a challenge in northern climates.  Often, the growing season just isn’t long enough to allow that second bloom.  There are some that put up so many scapes and are reliable, early enough re-bloomers, that they appear to be “ever-blooming”, like the Stella d’Oro, Happy Returns and Rosy Returns cultivars.

 Daylilies also are distinguished by growth habit.  There are three classifications of growth habits:  dormant, evergreen and semi-evergreen.  These are listed in the daylily description as DOR, EV, or SEV.  In northern climates, dormant daylilies are the most reliable.  Daylilies of this class go completely dormant in cold weather.  They lose their foliage completely, usually just after frost.  They overwinter with foliage buds, called “resting buds”,  just beneath the soil surface and these foliage buds resume growth in the spring.  Because all signs of life are below ground in cold weather, these tend to tolerate the temperature extremes of northern winters better than semi-evergreen or evergreen types.

Evergreen daylilies retain their foliage throughout the year.  In our cold weather, this foliage looks like a pale green, somewhat slimy mass of tangled leaves.  They do not set the resting buds that dormant daylilies set and may be damaged by the extreme cold and the freeze and thaw cycles of northern winters.  For that reason, many northern daylily growers tend to avoid the evergreens, although hybridizers are working all the time to create a daylily that has the best of the evergreen traits but still withstands the nasty winters.

Semi-evergreens are daylilies that don’t quite fit either the dormant or evergreen categories.   Their foliage dies back partially but not completely, in warmer climates.   In reality, in my garden, most every daylily has a growth habit that appears to be dormant.  In the depths of winter, if I look at my daylily foliage, I generally only see black, frozen leaves with no signs of life.  In the spring, they all come back with nice, fresh green foliage.  In warmer climates, or even here in a very mild winter, where evergreen and semi-evergreen daylilies do not go dormant, they may look pretty ratty come spring, with a mix of cold damaged leaves, dead leaves and fresh spring growth.  I usually end up cutting all old foliage back to the ground, even if it did stay partially green over the winter. 

The key to successful over-wintering is not so much whether the foliage is able to stay green or not, but whether the crown is hardy to whatever zone it is grown in.   That said, I do find that my evergreens and semi-evergreens are a little slower to bloom than they might be in warmer climates – they need to play “catch-up” with the foliage that’s been damaged in the winter rather than start putting their energy into scapes and buds.

We’ll talk more about daylily terminology on Thursday.

Juneberry Pie

Juneberry pies ready to wrap for the freezer - and one to eat

On Tuesday, I talked about growing juneberries.  Part of growing a great fruit and vegetable garden is using the produce your garden gives you.  After picking the juneberries, I used the majority of them for what our family considers the best thing to do with juneberries.  I made pies.  Our opinion is that using juneberries for things like jams and syrups is a waste of good berries, not because we don't like those things, but because you can make perfectly good jams and syrups out of many other fruits, and there is simply no substitute for a good juneberry pie.

So, I thought I'd share my recipe for juneberry pie.  I don't mean to brag, but there is juneberry pie in my history.  When I was in high school, I received the "Grand Champion" ribbon at the North Dakota State Fair for the juneberry pie I submitted as an exhibit.  That was pretty exciting, but I have a confession to make.  I've always suspected that I received that award, not because my pie was so much better than all the other submissions, but because it was juneberry.  Ah, well, I guess I'll never know for sure, but I still make juneberry pies with pride.

I use the "never fail" pie crust recipe my Mom taught me to make.  I wouldn't exactly say I've never failed with it, but all in all, it's a good, easy recipe.  The key is in getting the right combination of flour and water to make a nice, smooth dough that is easy to roll out but not so easy that the crust gets tough. 

Pie Crust:

2 cups vegetable shortening  
4 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk
ice cold water

Mix flour, salt and shortening with pastry blender.  Put egg yolk in a 1 cup measuring cup , beat slightly and fill cup to top with ice cold water.  Add to flour mixture.  Mix with 2 forks until mixture holds together.  You may need to add more water to obtain the proper consistency.  Divide into 5 or 6 equal portions.  Form into balls the proper size for the size pie tin you are using.  Roll out on floured surface.  You may wrap the balls tightly in plastic wrap, put them in a freezer container and freeze for later use. 

I've kept the dough frozen for about six months with good success.  One of these times, I am going to try rolling the dough into circles and freezing them that way so that I can take the rolled out crust and just drop it into the pan when I am in a hurry.  I am not above using the pre-rolled purchased crusts when I'm in a hurry, either.

Once the dough is prepared, you're ready to make the filling.

Juneberry pie filling:

6 cups cleaned and washed juneberries
1 T. lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 heaping T. flour
2 T. butter


Place measured berries in a good-sized mixing bowl.; gently stir in the lemon juice.  In separate bowl, stir together the sugar and flour.  Pour over berries and gently mix.  I use a thin edged spoon so that the berries more easily slide over the edge of the spoon without being crushed. 








Place half the berry mixture in the crust that has been smoothed into the pie pan.  Cut the butter into small pieces and spread over the berries.













Pour the remaining berries over the top of the butter layer and top with a pie crust.  Seal the edges well.  I sometimes brush a small amount of water around the edges of the crust to make the two layers stick together better.  Juneberries create a juicy pie so tightly sealing the crust edges helps prevent your oven from being filled with run-over juice.

If you are going to bake the pie right away, cut vent holes in the top crust and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes to set and brown the crust; reduce heat and continue baking for another 30 to 40 minutes, until berry juice is bubbling nicely from the vent holes.


For freezing, do not cut the vent holes or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Wrap the pie pan and all tightly in plastic wrap.  For extra protection, I wrap with two layers of plastic wrap and then a layer of foil to hold the plastic wrap in place.  For smaller pans, in place of the second layer of plastic wrap and foil, you can slip the entire pan into a freezer bag and seal tightly.  I always wrap with that first layer of plastic wrap so I can press it directly onto the crust.  That keeps frost from accumulating on the crust and making it soggy.  When you are ready to bake, partially thaw the pie, then bake as described above.  I do bake the frozen pies on the lowest rack in the oven, as that keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy.  You can keep the pies in the freezer for a year without losing any of the quality.

And enjoying a nice piece of juneberry pie fresh from the oven when it is snowy and cold outside is sure to make my husband think I am simply the best wife he could have possibly been lucky enough to have.