Getting it to bloom

Why won't my Daylily 'Little Grapette' bloom? (and how to make it flower)

Also called Little Grapette daylily, purple miniature daylily, grape daylily (Hemerocallis 'Little Grapette').

More about daylily 'little grapette'

About Daylily 'Little Grapette'

Hemerocallis 'Little Grapette' · also called Little Grapette daylily, purple miniature daylily · flowering

Hemerocallis 'Little Grapette' is a highly popular award-winning miniature daylily bearing deep purple-violet blooms with a yellow-green throat on short, well-branched scapes in mid-summer. Extremely prolific and ideal for containers, edging, and small spaces. Toxic to cats — ingestion of any plant part, including pollen, can cause life-threatening acute kidney failure.

Plant type: flowering

Watch for — Rootbound in containers: The prolific, fibrous root system fills containers quickly. Repot or divide every 1-2 years to prevent stunted growth and reduced flowering in container-grown plants.

The reasons daylily 'little grapette' isn't blooming

Almost every non-blooming daylily 'little grapette' traces back to one of these, roughly in order of how common they are:

Too little sun — most of these need full sun (or very bright light) to flower well; shade gives leaves, not blooms.
Too much nitrogen feed, driving lush foliage at the expense of flowers (very common with general or lawn feeds).
The plant has not been deadheaded, so it stops flowering once it sets seed.
Irregular watering — drought or waterlogging at the budding stage makes buds abort.
It is still too young or was checked by a transplant and is rebuilding before flowering.

Feeding daylily 'little grapette' a high-nitrogen general feed and growing it in too little sun — you get a big leafy plant and almost no flowers.

The fix — how to get daylily 'little grapette' to flower

Maximise sun. Give daylily 'little grapette' the sunniest spot you have — for most bedding and fruiting plants, more direct light directly means more flowers.
Switch the feed. Move off high-nitrogen feeds and use a higher-potassium "bloom" or tomato-type feed as it comes into flower.
Deadhead regularly. Remove spent flowers often to keep it producing more rather than stopping to set seed.
Water consistently. Keep moisture even through budding and flowering — drought-then-flood swings make buds drop.

Light and feeding do most of the heavy lifting here. Dial in the spot with the light guide for daylily 'little grapette' and get the feeding right with the daylily 'little grapette' fertilising schedule — the wrong feed (too much nitrogen) is one of the most common silent reasons a healthy plant makes leaves instead of flowers.

Bloom season and what to expect

Daylily 'Little Grapette' flowers across its growing season (mostly summer) and, kept fed and deadheaded, can bloom for many weeks or right up to frost.

Post-bloom care so it flowers again

Deadhead, keep feeding lightly, and many will rebloom; collect seed from the best plants at the end of the season if you want to grow them again.

For everything else this plant needs day to day, see the full daylily 'little grapette' care brief and its watering schedule — a stressed, badly watered plant rarely has the energy to flower at all.

Daylily 'Little Grapette' blooming — frequently asked questions

Why won't my daylily 'little grapette' flower?

Daylily 'Little Grapette' blooms on the season's growth given enough sun, warmth and the right feed — there is no cold or photoperiod trick, just good growing conditions and a bloom-leaning feed. The most common reason it is not happening: Too little sun — most of these need full sun (or very bright light) to flower well; shade gives leaves, not blooms.

How do I make daylily 'little grapette' bloom?

Give daylily 'little grapette' the sunniest spot you have — for most bedding and fruiting plants, more direct light directly means more flowers. Move off high-nitrogen feeds and use a higher-potassium "bloom" or tomato-type feed as it comes into flower.

When does daylily 'little grapette' normally bloom?