Is there a 12-step program for day lily people?

Hi, I'm Mary (Hi, Mary!), and I'm in love with day lilies. I don't know how it happened -- I never intended it, but apparently I have a weakness I never recognized, cause here I am.

Most of my life I avoided day-lilies like the plague. All I knew of them were that my mom hated the orange-spotted "tiger lily" that grew on the edge of our backyard between us and the neighbor. I had no idea that day-lilies were different from those tiger lilies, until a couple years ago when I was needing something new for my yard, and I asked about them on my greyhound message board (my greyhound message board is my go-to place for any kind of information ... a vast wealth of knowledge over there).

The biggest answer I got was that day-lilies are easy to grow and impossible to kill, so I headed off to my local Lowes where they were on sale, and stocked up.


I was happy, I thought. What I had bought was enough.

Until I was leaving Lowes one evening, loading up my car with that day's purchases, and a lady pulled into the parking space next to me. As I was getting out of her way, she asked me if I wanted some day-lilies. Next thing you know, I'm driving over to her house in the early June evening (the year that GA was having 100F temps in June), helping her divide her plants and stuffing them into the back of my car.

That's it, I said. I'm settled. I have enough.

Until last summer when I found some day-lilies on clearance at Lowes, so I brought them home to save them, and found some spots to squeeze them into.

No more, I said. Let these grow, because they'll spread and need to be divided, and it will be enough.

ENOUGH.

Then I joined ATP, and then Sue started posting day-lily photos. EVERY DAY, she posts new photos of absolutely gorgeous plants, AND provides the name of the nursery that sells them. How can I fight that? I can't shut my eyes to such beauty, and I've not figured out how to keep my fingers from pushing my browser over to the nursery her photos point to.

NOW, I'm looking at my yard again, seeing spots where I could have a plethora of day-lilies planted, with continual blooms. This means PLANNING - something I avoid like that proverbial plague. It means researching varieties and colors and bloom times and saving money so I can mail-order plants instead of depending on what they have at the big box stores.

So I'll be watching my oval-edge this spring, to see where I planted my spring-blooming bulbs, and marking the spots where the day-lilies will go in and around them, encircling the oval that I carved out of the center of my yard, mixing and matching colors and bloom times as best I can (given my preference for winging it vs. planning).

And it's all Sue's fault. Thanks, Sue!

Spoken like a true addict......it's someone elses fault

Obviously there is no 12 step program just an ever growing list of sites where we go to enable each other and buy more.

Hi Mary, Check to see if there is a daylily club in your area. http://www.daylilies.org/AHSre... This is a great way to get all colors at great prices. Many daylily clubs have daylily shows when the daylilies are blooming. There is a plant sale at these shows. You will see some of the most beautiful daylilies at these shows. I am assuming that you live in Ga., too. We are members of three daylily clubs plus the AHS. We will be going to a daylily meeting tomorrow where Ted Petit will be the guest hybridizer. He and his wife are bringing 20 of his recent intros to auction at the meeting. These daylilies will go for prices far below the going price. Also, check to see if there are any AHS Display Gardens in your area. You can go visit these gardens when the daylilies are in bloom. The plants are labeled so you will know the name of each. Be sure to take your camera and a pen and pad. Here is the list of AHS Display Gardens in Ga. (Region 5). http://www.daylilies.org/AHSre... Some display gardens are also selling gardens. We are a display garden.

I am glad that you are enjoying daylilies. Just wait until they start blooming in your yard, and people here start posting pictures from their gardens. We are all in trouble then!

Doris

I do NOT need to know all this, Doris... you are NOT helping

(especially if you're in Cartersville -- I'm just north of Woodstock/south of Canton)

Mary, we are almost neighbors. My husband is from Canton. There are two daylily clubs in your/our area---Cobb County Daylily Society meets at the First United Methodist Church on Whitlock Avenue Marietta. The next meeting is Sunday, Feb 12 at 2:00. The guest speakers/hybridizers are Don and Nancy Eller from South Ga. This is a great group of people. We are members and will be at this meeting. There are some great daylily gardens in this area that I can recommend. Also, the Northwest Ga. Daylily Society meets next Saturday, Feb. 28 at 10:00 a.m. at our church in the Cartersville area. If you are interested in attending, I will give you the directions. One of our members will be talking about how he grows daylilies so well. He almost always wins Best In Show and has multiple winners on the head table at daylily shows that he enters. Also, there is the Daylily Society of Greater Atlanta, but it would be a further drive and much more traffic.

We would love to have you come over to our garden in June to see the daylilies. We grow over 2900 different registered cultivars and also hundreds of seedlings that we have hybridized. We really enjoy growing daylilies and lots of other perennials, shrubs, and trees. We are Shady Rest Gardens on the Region 5 list of AHS Display Gardens. We are easy to get to, just a few miles off I-75 north of Cartersville.

WE ARE CALLED ENABLERS HERE. NO 12 STEP PROGRAM AND IN A SHORT TIME THERE ARE OVER FOUR HUNDRED IN MY YARD THATS RIGHT OVER FOURHUNDRED .
GLAD YOU STOPPED BY TO JOIN THE CLUB. JUST WAIT TILL ALL THE PICTURES START.And the gang have sales and naming gamings your ready for
a good time cause all them daylilies are sure pretty. love kim.

P.S. I JUST NEED A FEW MORE I CANT LIVE WITH OUT
AND YES THESE ARE TRUE WORDS. WELCOME

Mary Welcome. I know you are going to love everything here. Everyone of the people are Stellar in everyway to help you and just to compare notes and gab. We are all hooked

Hooked, yeap, addicted, yeap, driven by the lure of a simple flower. There's no end to it. Every seed produces a different plant. I'd say on average, there's about 8 seed per bloom. Let's say that one scape has 20 blooms. That could be 160 seed per scape. Now, if a person only has one, mind you one, fan of each variety and they have 400 varities, that could be 64,000 seed which could turn into 64,000 seedlings, all different in their own special way. As each of these seedlings bloom, we addicted daylily people, get to experience the feeling of Christmas morning with each bloom. Oh what the heck!! It's even better than Christmas morning. (uuuhhh, no I don't grow 64,000 seeds, but I guess it could be possible)

Yeap! just wait to see all of the seedling photos and you start to think, hhhhaaaa, I could do that. Then you go completely bonkers and spend and spend and spend until either the bank account explodes or you die from total overload. It's WONDERFUL!! Just wait, it gets better.

Have fun, we do. Lots of work but ohhh so much fun. Blessings, Mona

Welcome Mary, looks like Doris or David has you pretty close to the boat. Don't give her any slack, just keep reeling.

Welcome Mary!!!

Y'all are some die-hard daylily people -- I'm just a recreational dabbler who wants something pretty in her yard

I think the only words I understood out of Mona's post were: addicted, bloom, seed, Christmas

Welcome Mary!!

Welcome, Mary
It all starts small

Hello Mary, welcome!

Our stories might be slightly different, but we all were once you!
Enjoy, it is a hard habit to break (not that I want to).

Lisa

Hi Mary! I hope you enjoy your stay here at the Daylily Forum..

Lyle

Oh Mary, Mary, you're in for some fun! They try to enable at every crook & turn. They have wicked ways of doing it too. Sneak things in just when you least expect it.

But once a person gets a taste of daylilys ---- well, that's really all she wrote isn't it? Who wouldn't/couldn't love these TOUGH plants that bloom their little hearts out for you even during the worst weather & soil situations that can be thrust upon them? Not to mention our decisions to move this one here & that one there & then decide to move them again & again & STILL they thrive; uncomplaining.

I blame mattsmom for my habit. Her avatar of Snake in the Grass Boo got me looking, then ordering, then the bonuses came, then I had to see THEM, then I found more, then I found sales...and on...and on...and...

Heck, no hope for any of us here. We all just love our daylilies and are happy about it! Welcome Mary, you have found the right place.