So, the blooming season is about to end.
I have only one cultivar that will surely rebloom, the others (maybe the flash abundant rains we're having are helping) are putting new growth.

Now I have to make some decision. I know I have to dig out some plants. Now that I have come to see all of them in bloom 50% of them are not really appealing to my eye.

I was an ignorant of the daylilies world, so I bought some for the colors I saw in pictures and that's it.
Some should be moved and some have to go. I know it. But I can't really decide. I don't like them so much but I feel guilty after having adopted them to send them somewhere else.
Well, it was not even a real adoption because I paid for them, and this makes me feel even more guilty because money is money and you don't toss it.
Mine are all old cultivars, not very expensive, I got most of them for 5-10 euros each, but still...

The space is poor, and I have so many precious seeds gifted, many crosses of newest and so great looking cultivars and I could grow some of them.

But how do you decide to part from some of the cultivars you don't like much?

Sorry for the rant!

Sabrina - any time I have had to part with cultivars I didn't particularly like (I also did this with some hosta), I gifted them to friends and family that were looking for something to fill in their own flower gardens and weren't as particular as I am, but were really appreciative of the plants. The really appreciative friends and family also came and helped me dig them! We also have a large landscaping area at our church and they are always looking for donations of flowers that don't require a lot of work. I just figured that the good feeling of gifting them made up for the small expense of buying them in the first place if they weren't one of the higher dollar ones. Just a thought.

Thank you Ginny, I have only one friend really interested in daylilies and she's 155 miles away from me. She's the cat lady of the cat shelter where I adopted my cats, always short on money and I'll gift her some, I never shipped a daylily so I'm afraid to make them suffer in the trip. I don't know if she can take all the ones I want to take off from the garden! But I think the hard part is to take the spade and start digging. I feel like a criminal. These poor plants maybe started to trust me and now I'm going to dig them!

I generally find it easier to get rid of plants if I have gotten into a bad mood. I guess I take my ire out on the plants. Whereas they were still in the garden because I was forgiving, or hated to destroy them, or was just plain procrastinating (maybe giving them a second chance), once my anger has gotten worked up, my bad mood makes it quite easy to say "You're Fired!"

It also helps if you are out of garden space, and you have some new and beautiful plant that you absolutely have to have room for. Make the comparison... I guarantee you that the new and beautiful plant will win every time.

If it helps you any, if you think the plant might be nice or appreciated in someone else's garden (it's not an utterly horrible plant), then you could always pot the plant and put it out on your street (or some random busy street corner) with a sign "Free Plant" (in small letters say what it is). The plant doesn't die (at your hands, anyway) and maybe someone in need (of flowers in their garden) gets a plant that they can appreciate. You will have done a Good Deed.

You mentioned money... I don't even want to think about the money I have spent on plants of all stripes, many of which are no longer here. You have to let go of that... the cost of the plants is irrelevant. What is important is that you are continually learning about gardening, and which plants please you (and which don't), and which plants can survive and thrive in your conditions (and which don't), and your garden is continually improving in tandem from these lessons. You can therefore think of the cost as a gardening tuition of sorts. (That, or you can think of it as an analog to the old saw about boats. "A boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money" becomes "A garden is a hole in the ground into which you pour money." In either case, the point being that some pleasures have an ongoing cost.)

I've gotten rid of tons of daylilies for varying reasons. (And to think I once wondered why people redid their daylily gardens every 2-3 years! ) I've lost count of the number of "nice enough but I have too many or I'm tired of it" daylilies I've given away to various people - but yes, there were also a lot of plants just plain thrown out (for rust susceptibility, or ugly flowers, or too few blooms, or whatever reason). It may have almost killed me the first few times I did it, but it does get easier... (Not easy, mind you. Lots of marginal plants are still hanging around here, when I should have long since given them the boot.)

In that vein, we just dug up 5 clumps of daylilies yesterday. Two were tossed due to ugly flowers or rust susceptibility, but I told my garden helpers they could have the others. I don't know if they took them home with them, or not. By now, their gardens must be full of daylilies... (Sometimes I wonder if they take the plants and sell them at garage sales. ) Later this week, we will be planting the area with some Cuphea, bearded irises, maybe a couple of the potted daylilies, and maybe I can squeeze an azalea in there in the shadiest part of the bed.

In short, I see these daylily removals as improving the garden... and hang the cost.

...So go and improve yours!

Polymerous, many thank for your post! I had to laugh and then agree. I know it's improvement. I spend so much money for testing and researching my scented candles, I know that things are always changing but I see plants as living creatures while waxes and wicks are quite sure dead

I have some good reasons for being angry or upset, at least, so I will use your advice and the moment I'm feeling worst I'll dig them out. But hey. it's 50% of the garden. So. Is it true I don't want them? Or is it only eagerness?

People here don't deserve gifts. I don't like people here. Long story I could tell another time.
Mom and sisters don't have a garden.

I have to get out of this tunnel because I know I have to learn still a lot and learn that plants come and go, after all I only have 19 cultivars. I have to train for when the garden will be bigger!!!

My neighbor has a "sale" every year where she pots up the unwanted plants and sells them cheap to support her ongoing garden habit. She has had pretty good luck with that but we live in a small town so word gets around pretty quickly that there are cheap plants to be had!

Im kinda along the line of the bad mood advice. I wait till its so hot you want to strangle someone, the weeds are high, and the plants are summer dormant. I do get thrown by the healthy roots, but it is what it is. If all else fails, look at your water bill.

I belong to a garden group which consists of 11 members. This spring I made a list of cultivars looking for a new home, and I found homes for my extra plants. If I remove any after bloom time this year, I will do it again and I hope the members will have room for more plants

Is there a local garden club you could join?

Sabrina we have all bought plants on dolled up pictures in the past and present. That's a tough decision, but in your case a necessary evil. Gifting as suggested is the way to go.

I will give away a plant I dont really like, or throw it in the woods and hope it grows. The non performers...usually the pricey ones . Compost.
I have given my opinion many times on these fake pictures. To me, its like bait and switch. I know I know...the weather, different soil conditions, etc. Im sure its not just a problem in the daylily world. It is irritating.
There are a few sellers right now who are using their own pictures on the LA. You have to do a double take to believe that is the flower, but at least when you like something, you know what your liking.

gardenglory said:
There are a few sellers right now who are using their own pictures on the LA. You have to do a double take to believe that is the flower, but at least when you like something, you know what your liking.

The conundrum is that the sellers who use hybridizer's photos to sell their seeds will usually get much better prices for the same seeds than when using their own photos.

You are 100 percent correct. I have even had to start googleing my seed choices as well. I lost the one seeds I wanted from you, and I had bid because the pictures matched up. I have alot of comments on the seed buying/selling on the LA, as Im sure do you. A lesson in some interesting human behavior, thats for sure. I have changed my bidding habits, and certainly my limits, in the past couple of years, thats for sure.

gardenglory said:I will give away a plant I dont really like, or throw it in the woods and hope it grows. The non performers...usually the pricey ones . Compost.
I have given my opinion many times on these fake pictures. To me, its like stealing. I know I know...the weather, different soil conditions, etc. Im sure its not just a problem in the daylily world. It is irritating.
There are a few sellers right now who are using their own pictures on the LA. You have to do a double take to believe that is the flower, but at least when you like something, you know what your liking.

In my opinion it's false advertising when the pictures are enhanced that much. It should at least resemble the pictures shown Lesson learned this year and now I check this site before ordering anything to see how it will actually look

Yes, it is so hard to get rid of daylilies. They are living things, and I seem to get attached to every one. It definitely helps to compare the new ones to the ones to be removed. Perhaps you could donate to a local park, school, church, or botanical garden? I wonder if there are members of NGA who live in Italy who might want them. Maybe they would even trade you for some lavender or something you could use for your soap. Does anyone know how to do a search for members by location on NGA?

About shipping: Daylilies are very resilient. Shipping in Fall or Spring is typically best, since that's when the weather is mild, and the plants are not as stressed. I have had daylilies out of the ground for more than a week, and they lived. I don't recommend that, but 2 or 3 days in the mail won't hurt them. Just wash them well, trim the leaves down to about 4 inches or so, allow them to dry, and wrap in newspaper. Hope this helps, and good luck!

hi Sabrina,

I know what you're going through... a lot of the DL's I bought when I started are cultivars I would not give a second glance now
I bought them at a nursery that only has the really old cultivars ('60-'80), but I didn't know that at the time.
Last year, when I discovered this Forum and the AHS site, my eyes were opened and it turned out I love other forms of flowers much more...

What to do with the ones I don't really want (or: réally don't want ) anymore?
I put some in my moms garden last Autumn but, now that she has passed, they have come back to me

I temporarily solved it by getting more land , but in time I will actually want to get rid of some.
Luckily next year the complex where my allotment is, has it's 100 year anniversary and they will be organising a plant market. Guess who will be selling potted DL's?

Mayo

I had the same thought as Jessie, about donating them to a local park or school, or so on. Even your favorite local business may be interested. If these are new plants in your garden, I'd give them another year, at least, just to make sure they are well settled in. It often takes a while for daylilies to look like they should, and it's a good thing I've waited a while to judge some of mine!

We do have a member map here! There aren't many members in Italy though. You'll have to scroll out to find the right location or country.
http://garden.org/users/member...

You could start by potting them up and putting them on your terrace

Perhaps there are people on the DL Facebook page that you are a member of that would like them?
I'm sure there are people from Italy among them


Mayo

Great question, Sabrina! I have been in the same boat. Finally, now that I've run out of space, it has gotten easier to get rid of some that I'm not infatuated with any more. I didn't even look up how much I had paid for them, because in most cases it was between $6-12. The ones I got rid of weren't bad or anything. Some went to the daylily club to sell and others went to my sisters. The ones I gave to my sisters, I know I can get a start of again if I wanted, but there are so many others that I want!!

I remember digging one up about 3 years ago because I didn't want it anymore. I threw it on top of the mulch and weedmat. The following year, it grew. This year it bloomed, so I am keeping it for a little while longer. It was a NOID that was either Howdy or Magic Dawn. I never did get it figured out.

I was going to dig some up and pot them to sell either this fall or maybe try to sell them next spring during the town wide yard sale.

Once you start getting rid of some, it does get easier, like Polymerous said. Making the cut on the first ones will be the hardest though.

Getting ready here for the removal of a number of daylilies. One that will be going is my avatar. This one was chosen by our daughter at least 12 years ago and it would still be here if the rust hadn't come in a couple of years ago, and devastated it and a lot more that we have. So, "Daughter's Delight" will be sacked and burned along with some of the worst rusters. It is hard to remove daylilies, unless they are really ugly, poor growers/bloomers, or disease infested and when there is a personal attachment such as we have for DD, it's almost like losing a family member. However, we are going to suck it up and take it out--with all the crosses I have done this year, I hope at least one will prove to be good enough to be renamed "Daughter's Delight". Good luck, Sabrina, as other members have pointed out, once you remove the first lot, the next time might not be so difficult.

Avedon, did you actually register this one as Daughter's Delight? Is this it in the database? Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Daughter's Delight')

If this is your daylily, please post a picture in the database! It's so beautiful, and it kind of makes me ill thinking about it being gone forever! Did you sell any of it? I really hate the thought of registered daylilies being lost forever, even if they are rust buckets!