Daylily Buying For Beginners

Daylily Buying For Beginners

We've been buying daylilies for the last 8 years and over that time have purchased more than 700 daylily varieties. When we first started our daylily hobby, we were novices and picked our daylilies based on how much we liked the bloom.  We didn't know much about what we should be looking for, who we should be buying from or even what to expect when we received our plants.  We probably paid too much for certain varieties but like anything else you learn with experience.

Five years ago we made the decision to turn our hobby into a small daylily business.  One of our goals has been to share our knowledge of daylilies with our current and future customers. We've put this article together to pass on our experiences with buying daylilies and hope it will give new and current daylily lovers some guidance when starting their daylily hunt.  These are our experiences and may not necessarily be those of others. Since we are a small grower ourselves, we've tried to give an objective look at buying daylilies.     

 Where to buy daylilies -

Over the years we've purchased daylilies from probably every conceivable avenue.  We've visited daylily farms and ordered over the internet. We've bought from local and small daylily growers, from large daylily growers' catalogs, from daylily auctions, and from daylily hybridizers.  This is our experience with each. 

• Local and Small Growers

We've purchased daylilies at their farms and from their websites.  When you purchase daylilies at their farm they'll dig the daylilies on the spot and you'll see exactly what you are getting.  The daylilies that we've purchased from their websites have been healthy and we've usually received mature size plants.  Many of these growers will show you the size of the plants that they ship so you get an idea of what you will be receiving.  Look for reviews that they have posted on their website.  It'll give you an idea of what their customers think of them. We also look to see if the growers are licensed and inspected by their states' Department of Agriculture or other licensing authority.  If they are licensed, they should give you or send you a copy of their license with your daylily purchase.  For us, being licensed is necessary because we feel it's a good precaution against introducing daylily rust or other diseases into your garden.  Use your best judgement.  

• Retail Nurseries

Most retail nurseries and garden centers have daylily plants in pots. They have fewer varieties available and generally purchase their plants from large wholesale growers and distributors.  In order for wholesalers to create large quantities of a daylily variety, tissue cultures are taken and grown in sterile conditions in greenhouses.  Tissue culture plants are very inexpensive for them. What we've discovered in our research is that not all of the daylily plantlets grown from tissue cultures come true to the parent plant.  If you've ever purchased a potted daylily from a retail nursery and it turns out to not look like the pictures you've seen in books and on websites of the same plant, it may have been created from a tissue culture.  We don't purchase from retail nurseries for this reason.     

• Large Growers

You've probably received catalogs from large nurseries that sell daylilies and many other perennials.  You can purchase daylilies at a fairly reasonable price if you buy their special combinations. This is a good way to buy large quantities of daylilies especially when you're starting out.  It's been our experience that the daylilies that you receive are usually smaller plants that may take a few years to grow into a decent size plant that will produce decent size blooms. They may also be older varieties.  They say that they sell No. 1 size plants, but we're not sure what they mean by this size designation.  The plants will grow but it may take several years for the daylily to reach it's full potential.          

• Daylily Auctions

Daylily auctions are another way to purchase daylily plants. These auctions can be found on websites, at local daylily society clubs, and recently on Facebook. On website and Facebook auctions, you join the group, then bid on the daylilies that you want. At local clubs, you can find out when they have their auctions available for the public to purchase. Sometimes you can get newer daylily varieties for a reasonable price. We've received anywhere from smaller plants to larger plants. Our only caution is to be sure you don't get carried away during the bidding.  You may end up buying a daylily for a lot more than you bargained.   

• Daylily Hybridizers

You can also buy daylilies direct from the hybridizers. You can visit their farms or log onto their websites where they'll have their new introductions for sale. The new introductions can be anywhere from $50 to $300 per plant.  They'll also have previous years' introductions at a lesser price. We've seen where some hybridizers will sell the plants that they've hybridized but don't want to register. If you don't care if a daylily is registered then these can be purchased at a reasonable price.

• General buying tips

• When buying daylilies, order a few daylily plants first to see what you receive. If you're not satisfied with the size and quality of the plants you receive, then you have the option to purchase from someone else the next time.  By ordering from several different growers, you'll be able to compare the size and quality of the plants you receive. This is a good way to see who you want to buy from in the future.

• Daylily plants that you purchase later in the season are generally larger plants. Just be careful that you don't wait too long and miss out on a variety that you want. They may sell out fast.  Most northern growers sell from May to September.

• Buying older daylily varieties is a good way to add to your collection. They are usually less expensive and you can find some really pretty ones.  Historic daylilies are considered those that were hybridized on or before 1980.  This is a “rolling” date which extends by ten years every decade, i.e. in 2020, the date will change to 1990.  

• Some growers will sell unnamed or unknown daylilies at very reasonable prices. These are daylilies where they may have lost the name or they may have bought them as one variety and they turned out to be something else. If you don't care about the registered name this is a good option to pick up some beauties. 

• Pay attention to shipping charges. Since daylilies are live plants and are shipped bare rooted, they need to be sent by USPS Priority Mail, UPS, or Fedex.  If shipping prices are low, we've found it to mean that either you're getting small plants or the shipping charge is built into the daylily price. The  shipping charge is usually figured as a set price for the first plant $8 to $14, and then anywhere from $1 to $3 for each additional plant.