How to deadhead a Daylily

Yesterday, I spent an hour as the sun went down deadheading my daylilies. It was a gloriously quiet hour of reflection as I repeated the same action over and over to clean up these powerhouse plants.

Hemerocallis Stella D'Oro

Summertime means removing spent flowers from perennials as they complete their bloom cycle. Repeat blooming daylilies are one type of Hemerocallis that will perform even better for you if you take the time to do this task.

Daylilies are strong performers in the garden.

Pictured here is the everblooming Stella D'Oro daylily. Basically starting in May this perennial will begin its display of golden, yellow flowering and keep going right up until a hard frost. If you deadhead them (cut off the old flower stalks at the base) you will get even more blossoms than if you leave the stalks up to form seed pods which over the summer will ripen and burst in the fall.

While it isn't necessary, doing it will get you better performance. And let's face it: in a perennial garden, flower power is everything!

More repeat bloomers:

• Happy Returns - lemon yellow
• Rosy Returns - rosy wine
• Pardon Me - cherry red
• My Melinda - peachy pink

If the plant is spending all its energy and nutrient stores to form seeds, then there is that much less available to form flowers. By deadheading, you are conserving and redirecting energy toward flower production.

Plus...the plant looks super once all those seed pods are removed!

Time to get out there and start deadheading.

Yup, if you're a gardener that is a VERB!
Let us know what your favorite plant to deadhead is!

Happy Gardening!

For more How-To advice on daylilies, watch Monique show you step by step how to Deadhead a Daylily!