Hemerocallis, more commonly known as the daylily, is a plant that can thrive in almost every corner of the globe. They are a rugged, resilient species and make for a wonderful pop of color in your garden or yard.
In the article, you will learn just how fast daylilies spread. However, we will first take a look at some tips for helping daylilies grow into vibrant, strong, lasting plants that you can enjoy for months every year.
How to Help Daylilies Thrive
Daylilies are perennial plants, which means that they have the ability to grow back year after year. Interestingly, each flower on the plant is only in bloom for a single day.
One amazing thing about daylilies is that they can thrive in almost any environment. Whether it is wet or dry, hot or chilly, these plants can survive just fine as long as you care for them properly, and often even when they get no care at all.
Although these plants can survive just fine in most environments, if you live in a cooler area, you might be able to get your daylilies to bloom all year round aside from the coldest part of winter.
If you want your blooms to be spectacular, you can simply make sure you care for them adequately, which really doesn’t take much.
This first section will detail the ideal soil, watering, and sunlight conditions for daylilies.
Soil
To give daylilies the best chance at growing the healthiest they can, turn over the soil in the area where you are going to plant them. These plants do not like tough ground as it makes it harder for their roots to penetrate the soil.
Turning over the soil and generally moving it around helps to break up the earth so your daylilies do not have to work extra hard to get the nutrients they need.
Along with this, it is a good idea to use a fertilizer or compost in the soil around your daylilies, but you should only need to do this once a year in the early spring prior to the plants blooming.
Since they thrive so easily, it is not necessary to use more than this amount. However, as you will find out later, it is important to make sure that the soil is fertile.
Watering Needs
Since these plants are quite resilient, you really should not need to water them as long as there is a good amount of rain where you live. If you live in a dry and arid environment, you may need to give them some moisture every so often.
Check to see if the soil around your plants feels dry a couple of inches deep. This is a good way to see if the earth is too dry.
Sunlight Needs
Daylilies do best with at least six hours of full sunlight. They can still survive in shady locations, but they will not produce as many blossoms nor will they grow as quickly.
Thus, if you would like your garden or yard to be spotted with as many vibrant flowers as possible, make sure to choose a very sunny area to plant your daylilies.
How Fast the Plants Spread
Daylilies actually grow very quickly compared to a lot of other plants. Once they do spread out, they can be two to four feet wide and between one and six feet tall.
These plants stay in good health for a long period of time, and they are not bothered much by insects or diseases.
Due to these reasons, they can spread out quite quickly without much attention. How fast they grow and spread depends on certain factors.
If you take control of the factors that are possible to control, you can speed the process up a bit.
Soil and Draining Conditions
Your plants will grow more rapidly if they are supplied with adequate nutrients. In other words, if you make sure that your soil is nice and fertile, your daylilies should grow quite well.
Another way to get your daylilies growing strong and quickly is to make sure that the soil you use drains well. No plant enjoys drowning.
Spacing
One very large determining factor of how fast daylilies spread is how close you plant them to each other.
If you plant your daylilies between two and four feet apart from each other, it can take two to three years for them to spread out and fill in the empty area. However, if you plant them with about a foot between each one, it can take only about a year for them to grow out.
Keep in mind that daylilies are sensitive to overcrowding, so try not to make them less than a foot apart or it might have the opposite effect and hinder the speed of their growth.
Pruning
Your daylilies will also grow faster if you make it a habit to prune away all of the buds that are no longer producing flowers.
This helps prevent the nutrients from being directed to parts of the plant that do not actually need it, instead supplying the healthy sections of the plant with these vital growth-promoting nutrients.
Moisture
You may be able to speed up the process of your daylilies spreading out by putting mulch around the plants. This can help hold in moisture, as well as discourage weed growth.
You can also make sure to water your daylilies every time it is particularly dry outside, at least in the first year after planting them.
Variety
Aside from moving to a tropical location, one final way that you can speed up the process of your daylilies spreading out is by planting various types of the plant in your garden or yard.
Since different types of daylilies bloom at different times of the year, if you plant just one variety, your garden will be filled in by beautiful blossoms for only part of the year. Planting many kinds ensures that you have flowers filling in your garden at almost all times.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.