I never have much luck growing them on even once they root. I kept one in a pot on the window sill all winter, and it seemed to shrink! Planted it out this spring, but it is still a tiny plant. It doesn't really seem worth it; just divide the plant and you get more of an increase, but I can't seem to just let them go...Any easy ideas for success?

I just leave them on the plant until they have nice roots or the scape turns brown. A lot of times the scape will stay green on the side where the prolif is growing and the rest will be brown. I usually just plant next to the mama plant or pot it up and it grows great. Keep in mind that by the time I take the prolif from the plant it is usually the size of a full grown fan

Here's a photo of one I planted. I wouldn't have taken this one yet since the roots aren't very long but I broke the scape so I had to. As you can see it is a blooming size fan and has a scape and a bloom.


In this photo you can see how half of the scape is still green so it could have stayed put for a while longer if I wouldn't have broken it

LOL Tink that is the biggest prolif i have ever seen! Around here they are nubby little things about the size of your thumb...maybe thats why they take a little longer

Well, I think your climate may have something to do with it! my proliferations just started but you have how many days until frost?

LOL that's not even one of the biggest ones we have had.

yes our climate plays a big part in how they grow. We have a loooonnnnngggg season and we may not get frost until January most times.

I've had better luck leaving them as long as possible then just poking them into the ground by the plant than anything else. Most of them are small but if they get some roots out they seem to survive.

I posted in one of the other threads about putting rooting hormone on the base of the prolif and providing some soil to start root growth. This actually worked pretty well and that prolif, now in a pot with the mother plant is growing like nothing happened.

FWIW the biggest prolif I have ever had was on a plant that Michele sent earlier this year.

I have had more prolifs than ever also this year. I will see how many survive....

I haven't seen many prolifs this year but then again I haven't really looked for them. Guess I will have to go on a hunting expedition.

I have been looking for an article I saw, probably in an AHS Journal, about making aluminum foil cups with soil to put around the proliferations still on the plant. Anyone know where to find this article?

The thread "Small Daylily Growing on Scape" in Daylilies forum

The article was in the Winter 2012 issue of the Daylily Journal.

I'm hoping when I get back to FL I will find some prolifs on some of my daylilies. I haven't had too much luck with them, but mostly when I've planted them right by the mother they have seemed to do better.

After Awhile Crocodile is a blooming fool this fall, and all of the scapes have one or more prolifs starting. I don't know if the weather will cooperate and if I have enough time to get them large enough to transplant, but this is amazing ~Jan

I have several prolifs also. I had two that I planted last fall bloomed this summer. Some didn't survive the winter. The biggest one thus far is a double fan on "Look Here Mary" that I planted in the ground last week.

I also have lots of prolifs every year,one of my 2014 intros had 22 prolifs this year so I was able to pot 11 double fans, all were large like Michele's and will be ready to leave here in the spring. Some of the prolifs in the seedling beds live all winter attached to scape, if the scape dies they do not survive unless they are close enough to the ground to root themselves.

Interesting. I suppose in Alabama you have scapes that may survive the winter? This would be an evergreen variety? I am making little shelters for mine. Compost row beds, push in scape to point of prolif, water well, mulch, anti-bunny hardware cloth hoop. We will see if any survive the winter.

I can't wait to get to FL to check for prolifs. Do hope I have some.

The prolif is what makes the scape continue to live, take the prolif off and the scape will die. It doesn't matter it there EV SEV or DOR here, most of the dormant's want act like a dormant here, there is always some green foliage unless its a really hard dormant.

I thought that once thew scape turned brown you have to harvest the prolifs?

caitlinsgarden said:I thought that once thew scape turned brown you have to harvest the prolifs?

It can go either way. I have scapes that keep the green on the side the prolif is on the whole time and the rest of the scape is brown, I have scapes that stay green under the prolif but above it dies, and then there are the scapes that die completely (turn brown) before the prolif is ready and the prolif dies with it.