Viewing post #429619 by ElizabeteRutens

Old Gardener, keep your Ed safe! Along with other neighbors, I also lost cats (two of my kitties) when the coyotes suddenly moved into adjacent Open Space for the first time several years ago. For that matter, I heard a wild story about the previous owner of this house having a *tortoise* (presumably someone’s pet) being dropped onto the house by a flying hawk a couple decades ago. It rolled off the roof into the yard, not very far from where her toddler grandson was playing. Thankfully, her grandson wasn’t hurt, and a neighbor adopted the tortoise. So, relatively speaking, that incident ended well. : )

Debra, thanks (as always! ) for the additional information! You provided a great deal of useful advice to me years ago on the old Dave’s Garden forum when I began to grow the new daylilies that had been hybridized since the 1970’s when I last grew them back East. After seeing numerous garden fotos of appliqués grown in San Francisco’s East Bay (which – like here – overall also has night temps in the high 40’s – mid 50’s F during bloom season, and below 70 F daytime temps), I realized that there was no reason for me to pursue them. It’s just not warm enough here. And then I ultimately destroyed the one patterned one that I had because it was so terribly rust-prone. But from the pix of the East Bay grower, it turned out that the only ones that looked at least slightly like hybridizers’ greenhouse fotos were taken on those rare days when daytime temps were in the 80’s F, and nights well above the standard mid 50’s F. I would actually be interested to learn how many blooms on a single plant in other gardens across the States resemble our ‘picture-perfect’ image of them from hybridizers’ fotos. Though, I suppose it doesn’t matter, since the clumps are so glorious when the scapes slightly sway in a breeze. :-)

In any case, I’m perfectly happy with the elegant simplicity of the ‘edge-no-eye’ daylilies, which are such a novelty when compared to the 1970’s hybrids! (But, the edges in SF’s Bay Area are considerably more modest than what those of you who live in hotter climates expect.)

Judy, yes, I have in the past brought blooms inside to help develop usable pollen! The only back-yard-hybridizing goal that I have is edge-no-eye daylilies that bloom continually for 6+ months (from May until Thanksgiving) here in the Bay Area. I have a few that do that, but would love to have more. Still, I’m secretly hoping that Patrick Stamile is still hybridizing in So Cal (or actually: mid Cal), and that he’ll realize this goal, which he mentioned on the Floyd Cove site years ago. He deserves it.

Judy: just experiment to see what works in your real garden setting. It will be different from the results of green house-grown daylilies of hybridizers in your area.

All the best! : )