Dividing Perennial Flowers - Daylilies

by Doug
(in his garden)

This isn’t rocket science - you can divide a daylily at almost any time of year (although spring is best) and I sometimes do it just after they’ve finished blooming so I know which plant I’m dividing and which I’m ignoring. I find if I don’t do it then, I tend to forget which plant is which. :-)

This isn’t the same rule of thumb for most perennials - those you do NOT want to divide when they’re actively growing - you do want to divide them in the very early spring or early fall. But this plant (and iris) can handle this kind of abuse if you really need to do it.

The video shows you that you don’t really have to be picky about where you put the shovel with daylilies - to be sure you do try to pick a spot between leaves but the reality is that you’ll probably chop off a few along the way and maybe even cut some roots in half. Don’t worry about it - this plant is one tough one and will shrug this off.

One thing I do however is make sure the plant is well-watered for the first month after transplanting so the roots have a chance to re-establish themselves and that bit of stress is removed.