Hi there; It took me 20 yrs. :( (no kidding) to learn how to deal with these Babies. Now I have a bunch with some having leaves twice the size of a small hand. :) Make sure your soil is nice and light.. I add pearlite to potting soil. You may add some peat and compost never hurts. Just be sure water flows free. Fertilize 1/2 dose every 2 weeks spring through fall. Water less in winter. Lighting as mentioned above is fine. A little sun is OK indoors in the winter, though not for long periods.. I ALWAYS water from the bottom. Preferably in a 1 1/2 to 2" deep plant saucer or bowl. I place a bit of stone or gravel to about 1/2" and set the pot on that. This way, when watered you can see how much the plant takes up. You don't want the plant to sit in the water more than 1/2 hr. I leave just enough water in the gravel that the bottom of the pot is not in the water, but enough water to provide humidity if you have dry heat. If you have a humidifier, you can pass on the wet gravel. I don't use spray misters directly on the plants, just in the general area. I have had a few plants in the past where the leaves spotted, esp. if air circulation is a problem. If you have trouble in the beginning being able to tell when to water, just wait until the leaves just start to droop "a little". Though try not to let it go too much farther to often. They don't really mind once in a while though. Underwatering is always better than overwatering, as you know. :) Then water well. After awhile you'll be able to tell before the droop becomes apparent. Another thing I avoid is too big a pot. Even though the leaves can get Big, The roots don't grow as fast and they grow a bit more outward. Too big a pot also hold water and this is not good for Rex. In fact, a pot like you would use for sansevieria, shorter than wide, is ideal and just a bit larger than the rhizomes. (Which are usually, mostly above the soil. Also remember that they are like succulents. If you use a terra cotta pot, this is good. If plastic, you may have to insert into a cashe pot as they can get top heavy. Just be sure it's not left standing in water in the pot. Rex can especially get top heavy in the summer when outside (in part shade) as they really put on growth and sometimes flowers.. Good Luck and have fun!! Hope this helps! :0

Best drought tolerant plants for me: Sedum (several in my garden) Hens-n-Chicks Knautia Echinacea angustifolia (much more so than E. purpurea) Lavender Thyme Salvia Coreopsis laciniata and Coreopsis tinctoria (annual) Ratibida columnifera Rudbeckia hirta (can be annual, biennial or perennial from same seed source!) Gaillardia Blue Flax (Linum lewisii perenne) Daylily Bearded Iris Sweet Alyssum Perennial Alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis 'Gold Dust') African Daisy (Venidium....annual) Dianthus (not sure the species....a perennial to about 8-10" with dark pink/fushia blooms) Feverfew 'Flora Alba' Saponaria 'Flore Pleno' Cosmic Orange Cosmo Yarrow Inula ensifolia (had it but killed it during tranplant) Grasses: Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Blue Fescue, Oatgrass, Feather Reed Grass That's all I can think of at 5am LOL! Annual precip. here is an average 17". Hardly any of that is in summer! I water maybe once every 2 weeks not because the list above wouldn't make it otherwise, but because I also have other plants planted among the rest: Joe Pye Weed, Marigold, Monarda, ect., but I try to just water at the base of just those plants, however lately I've been lazy and just water everyone :D I summer mulch with grass clippings and straw moistly in veg areas (they get watered 1x week) and other beds are densely planted enough that the soil is hidden. My other beds are quick draining gravely/sandy loam.

avonlady - Shoot!! I wish a nursery around here would go belly up and leave inventory behind!! What a lucky dog you were!! Thanks for the info! Ed - Some History: I recently moved to Texas, so I am having to learn all my gardening rules over again. Man, what crazy weather we have here! I was not looking for dormants because I have been reading (on the Texas Gardening form here and elsewhere) that dormants don't do so well in this area. There are quite a few posts about them dying off after a few years, and I don't want that! It sure would be nice if things stayed green all year, but with an inch of snow on them, I am not surprised when things go dormant. We actually got three cold periods this past winter (cold = 20-25ish), and all the natives said that was very cold and three drops were a lot for this area. My understanding is that it has something to do with the root system - but I am very new to daylilies. Any more info on some yellow, 36"+ dormants that are proven winners in my area?? Thanks for bringing this up, and geesh... I hope I could use some dormants, because this is where all the yellows are! Anyone have experience growing dormant daylilies in 7b for more than 3 years? Please shout out and let me know how it is going for you. I would hate to drop some serious $$ (I need ~ 50+ plants) only for the lilies to suffer and die. Then I would be depressed!

Do you live in an area where nights and/or early mornings are cool? Where the days in general are cool as well? If you do, I think you should bear in mind the ability of daylilies to open well, plus the effect of cool/cold on color and other features. Related: if I were you, I would focus my shopping on sellers and hybridizers who operate in regions similar to your own. I have bought from time to time from people in Washington, but that was quite a while ago, and I'm not very familiar with what's available to you. But I would expect that these people (as well as people operating in similar growing conditions) will offer what are known as CMOs (cool morning openers) and EMOs (early morning openers) plus daylilies that, in general, do well in cool climates. Obviously, if where you live doesn't fit that description, feel free to ignore all the preceding! I am trying to recall what someone told me about Selman's growing conditions - up there in the mountains, and thus would probably work for you. I've had plants from him in the past, and they have been 100% great. Very, very healthy, some of the cleanest plants I've ever gotten, and overall wonderful. How to trim lists: one tactic you could take is, like I first suggested, to start shopping the lists of daylily hybridizers and nurseries in your or similar growing conditions. In theory, you won't be futilely trying to grow a daylily that you've chosen because of its enticing picture. Case in point: I grow PRECIOUS CANDY and have done so since its intro year. Since then, it's been good only a few times. When it's good, it's very, very good. And when it's bad, it ranges from uninteresting to horrid. Unless things change, I'm getting rid of it as it's so often a complete waste of space here - and in a warm, sheltered part of the garden, too! I have some lovely eyed/edged daylilies from hybridizers in my zone and lower that I just love. Born & bred to do well in conditions like mine, they are very vigorous & hardy, and always beautiful. Anyway, put together a list of hybridizers and growers in northern & cool areas. Hybridizers' websites for images of past intros; American Hemerocallis Society database for more images & info, also on plants in sellers' lists. Decide what you like and don't like: e.g., I don't generally care for yellow or pale yellow or beige-y or maize-y yellow daylilies with rusty reddish eyes and edges, ditto maroon-y red eyes edges. I have a few, and they serve their purpose: one is early, one is a very late, and one (which was a gift plant) is just a fabulous "do-er" that goes from early to about mid-late and always looks great, regardless of conditions. But going forward, I like and would look for bright, deep, or gaudy yellows, golds, and orange-y yellows with red eyes/edges that are not muddy (to the extent possible). Ditto on mauves: there's a kind of a pale rose/mauve-y color I don't much care for. (I'm not sure how one should describe it.) So, because I don't go out of my way to buy plants with that base color. All the above is kind of obvious, I know, but also one way to begin narrowing your list. Also, visit gardens and nurseries in your area!!!!! Really, there's no better way to see what you like. I don't have enough fingers or toes to count the daylilies I thought I wanted that I was unimpressed with or thought merely OK when I saw them. Conversely, there have been so many more that I was really impressed with when I saw them -- plants I'd dismissed after giving their images a very quick glance that were so much better in real life. Plants in real life: some colors and textures don't photograph well, so going by photos only and you'll miss out on some goodies. You rarely get a true sense of plant habit, branching, bud count, placement of the flowers on the scape, and so on, from catalog pictures.