Regina, I have written off many of my expenses to experience and learned better but $50 of plants should not look like those. I had a lady give me some daylilies that had been in a grocery bag for 6 months and I managed to get some of them to grow and they were brown and stiff. I am sure you can get them growing with some care. I have taken chances on buying from sellers I knew nothing about but now have a growing list of sellers who I know will send good plants and I go back to them.
As a collector and hybridizer who does not depend on daylilies for income, I am most concerned about any customer being satisfied. I don't mind small plants as long as they are blooming size but they have to be healthy with good freshly dug roots. I am working on teaching my son Ashton about customer service, communication, and becoming a good business person. I understand the collecting, I search for certain plants and that is one way you end up trying a new seller.
