Spring Daylily Potting: Lilies, Ducks & Garden Adventures

Lilies, Ducks, Chickens, Oh My!

After a busy week of spring daylily potting, I’m finally relaxing and reflecting on our progress for the upcoming season. Lu and I can feel the minor aches and pains from working with 700 potted plants and mixing two cubic yards of potting soil.

I realize we still have 2,000 more to pot before Mother’s Day, but with the help of my grandsons and some of their friends, we will reach that goal.

Our new look this season is thanks to Kelsie and her team from Sprout Marketing. Kelsie asked me to take on the task of writing a weekly blog of 1,000 words.

Naturally, I questioned why she chose me for this assignment. She said I am the flower guy and thought people were primarily interested in learning about daylilies.

Kelsie’s response resonated with me.

I could picture Lu at her laptop, her fingers flying over the keyboard as words flowed effortlessly at an impressive ninety words per minute.

Meanwhile, there I was, typing with just two fingers, struggling to find the right keys and averaging only ten words per minute. It felt like my brain was working overtime to transfer my ideas to my fingers.

Despite these challenges, I am determined to do my best and take one for the team. So, here goes my first blog…

Spring Daylily Potting: Preparing for the Season Ahead

This week, I focused on dividing the early-emerging varieties and building our inventory for the season. I choose daylilies for potting with 4 to 6 leaves, each at least three-quarters of an inch long.

Thanks to the rain and snow earlier this week, along with warm temperatures, most daylilies are starting to emerge.

On Monday, I will focus on potting all 244 varieties in preparation for May 1st, our opening day for the 2025 season. Each of our limited varieties will have at least one potted plant, hopefully more, depending on the number of new plants that appear this spring.

During this time of year, dividing plants is an easy task. The foliage doesn’t require cutting, the soil is fluffy and easy to dig, and it’s simple to remove from the roots. The plants are primed for growth.

The cool temperatures and gentle breeze have us digging up the daylilies and hurrying into the sun-warmed greenhouse to prepare and pot the plants.

It feels refreshing to work in the greenhouse with the sun shining and the temperature inside hovering in the mid-70s, protected from the colder outside air.

Many of you who have visited us know that we usually enjoy a refreshing summer breeze here. However, spring is not as forgiving, so the greenhouse becomes essential during this time.

Testing a New Greenhouse Method

As we pot the daylilies, we’ve placed them in our smaller greenhouse, keeping overnight temperatures above 38 degrees.

This is the first year we’ve tried this method.

In previous years, we allowed the overnight temperatures to drop without heating.

I believe the lilies are thriving with the warmer overnight temperatures. Seeing their growth, we’ll continue this method in future spring daylily potting seasons.

The Battle Against Weeds and the Mischievous Flock

As temperatures rise, I notice two of my biggest gardening foes reappearing:

Henbit and Shepherd’s Purse.

I plan to tackle these weeds in about two weeks when most have emerged. Meanwhile, my self-propelled weed pullers and composting machines—my ducks and geese—are working hard to tidy the gardens.

I wish they would eat henbit and shepherd’s purse, but unfortunately, they dislike them just as much as I do. I’ll share more about this ongoing battle in a future blog post.

The lilies are delicate right now; until the plants mature, I have to keep the chickens confined. But we had some jailbreaks this week.

All 23 of our chickens managed to escape from their house and run free. Chickens are natural tillers; they love to scratch the ground and dig holes.

However, their worst trait is their knack for identifying the most expensive lilies and congregating around those plants for scratching sessions.

Earlier this spring, I installed a chain-link gate that was supposed to close on its own. It does close, but it keeps getting opened.

I couldn’t figure out how they escaped, so I set up surveillance and discovered that the ducks were helping them! The ducks would jump against the gate, swinging it open.

I have since added a latch to keep it secure.

What was enjoyable about the jailbreaks was that two of our black hens would rush over to me in the garden whenever I started digging up clumps of lilies.

They would happily eat worms from my hand, but that didn’t soften my resolve to overlook their scratching sessions.

Looking Ahead

For those eager to get into your gardens this week, the weather looks perfect for outdoor work.

It’s time to get your hands dirty and dirt under your nails. As you start your own spring daylily potting, remember—it’s silly not to have lilies!

What’s your biggest gardening challenge this spring? Let me know in the comments, and I might cover it in next week’s blog!

-Todd Peverill