I will say I used to HATE daylilies. I don't know why, but I HATED them. I never really saw any growing anywhere so it's not like I thought there were just the orange ones or those yellow (Stella).
BUT...... when I moved in with my fiance (now ex) and decided his yard needed beautifying I wanted something that was easy to maintain, basically I wanted something I could plant and forget about except for fertilizing once in awhile and were pretty pest resistant. I got on the internet looking for "easy to care for plants" and daylilies kept popping up (basic generic gardening sites) along with other things.
The first thing I started buying though was Agapanthus (Lily if the Nile) and then I was transplanting things from the yard from previous owners (years ago) that had lived even though they were neglected to other spots.
Well, I went to Lowes and Home Depot looking for plants since I knew nothing of mail ordering plants and we really didn't have any good nurseries around here. I always like to find sales no matter what I'm buying. Anyway, I saw these beautiful blooming plants and decided to look at them; they were daylilies of all things. The way I used to garden is I had to buy 2 of whatever it was and plant in an organizational manner. If one side of the porch in the front had whatever plants, the other side had to be exactly the same. I did this no matter where I planted, everything had to be equal unless I had a center point and it could be 1 plant, however, everything on either side had to be equal.
I kept looking and of course I only wanted to spend a certain amount on plants so when I looked at the $5.00 price tag on the daylilies I said NO WAY, NO HOW am I paying $5.00 for one plant!!!! So I bought other things instead. The following Sunday (I think) I saw the sales paper for Lowes and the daylilies were on sale for $2.25 so I headed straight there and bought 10. Once the front was finished with all my plants I started on the side of the house the following spring and statred looking for more daylilies since I liked the first ones I bought from the previous year. I went to a local nursery and found some on sale for $2.00 so I bought some and then more later on (I would stop in when I saw different ones blooming)
For one reason or another I had to search for something pertaining to daylilies on the internet and WHOAAAAAAA, I found the wonderful (yet addicting) world of daylilies. I was so in awe with all the different colors and eyes and such. Well, this started my quest for even more daylilies. I had read things on making daylily seeds, but everything I read said it takes about 2-3 years to see blooms and there was no way I was going to wait that long to see blooms, I was not that patient.
I happen to find DG and Cubits somehow and wound up asking some questions about things. I found the sales that some had and the daylilies for postage and got even more daylilies. So in late summer 2010 I bought my first 10 daylilies and by Sept. 2011 I had about 150 daylilies. At some point Fred chimed in and told me about the daylily club meeting that was coming up and invited me to come. Of course I had to go and see what it was all about. I took my friend Kim and she got to talking to Fred and James Hall and hybridizing came up and I said NO WAY was I doing that, I just wanted to enjoy my flowers. Kim said she really wanted to do it so I said ok (she didn't realize the work that goes into it, she just figured you dabbed the pollen and planted a seed
). So I began reading more especially on the message boards and paid close attention to what Lyle and Fred said. My quest began for hybridizing plants and low and behold someone told me about the Lily Auction (the dirty rats!!!) and I couldn't believe the prices they were going forl; ittle did I know how it all worked. I did find some daylilies and couldn't believe I had spent $15 or $20 on 1 plant. But of course we all know how this addiction thing works (I couldn't stop
). And that's how it all got started
When people ask me about this when we go to meetings or whatever I tell them I didn't want anything to do with it and it's Kim's fault. Hey there we go, I can blame Kim for my addiction
Oh yea I NEED to blame Fred and James as well. HEY FRED, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT ( and Kim and James).
