Harvesting Daylily Seeds

I've begun harvesting my daylily seeds.

When harvesting, I just snap the whole pod off the scape and then put the pods in a paper bag or envelope until they are quite dry. I don't keep the actual pods too long, because they can go moldy. I also don't put them in plastic bags for that reason, either. The plastic retains moisture and the seeds end up covered in mold.

If you want to know what variety of daylily they came from, you can save the different pods, and later just the seeds, in separate envelopes. (By the way, if you reuse the envelopes that all those credit card offers and magazine renewal notices come in, you will be helping the environment even more.)

Growing from Seed

To grow daylilies from seed, you start with the seeds you have collected from the pods. (This link is to my last year's post on the subject.)

Seed is collected as the capsule matures, dries, and is beginning to split at the distil end (Munson, 1989). Seed collected from dormant daylilies benefits from cold stratification at 32-45 F. Following stratification the seed can be dried and stored at room temperature until sown (Griesbach, 1956). Seeds resulting from evergreen parents can be directly sown or handled and stored the same as described above for seeds from dormant parents (Benzinger, 1968; Munson, 1989).

~ From Hemerocallis (Daylily) Propagation by Winston C. Dunwell.

I guess that means that all daylily seeds, regardless of whether the plants are dormant or evergreen, can benefit from a little bit of fake winter (which I have learned is what "cold stratification" means).

Detailed directions for cold stratification can be found at this web site, although it does not talk about daylily seeds in particular. I like this description because it is a bit New Age and talks about using the winter solstice as an indicator of when to plant. This site has a more horticultural approach containing much the same information, although it is not quite so detailed.


I should at this point say that I have been able to germinate daylily seeds that were not treated with cold stratification. I just didn't get overwhelming results in terms of number of successful germinations and first year seedlings.

Only about 50 percent of the seeds I planted in jiffy pellets germinated. And of those, when I planted the seedlings in the garden in the fall, fewer than half survived the first year. The exact statistics were: 15 seeds planted in spring, 7 sprouted and were planted in the garden in fall, 3 returned the next year. (The daylilies were just an experiment for me when I did them -- I was growing all sorts of other things from seed, too.)


'Moonglow' Seedling Bloom
(From Seed Harvested Fall 2004, Planted January 2005)


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Another novice gardener I sent some of my seeds to was working in a high-altitude climate in the southwestern U.S., and she had similar statistics despite the different seeding and planting conditions in her climate. About 20 percent of the seeds she tried to germinate actually ended up as live plants that survived in her garden. She also did not do any cold stratification or use any special method other than poking a seed into a jiffy pellet.

This year I will try cold stratification and hopefully get some better results.