Becky and Cindy, we can't get pine fines here, so instead I've started using fine (dime-nickle sized) redwood mulch, mixed with a line of organic planting mix produced by a nursery chain here, with a little vermiculite thrown in. (The proportions I used were roughly 12 cu ft of planting mix, 8 cu ft of redwood mulch, and 32 qts of vermiculite). I filled my seedling beds with that, and I am using it in the pots now, and the daylilies seem to like it (with the proper fertilizers and alfalfa amendments and so on). It is very loose and fluffy and easy to work with.
Our clay soil is so horrid in places that now when we plant, we mostly just dig a hole, and backfill it with the planting mix. If we have the time and patience to mix up another batch of mulch-and-planting mix-and-vermiculite, then we do that.
