I enjoyed my Daylilies so much, but now they are finished for the year and would love to trade for some late bloomers for next year! Please take a look at my list and let's trade :) Thanks for looking! Carol

Ack! Someone thinks I'm an expert! No no NO LOLOL. I consider myself a newish newbie still, and I am a TOTAL sucker for a pretty face! Seriously though, thank you for the very kind words, but I really don't consider myself to be all that knowledgeable yet. But what I do is get lots of catalogs and spend WAY TOO MUCH time looking at hybridizers' and sellers' web sites....I belong to several lists....I enjoy visiting gardens, love being able to see tour gardens during conventions, regional meetings, etc.....I've gone to the same AHS display garden several million times at this point, and I always see something new or learn something new about the plants, or I see old, familiar faces in a new light....I've taken a garden judges and exhibition judges clinic....I belong to AHS and to two local clubs, and I entered my very first daylily show this summer (what a blast that was!)....I have catalogs, price lists and newsletters from the latest going back years....I have a near-complete set of AHS journals....I have TONS AND TONS of images saved, with text files of the posters' accompanying comments on the daylilies, on daylily culture and etc etc etc....the hybridizers with whom I'm not at least semi-familiar? Probably just a handful of local ones here or there throughout the country. IOW, there are SO MANY ways for everyone to learn and pick up useful info. So you can pick and choose what seems right for you at the time. (IMO everyone should at least consider joining AHS and at least one local club....I think the cost is trivial relative to what you can conceivably get out of it.) But despite all that, IMHO the REAL experts and knowledgeable people here are floota, shive, and others like them, who are long-time daylily growers who have or have had substantial daylily collections (compared to my really rather smallish one) and who know so much more than I do.... still, I do feel pleased that you enjoy some of my comments. :)))

You could winter protect but that would only protect the stems and the first bloomage episode that normally occurs early in Spring while you are still full of snow. ES is notorious in this forum for having blooming problems in Zone 5 but your scenario of no blooms until the last flush in September is odd. I say that because the winter weather problems should not affect the blooms produced by the 2nd bloomage that normally happens around June-ish... or all the other blooming episodes afterwards. If this problem applies to all the blooming episodes except your last one in September, I would wonder if there are any pests grazing on the blooms instead. Perhaps these pests leave the area by Fall so you finally get blooms. Deer would tend to eat the flower buds near the top and middle sections only. Rabbits would tend to eat flower buds in low hanging stems only or on plants that are not tall yet (in other words, rabbits would only eat flower buds that they can reach). Moisture problems could kill flower buds and result in no blooms too but it is odd that they are timed to affect all bloomage except for the September blooms. I would expect rains/snow in Spring to provide enough water to produce blooms in June. Moisture problems would also affect some leaves, causing them to brown out early. If you still want to try winter protecting, do a forum search ("winter protection") as there are many posts talking about that. You usually prepare the area by putting chicken wire 4-6" away from the sides of the plant. The top should also be protected so make sure that the top of the chicken wire is about 4-6" higher than the stems, vertically speaking. You can prepare this early and wait until the plants show signs of going dormant. Then pack them cage full of leaves/hay/etc. Top with a cardboard, held in place with heavy objects so it does not fly away. Extra filler (leaves/etc) should be saved so you can add more in mid-winter due to settling. There are other approaches that involve slowly pressing down a cardboard down until all stems are flush with the soil. Etc. Luis This post was edited by luis_pr on Sun, Oct 13, 13 at 9:07

Try japanese anemones - the tall, fall-blooming ones. Light pink and dark, or they come in white. The single flowered ones are the prettiest. One caution: they will always grow where you plant them, so be sure you want them there (every bit of root left behind will resprout). Water through their first summer if you plant this late in the year, but otherwise they take it pretty darn dry (that goes with having those deep, persistent roots,I guess). I'm afraid I don't know how hardy these are. I've never planted monkshood because I have kids too. Who needs the anxiety? Other plants are poisonous too, I grant, but in terms of degree of poison, this one is too risky to have around by my estimation. It also blooms right when kids are most likely to be outside.