sunday said:Oh, thank you Ann ! You've been doing some pretty impressive things yourself . We'll have to visit each other's gardens this summer. You're like a ten minute drive away !

Sunny, yes indeed! I'd love to visit this summer, and have you come out to our place. Let's do it!

I am very much enjoying all of the stories on this thread. It's fascinating to hear where we've all come from, and what has generated and sustained our collective obsession.

Fred, I like that Lillian's Jack Temple.

Great stories everyone. Thanks Glen, it's a classic spider that does well every where.

If anyone is in need of more gardening gloves, I had started a thread of interest. Sandy is now taking the lead and taking orders. I bought a dozen pair of the 370s while still at DG. I just love these gloves. Below I am posting a link for those that might need a few. They also make great stocking stuffers at just a little over $2. each.

The thread "Interest Thread Atlas Gloves Co-op" in Classifieds and Group Buys forum

I can hardly wait until Spring gets here. It is fun to cyber garden during the winter to pass the time. I search the Plant Files, thumb thru seed catalogs with a hot cup of coffee. Plan out a new bed etc. What do you guys do?

Same thing, Teresa. Except I need to think more about planning a new bed. Or rather, convince my dear, sweet, kind, adorable hubby that I need another one I've kind of run out of space and need a new bed so I can add more.

I wish I could just sit back and cyber garden

We have non-stop gardening duties here The summer weeds have gotten zapped by the cold spells we had but the winter weeds are starting to get into full swing. I just got all my sales plants reorganized; I keep them in alphabetical order and as I divided for orders I put them alphabetically, however, since I shipped at different times I had about 5 different alphabets going on

I am in the process of getting the hybridizing area replanted and boy did I have wayyyyyy to many plants. I had to downsize from about 300 to around 180 or a little more. And that's not counting the 2013s I plan to keep to use, hopefully that won't be too many; that is still wayyyyy too much I am going to have to re-re-evaluate my keepers AGAIN Last year I had 3 across in each row of the beds and I have found that the fast growth a lot of the plants have that the middle plant gets shaded and crowded too much that several were spindly and struggling. So this year I am only doing 2 across and more space between the rows.

After that then I have to get the seedlings I kept from this past season that are potted up transplanted in the new bed I build back in September. I was planning on planting them then but didn't get to it.

We are hosting the Region 12 spring meeting in May 2014 so I'm sure once I get all of the above done we will be getting things done around the garden. Most of the chores are not mine other than weeding, weeding, and more weeding ( around here that's weekly) since this is James Hall's garden, but I'm sure he will find things for us to help with

Wow Michele, that is a full time job isn't it.

YES it is!!!!

Sure sounds like it. Guess living in a warmer climate would have a lot more weeding. Never thought about that before. But I think I could live with that knowing the daylily season is so much longer because of it.

Vickie, I love living in a warmer climate. We do get some freezes but then the next day it may be back in the 70s or 80s; our winters are warm, cold, hot, cold, freeze, warm, cold, freeze, hot, etc. We never know one day to the next what it will be like. On cold mornings, which have been anywhere in the mid 40s to mid 50s, I wear jeans with sweat pants over them (one day I had 2), a shirt plus 2 sweat shirts, and 2 pairs of socks, plus a winter hat. As the day goes on I slowly peel off the layers and there have been some days I wish I would have had capris or shorts instead of my jeans as hot as it got later in the day. And our temps feel so different. I can walk out of the house on 2 different days with the same temps, ex. 50°, and one day it is freezing at 50 and the other day is muggy at 50, so weird. I have even said on some days in the 40s were warmer than some of our days in the high 50s.

I really like living in Kentucky and getting to enjoy all four seasons. So, I get to rest unlike, Michelle lol.

My winter project is getting a barn quilt painted for Mom and one for our storage bldg. Thinking, I need a long bed in the front to showcase the new artwork.

Like Michelle, I live in a warmer climate. It is subtropical here and I love the freedom of loose and few clothes and thongs or flip flops as footwear. It is basically two seasons: hot, cold : wet, dry: growing, little growing.
In this, I am a little biased against 4 seasons. I think back to the gardening books of my youth, which were basically literature dumps from England. I still think most Australian gardening magazines are just southern rags with English roots with a page or column that pretends interest in gardening in the north. I must admit, however, in the last 30 years, native plants have taken off, which has forced some major changes in gardening fashion.
But, here, this time of year is entrancing as plants burst with life and bloom. Alas, they also burst with weed. With the rain I have had to start weeding. I am loathe to while the daylilies are still flowering - I just knock buds off all the time: drives me to despair. For 5 months, daylilies rule, but as the blooming stops, I let the tomatoes, native paper daisies, buttercups and hibiscus, gladiolas, chillies, coleus, sunflowers, pumpkins, cucumber, strawberries, and lilies come through. The daylilies are widely separated. I use natives and apple mint as groundcovers. The apple mint wasn't planned. It just took off.

Glen - Sadly, I can relate to your dilemma of accidentally knocking buds off the daylilies when weeding. Boy! That sure makes me mad! I grow a lot of other plants too, but edibles elude me because of the pests. Bell Peppers are about the only thing I can grow that doesn't get attacked by pests. Plus some herbs. Most of my plants are natives that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I garden for me and for the wildlife. Daylilies are pretty dependable in my garden.

Nope, no garden mentor. Just love plants. Always have for various
reasons, so it has been a love affair with plants all my life. I think they
are so beautiful in so many ways even with their differences. Not weeds
though, do not care one bit for weeds.

As a child, I wanted to plant flowers with the nicest fragrance, because
I had the notion that I could make my own perfumes. Had no idea how
to go about it, but had to give it a try anyway. There's usually a connected goal
in mind also whether it be a plant model for watercolor painting, or in hybridizing,
herbs for cooking, veggies, fruits, nuts, & berries for eating and preserving, various
things for landscaping, or whatever idea strikes my fancy.

Even though we have four seasons, daylilies still take a large slice of
time during the winter, as there are many seedlings inside to care for. Of course,
planning for the next season for crossing, rearranging daylily bed ideas
and such is part of that also.

Admittedly, daylilies take precedence over the many other hobbies that
I enjoy, but I keep telling myself that I will get to those later, and at times
I do. Keeping up with learning about all the various interests takes
considerable time as well.

But, all the aforementioned things are for me the fun part. We all have the usual
mundane chores to keep up. I never have enough time to do all that needs
to be done, and the to-do lists get longer and longer. Little by little, chores
do get done.

All in all, these things maintain a sense of optimism for me, and keep me
a happy, focused, and caring person. Things that have, to date, helped me
through several trying times of life's adversities.

Thoroughly enjoy reading the stories from all of you.

Shirlee, sounds like you are a pretty busy person Hobbie are wonderful to have and I can't imagine life without one. You mentioned using daylilies as models for watercolor paintings. Do you have any pictures of your paintings to show us?

Becky, I do well with edibles: radish, silverbeet, beetroot, lettuce, rocket, asparagus, pumpkin and cucumber, passionfruit, tamarillo. Rocket really takes off here. I just can't do any of the Brassica. The Cabbage Whites and all the other feasters of cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and broccoli are just devastating. It becomes a battleground that I always lose overwhelmingly and desperately.

We have almost the same weather as Michele, maybe a little warmer because of being closer to the water. I have started something new this fall to try controlling the weeds. All our sale plants are potted in the fall and all the boxes are reworked and replanted with what we want to use next year, this really brings the weed seed to the top for almost instant germination. As soon as I pot a daylily I spray the top with Surflan, this will turn the daylily orange until the first watering. I have seen no bad effects and will know if this helps in a couple of weeks. I also do the boxes the same way, every time I rework and plant a section I spray that area with Surflan.

At my age it's time to slow down and do everything I can to maintain my health, I have no help as Kathleen is older than I and is not able. We made the decision to do away with our AHS display area, all those old daylilies that do not preform well will be destroyed. That area will contain show flowers with lots of room to grow well so I can compete with Michele and maybe even beat her.

Normally by this time of year I would have purchased several collections, I have ordered none and thinking I probably will buy only one, when Larry Grace post his. The collections have become a bit too expensive and from watching the lily auction the 2013s are not selling very well. I also hardly ever use anything from those collections to hybridize with. So I will only buy what I plan to use, which will be very few, since I am now working with a lot more dips.

We will continue to be members of the AHS and still attend Regional functions, we have even discussed attending the Region 12 meeting in Pensacola next May to support that club as they sure supported our club this year. I will continue to judge shows but will no longer teach exhibition judging at the Regional Meetings. I have been president of the Mobile Club for three years, this will end in January. All the things we are discontinuing has nothing to do with the AHS, any club, or any person, we just need to slow down.

spunky1 said: As soon as I pot a daylily I spray the top with Surflan, this will turn the daylily orange until the first watering. I have seen no bad effects and will know if this helps in a couple of weeks. I also do the boxes the same way, every time I rework and plant a section I spray that area with Surflan.


See Fred, you mentor even when you aren't trying


My beds don't get very bad with weeds at all (it's the other person's beds ), probably because I use Snapshot or Preen and when I see a weed I pull it, but I do need something for the pots. Let me know if it helps


That area will contain show flowers with lots of room to grow well so I can compete with Michele and maybe even beat her.

in your dreams

I surely can understand that Fred. I had a very hard time this summer controlling weeds and I am considering downsizing somewhat. Also the fact that I have a bad back is not helping at all trying to weed all the time. I also have no help from other family members. I am still ordering a few new daylilies but I am only replacing older ones and not adding additional plants. My whole back yard is daylilies and I would like to cut that in half. I will be taking a lot to our small northern cottage and planting some there and the rest I will either sell or give away.