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Dividing daylilies really adds up


Daylilies are beautiful and easy-care plants, but they do requires dividing every three to five years. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)


Create new plants and more impact with this cheap trick


For some plants, division adds up to amazing multiplication. Daylilies are a case in point. This popular perennial benefits from periodically dividing the tangled tubers and separating them into new plants.

Fall is the best time to divide daylilies. Done every three to five years, this process can create long rows or masses of these easy-care, drought-tolerant colorful flowers.

It's also the cheapest way to expand daylily impact in your spring and summer garden. One clump can produce three or more new clumps that will bloom the next spring. Over time, division really adds up.

No one knows that more than the folks at the Amador Flower Farm, home to 14 acres of daylilies in about 1,200 varieties. (Of those, nearly 1,000 are offered for sale.)

Making a memorable impact, more than 200,000 Stella De Oro daylilies -- the well-known "golden star" -- line the property's fence. Millions more plants fill the fields in long, labeled rows under massive oaks.

Located in Shenandoah Valley in the heart of Amador County's wine country, the popular Plymouth landmark is hosting its fall pumpkin patch and other October fun while the daylily fields wrap up their bloom season.

According to owner Jeanne Deaver, daylilies come in three different foliage categories: Evergreen, semi-evergreen and dormant or deciduous.

The evergreen varieties keep their leaves green and growing year round as long as temperatures stay above freezing.  Semi-evergreen plants tend to shrink back, losing some leaves but staying above ground and visible in winter. Dormant or deciduous daylilies die back to the ground each fall. They can survive temperatures below zero, but also need winter chill to perform well.

To divide daylilies, dig up the whole clump. Remove any browned or dead foliage. With gloved hands, work apart the tubers and fat roots; they will naturally separate, breaking apart with their foliage attached. Use a sharp knife or garden shears to cut the clump if necessary, but keep any foliage attached; those leaves will be the new plants.

Daylily leaves form fans that sit atop the soil surface with the roots and tubers just below the soil. That's how they should be transplanted, too. In creating new plants, keep at least two new fans per clump.

After transplanting, water well. Then, monitor the new plants through the fall and winter to make sure the clumps don't completely dry out, irrigating once a week if no rain. The rewards of this effort come next spring -- and many years to come.

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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 16

Take advantage of this nice weather. There’s plenty to do as your garden starts to switch into high gear for spring growth.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before their buds open. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees.

* Check soil moisture before resuming irrigation. Most likely, your soil is still pretty damp.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.

* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

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