Lilies and Day Lilies

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  Both true Lilies and Day Lilies are blooming in abundance right now. What's the difference? It's more than just their names since they are planted, grown, divided and propagated differently.

  The top photo of a Lily in our yard
lily bulb
.
is a true Lily or Lilium that is grown from a bulb that looks like a garlic bulb.
True flowers are trumpet-shaped, bowl-shaped, funnel-shaped and recurved. They have six petals.
True Lily Propagation
 You can separate lily scales and grow more lilies from them as illustrated in the photo. Or you can dig the mother bulb and separate her bulbils (tiny bulbs surrounding the main, large bulb) to be planted into pots while they grow or plant directly in a prepared bed.


While most true Lilies have their bulbils underground right around the top of the mother bulb,
Tiger Lilies have their bulbils along their stems.
Harvest them and plant them in moist compost until green emerges and then put them into individual pots.
I use clamshell berry containers for the first planting.
Day Lily, Daylily, Hemerocalis


Day Lilies are Hemerocalis and there are over 30,000 of them that are registered and another 10,000 that remain unregistered by hobbyists. Their name comes from the fact that unlike true Lilies with flowers that last a week, Day Lily flowers last a single day. 

 They appear to have 6 petals but they have 3 petals on the top layer and 3 sepals on the bottom layer.  

Day Lily roots are dug and divided in order to keep them from becoming overcrowded, maintain flowering and to increase them in your (and in your friends') garden.
Day Lily Propagation

After digging around the entire clump, lift it, hose it off and begin to separate the many plants within. Each separate division is planted into prepared garden beds.
  The crown of each individual division of the mother plant plant is planted at the same soil level. It's usually recommended that you put a mound of soil in the middle and let the roots dangle lower in the hole so they are spread out for rapid growth.

Comments

Darla said…
The American Hemerocallis (note the spelling) Society considers "daylily" to be one word, not two.
July 5, 2017 at 7:55 AM
Molly Day said…
Darla - Thank you so much for the tip. I'll be sure to use that form in the future.
February 23, 2018 at 8:51 AM
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