Do you deadhead them? I saw one guru on video sayjng not to. That it left the scape open to infection/contamination.

One daylily has large flowers. As the flowers shrivel up, it really detracts from the new flowers opening and they stay on the scape about three days.

I've been gently tugging to get them off sooner, but am thinking of cutting them off in the morning as the new ones open. They would look so much cleaner and better, IMO.

Thanks for any advice you're willing to offer.

Oops. Wrong forum. Sorry about that.

This is not the wrong forum, we all love daylilies and will try to answer questions. I sometimes deadhead depending how much time I have as I have lots of daylilies so it takes plenty of time. I have never heard of them getting contaminated or infected from deadheading. Some display gardens that are on a tour will even deadhead them the night before the tour so everything looks perfect the day of the tour. I just pinch of the spent blooms with my finger nails and end up with a colorful hand which washes off pretty good usually.

I deadhead daily. I too have already deadheaded the night before. Doing that means you are deadheading blooms that still look pretty good. I only do that (as Betty said) before I'm expecting company the next morning to walk through the gardens.

Some blooms are SO big that the spent bloom can fall over others that will be trying to open and prevent them from opening. Also the darker blooms can drip and stain newly opened blooms.

Last year I found that Bar Keepers Friend works pretty good to get the stains off of your hands. Give it a try.

I deadhead the messy ones. Some dry up well and fall off on their own. If I've crossed the flower, I leave it be, though I might try the trick that Daniel showed.

The messy ones? I I pull them off at their squishiest and use them to dye my hair Last summer, I had blue streaks from the red and purple daylilies.

I don't think I have ever heard that deadheading was a bad thing, it can certainly keep the messy wet blooms from preventing new blooms from opening. If I have been pollinating a lot, I often use a tip Fred posted, cutting the flower off above where the pod would form, about the top two thirds of the bloom. That prevents the heavy wet blooms from pulling off a pod that has started forming and keep the plant looking a little nicer, if it can look nicer with clips and beads hanging from it. I will often deadhead in the mornings while waiting for the pollen to get ripe, then in the afternoons any blooms I missed I will deadhead while looking for ripe seed pods. As mentioned earlier some plants pretty much do their own deadheading and the blooms dry up and fall off on their own. The bloom scar left behind from deadheading seems pretty well sealed, I would not suspect that to be a problem.

I think its a preference. If you like the tidy look, deadhead. I don't do it here as a rule, unless company (like others have said). I do not believe it hurts the plant one way or the other. To me, what difference does it make whether you remove the spent flower or mother nature does...the plant will heal itself. Daylilies are tough. They can take most everything we throw at them.

As a hybridizer, I love "live heading" at the end of the day. It gives me one last chance to evaluate how a daylily has "weathered" that day and gives me a chance to see and appreciate every bloom individually before they go into the "deadhead" stage. I often check to see if the bloom is fragrant. Any unwanted bugs such as earwigs can be carefully folded into the bloom before it is dropped into the bucket eliminating one of tomorrow's problems. And the next morning, you wake up to a fresh, clean garden and can take photos without those distracting deadheads in the background.

Thank you for the information. I messed up and posted this twice. But maybe that's good....got double the response!

Some flowers are big. They were pretty yukky this morning, so I may start doing it in the evening. Just never concured to me to do that.

I also deadhead daily. This keeps the beds looking nice and new blooms can open better.