Starting Daylily Seeds

Starting Daylily Seeds

by Diane Linsley

There's nothing quite like growing daylilies

from seed and witnessing the birth of a new

and unique flower that's never been seen

before. Each seed-grown daylily is different

from every other daylily in the world.

After harvest, daylily seeds are refrigerated

for at least 3 weeks to improve germination. When you purchase them, they will already have been refrigerated. Store the seeds in the fridge until it's time to start them indoors in late winter, about 12 weeks before the last frost date. In the deep south, where it seldom freezes, daylily seeds may be sown in fall.

Before sowing the seeds, you need to soak and pre-chill them. Add 2 teaspoons of tap water to the seeds inside the ziploc bags they came in (remove the slip of absorbent paper first). Squeeze out the air, so the seeds are surrounded by water. Place the bags inside a waterproof container (in case of leaks), and refrigerate them for 3-4 weeks. Check them frequently, and pot up any seeds that sprout. After 3-4 weeks, pot up the remaining seeds. Some people add hydrogen peroxide to the soaking water, but in my experiments, it didn't make any difference.

Sow the seeds into pots of moist seed-starting medium, 1/2" deep. Several seeds of the same cross can be sown together in a 4-6" pot. This will make it easier to keep the soil consistently moist. This is especially important with daylily seeds, which are likely to die if they dry out during germination. Set them in a bright window or under lights at normal room temperature (about 70 degrees). Seedlings should begin to appear in 2-6 weeks, but some may take as long as 3-4 months. Transplant the seedlings to the garden when danger of frost is past.

Frankly, growing daylilies from seed is challenging. If you end up with one plant from a packet of seeds, you are doing well. If you don't get any, you may want to consider buying plants.

Daylily Seeds at Diane's Flower Seeds (my other website)