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.
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