Daylilies will thrive forever without attention, but eventually they’ll get root-bound enough to stop blooming.
Some cultivars take a long time to reach that point, however.
I’ve never purposely abandoned my daylilies, but when you have several hundred of them growing in your yard, it’s easy to forget which ones have been dug and divided recently.
In August of 2023, my husband helped me dig and divide scores of daylilies. One of them was ‘Baby Bear’:
This cultivar was registered 30 years ago. It’s a dormant daylily that grows only 20 inches tall with adorable 3.25″ violet flowers that have a dark-purple eyezone.
The plant responded immediately to being “unbound” and bloomed for almost a month for me last summer.
‘Baby Bear’ is a front-of the-border daylily that looks great growing next to yellow daylilies or perennials.