Dividing Your Daylilies

Once daylily clumps become too large and  flowering decreases, you will want to divide your dalillies. Diving your daylilies rejuvenates them. Check the center of your daylily plant to see if there is any dead growth. If there is, your plant is telling you it’s time to divide it. The best time to divide daylilies is shortly after they have finished flowering in late summer to early fall.  You can expect to divide daylilies every 3 or 5 years in order to keep them healthy and blooming strong.

Night Beacon Daylily

How To Divide Your Daylilies

Dividing your daylilies will reinvigorate your plants, resulting in better and more frequent blooms. 

• Make sure that your daylilies are well hydrated by giving them an extra watering a few days prior to dividing.
• Use a transplanting spade or drain spade to dig a circle about 6-12″  outside of the perimeter of your daylily. Once you have a full circle, start digging inward (at an angle) so that you can get underneath the root of the daylily. You should be able to remove the entire plant from the ground fairly easily. If you’re having trouble, wait until you’ve had some rain and it will be easier to dig up.
• Remove as much soil from the roots as possible. You can soak the roots in a bucket of water to help get rid of the excess soil.
• Starting from the outside edge of the clump, use your hands to break it into smaller clumps. You want healthy roots and at least a few leaves.
• Cut the leaves back to approximately 1/3 of their original length.
• Take one of your divisions or clumps and stick it right back into the hole where it came from. The rest you can replant around your space, or gift your friends, family or neighbors.

Daylilies look great when planted in zigzag drifts of between 3 and 7 flowers and can really fill those empty areas of your garden between other shrubs and plants.

Finish up by giving your daylilies a nice long drink of water. They will come back more beautiful than ever next season!