Hemerocallis
daylily
xanthorrhoeaceae
Trumpet-shaped flowers in many colors;
straplike leaves
1–4 ft. (1–3 ft.) high; 1.5 ft. wide
Full sun–light shade
Blooms June–October
Zones 3–9
pruning The Greek term hemerocallis
means “beautiful for a day,” but it
could also be understood to mean “not
beautiful for more than a day.” This
being the case, daylilies are a dead-
heading nightmare. No matter how
you refer to them—wet globs of tissue
paper, slimy creatures, mush-
mummies, or the like—daylily
deadheads are ugly. Many flowers are
borne per flower stem. Each flower can
be snapped off the stem as it fades
using the thumb and forefinger; be
sure to get the entire flower and not
just the petals, or the ovary will be left
behind to develop into an unattractive
seed capsule, which also detracts from
the fresh flowers. Some purple-
flowered forms can stain your hands
like grape juice when you’re deadhead-
ing them. When all flowering is
finished on the flowering stem, the
entire stem should be cut back to the
basal foliage. Deadheading not only
keeps the plants looking good but is
important for the subsequent bloom in
reblooming daylilies. Some daylilies
with smaller flowers are self-cleaning
and don’t require the stringent
deadheading that the large flowering
forms do.
After all flowering and deadhead-
ing is finished, around mid-August,
deadleafing begins. This involves
grabbing clumps of dead leaves and
pulling them out of the plant by hand.
Trimming off yellow tips may also be
helpful. If foliage decline is severe, and
if a hole in the garden is tolerable
(which in many cases is better than
continually declining foliage), a more
practical and time-saving approach
may be to simply shear the whole plant
down. The new foliage that emerges
will be fresh and will hold through
frost. The plants can either be sheared
to within a few inches of the ground,
or they can be cut down to new fresh
leaves (6–8 in. above the ground) if the
new foliage has already started to
develop at the base of the plant. Hedge
shears make quick work of shearing.
Depending on conditions, a plant
sheared to the ground can take
anywhere from a couple of weeks to a
month for decent regrowth. The new
mound of foliage will be shorter than
the normal mature size of the plant. Be
certain to keep the plants moist after
shearing, or regrowth may not occur.
Topdressing with compost or an
organic fertilizer may help ensure
vigorous regrowth. Cutting plants
back can also serve as a method of
controlling thrips, if the pests pose a
problem.
Plants do not respond to pinching
or cutting back when in bud in an
attempt to delay flowering; if buds are
removed, plants simply won’t flowerHemerocallis ‘Pardon Me’