Should daylillies be divided? I have some massive ones growing around the house that I am thinking might need to be divided. How often do you divide and when is the best time to do it?

Which kind? Either can be divided and it tends to re-generate the plants when you do it. The method is different (one involves splitting tubers, the other you just hack the root mass apart). Division can be done in spring or fall, although I tend to prefer doing it in spring just as they sprout. For bulbed lilies, I wouldn't have to look for eyes. Rooted ones are also obvious with their growth points.

How often you do it depends on available space, plant health, and your personal feelings about large lilies. I like them and haven't divided most of either the bulbed or rooted lilies on this property, which are now about six years old. There are exceptions, which I do to constrain the space they use.

I believe they are rooted daylillies. Thanks for the information. I will probably divide some of the bigger ones around the house since they somewhat overgrowing their space and not flowering well.

Good info. I did some bed expansion so want to divide some of my daylillies for these areas.

If they are daylilies and not Asiatic lilies, just cutting them apart with a spade is the best method.

I really need to go get a spade. Every time I go to a home improvement store, I ask myself if I want to get one today and I always convince myself not to.

To tell you the truth, I used an axe--I couldn't have gotten a spade through most of what I split last year, which was cannas. Yes, I lost a few (you would with a spade, too), but it was minor.

Ha! I just got the image in my head of someone sneaking up on some flowers and then pummeling them with an axe like a horror film.

I had an image of a more mechanized version: "Freddy Krueger Does Light Gardening".

andy10917 wrote:I had an image of a more mechanized version: "Freddy Krueger Does Light Gardening".

Do you know where I can get a pair of those gloves?

Ha! I just got the image in my head of someone sneaking up on some flowers and then pummeling them with an axe like a horror film.

Pretty much. You know how, in the really good horror films they always show the axe flashing into the shot, chopping down, and flashing up again? Like that. Repeat on 6 wagon-wheel-sized canna tubers that were a foot thick.

Like I said, I had some losses. Six became thirty, of which I used 8. Out of those thirty, 28 were viable--and I'm not sure of the care the other dead one received, either. Oddly, the specialty Lucifer cannas had one hundred percent survival and looked great this year.

This fall, the Sky Angel dahlia gets split. But that one will be easier, and has to be done more carefully to isolate eyes. They're not as forgiving as cannas are.

As far as timing, I've really had no issues with dividing and transplanting Daylilies at any time during the growing season. If you do it while blooming, cut them back. They can be cut back during any transplant, but it isn't always needed. Watering is the key, of course, after transplanting.

I have even had success with fall transplanting, if you don't wait too late.