Hello. I am new to this forum and new to daylilies. This is only my second year growing them. I love flowers (always have) but have never had a very good green thumb. My lovely mother-in-law convinced me to try daylilies (she and my FIL just opened a small daylily farm here in mid-Missouri). I am so happy she did! I love them and they have proven to be very hardy even under my poor (but improving) care. I have been steadily reading this forum and others to learn how to better care for my lovely flowers. I currently have 32 different types of daylilies (some ordered online, and most from my in-laws) with a few more varieties coming later this summer that I ordered online.

Anyway, now that you know a little about me and how painfully new I am to this obsession, on to my reason for this post. I have a scape of Fancy Face (dip) that has a leafy growth on an elbow on the side of the scape. It is only occurring on one of the four scapes I have in this clump, so I am wondering if it is some sort of proliferation. I have read about proliferations but the pictures make them look very stick-like and this growth is decidedly leafy...it actually looks like a small daylily fan growing out of the side of the scape. Here are some photos...






If it is some type of proliferation, what do I do with it?

Thanks!

Yes you are right it is a proliferation, Let it grow hopefully form roots and then cut the scape above and below the proliferation to remove it. Then plant it and you will have an identical plant.

Well, looking at it again it could be just a branch forming. Let it grow and we will see.

Thank you for the reply Larry. I was thinking it might be a branch at first as well, but it has been growing for a couple of weeks and no scape-like branches are coming out of it. However, the "leaves" are getting larger and more full. If it is a proliferation and forms roots, you mentioned cutting the scape above and below that section. Does that mean I will have to sacrifice the scape to plant it or will it be okay to wait until after the blooms stop?

Normally, my proliferations take a long time to develop and by the time they have little roots the scape is turning yellow and has finished blooming.

I think it is a scape. I have bunches of them this year. Don't know why there are so many. When I've had them in the past, I just leave the scape alone until fall or the scape shows signs of dying - whichever comes first. In my experience, Scapes with pods and those with prolifs tend to stay green and growing for a long time. Those without pods or prolifs turn brown pretty soon after bloom is gone. Sometimes those with prolifs have remained green right up to near frost. I haven't had any really make much in the way of roots. I tend to cut the scape off above the prolif pretty close to the growth, but leave a good bit below it for an anchor. The method I like was using a plastic water bottle filled with dirty creek sand. I poked the scape into the sand until where the roots would grow from a fan were just barely covered. I kept the sand damp. The clear bottle let me see how water I was delivering and it also let me see when long roots formed. I kept mine in a sunny south window for the winter months.


Taken out of the plastic bottle for planting:

While down in the garden today I decided to look for proliferations. I was very disappointed to only find one named variety in my garden that had any proliferations. 'Red Ribbons' actually had proliferations on every scape that it has formed so far.


I also had two early blooming NOIDs that had proliferations on every scape, here is one that actually had three proliferations in a stair step pattern on one scape.

You can have mine . One that looks like two scapes on a seedling appears to be a proliferation with its own scape. Since there are two more scapes, it makes the plant look like it has four scapes. Too bad I didn't much like the bloom . I should try and see if I can get that in a photo.

I tried to get a photo (and it'll have to be enlarged to see what's what) of the seedling which has a prolif that grew a scape and bloomed. The original scape is the dead one which has finished blooming and died down to where the scape grew. The scape on the prolif is the one with the pod at the top. There are two more scapes showing here, the most recent one on the fan on the left and the taller one on the right which has started blooming now. This all started from a single fan this spring. A lot of bloom I didn't expect. I wish I really liked the bloom, but there it is . Hope you can tell from the photo. Photos like this are really, really hard to take so you can tell anything about what you're trying to show.

Super cool to learn about this possibility!

I see what you mean, Donald. That plant sure likes to produce bloom!

In mid January I potted up some proliferations from a tall growing vigorous NOID, probably old, but definitely magnificent red daylily. It was very hot at the time. Today I found a scape with a prolif in a tub of water that has had gardenia cuttings in it for over a year. My daughter severely pruned the gardenia and I didn't want to waste the cuttings some of which were branches. I have gradually potted them up as they grew huge roots.

The daylily scape was a brown shell. The prolif had long roots so l had to find a big pot for it. I wouldn't recommend this method. However, prolifs from my other cultivars have been small and not made it even given ideal conditions. Maybe when those plants are bigger.

Btw. Anyone know if there is a relationship between propensity for making prolifs and fertility? My big red NOID has never had a pod on it, unlike many other less established cultivars. And it certainly bloomed more than most others I have.

I haven't had time to do any pollen dabbing, but have raised a few bee pod seedlings. By the time I try a few crosses I should be good at raising the seedlings here.

bron said:Btw. Anyone know if there is a relationship between propensity for making prolifs and fertility? My big red NOID has never had a pod on it, unlike many other less established cultivars. And it certainly bloomed more than most others I have.

I think that's a good question. It has occurred to me as well. 'Green Arrow' seems to be a difficult podder here. It can and sometimes does, but it just doesn't take as readily as I'd expect. It does readily produce proliferations here. So I've wondered if plants that are using an alternative means of reproducing are correspondingly less willing to make seeds. I don't grow enough or have enough experience with daylilies to know if there is a parallel to any degree or not. It was just a thought that occurred to me. Half the scapes on 'GA' have prolifs this year. It didn't set a pod. It doesn't have the extreme form that are generally hard to get pods from, but there are always other factors.

Donald - THAT is a good theory. You might be on to something there. I wonder if Maurice or Sue could answer that question for us?