Hi Marg,
I have seen people in favour of both side of this issue.
I have never trimmed my daylily seedlings. They get tall and gangly but I find no matter how early I start them they eventually stop going up and start getting bigger around. After hardening them off outside they get pretty beat up with the wind we get and after transplanting I find most of those leaves die off anyways. They start again from the center. This never seems to hurt them and I have had the odd one bloom that first summer I plant them out. I think leaving the whole leaves makes them develop a better root system for when I transplant them and that is why they take off outside even though those first leaves die. I trim those dead leaves off after the new ones start just to make the seedling patch look neater.

Debbie

I had never really thought about it with daylilies before, but some plants will put up more branches when you cut them back. I think of it kind of like a defense mechanism where the plant says "ok, if I can't grow there, I'll try some other places." If you cut a crape myrtle tree to the ground and don't do anything to the roots, you end up with bunch of crape myrtle suckers that will grow into new trunks if untouched.

Do you suppose a daylily would be more likely to sprout new fans if you stress it by cutting it back occasionally?

Just a thought.

Nate

I was curious for the same reasons Nate. I think I will cut a few back and leave the rest, see what happens. BTW Nate, the pot I had planted up with 5 seeds and 6 grew? When I transplanted the seedlings, I found 5 had seed casings attached, the 6th one didn't and I couldn't find any in the soil either. Marg

Neato. I wonder if it will be an identical twin to one of the others.

Nate