Expert: Laura Walker - 5/24/2006

Question
How and when do I go about splitting day lillies? We just bought about 50 Stella d Oro day lillies to put around our home and we are now being told that these need to be split every few years. How and when do we have to do this? We thought that these would have little maintenance involved to maintain them, yet would provide color most of the summer.
Thank you for your help.  

Answer
Kathy,
They are the best low maintenance Daylily you can buy and a great investment for your property.
If you bought them in gallon pots(which is the normal size for selling these),they are fine to plant right out of the pot into the ground with no division necessary. Do however space them at least 2 feet apart to allow them to spread out and give them plenty of space like a large bed or wherever you choose to plant them. They perform much better and need less care when they have space to grow.Water them deeply for the first several weeks to establish their root system, but not every day.They like deeper watering and less often.

3 to 4 years may go by without any need to dig and divide them. The key to knowing when to divide them is when you see less blooms than the past seasons or they get too big for their space or you want more of them to place elsewher in your garden.

They do have a longer bloom time than all other Daylilies that I have had experience with and they tend to keep their shorter stature than some taller varieties.

So plant away and hope they turn out well for you and give you years of enjoyment!