I went from two daylilies four years ago to 157 today. Most haven't bloomed yet, and I plan to cull the similar-to-these-others-but-not-quite-what-I-wanted. My lot is only 60x120. Last year, I had two new beds dug out in the front yard just for daylilies. (Thankful for volunteer-willing, young and strong, employees.)
The egg shape is the later and between the paisley shape and the fence panels. All the daylilies in both beds are new.

B eautiful! (as are the doggies I've seen in your profile pic -- what kind of doggies do you have?)

Willie is a Schnauzer/ShihTzu/Chihuahua mix. Zuzu is Westie and some kind of small wire hair Terrier. Had the house a little more than seven years. I have some limitations, and been focused on the front yard. Completely ignored the dogs' domain in back. BUT, I recently started contemplating what is safe to go back there and...daylilies are not generally harmful to dogs! Uh, oh. I'm in trouble NOW.

lovemyhouse said:Willie is a Schnauzer/ShihTzu/Chihuahua mix. Zuzu is Westie and some kind of small wire hair Terrier. Had the house a little more than seven years. I have some limitations, and been focused on the front yard. Completely ignored the dogs' domain in back. BUT, I recently started contemplating what is safe to go back there and...daylilies are not generally harmful to dogs! Uh, oh. I'm in trouble NOW.

But are dogs harmful to daylilies? My back yard belongs almost entirely to the dogs, and is pretty shady, to boot. But I would love to have something back there besides mud and pine needles.

Nice Debra! The daylilys might take a beating from the dogs. Ornamental grasses --- yes.

fiwit said:Just so y'all know... I had posted on my greyhound board about the daylily society, etc... I've already had 2 folks over there ask me if daylilies will grow where they live (TX/MN), so I've been busily passing along the AHS website

Pass along ATP too please!

I am lucky in that my dogs don't dig. The house is a small frame, pier and beam. It faces north, and has a Model T driveway on the east wall with a detached garage behind it. The entire back area is split in half, with the east side having the garage and a section of chain link, a carport, and a narrow side strip between garage and neighbor, all of which is inaccessible to the dogs. In the dogs' domain to the west, the garage/inner chain link forms one side of the section, the house another, and a privacy fence forms the remaining two sides. (The tiny size of the area is part of why I have small dogs--small, um, "leavings" ) As long as I keep their main "run the fence to bark at the cats, possums, and squirrels" lanes clear, the plants should be safe from the dogs. They like hiding in the Nandina and screeching at the cats that come through between my fence and the neighbor's. The fence is actually almost two feet inward from the property line because the previous owners apparently chose to not remove the trees already in place. It angles in from the end of the Nandina on the right up to where it meets the SW corner of the house. That left a gap between my fence and the neighbor's fence which is perfect for cats and other non-human critters to transit from the alley to the front. The trees will become a problem at some point when they get too big, but I will worry about that when the time comes.

I can put a line of daylilies down the garage wall and wrap around the next 10-15 feet along the back fence. Had an unused new door frame which was the perfect width to lay out as the end of the bed area. The area up against the house has been sectioned off with landscape timbers since I've owned the house. So those two places are where the daylilies are going. In summer, the garage side gets sun from about 11:00 to about 5:00. The other side gets sun from about 8:00 to about 2:00. Be interesting to see which varieties do better with the different sun zones.

daylily said:

Pass along ATP too please!

Sorry, I thought that went without saying. I even wore my ATP shirt to the meeting yesterday.

Sounds like a plan to me Debra.

I have big dogs, that even enjoy running through my raised beds (they are so stupid at times). The lab will usually jump over, but the old germadore - she just waltzes right through.

I redid 3 beds last summer. Built 3 new ones. And am contemplating where I can add some more.....

My family owns vacation property in western PA, part of which used to be a daylily farm 50 years ago. Over this time, the daylilies are now growing among mature trees, and are doing well. Granted, when things are trimmed up, they do better. But they have mostly adapted to mottled shade and mostly shade. It's kind of interesting. Realize that these are old heirloom dips.

Some of my daylilies are in shadier areas than others. Some do better than others. I believe (but don't quote me) that 6 hours of sunlight a day is considered enough for most daylilies. I think that it may just be an experiment to figure out which ones do better, where. ~Jan

We grow about 400 registered daylilies most years, we don't grow the same 400 year after year, there are a few that will always be here because they are great show flowers, but most stay from one-two years and then go on the auction. Until I retired seven years we had 1200 registered plants but decided that was a few to many it I wanted to be able to do other things. I believe you have to many when it's not enjoyable anymore. I now have it where I can concentrate on hybridizing and seedlings and not pulling weeds every day. We have about 5000 seedlings growing at all times. I plant about 2500 each year and compost about that many each year. I will cut the seedling number down soon, not getting any younger.

I went from 5 Hems 4 years ago to appx. 180 and more coming this year. I will however be letting some go I am not using. I don;t have but 1 1/2 city lots and a large house. Just not enough room. Th H wants a veggie garden too so have to share. Hmph

I had grown about 5 hems for many years that I'd gotten through trades. But I was mostly into perennials and starting plants from seed at that time. Then in 2006 after lurking on the daylily forum at DG, I decided I just had to have more hems. At first I traded other perennials for more daylilies. In 2008 I had 170 and hadn't purchased any 'yet'. All I had were acquired through trades. But that year, I started buying them too. And I went totally crazy! I now have just under 900 registered cultivars. and a couple hundred seedlings. And I'm starting more seeds this winter. I need to get that number down, while still buying a few new ones each year. I'm hoping to trade and sell some of them this year. I'm thinking 500 would be a good number? I don't know that I'd be willing to let go of that many though. I love most that I grow. Realistically, I may have 150- 200 that I feel I could live without!

150-200 I cold not keep track of what I had with 900 or so and would have to rid myself of about 4-500.

It is hard to keep track. And it'd be impossible if it were not for the flower program. I've bought daylilies a couple of times that I already had.
Now I check my flower program before purchasing. I love to take photos of them when they're blooming. Not just a photo, but multiples of each pretty bloom. With so many plants, peak bloom can take me up to 4 hours to photograph them all.

What flower program?

And Joy, it sure takes a lot of time to edit those photos and select the best out of the bunch.

Mary, The flower program is here. http://www.plantstep.com/index... It's the best software, and worth every penny.

Margaret, It sure does! That's what winter's are for!