Mary,

Sorry about the color confusion. To me Parrots of the Caribbean looks red orange with a light base. Can't Touch This is a dark red with a yellow base. They look very different, CTT is bigger and showier, but POTC is so pretty in a clump and I just love it because it is pretty orange to me. I will post pictures of both for comparison.

Can't Touch This


Parrots of the Caribbean


As to Ocean Rainbow, it was me who sold the DF for $50.00. I sold all I had of it. Someone else has a SF (single fan) listed for $50.00 right now.

Dot

Dot, thanks for sharing your photos, they are beautiful and I will add them to my wish list and keep my eye out next year. POTC is so festive looking, makes me want to get out the Salsa.
I was only asking about OCEAN RAINBOW because it looked like one I got from Maryott's called JERRY NETTLES. Oh my, it is sooooo beautiful, and it is photogenic. I have just never seen a bad picture of it.

Can't Touch This is being sold on the auction right now, but it ain't cheap lol.

Yes, now you see why I love POTC so much, it is a showy little critter. Oh and I almost forgot, it was FREE. The year of introduction I had ordered some stuff from Dan Trimmer, but not that one, even though I loved it, it was a bit pricey and I wanted something else more at the time. Anyway, I was unwrapping my daylilies and lo and behold, there was a fan of POTC in with another daylily. I was afraid he had sent me one that belonged to someone else, so I called them. They were surprised, but said to keep it. I was ecstatic to say the least. Now I have a whole clump of the gorgeous thing.

Dot

Wow! That is awesome! I will put it on my 'Want List' and just see what happens.

Thank you Dot for the comparison. I think now I will just have to check them both out. I really prefer your description of Can't Touch This because yellow is my favorite color, but an orange base is alright too. I've seen a few pictures along the way of POTC that seem to show the base color faded to what I call parchment or old paper color. One of my things in daylilies is to have it be true to it's name and actually last a day. So being colorfast (or with only very minor fading) is an important attribute for me. Your drop dead gorgeous picture of POTC doesn't look like old faded brown paper to me at all, so I hope the other pictures I saw were just off color.....Yeh, I know they are expensive, which is why I want to make sure that I get a bang for my buck. How lucky you were to get POTC as a freebie. But you do such a good job of caring for your daylilies that it was great advertisement for Trimmer to send one to you............thanks again Dot.....Maryl

Tina, last spring I germinated some daylily seeds. Planted them outside about midsummer. Mulched them well, and about half of them bloomed this summer (some flowers were prettier than others!) Granted, we had a warmer than normal winter, but still got cold, and we had a longer & warmer spring & summer.

I am hoping by next year to have 100% of them blooming, but we will see ~Jan

Maryl and Jan, you are giving me such good info! I've been immersing myself these past two days in cold frame uses and construction for late-started seeds and seedlings, and I'm so encouraged to hear that spring-planted seedlings can be far enough along to winter over okay. It looks like a cold frame might be easy to put together with pvc pipe and a clear honecombed plastic (coroplast) ... I can't thank you enough for the encouragement to get the late-started seedlings through this winter, and to make plans to get new spring-seedlings into the ground by mid-summer.

I have alot of young seedlings that I will be over wintering in containers.
Keeping fingers crossed they make it through the winter.They will be protected from the harsh northen wind we get in January Brrrrr its allways so cold here in January.
I will also be winter sowing daylily seeds as well in containers.

Wow, I did not know you could wintersow daylily seeds!

Wait a minute, I don't have any seeds.

Wow - beautiful photos! Love that POTC and Cant Touch This..........but they will have to go wayyyyy down the want list for now until the price drops! I agree the POTC is so festive! Such a fun combination of colors!!

Genna

Genna, Dot got it for free! That is whats so awesome! I got 5 daylilies that I could not afford for free at Maryott's. RACHELLE AGIN-90.00, ARTISTICALLY ENGRAVED-100.00, PARTUTA-100.00, COMING ALIVE-100.00 & BLUEGRASS MEMORIES -40.00. The most expensive one I ordered was 28.00, plus I got 12 BOGO's. You can make out real good with Maryott's with those BOGO's. WhooHoo!

Wow Susan. I'm impressed with Bill's generosity on those bonus plants. He really is a gem to do business with......I ordered some oldies but goldies from Earlybird daylilies this fall and she sent me a bonus that we'd talked about before but that I could only lust after because of the price. It was so generous of her and her plants are the absolute cleanest of any I've ever gotten (and never any rust). Robin says she may be having a pre- holiday sale this October for next spring delivery that will include a really nice discount if you pay in advance. I'll be taking a peek to see what's what next month myself (although I shouldn't)......Maryl

Earlybird's website http://www.earlybirddaylilies....

Maryl, I see you gave me a link. I am tempted, they look nice and I will check it out next month, if I have any room left in the yard. I just really need to get to my car.

Bill is a very, very nice man.

susan

This was a great thread to read!!!

I need to dig up all my beds around August to get ready for a move and am wondering if I should attempt the pine bark/sand mixture since the move may not occur until next spring. Does the pine bark cause any issues with crown rot or disintegrate?

Edited to add - I can't find Pine Fines here but what is sold as soil conditioner looks to be the same thing???

You don't really want big chunks of pine bark, just what they call the "fines" - the littler pieces. As I said I have a wire screen (around 1/4 inch holes) that I run a bag of bark mulch over to let the fines fall through. Some good nurseries may carry the "fines". Combine the bark fines with builders sand, compost, and acquarium gravel (the sharp edged kind - not the round pebbly kind. It comes in colors and I favor blue just so that I can see how much I've added) and perlite. Since you are going to over winter yours in pots it's crucial that the mix drain well. Squeeze a hand full of the prepared mix and if it clumps up too much add some more rough material........Good luck with your move.........Maryl

Maryl said:You don't really want big chunks of pine bark, just what they call the "fines" - the littler pieces. As I said I have a wire screen (around 1/4 inch holes) that I run a bag of bark mulch over to let the fines fall through. Some good nurseries may carry the "fines". Combine the bark fines with builders sand, compost, and acquarium gravel (the sharp edged kind - not the round pebbly kind. It comes in colors and I favor blue just so that I can see how much I've added) and perlite. Since you are going to over winter yours in pots it's crucial that the mix drain well. Squeeze a hand full of the prepared mix and if it clumps up too much add some more rough material........Good luck with your move.........Maryl

I usually pot w/ Promix but it's to expensive for mass quantites, so looking for a less expensive solution for a light weight mix.

I'm not familiar with Promix so can't comment on it one way or the other. Is Miracle Grow potting mix too expensive? You could try that as a base, but you would have to add lots more perlite and other amendments to it. I can't give you an exact recipe or ingredients for your area, just make sure whatever you settle on doesn't clump in your hand when you finish the final blending. Also watch the moisture your daylilies receive over winter. The roots will go dormant and if you add too much water they will just rot. .....Maryl