I agree, go for it, starting with the daylilies (I just did some of mine) but only if you are in an area that hasn't ikmposed a water restriction. I also divided up the Montauks as well, and I also did some of the hostas and anemones. Heat doesn't seem to be the main problem for us on Cape Ann - it's lack of water. If you can keep your plants moist, they will have plenty of time to get established, develop a root system, and store food for winter and early spring. I don't know about anyone else but I find that hostas and anemones always appear wilty for days to weeks after I transplant. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I'm not quite sure, but they always do seem to bounce back and thrive. Despite the several weeks of vintense heat and little rain, and despite a modest watering ban, our garden did very well this year. We used SoilMoist to give us some leeway with the drought and it's been very, very effective. The thing to do is to get it down by the roots. I use a stray and herb funnel to do it. We went back and put some by all of our roses, shrubs, and perennials (about half of them so far) and when I plant anything now, we automatically use it. Between that and capturing water when it has rained, our gardens are looking pretty dandy, and although the top layer of garden soil is bone dry and hard, the roots are getting enough moisture from with the SoilMoist to sustain the plants.

1)When you plant the corms of one cultivar alltogether, the bigger corms will be the first to bloom. This explains the observation as provided above "they are still blooming at different times." 2)If you plant them in succession, this will provide the earlier sets with a longer growth period, resulting in bigger corms. This would mean that these should bloom, according to 1) somewhat earlier in the following season. 3)Whether you plant them alltogether or in succession, the environmental quality will have the greatest influence on the performance in the following season(s). Gladioli require a lot of sunlight, and they extract a great advantage from a substrate which is well prepared and fluffy. Everybody who is as fortunate as to grow their Gladioli with great success, without picking them up after the growth period, is fully entitled to dismiss this recommendation in respect to the substrate, the others are well advised to prepare the "dirt" well and to dig the crop in fall. I grow my Gladioli exclusively in 12 Liter buckets, for saving them from Voles, but this is not the only reason.

Good to see you back, Campanula. Your garden sounds like Piacenza this time of year: ratty, dry, mildewed, overgrown. Somehow it turns back into a marvel every spring. Like everybody else, it seems, I'm behind in my gardening. Last December's ice storm in particular has cost a lot of maintenance hours, and is still operating. The storm smashed all the black locusts, which took days to cut up and distribute, and now the damaged trees are suckering with determination, clearing them making another chore. 2017 was also our great Drought Year, running from fall 2016 to fall 2017. The good news there is that established plants suffered very little, taking month after month of litte to no water in their stride. We were about at the epicenter of the drought, so it was a good test situation. Deer, fairly recent arrivals, are horrible here, too: we have to protect trees, shrubs, and roses if we don't want them to be eaten or smashed. We apparently have a wolf population developing, too, and even my conservative dairy farmer neighbor suggested that perhaps wolves aren't such a bad thing for keeping the wild boars and deer under control. I want lynxes to make their way into our area: they're supposed to be major deer predators. Since we came here we've seen the wolves and the roe deer come: why not lynxes, too? I went back and re-read your original post: you planted R. helenae and 'Darlow's Enigma' in an allotment? Oh, my. Well, if you want more huge ramblers for your woods, let me recommend 'Treasure Trove', R. longicuspis, 'Brenda Colvin', and all the Ayrshires, which seem to be badly confused in commerce but are all good. I get the health and energy problems, and hope you see both restored soon. DH had a quadruple bypass and two further surgeries last year but has regained much of his previous bounce, so it can be done. I'm creaky, too, but at the moment feel okay. I'm waiting for temperatures to drop after having spent most of the last ten days flat on my back under the fan. The change may be happening as I write: it's cloudy and cooler this morning, encouraging me to think of getting out and attacking the chore of training R. longicuspis into her flowering ash, and continuing cutting back an overgrown locust and 'Treasure Trove' growing in it. Maybe, as long as I have the ladder out, I'll shear the tops of the yew hedge. The shade garden didn't even look like a garden anymore after a month or two of neglect, but DH and I have been wrestling it back into its form. I'm hopeful that the huge amount of organic matter resulting from the ice storm will make its effects felt in the coming years as it decomposes. Good luck!

Well, you are all a better man than I , Gunga Din! Kudos to all who can manage to delete from their daylily stash. I just can't seem to do it I can't even compost one . I read Nancy's post and thought . "Gee, is she my missing twin LOL ! So much of what she says matches what I do here. I for whatever reason am unable to give up any of my beauties . The only ones I freely let go are seedlings that are not of interest to me for my potential breeding goals . Its not that they are ugly it just I can only manage so many breeding goals at a time and I have about a gazillion seeds need planting . For myself , I am the opposite of Julie, I just can see wasting my time on annuals. Of course I have a few but I long since gave up on those beauties because they need so much attention and watering that I just don't have time for . I was out there again this morning ( it is finally starting to warm up ) and discovered a bunch of the daylilies I had to replant into the ground in February are shoved up out of the ground again. Fortunately I had bought some bags of soil last fall , and right now the ground is frozen solid so no other alternative but to dump the soil from the bags in the gardens covering up exposed roots. I will need to bring in 2 more bags to thaw and head out there and do some more covering up