Overview of Daylily Seeds

Daylilies can be inexpensively grown from seeds with the right technique and nurturing.  Avid gardeners find it rewarding to watch a hybridized seedling grow into a plant with colorful blooms. The effort will yield a beautiful plant for years to come. 

Collecting Seeds

The green seedpod produced by a daylily will start to turn brown and crack in the fall. Crack open the seedpod and remove the seeds checking for black seeds only. Place the seeds in a paper envelope and store in a cool dry place until late winter. Flowers produced from the seeds differ from the parent flower in color. Pink flowers may bloom from an orange parent.     

Sterile Daylily

The Tawny Daylily does not have the ability to produce seeds. While this particular orange daylily thrives in the south, it is not a native flower. A gardener somewhere in the past planted each one of these sterile plants. 

Hybridizing Daylilies

To crossbreed or hybridize a plant, choose a pod parent and a pollen parent. Ruffled petals and color variances are some of the unique qualities formed by hybridizing daylilies. Shake the pollen from one plant onto the pistil of the other plant to complete the crossbreeding process. Allow the flower to naturally fall off the pod parent plant.     

Planting Daylily Seeds

When ordering, seeds will be shipped in a moist paper towel that should be removed. Daylily seeds should be stored in a zip lock airtight bag with 2 tablespoons of tap water in the refrigerator for at least 3 weeks to improve germination. The seeds should be started indoors in late winter or in the fall in the Deep South. Seeds that sprout should be potted as soon as possible.  

The seeds should be sown into a 4-inch pot using a potting soil for flowering plants. The soil must be kept moist at all times during germination. An ideal location for the plant is a window sill that receives sunlight. The seedlings are ready to transplant after all danger of frost has past. It may take 2 years or more for the daylilies to bloom.