How to Cut Spent Buds on Daylilies

Daylilies flower for one or more months during the summer. Though the flowers appear as if they are constantly in bloom, they are actually different flowers every day. Each daylily bud blossoms once for a single day. It fades at the end of the day, but the bloom is quickly replaced with another bud that opens and flowers. Removing the old blooms regularly prevents seed production. Old flower removal prolongs the flowering period and improves the appearance of the daylily plants.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You’ll Need

• Shears

1. Check the daylily flower stalks, called scapes, every two to three days during the flowering season. Locate wilted flowers and the green swollen seed pods along each scape.
2. Pinch the dead flower or seed pod at its base, where it attaches to the scape. Bend it to the side, snapping it off the scape.
3. Cut off the entire scape at its base once all the flower buds along it have finished blooming. Use sharp shears.
4. Clean up the foliage when removing the old blooms. Cut off any dead or yellowed leaves from the main plant, shearing them off where they emerge from the base of the plant.

Tips & Warnings

• Daylilies yellow and die back to the roots in fall. Cut back the old foliage to ground level only after it dies naturally.

• Allow some seed pods to develop and dry fully on the plant if you wish to harvest seeds for planting.