Hi everyone!
Yesterday I cleaned a spot in the little garden, getting rid of a couple of plants I didn't want anymore. Then I added some peat to the clayish/muddish soil, and moved some DLs in this new spot. Yesterday evening they were fine today all the foliage is floppy and bent. I think it could be normal, but wanted to ask to be sure.
I watered well, yesterday and today. Is it just a matter of time before they settle in?

You should go boil a large pot of water while pacing back and forth across the room and throwing salt over your left shoulder or something like that


Relax, they will pop out just fine!

Frillylily said:You should go boil a large pot of water while pacing back and forth across the room and throwing salt over your left shoulder or something like that

Ok, enough of stupid question for today!!!
I guess I have to really relax

I cut mine back when I move them so they won't faint.

Not a stupid question if you don't know the answer.

Hi Sabrina,

It sounds as if you knocked most of the dirt off the roots and did a complete reset.

If that's the case, then some "floppage" is normal. It's a good idea to trim the leaves back a bit -- to half their length, or around 10" long. Some light shade would help, but it isn't vital. Even something like window screening will take the edge off of the sun. I think you mentioned having some frost cloth - that would be perfect, holding humidity, providing light shade and reflecting light.

The soil is plenty wet already, so I wouldn't water any more for about a week, since new root tips will have to grow in order to absorb much of it. That won't take long.

If it's hot, they'd appreciate a light misting a couple of times during the heat of the day, but not so much that it soaks into the soil, just enough to raise the humidity around the plants.

Just remember that they're daylilies, and therefore pretty hard to seriously damage. In other words, you could trim the leaves and they'd be fine. The rest is icing on the cake, mostly for the sake of letting the plant hold a couple of extra leaves while re-establishing.

Thanks CaliFlowers!
It's not hot, temperature is around 68 F by day and 60 by night. No sun too, it's cloudy. Maybe more sun tomorrow, and wednesday rain. Some of them are under the terrace of the apartment upon mine so shouldn't get much rain.

The dirt around the roots stayed in the ground.. with a clay soil it's hard to move plants. I hope they will be fine soon!

I know that you all didn't sleep at night knowing my DLs fainted poorly, so I want to reassure you! they feel better today!


I didn't cut the leaves seeing that they are better, I wnet out with scissors but changed my mind.
Thanks everyone for the laugh and the advices!

Sabrina, I love your questions! You always make me laugh because of your great sense of humor!

I'd still trim the leaves back. It gives the roots more of an advantage that way. I'm moving about 1/3 of my daylilies to a new garden area, and moving others into their old place, and leaving most of the dirt on the roots. They are passing out left and right, even with the leaves being trimmed. They are also turning a lovely shade of yellow. But, I'm not the least bit worried. I know that they will be fine! They really are tough plants!

Thank you Natalie!
Ok, so tomorrow I'll cut leaves. Maybe not really tomorrow because if forecasts are right we're expecting tons of water.
I don't really know DLs well yet, but I'm treasuring every advice you and all the wonderful people on here give me!

Just keep asking questions, please! Your posts make my day!

You are at the point where we all were at one time, which is being new to daylilies. I'm sure we all stressed over every little thing. I know I did. I was so worried that I'd do something wrong, and they would die. So far, I haven't been able to kill them, so they must be super tough! I've killed just about everything else I've grown, so I don't think a person can go wrong with growing them. They are tougher than anything I've ever grown, though the weeds do an equal job of growing. So, it is fun for me to see the excitement that you have from growing them! It takes me back to the excitement I had when I first started growing them!

My suggestion would be to cut the leaves back somewhat if they're wilting even a little bit tomorrow. Also check both morning and later in the day, sometimes a plant that is not wilting in the morning may be doing so by later in the day. If they're wilting first thing in the morning then it's a sign they're really struggling.

If there's any further fainting it is better to cut the leaves back. They're fainting because there's not enough root left from the digging to provide water to the amount of leaves. Cloudy, rainy weather will reduce the amount of water that the leaves demand so they may be fine, in which case you don't need to cut back but you'll need to keep checking especially on future sunny days. There's no advantage to leaving leaves long enough after transplanting that they wilt because a wilted leaf is no longer making food.

Thanks Sue, I will check them tomorrow early in the morning. many many thanks as always!

Natalie oh ehm I feel a bit stupid sometimes
I killed almost every other kind of plants too, and even a plastic plant seemed to be not so well
Now that you make me think about it, yes, the DLs are still alive and one year and half has passed!

cybersix said:I killed almost every other kind of plants too, and even a plastic plant seemed to be not so well

I can't tell you what a relief it is to know that I'm not the only person on earth who has had plastic plants struggle to survive. I've even killed a few.

Sue, I'm digging lots of my daylilies and moving them. I'm leaving all the dirt that I can on them, and digging deep enough so that the roots are disturbed very little, if any. Why would mine be wilting, if the cause would be because there isn't enough root left? Most of mine have had all of the root left, and I'm still getting wilt.

Natalie said:

Sue, I'm digging lots of my daylilies and moving them. I'm leaving all the dirt that I can on them, and digging deep enough so that the roots are disturbed very little, if any. Why would mine be wilting, if the cause would be because there isn't enough root left? Most of mine have had all of the root left, and I'm still getting wilt.

I would say it's pretty much impossible to get all the roots, including fine roots which are easily damaged - daylily roots spread quite a bit although you have a better chance if the soil is very friable. Watering well several hours or a day before moving them may mitigate wilting somewhat but I can't think of another reason why leaves would wilt on being moved if the plants weren't somehow short of water when dug or weren't wilting before. A long shot might be if a largish amount of fertilizer was added to the planting hole (which can draw water out of the roots).

There are some small roots that are being damaged. Can't help from that, but it has been very little. I keep the plants well watered, and I don't fertilize with anything other than alfalfa pellets and sometimes seaweed fertilizer, but I haven't used the seaweed since the Spring. When you said that there wasn't enough root left, I assumed you meant the entire root was mostly gone. That isn't the case at all with my daylilies, so it made no sense to me. If you were talking about the very small roots, I can see that being a reason with mine, because a few of them are being pulled off, but there are still a lot left. All of my daylilies were moved here two years ago, so the roots aren't all that spread out, like they would have been after many years in the ground. So, I really am able to get almost all of the roots dug up with very little disturbance. But, I'm not 100% successful.

Today my DLs are sporting a new haircut!
They're gettin a lot of rain, too, it's cold and dark, I hate these kind of days.

I couldn't do better than what I did with roots, this soil is mud when wet and hard as a rock when dry, roots were difficult to take off of it.
I found roots were more spread all around than in depth.