I got this idea from another site, but thought it would be good over here. Most of us just jump in and respond to threads or ask a question, but never tell anything about ourselves.
There are some on here that no one knew hybridized or had registered daylilies (we are a modest group). So I thought we could tell a little about ourselves and how we got into daylilies and anything else you want to add.

Ok here goes

I am 39, a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 4 (only get to see one).




I got into daylilies in 2009. I used to hate daylilies and didn't want any EVER (I really don't know why) But when I moved in with my fiance (ex now) and wanted to plant flowers I was looking for things that needed no care. Basically just plant and let them grow like mexican heathers and gaillardia and such. Well, I read somewhere that daylilies had no real pest problems or disease problems and grew in just about any soil so I decided to try some when I saw them at Lowes or Home Depot. Well, they were $5.00 and I was not about to pay $5.00 for a plant that the blooms didn't last that long. I bought other plants in the meantime. When Lowes put them on sale for $2.25 I bought about 10 daylilies. I really liked the eyed ones. I liked the daylilies so much that in 2010 I went to local nursery and they had some for like $2.00 and I got a few more and looked at the big box stores. Everything was good until I got this ugly orange stuff on the daylilies. Then I had to go searching the internet for what the heck it was. Well, I found out what it was of course (rust) and had to figure out what to do about it. While searching for what to use to get rid of rust I found this whole world of daylilies. OMG was I fascinated. I didn't know sooooo many different kinds existed. While looking on the internet at daylilies I came across the message boards and started lurking. I also had gotten some seed pods from the local nursery since they don't use the seeds and thought I'd just plant some and get the same ones that I liked (didn't know they don't come true from seed) I came across threads on hybridizing and read that it takes 2-3 years to see a bloom. I said the heck with that (didn't realize that was northern states)!!! I found people selling daylilies on the message boards for good prices and also postage for daylilies so by September 2010 I had aquired about 150 daylilies. On the cubits thread Fred (Spunky1) told me about the daylily club in Pensacola and said they were having a meeting the following Monday and I went with my friend Kim. Kim, Fred, And James Hall started talking hybridizing and I said I wanted no part of it. Then I found out it doean't take 2-3 years here to get blooms. Kim said she really wanted to do it so I said ok. She had moved in with me after her heart attack so I could help her and we started planting more daylilies. I had no clue what I was doing so I just read everything I could about daylilies. I went to Fred and Kathleen's to get some fungicide for the rust and I saw how he had his beds built and decided that is how I wanted mine. They told me what to do and not to do in hybridizing and explained things that I didn't know.
We had a fenced off area that used to be the goat pen and in March of 2011 started building raised beds and I began hybridizing. Next year I will get to see my results. Can't wait to see my babies!!! That is how the addiction began.
I have had a lot of help from Fred in what to do. He has saved me a lot of years of mistakes by telling me how he does things and what works for him. I also have started selling on the lily auction so I can buy new daylilies to use in my hybridizing.

Any time I have a break from the daylilies I'm tending to my goats or spending time with my granddaughter.






Ok so that's the long story short so let's hear from the rest of you.

Tink this is a great idea. Loved your story and you are just so pretty, just needed to let you know that. Here is mine.
I don't have a lot of Pics. of me as I am always the one taking Pics. but this is My Husband Jim and Myself in the Back Middle, Brother Mike and wife Krista on the left and Brother Bob and wife Jackie on the right and Dad :
"Bud" in the middle before he passed on.Many Many moons ago I was helping my dad care for my mother 1068-1972. She had MS. I had so much time on my hands and in the yard a few of her plants bloomed and I fell in love with flowers. I became obsessed. I planted and purchased anything that would grow,.I had seeds coming up everywhere in the house. We had to eat in front of the TV as the table was covered with seedlings. I bought books and read and studied. I learned a lot of Latin from that and my dad was a Pharmacist and my Mother a Nurse Anesthetist so that helped.
After she could no longer be cared for at home I went to work at the Sheriff Office and retired after 20 years there in 1995 and worked as a House Parent for a cple years at a Youth Home here. All the while I kept gardening and people came to me for advise on a regular basis. I went to work at the local greenhouse as a grower and plant specialist. I always in the back of my mind remembered a neighbor of my parents bringing my mother these pretty yellow daylilies in a vase with a few white Peonies. It was just beautiful. I never did see any nice ones other than those-just the orange ditch lilies. One day I decided there had to be more to them by now so sent for a catalog from Floyd Cove Nursery that I saw an Ad for in one of the Magazines we had at the Greenhouse. The rest is history, I was hooked at how they had progressed.
We bought a little business in Dec. 1999 The Snack Shop and in 2003 started an Ice Cream Shop " 38 BELOW " with it. We just sold it and retired Sept. 1. so now I can devote the time I need to the Daylilies I hope will become Winners. Actually I just want beauties and everyone else to enjoy them.
I am Married to a wonderful Man Jim. We will have been married 28 years in November. No children but a lot of nieces and nephews have filled the void.
It has been 4 years now since I planted my first Hybrids just to enjoy. The last 2 years I have been in the process of developing myself into what I hope.



some of the seed beds



My First Seedling

Great thread! I am headed to the east coast for training, will respond when I return. Love the photos and history ~Jan

Two great stories.
I have been doing something with farming ever since I got out of the military in 1969, even in Vietnam several of us planted a garden because we wanted something to eat besides those sea rations that was packed back in the 1940s. I have had a hog farm, rabbit farm and was a bee keeper for several years. I have always had another job during these other non profit adventures to keep from starving. I meet Kathleen in 1978, I owned a auto repair shop in Pensacola and she was lucky enough to bring her car to me when it started giving her trouble. I never did fix that car but we have been taking care of each other ever since, we bought her another car. We sold the house and business in Pensacola in 1990 because I was working for Goodrich Aerospace in Foley Alabama by this time and wanted to be closer to my job. We found the place where we are now located after six months of looking. It's five acres and was completely cleared when we moved in, had a couple of trees near the house but nothing else but pasture.
Soon after moving I discovered daylilies from a person I worked with, he was in the business of selling so I went to look at what he had and I did buy a few to plant around the house. The following year this person became ill and ask if I wanted to buy all his daylilies, we did and planted 800 in rows like corn. We had never sold a daylily but soon realized we had to do something with these things. We put an add in the Pensacola news paper and the response was nothing short of a stampede. People really did like daylilies. Someone from that first weekend sale told us about the Pensacola daylily club, we joined and attended meeting and entered shows for several years. We left the Pensacola club along with a lot of others because the leadership had become a dictatorship. We joined the Mobile club and have been active members in club and Region 14 activities for many years. About four years ago I was asked to do a program for the Pensacola club and was shocked at the change the club had made. There were lots of people I had never seen, only a couple of the old timers. The club is about 95% ladies and all are ready to do what needs to be done without having to beg for volunteers. We rejoined the club a couple of years ago and couldn't ask for a better group of people to spend an evening with.
We have been members of the AHS since 1995, both of us are garden judges, I am also an exhibition judge and instructor. We are an AHS display garden and grow about 400 registered daylilies, down from 1200 in the early days. I registered my first daylily in 1999 and have registered less than 40 since. I was able to retire seven years and the daylilies keep me out of the recliner and out of Kathleen's hair.
Music is first love and I plan all daylily doings around my music dates. I may miss a daylily meeting but never miss a music date. When you have a band everyone has a job to do and you must be commited to do that job.

Fred wonderful story. You have done well indeed. Love the Roy Orbison pooch

Great stories!! I will post later on. For now, I'm just enjoying you all. Blessings, Mona

I'm shy, my name is Dot and I am a hemoholic.

Are you sure you want to hear my boring story? I am retired from building electronics for the F16 for 24 years. It was a privilege to be able to do this for my country for so long. Plus being able to be retired for 10 years now is awesome. I'm not rich but I am indeed blessed. I have a grown son who takes care of me and helps me with my daylily addiction. I also have 2 spoiled rotten cats that rule the roost.

My first love was tall bearded irises. I belonged to the Fort Worth Iris Society for many years, but got tired of going to meetings after a few years and dropped out. But I still love and grow my irises. All of my flower beds are full of irises. Due to only having a city lot I have no room for daylilies, SOOOOO I just grow them in pots all over the place. Actually they are much easier to weed like this. Most of them are planted in whiskey barrel size pots or at least tree size. I have no idea how many daylilies I have as I'm way too lazy to go out there and count them. I have no electronic programs to catalog them as this is just way too much trouble also. Can you say lazy and retired LOL? I would estimate that "maybe" I have about 150 varieties, they rotate in and out here so much it is impossible to keep an accurate count. I buy new varieties every year and pollinate and sell seeds on the auction, this supports my habit. I also sell irises in the early spring. Selling irises also helps me buy new daylilies LOL.

One year I decided to plant some seeds, because it just looked like fun. Well taking care of them was just too much work and space restrictions didn't let me grow too many, so now I just make seeds and let other people plant them LOL. Now wouldn't you just know that my best seedling is a plain old yellow one. My icon is my seedling, a cross of So Many Stars X Sherry Lane Carr.

Here is another seedling that I have named for my greatgrandaughter Alexandra Paige, not that it has extraordinary branching and budcount, I just like it and that is all that is important to me. It is a cross of Bold Encounter X So Many Stars. I plan on registering Alexandra Paige, when I get around to it. Then I will send her Mom a piece of it.

Alexandra Paige



another seedling I have put my grandaughters name on, might register it, Rebecca Anne, (Sherry Candy X Princess Diana)



part of back raised iris beds



some of my irises



a spoiled rotten "Shadow" on the coffee table



I grow my own seedlings just for fun, I know they are just ordinary, but they are my babies.

Dot in Texas
A friend and I a few years ago.


Last but not least another rotten cat, Casper

Oh Dot, All your babies are so beautiful. I love your cats. I'm a really big lover of all animals. I feel that it is one of my purposes in life to try to make life easier on all animals in my space. This includes tame and wild. I love them all.

I'm a huge fan of TB Iris. I can not say which I actually like better. I think the Iris is actually more regal and beautiful than daylilies, yet I grow way more daylilies. I've left my Iris to fend for their self for 3 years now. I must get the to growing again. I have love Iris since I was a child and my grandmother grew them in her yard. I just couldn't get enough of looking and smelling them. That's a long long time ago.

We have 2 cats now. Our Munchkin cat is about 14 years old. He's a Russian Blue that we got at 4 weeks old from the vet. Someone had left him on his front porch steps over night. He's a dead out Russian Blue. INDEPENDENT!! Arrogant! Obstinent! He is only loved at his convience and only for a very small amount of time then. Let me tell you, you really don't know you have a cat with him. Then came Orange Cat about 5 months ago. He just showed up one morning and hasn't left. My DH swears he's not staying so I haven't had him fixed yet. I'd say he might be a year old, maybe. He looks just like Morris the Cat. He acts like a cat. Doing the under foot thing that I had forgot with Munchkin. He beats up on both our dogs and he and Munchkin stare at each other for hours. I think they had a few fights early on but Munchkin is our in house cat(he goes out when he wants) and Orange Cat stays outside for now. I'm sure when it gets really cold, I'll have him inside with or without DH blessing. I've got to get him neutered, soon.

Then we have Conrad, about 11 or 12 year old dog. He's an overgrown beagle and boxer mix that was abused before we got him 10 years ago. He'd rather hunt a rabbit than eat. Up until about 2 years ago, he did just this for hours aday. It was a sight. He and now departed Dixie(just died 3 months ago) girl would chase a rabbit, while the rabbit set in the garden about 10 feet from me watching for them to catch up and then the rabbit would make a big ciricle and come back to the daylily beds and wait again. it was something to see!!

Jazz is my love. He showed up 4 years ago on a very cold January night. He was setting under the big oak in the front yard when I came in from baby sitting one of my grandchildren. He was huge, starved, frozen and dirty. When I opened my car door, he bounded like a baby deer into the car with me and has been my lap puppy since. He's appears to be a lot part Boxer and maybe Great Dane. He weighs around 85 pounds, rust brown with black eyes and mask and 4 pretty white feet. He sleeps with me when I let him.

We, is made up of DH of 40 years, daughter(30) with her 4 year old daughter(Emma Grace is my love beyond reason) for the last 3 years and son(they don't live with us) beloved DIL, 5,3,1 year olds and another in progress(maybe). The birth of my first grandson 5 years ago was earth moving for me. Never had I imagined of love like him. I don't get to see them as much as I like, but I go about every 2 months and stay 3 days or more to give DinL a break.

I started growing daylilies in 1999. I bought several at Lowes for cheap in the fall. This led to the internet to see where I could find more and I was lost and addicted!! I grow 90% of mine in pots. Most in 3 gallon and best in 5 gallon. So far I'm up to 1500 pots and it grows everytime I repot 1 pot becomes atleast 3 most of time. I'm repotting 800 pots from 5 years ago that had not been done since. I have 400 of the 800 done and these 400 became 1100 when they were repotted. Plus I still have another 400 or so that need to repotted. I have terrible clay soil. This is the reason for the pots. I have lost maybe 10 daylilies since I started growning in pots. Most of these were to Voles. I've had 2 or 3 lost to crown rot and this was my fault for planting too deep. I also bought one bag of soil that had the water crystals in it long ago and this planted rotted. Naturally it was Mort Morss, one that I had saved for 2 years. It died over winter the first year and I just know it was that soil.So now I use Miracle Grow Garden Soil and mini pine bark chips mixed. I just started using this this summer, so far so good. I'll know the rest of the story after this winter. Our winter can range from 10 below to 75 degrees in mid January. We usually have 3 to 4 weeks of cold weather and the rest of the time it's not too bad. It just that we never know how long the ccold will last. We have gone a whole week without it getting above 32 degrees and that's bad for us.

I bought many seeds in 2005. This is were most of my seedling came from. I grew alot myself too in 2005 and grew them too. In 2007, I got to buy about 75 good plants. This was a gift from my wonderful Mother n Law. A very special person that left me the money when she died. I loved her like a second mother and she loved me. She is dearly missed. I haven't bought many plants since then. Just a few along as I could. I had 3 years of bad health that kept me inside way too much. This year has been better. I thrive on being outside. I love the sun and the heat. I freeze in the winter. I'm an old mother bear in winter and really should hybrinate without any visitors until the sun shines in the Spring!!!

My hope is to sell plants and seedlings come Spring. I have thousands of pictures to get organized over winter. I've got 95% of all labeled true. I have some seedlings that have more than 1 orginal seed in a pot, so they can have more than 1 named seedling to pot. By named I mean that I know the parents. I will sell these by pictures and parents. I have some that are unknown that I will just sell by pictures. I've sold a few seeds several years ago, but I haven't sold named plants. I will sell named plants now that they are in good pots and will be in great shape. I could not sell any until I got them to growing big and pretty. I plan to use the Lily Auction and the web site "Growing Daylilies Together". I'm new to this one, so I'll have to see the rules. I also hope to sell some locally. Great Plans, I'll just have to see what happens come Spring. Oh yes, I have 3 years of seed resting very comfortally in the fridge that I'll start to plant soon. I haven't registered any but maybe in a year or two.

Busy busy busy. Now, if I can just keep enough "go" to get some things done.

Blessings to all, Mona

Welcome Dot, your seedlings are really nice. I hope you do well Mona, the lily auction is a great place, but you will have lots of competition. When we first started on the auction there were only three people selling seed, now there are to many to count.

Thanks Fred. Wow you get up early. I didn't go to sleep until after 3am.

I loaded a couple of pictures.

These should be one of Emma Grace, she and her mother live with us. She's 4.

One of Conrad, the white dog.

Jazz is the brown dog. He's the one that will sleep in my lap in the recliner.

I also made one that Maryott's sent me as a bonus. New Paradigm It bloomed out the last 2 days with temps at 32 degrees at night!!

Mona,

Your babies are so cute, thanks for the pictures.

In my pots I use half potting soil and half fine pine bark mulch. Sometimes the fine bark mulch is hard to find and I use whatever brand I can find. The daylilies love this mix. I then add my time release fertilizer Nutricote or Dynamite (the one you can buy at Home Depot). Then when I fertilize I spray with a liquid fertilizer. I water them faithfully every other day in the heat of summer, which was brutal this year. We had 71 days of over 100 degrees.

Dot

Hello! I am Lila and I live in the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. I have been "into" daylilies for years. We live very close to Andre Viette's garden and nursery. At one time they were the leading experts on day lilies and perennials. I am married to my best friend, Vince. and we will celebrate our 40th anniversary this year. We have two married children, a son and daughter. Our son and wife have three of our precious grandchildren (2 girls and a boy) and our daughter and her hubby have two year old twin boys. We have two very special pups...an Aussie mix and a Westie. After the Lord, and family, my great love is gardening...followed by genealogy and family history.

The past few season I have really gotten "into" unusual form day lilies. Firefly Frenzy is one of my favs and any unusual white daylily. I have finally begun to appreciate the newer "eyed" day lilies after the name of one "Square Dancer's Curtsy" caught my fancy.

I am excited to join with folks who share and understand my addiction to day lilies!!1 LOL

lila
LHBlueRidge

Welcome Lila! You certainly live in a lovely area!

Nice to have you here.

Hi Lila

I think you will really enjoy this group -- and lots of daylily pictures of both registered daylilies and seedlings!

Hi Lila,

I, too, am into the UF's. And remember "Square Dancer's Curtsy" when at the Texas Convention. Lovely.

Join in the threads, share pics and enjoy the group!

Lila, I'm sure you will love ATP, it's a wonderful place to play and learn!!

Lila, so glad you are joining us. A great sharing and nice bunch of people hang out here.

Welcome Lila - this is a great group of folks here ~Jan