Viewing post #559407 by nutsfordaylily

Bonehead said:I'm not often over here on the daylily forum, but just did some early clean-up and one of my old tried-and-true Stella daylilies is becoming a rather formidable mass. It's about a foot or more in diameter and probably a 6-8" tall mounded up mess of roots. I've chunked pieces off this mother-plant on a fairly regular basis and it just keep blooming happily. Should I dig the whole thing up and really spend some time dividing it into more manageable pieces, or can it just be left alone? It appears to be growing on top of itself to form the mound (some of my hardy geraniums do this as well). I have not noticed any diminish in blooms. This particular plant is about 20 years old, dug out of a friend's yard who assured me this plant would grow anywhere. She has certainly been right about that! I have shared it often and replanted many offsprings around and about my yard. Thanks for your expert advice. My gut feeling is to just leave well enough alone. I tried moving a Joe Pye last season and had to enlist the aid of my son to even lift the clump out of the ground, let alone break it up. I fear this daylily would be about the same.

Deb, You don't necessarily have to divide that clump if it's still blooming well, but it would do even better for you if you did. Not only that, but you would have several clumps to spread around in your gardens. Having a bunch in one spot makes a great statement. If you do divide, keep about 5 fans per clump, that way you won't have to wait too long for it to bounce back. A clump that big probably has a lot of dead pieces of roots in it, and that's probably what's causing it to mound up, that and the hairy stuff that comes up with the foliage at the crown (the part where the foliage comes out from the roots). Just remove all the dead stuff before replanting, and wash it off real well.