Daylilies are one of the most popular garden perennials and can be divided in late summer as well as early spring. Their easy care and beautiful flowers make them useful in most gardens. Thousands of varieties are available, and new varieties are released every year.
The scientific name for daylily is Hemerocallis, which means “beautiful for a day” in Greek. The name accurately describes the one-day bloom period of individual flowers. Learn more about growing daylilies in your garden from questions answered by horticulturalists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
What types of daylilies can be grown? There are over 100,000 registered cultivars of daylily, showing significant diversity. Their flowers, borne above grass-like leaves, range from 2 inches to more than 12 inches in diameter on stalks (called scapes) 15 to 60 inches tall. Flowers vary in shape from trumpet to star to triangular and come in every color except true white and blue.
Some have attractive eyes and throats, often with fragrance. While individual flowers last only one day, each scape has many blooms, and each plant produces many scapes, allowing for a succession of blooms over three to four weeks. While most bloom early to mid-summer, some cultivars start blooming as early as late May, and others start later but stay in bloom until frost.
Reblooming cultivars bloom for 10 weeks or more. Proper variety selection will allow flowering from spring until frost. Daylilies usually have 22 chromo.