Hey Daylily, What a thoughtful and timely invitation considering our lawns and plants have frozen this week!

Unfortunately for me, I will be in South Fla this weekend.

Thank you for thinking of me!

Cathy

Well, South Florida was miserable!

How was the workshop in St Petersburg??

Mustangs the workshop is on the 16, next weekend on Sat. I will be there along with my friend that goes with me to the daylily meetings. Any visitors are always welcome. The church is on Gandy Blvd and we always have refreshments after the meeting and just generally have a good time.

Mustangs I would love to meet you for lunch next week! I can meet you at the Olive Garden off I 4 here in Lakeland if the roads get fixed soon. All these sinkholes are very scary due to all that pumping of ground water the farmers used to keep crops from freezing. If you can make it just let me know by email. Any day will be fine for me.

Daylilydazed - I have been meaning to ask you... who is/are you fav hybridizers? I have a very modest DL collection but have been concentrating on Stamiles and a few Shooters. I had problems with a few of the Stamiles over-wintering here, but have a couple that have adapted and are winter hardy without a problem. I have also done some pollen dabbing, primarily using John Peat and Ed Brown as the pollen parents, I love those phat edges! LOL!

Anyway, I would love to hear more about your gardens

Alexa

Alexa.
My favorite hybridizer is R.W. Munson but unfortunately he passed away several years ago. I fell in love with his purples when I saw them at Daylily Discounters in the Gainseville FL area(New Owners there now). But I have several people I keep in mind as far as hybridizing and they are Don Eller, Paul Owens, Bill Maryott, Bill Jarvis. Stamiles daylilies are always a good bet for a begininer to start hybridizing with. Just remember to use diploids with diploids or tetraploids with tetraploids. Crossing a diploid with a tetraploid may result in a seedpod but it may not contain any seeds. We refer to those as airpods. Sometimes they will self abort. If you need more information on daylilies check out the governing body of the A.H.S. or the American Hemrocallis Society. My daylily club is part of this society.
If you are in an area that freezes and has snow for most of the winter, dormants are a safe bet to use. Many hybridizers up north use dormants in their hybridizing efforts. I am down south where dormants do not survive well down here. They slowly dwindle away in a couple of years to nothing.
I use evergreens and semi evergreens. As long as the temperature is above freezing , semi-evergreens will continue to grow.
Right now I can look out at my daylily beds and see green leaves on several plants. I had lost most of what I had to crown rot in the last year and I am having to replace the plants as I can afford to.

Here is a link that might be useful: American Hemrocallis Society

I have tried growing daylilies but they are candy for the deer. As soon as the blossom gets close to opening, the deer nip them off. I'd be happy dig mine up and send them to you!

Dedtired,
When deer eat daylilies , they will keep coming back every bloom season unless they can be taught that they do not taste good any more. Or electric fencing will keep them out.
Where I am at there are no deer so I only have to worry about two-legged "dears"
If you really would like to send them to me, I would gladly take them.

dedtired - I have a "recipe" for deer off that works, but does need to be applied regularly, Liquid Fence also works, but it can get expensive.

I have 200 different varieties of hosta and probably 50 different daylilys and the deer leave them alone unless I forget to spray.

To make homemade Deer Off:

Put 4 raw eggs in a blender. Add 2 tbsp garlic powder, 2 tbsp cayenne and blend well. Pour into a gallon jug (I use an empty milk jug) and add water to make 1 gallon. Sometimes I also add Neptune's Harvest as a foliar feed for the plants, but not always.

Leave it in a warm spot for a week or so - the eggs will start to smell. I put it in a watering can with small holes, or you can strain it and put it in a tank sprayer. Begin spraying early in the season to discourage nibbling long before there are buds, the deer will remember. Reapply weekly or after any significant rain.

Yes, it smells bad when you apply it, but once it is dry, there is no discernable smell.

Good luck and yes, it DOES work! My house backs to a 1500 acre park with tons of deer and it is successful for me!

Alexa

I forgot to mention to DLD, yes I am familiar with the AHS and was a member of the Delaware Valley Daylily Society but it was just a little too far for me to make meetings easily. Plus there seems to be a lot of conflicting dates with the Hosta Society which is my true addiction! LOL!

Alexa

Thanks, Alexa. Maybe I'll give it a try. I don't have that big a deer problem, mostly because there are a lot of tasty gardens between me and the woods where the deer live. I swear those daylilies are like cotton candy on the boardwalk -- they lure the deer into my yard. Once they are here, they chomp on the hosta as well. I have been putting deer netting over them.

Daylily, I may just send them to you. Last year I actually cut off the buds to keep the deer away. They are a very pretty peachy color. I do love the look of a drift of daylilies.

Your potion must work very well considering your location.

That would be Alexa's potion. Somehow the sentences got moved around on my post.