OK, dinner is over. I'll try to answer what I can. I have to say, first, that I am trained as an analyst and when I make statements I try to say only what I think has been proven. Second, both gardens (mine and my friend's) are private gardens and we have not conducted controlled experiments. We are both experienced daylily growers. She has a couple thousand because she and her husband hybridize. As far as I know they have not registered any daylilies. My garden contains 80 plants--it's a small beach lot. I live in a very limited micro climate. My garden is on Daytona's barrier island and is located at the narrowest width (2.5 blocks wide) with the ocean on one side and the Intercoastal Waterway on the other. Collecting data from Daytona would not yield any information about this location.
1) & 2) My friend measures her air and soil temperatures herself. So do I. We use the same thermometer because I found it to be very useful--shows high and low temperatures for the day. I recommended it to her. I use a probe to measure soil temperatures at the beginning of the month--usually in late winter/early spring. Do also measure the soil later in the year just for yucks. I don't know her routine.
3) I have known my friend for 10 years (met her at a daylily function). We talk every 7-10 days and each and every time we talk weather and daylilies and then move to other subjects. As the sun rises and falls, her air temperatures exceed 80 degrees about 10 (and sometimes more) days before we get those temperatures. And in late fall her air temperatures are usually 10-15 degrees higher. She is inland where it does get hot and stays that way!
4) My friend lives 4 hr from me and I don't see her often. I do tell her the growing conditions I used for any plants I send her. Her garden is mostly sun, so I assume her daylilies are in full sun/part shade just like mine.
5) Because of this micro climate, I don't think data is available to yield reliable information.
How should I say this. I research parentage of the daylilies I buy. If they have dormant "parents" or "grandparents" I no longer buy them. It's a waste of money. I've planted some dormants here. They never go down. Their foliage stays 2 or 3" above the ground through winter and they are later to start new growth than the evergreen daylilies that flourish here. The dormants will last 2-3 years, starting out fine when they arrive and then getting smaller each year until they turn into grass. I always purchase daylilies in the fall--usually October when temperatures start going down. The plants come with full foliage and as the days shorten (it usually doesn't get below 70 until after December) their foliage shrinks down and stays that way until late March, early April. I have a few out there now going through that. They seem to be fine that first year. Most keep foliage during the summer although some do go through summer dormancy. When they do that, their foliage never grains full height when they come out of it. Usually after the first year, budcounts decline, rebloom goes away and the plant starts it's slow death. I would say the dormants NEVER look as good as the evergreens--my EV's are bold, tall and dark green even in the depth of winter. When early spring occurs, the new dormants start to grow, but not as lush as the EV's. Their blooms are puny compared to EV's. The EV's will always out grow and out bloom dormants IN MY GARDEN.
I remove dead leaves. Don't know what friend does--too many plants to manage. We both grow in boxes (sand is not conducive to good performing daylilies). Weeds aren't a big problem in boxes. We both keep the boxes clean and never, ever mulch. We both get a lot of annual rain fall and mulched daylilies are subject to rot. The foliage is lush which mitigates the need for mulch.
Dormants I have tried to grow. Most of them came from my friend's garden where they were doing well.
BICOLOR BEAUTIFUL lasted 18 months here. Never recovered from the move--foliage was sparse and short and it never bloomed nor did it grow.
TEXAS BIG RED lasted 24 months, bloomed once. Foliage became grass in the second year.
Other plants that didn't grow and that I passed along to my friend:
COSENZA (one DOR parent--Shores of Time which was a parent of the pod parent, too)
FLAMINGO PARADE (one SEV & one DOR parents) Sent her a tiny plant and it grew well for her. She likes it
MARY ETHEL ANDERSON no parents shown. Got it from my friend and tossed it 3 yr later when it had shrunk to a small size
SONG OF THE EMPIRE (one EV & one DOR parent) in the Lost/Tossed file. Started shrinking and she didn't want it.
SYMPHONY OF PRAISE an EV that looked like it would work. Had it 4 yr and it never gained a fan and had a 2 week bloom cycle. Friend didn't want it. Maybe just a failure to thrive
That's about the best I can do, Maurice!
