Daylily Seed or Bud?
Daylilies form seed pods that can be confusing to identify if you are not familiar with what they look like. So what does a daylily seed look like and what does a daylily bud look like?
These are the buds. They are easier to identify when they are surrounded by other buds that are close to blooming. They are smooth on the outside and grow elongated from a smaller diameter before the bud expands where the petals begin. Often the color of the flower will begin to show on the outside before it blooms.
Above is a daylily seed pod. They are bulbous and wrinkly and one will sit upright on the end of a stem. Notice there is no smaller diameter leading to the bulb where it expands. They also have a light green color. As the seed pod ages, it will grow larger, get more wrinkles as it dries and become lighter in color, eventually brown.
Inside the pod is what lily seeds look like. They start white and turn black as they age. Eventually the pod will dry enough to turn brown, crack open and the seeds will drop out or get knocked out by animals to germinate in the ground.
If you want to keep your Stella D’Oro Lilies blooming all season, deadhead the seed pods as soon as they form or preferably, cut the stalks as soon as the last flowers have bloomed before the pods form. This will force the little lilies to continue to push out new stalks of flowers all season. Unless you want the seeds, always cut off the spent stalks from all types of lilies. Not only will the plant look better and be stronger, some Daylilies will respond by sending additional blooms out later in the season.
Do day lily seed pods have orange seeds inside? I have a rogue plant that resembles a day lily, but don’t know where it came from. I don’t even recall if it bloomed this year or not, but it had a lot of these big green seed pods. When I cut one open, the big seeds inside were orange & looked like corn kernels. Not sure what I have growing out there, so would appreciate your thoughts on this colorful seed pod.
Thank you.
I have not seen orange seeds inside day lily pods – they start white and slowly brown as they dry until they are black. But some iris leaves are similar to day lily leaves and based on your description, I might suggest you have Iris foetidissima. They bloom in Spring, and the seeds stay orange even after the pod has dried. They are often added to fall decorations they are so pretty. Not being sure what zone you are in, they are hardy in zones 6-9. Hope this helps. Let me know if we need to keep looking it’s always fun to figure out the name of a mystery plant.
Elderly lady not good at computers. How soon after bloom must I remove daylily seed pods? What do I do with multiple bloom branches that haven’t completed bloom? Thank you for your help!
You can use scissors to carefully cut the spent flower or seed pod off any time after bloom, if desired. Don’t try to break them off as you may break the tip off with remaining buds too. For lilies that will only produce blooms once in the season, I just leave them in place until all blooms have completed. Then shortly after, cut the stalks close to the base of the plant. Enjoy your lilies!
This was excellent for me. I was fearful of removing new buds when attempting to deadhead spent blooms. Now, I’ll let them grow a bit to make sure of the different shapes.
Thank you! 😁
Glad to have helped in your garden! Enjoy daylilies in many colors and apply the same technique to all. Happy gardening!
Very helpful. I always was afraid I’d be deadheading the flower bud! 😂. Your description and photos made it so much clearer! Thank you!
Glad to have helped in your garden! You can apply this to most daylily varieties so enjoy them in many colors and use the same principle. Happy gardening!
Thank you! Just the straightforward explanation I needed.
Glad to have helped. Enjoy your lilies!
Thank you for this information and the helpful photos! This is exactly what I needed to know as a beginning gardener!
You’re very welcome! So glad to have helped!