Why not give them a try? Conventional methods say to start them in early spring, when the soil has thoroughly thawed. So what if it's late spring? You might get something from them before the real heat hits. I think I'll try some too. PV

After buyong daylilies this spring, I swore I wouldn't get any more LOL. I just ordered 10 more from a local nursery that is having a 50% off sale. Most of these were now $4-8, I just couldn't pass that up. I ordered: Always Afternoon Belle Isle Bandit Best Kept Secret Chance Encounter Eggplant Escapade Mephistopheles Oliver Dragon Tooth Peach Magnolia Smokey Mountain Autumn Hush Little Baby. I've seen your pictures of most of these but does anyone have Oliver Dragon Tooth or Belle Isle Bandit? Would like to hear how it performs for you. Thanks. Marg

Success! I got my cutting today, woo-hooo. Well not a cutting really, another separate plant of it. Turns out the original plant I fell for has been cut back a lot. Owner decided she didn't want to cut more yet & decided to send me to the co-worker from whom she got it 4 yrs. ago & she said the original was large. Well, turns out that one has also been cut back a lot (this 2nd woman also doesn't know what Hoyas are & has it quite overpotted), nice growth around the circumference of the pot, middle growth lookes like it & its rootball were pulled up out of the mix & look bad. Apparently on reflection the owner didn't think this was a good enough plant to share & she showed up at my desk today w/ an entirely separate plant which she said she had at home. The good part is that it's a nice sized chunk, likely big enough to cut in 1/2 by Spring, very nice roots, seems very well grown & happy. The bad part is that it doesn't look much like the actual plant I got smitten w/ (by?) But I can sort of see how it might grow into it. 'Til I can get a camera that's all for now; for the moment I'm guessing it to be a cross btwn Obovata & Carnosa. Cross yr. fingers pls. everybody!! Nice deal huh, no cost, no shipping charges either. I've decided I'm going to give the giver a lb. can of my Hoya mix (coir & pumice, mixed w/ a bit of what looks like peat that she had this plant in) & am also going to offer her a couple of small cuttings of Obscura.

Paul, I love to have you paint the view. I'd love to see a picture of your finished work. The mountain to the right in the picture is Bastion and the lake is Shuswap if you're interested. As far as being in zone three as opposed to 4/5, I'm not sure if it makes a difference. Frozen is frozen - right? I think the problem come in with spring freeze/ thaw cycles. We don't normally have these in my experience but 2007 was the exception. I lost about 10 large, mature plants that were in pots. Up to then, I'd been just tipping them on their sides and that has always worked. I don't know what I did wrong, didn't tip them up early enough? Anyway, last year I made much more of an effort to get nearly all potted plants (75+) into an unheated garage. I had always taken the smaller, expensive, newer plants in there but I no longer felt safe leaving any outside. They all came back just fine in spite of the fact that we had snow in the spring after leaves were all up. The trick becomes when to take them out of the garage. Some people have said to wait until late May to be absolutely sure. I have no patience for that so I ended up throwing sheets over them. Maybe you should try with any duplicates you have first. Keep the precious ones protected longer and watch your weather reports. I've been trying to get more and more in the ground but it's a loosing battle I'm afraid. McT