How To Prune Daylilies For Healthy, Luscious Blooms You Can Enjoy Indoors

You know spring has arrived when you see bright daylilies (Hemerocallis) in bloom. Why not bring some of those pretty daylilies indoors as fresh cut flowers for a table bouquet? We've got tips on how to cut your daylilies so that you can have more blooms — both inside and out. 

Daylilies can brighten any garden or indoor arrangement since they come in a variety of hues, including yellow, red, white, purple, orange, and pink. These herbaceous perennials grow in sun or partial shade and thrive in any number of climates from USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 3 through 9. They can be found growing in clumps near river banks in the wild, which might be why some species of daylilies, like the orange H. fulva, have been nicknamed "ditch lilies" since they effortlessly grow along roadsides. 

Nicknames aside, daylilies actually got their name because they're known to bloom and fade quickly, which explains the meaning of their scientific name. In Greek, "hemera" means "day" and "kallos" translates to "beauty," and it refers to the fact that these flowers bloom and die in a single day. Though, honestly, you might not notice how quickly blooms fade since the plant itself is so prolific. A single daylily is quickly replaced by another, and one clump of daylilies can produce up to 400 flowers over the course of a month. Make the most of this versatile plant with our tips on how to prune daylilies to get the most flowers.

Let's talk about how to cut fresh flowers for the best daylily bouquet. Remember to always use clean, sharp shears to cut blooms. You want to make a clean cut that doesn't crush the stalk.  You can cut blooms near the top of the stalk and set them in a bowl of water. Just remember, cut blooms will only last a day, just like blooms outside.

If you cut a bloom midway down a stalk that includes buds, put it in a vase of water along with a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice. The open daylily will still wilt after a day, but simply pinch off that flower, sit back, and watch the other buds open. Regular cutting of flowers from your daylily plant outside will help the plant refocus energy on producing new flowers. It's also a good idea to prune away any yellowed leaves, and at the end of the summer, prune away any dead stalks or dead flowers, even if that means taking the daylily nearly back to the ground. 

Pruning isn't the only essential way to care for your daylilies. Daylilies spread quickly and overcrowding can be a problem, so you'll need to divide them every 3 to 5 years to give them proper spacing to grow flowers. If you want to learn the right time to thin out crowded daylilies, aim to do this in the spring.