Hello my daylily friends!!
So my love for daylilies began in 2014. I'm just a simple backyard/hobby gardener, and, at the risk of opening a Pandora's Box, I'm looking for advice on what to use for record keeping.

I want (okay, I confess!) actually, I need something fairly simple and user friendly. Perhaps an app or program with charts (would really like charts), and Google or Cloud backup/storage that can be synched between mobile devices and the pc/laptop. I've researched apps and either they're too involved or they just stink, but I might've missed something. I haven't the time or patience to randomly download apps or programs to try them out in hopes that luck is on my side. Something tried and true.

I want to track annual bloom time, weather patterns, garden location, hardiness, fertilizer regimen, etc, and add notes. You know, the basic stuff, and the less setup the better. I know there's no perfect solution, but I need something, and I'm done with researching!

Hi Dana, I am afraid I won't be much help, because I only use Excel to list purchases and where they are located in my garden, so that is probably not what you are looking for. But I just wanted to say "Welcome!" to the daylily addiction .

Lol Vickie, anything is a great help!

There is an app version of Excel, which I wouldn't mind using at all. The problem is, my very cheap tablet konked out, and the app requires 1gig of space, of which my android smart phone doesn't have bc it's space is nearly maxed out. I have to clear space quite often on the darn thing.

Yeah, give a cell phone a 13 megapixel camera, and only an 8 gig memory! Smart, real smart!! Taking add-on apps out of the equation (not one game included or added in) and the phone is off and running with a whopping 3 gig of space to work with right out of the factory! Got a 32 gig micromini SD card, but the darn phone doesn't allow for much picking and choosing of where new/extra apps are stored ....although, all of my photos are stored on the card and backed up to the Google cloud. and yet there's 24 gig of space just waiting to be filled

Perhaps my expectations for a cell phone are too high??

The I-pad Pro (the one with the large screen) has all the bells and whistles you are looking for Dana.

Thank you Judy!
I'll look into it!

I second Vickie's recommendation; after trying MS-Word (still useful for some things, but not for things like bloom time), I now use Excel for tracking bloom time, last pot or division/replant date, and short notes (like: RUST!). I use different pages to track: tets, dips, tet seedlings, dip seedlings, new seedlings (in the seedling beds) and so on. (I should really put a column in there for fertilizing. )

I have also found Excel useful for notes on cultivars whose heritage (and rust susceptibility) I want to trace or estimate.

MS-Word does have its uses though. For each plant, I have a page (sometimes two) in a file (the files are done alphabetically, so all "A", "B", "C" etc cultivars are in the same file). After the (bolded and much larger font) name/title, I use the hybridizer's bloom image (until I can replace it with my own), followed by the pertinent registration stats (hybridizer/year, tet/dip, foliage, bloom and scape size, budcount and branching, special features such as EMO/CMO fragrance, etc).

Beneath that is the AHS brief color description, and below that I will (if it can be found) often copy the hybridizer hype (their paragraph(s) describing the plant).

Beneath THAT are three or four lines: Parentage, Source (where I got the plant from), Location (where it is in my garden), and Awards.

Finally (this is where the second page may come in) I may have to add some notes of my own (more than there is room for in Excel or on the first MS-Word page for the plant). This can be on bloom behavior (colors, cold night/day opening issues, consistency, substance, texture), pest or disease susceptibility, breeding performance, garden performance/value, whatever. If I give the plant away, I may note who I gave it to.

I decided at some point not to remove the MS-Word file entries if a plant is removed from the garden, or goes MIA, or dies. I will change the text color to RED (which indicates that the plant is no longer in my garden), and remove extra or detailed data that I no longer need (the hybridizer hype and so on), and I will add a short note as to what happened or why I punted the plant. (Doing this keeps that cultivar data limited to one page, but it is valuable to look at if I have second thoughts about the plant, or if I had forgotten I even had the plant at one time.)

You can see that all of that DETAILED information is too much for a spreadsheet, so MS-Word does have its uses.

But if you want an overview of what is blooming in your garden at any point in the season, or a quick trait comparison between different daylilies, or to see what needs division or fertilizing, then yes, Excel is your friend! (I recently found out that I could have it order the plant entries based on column data such as bloom size or height! Heaven!)

If you keep a separate page for new garden purchases for the year, you can use the Autosum feature to add up your total expenditures! (Then again, maybe that is information that you don't want to know... )

You may also find it useful to insert a 1" .jpg image of the daylily in the first or second column of the Excel entry. (You will end up with something like 5 lines per entry to fit that 1" image in there, and you may not be able to make use of the sort function at that point, but I have found adding that small image useful when recording seedling field notes so it is all good.)

Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do!

@Polymerous: I don't suppose you've created a template for your work?

No, sorry.

It's not anything special.

For bloomtime, the first column is the cultivar name. The second column I use as a counter (at the bottom of the page, not seen, there is an autosum of how many cultivars are on that page; this makes it easy for me to know how many tets, tet seedlings, dips, etc. I have). Thereafter, bloom time is recorded on a quarter monthly scale, beginning in April and ending in October. Each quarter is one Excel column; I start the quarters on the 1st, 8th, 16th, and 24th of each month (multiples of 8). I leave room in each column to record the exact date of FFO and LFO. This makes it relatively easy to record bloom times. (Sometimes I miss the FFO or LFO, so there is no date. Sometimes I may forget to record (or be out of town) if a plant is in bloom during one quarter, in which case it gets an "?".)

Since most cultivars don't bloom at all here in April, those columns can also be used to insert short notes (such as the plant is weak, MIA, dead, or to be removed; the plant got rust, and so on).

Here is a screenshot of part of the diploid Excel sheet for bloom last season:

I am using plantstep software, I'm just a hobby gardener and you know my garden is really small.
Since I am a programmer I never loved much Excel (I have to admit it's useful) so I wnet ahead and bought Plantstep software. IF and WHEN I remember to record the garden data the program is really useful. Maybe an excel spreadsheet give you more flexibility and you can add just the data you want, I simply can't stand scrolling lines and columns

I use Excel to record everything for the garden. Most files are simple lists with info in the boxes done either horizontal by rows or vertical by column. My seedling records are a bit different with a template. Excel makes it easy to adjust the width of the rows or columns to fit the amount of info I want to record. I print out the pages and put them on a clipboard to take to the garden.


This thread has a lot of ideas and chat about the different record systems members use.
The thread "Do You Keep A Record?" in Daylilies forum

Another thought is the Plant List system here on NGA. I don't use it so I'm not certain how flexible it is to record everything you want or the details of how it works. You can find the Plant List feature under Tools and Apps above in the tool bar.

I have a couple of spreadsheets on my daylilies. My main spreadsheet has pictures and that one does not sort well for me. The pictures want to bunch up when I try to sort by height or bloom size, but I occasionally print my list with the pictures to show friends what I have in case they want a start of one.

I have a spreadsheet that I can use to sort by without pictures. I have yet another spreadsheet that I use to record where purchased, when, and price. Kind of silly, because I should just merge these together, but just haven't done it. One of these days I will get tired of recording changes in all the different spreadsheets and do that, lol!

Oh, and I also keep separate files for who I give daylilies to. When they talk about the daylilies, I want to know which ones they are talking about, even if they don't care about the names. It also helps to ensure that I don't give them the same daylily twice.

Here are a couple of screen shots of my Excel spreadsheets.


In this spreadsheet, I have another worksheet that I have put all the daylilies that are "Not in Garden Anymore". Like Polymerous, I like knowing which ones I got rid of and why.

Great ideas using excel! I need to learn how to use excel. (I've tried in the past, but kept messing it up.). Too bad they don't offer templates like Vickie's which gives you the option to add photos. Great job!!!!

I'm with Cybersix. I use Plant Step. You can check out the program here www. plantstep.com It has an awesome program for hybridizers.

I have Plantstep and used for some time. I haven't used it over the past year, though. I think I need a method that can be done quickly using only the info that I am interested in tracking.

Gosh! Lots of ideas that I'll be pondering!

Keep em flowing guys!!

I'll check out the other.thread too....

I agree with Dana
You all have great data recording!

I have the plantstep program since 2002 and use it to keep track of my daylilies and some of my other plants. Works very well for my purposes as I can easily add or update information plus add pictures for each plant. I consider the price very reasonable plus you get updates at no extra charge.

I use plantstep
You can add pictures and lots of information.

I have used a notepad to record information out in the garden but when the sun is out its hard to see the screen. Plus the process is kind of slow , typing and setting down the notepad to pick up a measuring tape. A hand held voice recorder is much faster because you can walk and talk then put the recorder in your pocket to pick up a measuring tape.

When out in the garden itself, I use a small (3" x 5" or so) spiral bound notebook. I can scribble down notes easily, and stuff it and the pen into my shorts/pants pocket if need be (more usually I stick it back into my caddy, which also has a plastic ruler and a tape measure and other things). In fact, if I am only measuring bloom sizes, I just use the ruler - I can juggle that and the notebook/pen easily. (For measuring scapes, I just wait until dead-scaping and then cut the scapes and bring them back to the patio table to measure; with the caddy/tape measure/notebook all on the table, no hassle.)

Back inside, I tear off the day's pages and enter that data into the computer, leaving a fresh page for the next day's notes.

Unrelated to record keeping, sort of, I find the notebooks extremely useful when pollinating. I don't like having to clip/mark the crosses as I go; instead I madly dash around with the pollen in hand, hitting everything that I think will be a good mate. I do this for a few pod parents (same pollen parent), holding those parents in mind (like a mantra ), and then go back to the patio table and jot them down in the notebook. Rinse and repeat. After all of the pollinations are done, then I can go back and clip the crosses at my leisure. (I almost never use different pollen parents on the same pod parent on the same day. If I do, then I make certain to keep track of which pollen parent was used on which blooms, either by clipping the first set of pollinations before proceeding with the next, or else writing down which blooms were pollinated by which parent ("back 3 blooms x X, front 2 blooms x Y").

All of this now reminds me that I should probably go and buy a new set of notebooks for the year (also useful for making notes when hiking, I might add).

When I go out with a notebook it usually is that I lose the pen. Or the notebook. I put them on an external window shelf, or I think of doing so. The I run around looking for the notebook and the pen. When I finally find them it's too late. I already forgot everything.