Daylily: For Your Eyes Only
Yesterday I gave a seminar on daylilies to the New Braunfels Garden Club. What a neat group of ladies, and by the way a great cookbook – Thank you! There were lots of good questions and one of them was when can you transplant and/or divide your daylilies? Starting this month (March) you can start to dig up and transplant your plants. In Texas you can easily continue this through May, and then again in September, October, and November. To divide your plants, dig them up with either a garden fork or a shovel. Hose off the roots (this makes dividing the fans easier), and then start pulling the fans apart. For a landscaped garden I would usually leave 3 – 4 fans together. Many people after they have dug the plant, divide them by simply taking their shovel or a garden knife and cutting through the clump. You can do this, but you may lose a few fans.
To replant your daylilies (or new ones), dig a hole wider than your roots. Place some granular slow release fertilizer in the bottom of the hole. Make a small volcano in the middle of the hole and place the daylily on top of the hole. Cover the daylilies roots with soil, making sure the daylily has good contact with the soil (press around the daylily). Water well. For the first two weeks your daylily needs watering every two to four days depending on how hot it is, after that water once a week.