As I'm sure you are aware, we are featuring a different plant/group of plants for a whole week twice per week this year on ATP.

Spring is the time for flowers, so I moved Daylily Week to April to spotlight one of our most popular flowers and get others excited about growing them.

I'm looking for articles and tips from our valuable contributors (that's all of of you!) that vary in experience level from newbie to serious collector and hybridizer. Articles can be submitted at any time, and will be edited and published by me for the Daylily Week.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or I can help you in any way!

Can we brainstorm ideas in this thread for articles we'd love to see, or nominate people to consider writing on a particular area?

HooooRayyyy for Daylily Week!

Yes, I think brainstorming ideas here is an excellent idea. That us what they did on the roses forum for roses week. And then people volunteered for articles.

Would Love to See:

- An article that is like the ATP Series on Hybridizers, only its about maybe small-yard hobby hybridizers at ATP who have stories, tips, and pics and/or seedlings to show for demonstrating what their goals and such are (could be a spotlight on just one hobby hybridizer, a few, or a bunch all at once...).

- Something about the different kinds of traits that aren't covered in the usual terms of definitions. What is a "velvety" petal (versus a satiny or waxy one) and how does it perform in different conditions? Why do some doubles have two pistils, and will they allow pollination of different sections of a single pod? Are there daylilies that have longer "stems" out from the scape (would they droop, would they make nice cut flowers?)

- What are some creative DIY ways to make daylily flower displays, so that a group of blooms that otherwise have no stems to support them, can be enjoyed without cutting off the entire scape? How would you keep the blooms as fresh as long as possible, and is it possible to preserve and dry the blooms while retaining form and color?

- Natch, we all want to see an article on the amazing indoor-overwintering daylilies ......

... But I'll hush now ... just too many questions and I'll get in trouble if I start nominating people ... so I hope you-can-guess--who-you-ares will step up and volunteer!

I'd love to see an article co-written by any gardeners who use daylilies in their landscape and how they incorporate them with other types of plants to create some charming garden areas.

All my daylilies are grown from seeds (not a single named and registered one exists in my garden). I love hybridizing them to see what I get each year. Most bloom the second year here in Florida for me. I know others who get blooms the first year and would love to know their secret!

I, too, want to see an article about growing and blooming them indoors during Winter!

Becky, from what I read about the FL gardeners getting blooms the first year is to get the seedlings in the ground no later than the early part of August.
Tina, I approve your nomination.

I am already writing about winter-blooming daylilies in my living room.

profesora said:I am already writing about winter-blooming daylilies in my living room.

and we're so glad you are. We were just confirming here that we expected you to do that

beckygardener,
I would love to see an article by you on your seed starting methods. Not just the germination but raising them up to a mature plant. I try to grow a few from seed, and have had poor luck in getting them to grow. I can get them to sprout, but then they just sit there and slowly fade away.

Great ideas!

Sounds great! I love the ideas for the articles. Looking forward to daylily week!

The idea for articles are wonderful but people still need to volunteer to write.

Actually Trish is tree mailing people she would like to contribute.

Don't know what Trish is doing behind the sceans. But at the beginning of this thread she asks people to write and submit. That means all of us that have a good idea should write it up and send it. We need lots of articles for Daylily week. Garden Ideas never go to waste. If we where lucky enough to have more than needed they can run some other time.

Roses week had two articles per day. They did a fabulous job. Annuals week had only one article per day. Obviously, not as many articles were submitted.

I am working on three articles myself for Daylily Week.

Mike - I didn't realize that early August is the deadline (so to speak) to get seeds germinating for blooms the following year in my zone. I will certainly keep that in mind this year! Thank you for that information!

Seedfork - Perhaps I'll submit an article to Trish about growing daylilies from seeds. It is super easy!

Thanks, easy for you maybe.

If you grow seedlings inside the house, September will
give you blooms the following year, or even as late as
November to December. They don't all bloom planting that late, but I get
around 40 or 50 that do. Don't know what to expect
with this dreary winter, and less sunshine through the
windows though.

beckygardener said:Mike - I didn't realize that early August is the deadline (so to speak) to get seeds germinating for blooms the following year in my zone. I will certainly keep that in mind this year! Thank you for that information!

The rule of thumb in this area is to have the seeds planted no later than Aug 1st and then if transplanting those seedlings into the ground then that is no later than Sept 15th. Spunky1 (Fred) has been doing that for many many years and I believe gets 80 or 90% blooms first year. Of course we fertilize them regularly to help them along so if you are just planting and leaving them to nature they may take a bit longer.

I have planted some seeds for my granddaughter late Sept or early Oct and actually had a few of them bloom first year and it surprised me since they were planted so late but usually they need to be done by the Aug 1st (or close to it) date.

I too would love to see articles about all the above mentioned topics! I have a feeling that the seeds I have in the fridge now are either supposed to be planted now, or maybe they are not even viable anymore. I think we are going to have several more weeks of winter and there is no way I could put them outside once they germinate (if they do), but don't have a lot of room to keep them inside either. They would have to stay in pots, because I don't even have space for babies in my garden areas.

Just me, organizing for clarity.

Here are the already mentioned (in this thread) topics for Daylily Week 2014:

*Small yard hobby hybridizers

*Different kinds of DL traits, not usually mentioned: ex: velvety vs waxy petals

*Indoor overwintering and blooming DLs

*Daylilies incorporated with other plants within a garden

*DL seed starting

I'll update this list when we get each new topic.