When To Cut Back Daylilies - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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PERENNIALS > HEMEROCALLIS > PRUNING

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Daylilies are dramatic flowering plants that can add an exotic and interesting feel to your garden with little care.

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However, if you want to keep them in check, you can choose to prune your daylilies.

“Hemerocallis don’t have to be ‘pruned’ but I believe the best practice is to cut down all remaining foliage and scapes prior to spring growth to about 4 inches,” shares Paula Dyason, from Strictly Daylilies.

“Although this can be done anytime, it is best done from late autumn to late winter so it does not interfere with the blooming season.”

There are two key things to think about when it comes to pruning these perennials:

Removing spent flower stalks after they have finished flowering.
Cutting back old and faded foliage on the plants.

These steps are explained in more detail below.

DifficultyEquipment RequiredWhen To Prune

1) Remove Spent Flowers

An individual flower on a daylily will, as the name suggests, bloom for only a single day.

However, each plant will produce more flowers in quick succession, so you will be able to enjoy blooms over a period of a number of weeks over the summer months.

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To keep a daylily plant flowering well, it is a good idea to remove the entirety of a stem down to the ground as soon as it has finished flowering altogether.

yellow flowers from a daylily plant that are starting to turn brown at the edges growing outdoors

Unless you wish to collect seed from a plant, removing the finished flowering stems (deadheading) is a good idea.

This is because this will encourage the plant to send up new flowering stems, so it should lead to blooms over a longer period.

Removing spent stems will also ensure that the plant does not waste its energy on seed production when this is not required or desired.

Simply take a clean, sharp pair of secateurs or gardening knife and cut the stems off right at the base.

2) Cut Back Faded Foliage

The only other pruning job for daylilies is an optional one.

In autumn, at the end of the season or in the early spring, you can cut back old, faded foliage to neaten up your beds or borders.

“Poor-looking foliage after all bloom is over can also be trimmed to encourage healthy new growth,” says Paula.

However, this is not of any benefit to the plant and is purely for aesthetic reasons.

“It’s important to note that Hemerocallis scapes cannot be ‘Chelsea Chopped’ to encourage more or later blooming.”

using a pair of secateurs to prune a leaf from a daylily plant growing outside in mulched ground

Steve Amy from The American Daylily Society explains why he doesn’t prune back the faded foliage on his daylilies:

“I leave the foliage on the plants through the winter months when the plants go dormant.

“The foliage acts as a mulch to cover the plant roots over the harsh months.

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“I then prune the old dead foliage in the spring and the daylily will sprout new foliage on the fans itself afterwards”.

So, if you can live with a little untidiness, consider leaving the old leaves in place, especially over winter, as these provide useful shelter for a range of insects and other wildlife.

It is a good idea to avoid taking steps which will make your garden less of a haven for the many other creatures who share your space, so with this and other perennials, I recommend that you leave faded foliage in place wherever possible.

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