Deadheading

Some thoughts on deadheading daylilies. According to advice, deadheading will prevent the formation of unwanted seedpods. But if you are curious and experimental as I am, you don't want to prevent seedpods; you want to encourage them (more on that another time).

Anyway, if you are going to deadhead daylilies, let's say to give your garden a neater appearance, then there are a few things to watch out for.


A daylily bloom lasts one day. The next day, you have a "spent bloom" (that is the official term). Don't deadhead day-old spent blooms. With larger flowers, the spent blooms are full of a jelly-like substance that can be very messy (see photo). Also, the flowers will still cling tightly to the stem at this point. If you have a heavily branched stem, simply tugging on a spent bloom can detach a whole bract, new buds and all.

Better to wait at least two days to deadhead spent blooms. Wait more if you can. When the blooms dry out, they will detach easily, or fall of their own accord. Then, if you want to tidy up the garden, you can just pick the blooms off the ground or out of the foliage where they've fallen.