The Care and Feeding of Daylilies
This article appeared in the Winter 2005 Daylily
Journal. It was written by Dan Trimmer of Water Mill
Gardens, Enterprise,Fl and is reproduced here with
Dan's permission. If you want to see some of Dan's
beautiful daylily introductions go
to:http://trimmerdaylily.com/
This article appeared in the Winter 2005 Daylily
Journal. It was written by Dan Trimmer of Water Mill
Gardens, Enterprise,Fl and is reproduced here with
Dan's permission. If you want to see some of Dan's
beautiful daylily introductions go
to:http://trimmerdaylily.com/
By formal education I should be qualified to discuss International Politics but have zero
qualifications to talk about any horticultural endeavors. However, I have no experience in
the political world, and I have about 25 years experience growing daylilies; in excess of
15 years as a commercial enterprise. I’ve learned my lessons via the school of making
more mistakes than I’d like to admit, and by asking as many people as possible to share
what they knew, oftentimes via their formal education. So here is a very quick overview of
the lessons I have learned.
Number one is WATER, WATER, WATER. If you do nothing else to your flower beds,
which hopefully are filled with daylilies, provide at least 1-1.5 inches of water per week.
This is more important than any feeding program. Number two on the list of “things to do”
is take PH readings in each of the locations where you grow daylilies. Regardless of how
much nutrition is present not much is going to be available to your plants unless your PH
is in the 6.2-6.8 range. I’ve found inexpensive PH meters to be rather accurate when I
compare them to lab tests of the same beds I’ve just tested with my el cheepo meter. In
addition to the accurate PH test the laboratory will provide for you it’s important to get a
baseline of what nutrition and element levels are present in you beds. You can’t know
what to add unless you know what you need. County Cooperative Services may be able
to provide this service to you at a very reasonable cost. Amend as necessary to correct
any PH problems.
Whenever possible incorporate as much organic material as you can get you hands on
into your garden beds. Compost, composted leaves, animal manures cottonseed meal,
corn meal, bone meal, and the like will help keep your soil loose, provide valuable trace
minerals and retain moisture. This could be an entire article here, but I’ll stop here.
THE BIG THREE: The Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Pot Ash that we see listed on the front
of our fertilizer bags deserves quite a bit of discussion. We must understand that our
daylilies are not typical perennials. With most of our flowering plants a “balanced” diet is
recommended lest we get too much leaf and little bloom. Thus 10-10-10 or 6-6-6 fertilizing
programs are recommended. This is not the case with Daylilies. Daylilies are in the family
of plants known as monocots. They’re in the same plant family as ornamental grasses or
corn! Monocots prefer to feed at a rate of 3-1-2, or when in active growth 4-1-2. Thus, 18-6-
12 should be an ideal mix for us. Compounding the typical lack of nitrogen problem my
laboratory tests always seem to reveal is the fact that the middle number in our fertilizer
(phosphorus) is not easily soluble, while most of our nitrogen is quickly leeched away.
The bottom line is that if we do feed our plants year after year in the same beds we may
end up with much too much phosphorus to the point where it is toxic. Before this
happens, and if your soil test come back that you have adequate levels of Phosphorus try
feeding with small amounts of Calcium Nitrate (which will also help raise a low PH) or
Ammonium Sulfate (which will help lower PH) and Potassium Nitrate throughout the
season. This will provide the nitrogen our plants like along with other valuable elements.
If you make a mistake, make it by putting out too little, not too much of these products.
They can be very powerful and can cause severe burning.
Early in the growing season in addition to the basic fertilizer regimen it’s important to add
what I’ll call the major minors; Iron, Magnesium and Calcium. Iron can come from an
organic source such as Milorganite or an Iron supplement. I get my much of my
magnesium from Epsom Salts (which is Magnesium Sulfate at a rate of 100 pounds per
acre) and additional Calcium from the earlier mentioned Calcium Nitrate. Several
professional horticulturists have told me it’s important to get these “major Minors” our
early in the growing season as they are required in order for the plants to be able to take
up the big three (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Pot Ash). When I lived on Long Island this active
growth period started just after the dormants broke dormancy. Following bloom season
with the first cool weather in the early fall was the time for a second very serious feeding
period. It’s important not to use a time release fertilizer at this time as we want our rapid
growth to end before the onset of very cold weather. This second feeding period can
result in twice the plant the following year as compared to unfed plants. In Florida or the
deep south we can’t feed too much in the summer due to the excessive heat, so most of
the feeding takes place from November through March.
I’ve found liquid feeding modest amounts of plant food very often to work wonders. It’s
also important to vary the product applied. A Peter’s Excel product known as Cal Mag 15-
5-15 seems to make my plants very happy. (A lab test will also tell you if the important
balance of calcium and magnesium is present,) I liquid feed any number of other
products, most with a very high first number (nitrogen) A last couple of thoughts. Firstly,
risk using too little fertilizer, not too much. (Can’t say this in too loud a voice) Secondly,
organic sources are better than chemical fertilizers, but for large gardens we have little
choice but to use the above mentioned chemical fertilizers. Happy Gardening!
