Daylilies are a lovely, long-lasting flower that can be a great addition to any garden. However, they do require some care and maintenance in order for them to thrive. The spring is the time of year when gardeners begin to divide and transplant daylilies.
It is a surprisingly large and important job for this perennial.Why Divide and Transplant Daylilies?
Dividing daylilies is important for several reasons.
Prevents Overcrowding
This ensures that each plant gets the amount of space and nutrients they need to thrive during their growing season.
Spread-Out:
Dividing them allows gardeners to spread out these plants throughout their landscape. This allows gardeners to have more flowers on their plants each year.
Disease Prevention
Transplanting daylilies can help stave off diseases like crown rot which are more likely when there are too many plants packed together in one area over time.
When to Transplant Daylilies
A couple of times a year, gardeners should divide and transplant daylilies.
Early Spring:
The best time to start is in early spring when the plants are just beginning to sprout their leaves again. This way they have all summer before the fall season comes around where heat can really damage them if you haven't divided them yet.
Late Fall:
Another important time for dividing these plants is in late fall after they've gone through several hard freezes or frosts during autumn. The sudden cold will kill any part of the plant that has not been hardened off by frost so it's better done later on in winter while there isn't as much opportunity for harm from freezing temperatures anymore (or immediately prior to planting).
How to Dig and Divide
The first thing gardeners need to do is get all their tools ready. You will want a spade or shovel, gloves, and safety glasses in addition to any other gardening supplies you might need for the job at hand.
Then use your spade or shovel to dig up a clump of daylilies where they grow together closely packed with each plant clinging onto its neighbor's roots. Be careful when doing this that you don't cut into anyone's root system by accident which could injure the plant seriously enough that it may not survive-or even kill it if too much damage has been done!
Once you've dug them up separate out each individual plant carefully so as little dirt goes flying off as possible since every speck is a potential new plant and you don't want to accidentally scatter that into your garden or onto other plants.
If there are any large clumps of roots together, cut them apart with the spade so each separate root system can be divided up more easily before transplanting it back.
Dividing Daylilies for Planting by Hand vs Digging Machine
While digging machines may seem convenient at first glance for dividing daylilies especially if they're taking out an entire bed's worth of these flowers, doing it yourself by hand is actually better overall because then you know exactly what went into each hole and you don't risk damaging the roots of any individual plant or surrounding plants by accident.
How to Transplant Daylilies
Once they've been dug up, separate out all the daylily clumps based on how large each one is.
Smaller ones can be easily transplanted into a new location in your garden with just a spade while larger ones may need two people-one person digging with their hands and another putting it where they want it to go once that's done.
Don't forget about those smaller root systems as well which are important for these plants to thrive since they help support them throughout summer until fall comes around again when hard freezes will kill off some parts if not fully hardened off yet.
Transplanting daylilies is a great way to keep these plants healthy and beautiful throughout the growing season.
Caring for Daylilies After Transplanting
After transplanting them, it's important to care for daylilies properly as they adjust back into their new environment.
Make sure you water the soil all around them enough so that any dirt on top of the root system gets wet and doesn't create a hard crust over time which could harm or even kill off parts of these plants if not kept moist throughout summer until fall when hard freezes will naturally occur anyway.
If there are large clumps leftover from dividing them up by hand, carefully break those apart with your hands so each individual plant has plenty of room without being too crowded together again since this can lead to problems with disease in some cases.