Deadheading extends the day lily blooming season

Q. Do you have to take the dead flowers off the day lilies? I really would like them to last longer into the summer.

A. Day lilies are named this because their flower blooms for a short period, sometimes just a day. When the flower is spent or finished blooming, you can pinch, snap or cut it off just above the first set of leaves. This is called deadheading.

Yes, deadheading will help day lilies bloom again. The dead flower petals of a one-day-old flower are a bit hard to remove. If you deadhead them every other day or every third day, it will be easier.

However, you will also need to cut off the seedpod while it is small so that the plant's energy will concentrate on making more flowers. This develops right below the flower. You will see a bulge where the end of the flower meets the scape, or stalk, that produces the flowers.

Carefully pinch or snap this part off. Some people cut it, which is fine to do also, but more time-consuming. The plant will look better if you cut the stem to the ground when all of the flowers on the flower scape have finished blooming.

If you wait until the blossoms have fallen from the stem, the seedpod is probably developing, taking more energy from the plant to make more flowers. This is why you need to get into a pattern of deadheading every other day or third day. You will then be rewarded with more flowers blooming.

The flowers won't bloom continuously, but in waves, called flushes, where the flowers all rebloom in groups.

The day lily normally blooms from late spring through the end of the summer. With a little effort, you can have beautiful flowers reblooming throughout our growing season.

— Jennifer Richardson

• Provided by Master Gardeners through the Master Gardener Answer Desk, Friendship Park Conservatory, Des Plaines, and University of Illinois Extension, North Cook Branch Office, Arlington Heights. Call (847) 298-3502 on Wednesdays or email northcookmg@gmail.com. Visit web.extension.illinois.edu/mg.