Growing Daylilies From Seed

Growing daylilies from seed is a fascinating hobby as well as an easy and inexpensive way to add one-of-a-kind plants to your garden. Unlike some types of flowering plants, daylilies do not reproduce true from seed. When two cultivars are crossed, the resulting seeds may produce seedlings with characteristics of one or both parents, but sometimes their blooms are a complete surprise! While you can't predict exactly what your seedlings will look like, the one thing you can be sure of is that you will have a unique daylily that is unavailable anywhere else.

When our seeds are started indoors in early to mid-Winter, the majority of our daylily seedlings bloom in their second year at about 16-18 months old. Gardeners in warmer zones may find their seedlings bloom in their first year when started early and those in short-season, far northern zones may have to wait three or more years.

Seed Starting Tips - Indoors

There are a number of successful methods used to grow daylilies from seed. The tips below describe how we start and grow our seedlings each year in our zone 5b (USDA Zone 4) Canadian gardens. We have excellent germination rates and almost no loss of seedlings due to fungus or insect problems.

Our seeds grown indoors are started during January and February and transplanted into prepared beds in mid-May. While it is possible to sow seeds directly in the garden in late Fall (they germinate in the Spring) many growers find that germination rates can be poor and seed loss high (heavy rains, unexpected hard freezes during early growth as well as birds and squirrels eating them are a few possible problems).

– Seeds are kept in the vegetable crisper section of the refrigerator until we’re ready to start them.

– If seeds have not sprouted (look for a tiny white root) they are soaked in water for 2-3 days to rehydrate. Crosses are kept separate in clean, labeled containers (like small yoghurt cups).  A strip of paper towel is wadded up and inserted into the cup to keep the seeds under water. Fill each cup with lukewarm water and keep in a warm area (such as the top of the refrigerator). While some growers add a small amount of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the water that will be used for soaking the seeds (15ml peroxide per litre of water), we no longer do this as we have not noticed a significant difference in germination.

– If seeds have sprouted a rootlet, they are ready to plant directly into potting mix – skip the soaking step.

– After rehydrating, seeds are ready to be planted.  It is extremely important that the pots or containers are sterile.  We usually use new styrofoam or plastic cups (16 ounce size), with several holes punched around the bottom edge for drainage.  The depth of the container should be a minimum of 6" as daylilies have deep root systems. Deeper is better. We plant seeds fairly close together – five to six per cup).

– If we recycle plastic containers to use for seedlings, they are soaked overnight in a bleach solution (1 part bleach to10 parts water) and thoroughly rinsed and scrubbed the next day.

– The day before planting, the containers are filled with a soil-free seed starting mix and tamped down. We use large bales of Fafard products, however, if you require a much smaller quantity, a good alternative is Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix which is available in most department stores. Do not use garden soil. Fill a few more cups than you need in order to top up your planting cups after the next step.

– One of the most important steps is to sterilize the seed mix by pouring boiling water over the cups to throughly wet the mix and to kill any pathogens or insect eggs. An electric kettle works perfectly for this step. We use no pesticides or fungicides and find that by using sterile pots and seed mix we have no problem with damping-off disease or fungus gnats. If the mix settles after wetting with boiling water, use your extra prepared potting mix to fill the containers to within 1/2" of the top. The cups will be fully cooled by the next day and ready to plant.

– Each cup is planted with seeds of one cross to a maximum of 5 or 6 seeds per cup. Seeds are planted about 1/2" deep, potting mix tamped down and cups labelled. Cups are kept in a warm location, left uncovered and checked daily.  If the top of the soil appears to be drying, it is misted with lukewarm water.

– Germination can be slow for some seeds (a month or more - don’t give up too quickly!), however, we expect to see the first sprouts within 2 weeks. At that point, the cups are transferred to our basement tables and grown under lights. If growing just a few seedlings, they can be placed on a bright window sill – just make sure to turn the cups regularly and monitor closely for dryness. We use inexpensive flourescent shop lights suspended from the basement joists with the cheapest cool white tubes available. The cost is less than $15.00 per unit. Our lights are on timers and run 16 hours per day.

-- The lights are kept 1-2" above the tops of seedlings and must be adjusted as the seedlings grow -- and they can grow quickly! When the seedlings are 3" tall, an oscillating fan is added to the timer to circulate air and keep the seedlings from getting too leggy. We water when the cups begin to feel light (indicating the seed mix is drying out) and liquid organic fertilizer is applied at ½ strength every two to three weeks.

– In mid to late April the seedlings are transferred to our sheltered porch to begin the hardening-off process.  They are gradually exposed to increased amounts of sunlight and covered at night to protect from frost. The cups can dry out quickly when outside and must be checked once or twice daily.

– By mid-May the seedlings are ready to be transplanted into their beds. Beds are amended with compost and lightly tilled. Seedlings are carefully removed from cups and gently separated. A long dibber is used to make a deep hole and the seedlings are planted so that the crown (where the roots meet the leaves) is just below the soil. Seedlings are firmed into the bed to prevent air pockets and then watered thoroughly.

– We use 6" spacing between seedlings and identify each plant by using plastic knives -- the cross number is marked on the knife blade with a permanent marker and inserted into the ground where it will not fade.

– First year seedlings are watered during dry spells and fertilized monthly. By the following year, the majority of our seedlings produce their first blooms. It is likely that these blooms will improve by their third year, so do not be too hasty to compost a daylily that is in its first bloom season if it’s not quite what you hoped for.  The following year may provide some pleasant surprises!

Seed Starting Tips - Outdoors

Due to our heirloom tomato seedlings taking over much of the basement light room area in 2007, I experimented with starting daylily seeds outdoors in Jiffy-7 Peat Pellets purchased from Veseys in Prince Edward Island. On April 15^th I pre-soaked the pellets in very warm water to expand them to the maximum size and lined out 1,000 on light stand trays. When the pellets cooled a daylily seed and marker were inserted into each pellet. The seeds came directly from the refrigerator and were not pre-soaked. The trays were placed on shelves on our North-facing porch where they received several hours of morning sun. If there was a frost warning, the trays were covered with a poly tarp. By mid-May over 90% of the seeds had sprouted -- a germination rate equal to my indoor starts. There were no insect or fungus problems, however, due to the pellets being quite small, on warm sunny days the trays would have to be closely monitored to ensure the pellets did not dry out. One of my concerns was that the netting might interfere with root development, however, I checked a number of seedlings over the summer -- all netting had disintegrated and there were no stunting problems. Although this was a very difficult summer for seedlings due to drought, at this writing (in October) the seedlings are approximately the same size as those I have started under lights in previous years.

Although the Jiffy-7 pellets are fairly expensive (about .11 cents each after taxes and shipping), there were several advantages to using them:

-- Space conservation – the pellets are only 1 3/4” wide x 2 1/4” tall when hydrated and starting a thousand plants took only 6 light stand trays which are approx. 2' x 2' each.

-- No electricity required to keep flourescent lights running 16 hours per day for 3-4 months!

-- No damage to roots when transplanting into seedling beds. When seedlings are grown in community pots and tubs there is often some damage to root systems when separating the plants unless great care is taken. This can really set young seedlings back and I have occasionally lost seedlings when roots were hopelessly tangled.

-- Speed in transplanting. The plant and marker are simply picked up and placed into a small 2” hole then firmed in. It was by far the fastest and easiest method I have found to transplant seedlings.

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