Day: August 25, 2020

Why DaylilliesWhy Daylillies

Creating a perennial garden is an investment in years of summer flowers. You don’t have to have a green thumb to enjoy our carefree, easy to grow, daylily collection.

You can change a previously unused area into a stunning collection of color. Consider planting daylilies on a slope that is too difficult to mow, or to beautify the foundation of your house, or simply a roadside planting. The daylily will flourish almost anywhere you choose to plant them.

Daylilies thrive almost anywhere and they multiply and spread. They can be used as erosion protection or ground cover. They require minimum care yet they bloom year after year. Because of their durability and low maintenance qualities, daylilies are very desirable in public and commercial landscaping.

Within our website you will see more colors and varieties of daylilies than you would see if you visited every store and garden center in your area. Our daylilies are premium hybrids that have been carefully cultivated from parents with such desirable qualities as long blooming time and large colorful flowers.

Pricing
We are offering these premium daylilies as mixed varieties. That is why we are selling them at this especially reasonable price. If these same daylilies were to be sold as named varieties their prices would range from $15.00 to $50.00 or more. In an effort to keep things simple we have decided to choose plans randomly and sell them all at $6.36 dollars each. Order more than one and we will choose a collection of different colors and styles for you. As a bonus we will ship them for free with an order of $200.00 or more.

Planting
Day lilies can be planted from Spring until late August. Plant them about two feet apart. They will spread and multiply and surprise you every year with new additions.

Complete instructions on how to plant them will be included with every order.

Day lilies are really suitable for any kind of landscape. They are drought resistant, disease and insect free, thrive in full to partial shade, and in most garden soils, and they multiply and spread. Brightening your landscape doesn’t get easier! That is why day lilies have been called the perfect perennial.

UpdatesUpdates

When does it become time? That is the question we are trying to answer at this time. Health problems abound, energy does not. I have heart failure and it makes me short of breath and easily fatigued. My Cardiologist tells me that there is nothing they can do for me, if they put me on the table, I would not survive.  I have a meeting with a new Cardiologist the second week in November for a second (maybe third) opinion. She will look to see if it is possible any of the many medications I am taking are causing the breathing and fatigue problems. If she does not find a problem, it becomes impossible for us to continue hybridizing and selling daylilies. We have had tremendous help from friends and members of our club, but we cannot continue to call on them for help. It is not fair to them and their families. It has been a good time.

Our daylilies are not “pumped up”. We do not throw the fertilizer to them so that the fans are as big around as your wrist. Our plants usually get less than normal fertilizer and water . . . they survive. Because of this, our introductions normally grow better for other people than they do for us.

We have five new introductions this year for your consideration. All are tetraploids, and most are limited. We always grow a few of our introductions in the greenhouse during the winter for those wanting their plants shipped early. Shipping normally begins in April.

We will gladly hold plants from email and telephone calls for ten days, at which time we expect to receive your written order and check in the mail. You will find an order form with this web site. Sorry for the in-convenience, but we are a small garden and have only so many plants of each introduction.

Our plants are guaranteed to be true to name. If for some reason you receive plants you are not happy with, simply return them immediately for a refund.

It has just become too expensive for us to accept credit cards. We do accept checks and Pay Pal.

Our GreenhouseOur Greenhouse

Our Greenhouse . . .

Our first greenhouse was built in 1993 and was 20′ X 36′ with an 8′ crown.  After the fourth year, we decided that it was just too small so we replaced it with the current greenhouse which is 30′ W X 44′ L, with a crown of 14′ 6″, which doubled the square footage of the original.

Utilizing a greenhouse for growing and hybridizing daylilies has several advantages. 1) You can do your hybridizing in the early spring before outside work starts. 2) Seed set is better in a greenhouse and some plants that will not set seed outside will do so in the greenhouse. 3) When outside work and evaluating seedlings starts, you are through with hybridizing. 4) You can start seeds earlier and grow the resulting seedlings in the greenhouse over winter, thus giving them a head start when transplanting outside in the spring.

One of the reasons for having a greenhouse is to be able to hybridize while it is still cold outside. We normally take our potted hybridizing plants into the greenhouse in mid to late December after they have been through cold weather. They will start blooming in March and we can begin our hybridizing. We will have approximately 100 pots of hybridizing plants growing in the greenhouse.

When potted plants are taken into the greenhouse, they are cleaned, Bayer Tree & Shrub, a granular systemic, is spread on top of the potting soil to control fungus gnats, thrips, aphids, etc. Next, Nutricote slow release 18-6-8 fertilizer with micro nutrients, along with a little Milorganite is added on top of the potting soil for fertilizing.

Temperature in the greenhouse is important when you start hybridizing. The late Dr. Bob Carr always said, “Trying to set seed at a temperature under 60° or above 90° is futile.” So as bloom starts, the thermostat gets turned up to 65° and the exhaust fan is set for 80°.

Water the plants. Misting is primarily used to help keep down spider mites. Otherwise, potted plants are watered by hand as needed, the more sun, the more hand watering. We have been experimenting with growing everything in the greenhouse in water beds. So far, we have been very pleased with the results.

There are two moving 1000 watt high pressure sodium lights on rails above each of the two hybridizing benches. The lights are turned on for one hour each morning about 1:00 A. M. just to break the sleep cycle.

We normally start between 1,00 and 2,000 seeds in July and August.  In September, we transplant some of  those seedlings to trade one- gallon pots, where they will grow in water beds. Many of those seedlings will bloom in the greenhouse in June and July.