Stasi, Mine is still in a 3 gal nursery pot. It was too small to plant last year but I'm going to plant it this year. It's about 30" tall and wide. It is leggy and octopus-like, by no means graceful... quite an ugly bush in fact, but I love the flowers, so it's a keeper. :) I'm surprised to hear some of you say it has no scent because I found it very fragrant for the first morning of each bud's opening. The blooms seem to last about 4-6 days for me. The bush had more than one open bloom for about a two week period and as of today it's down to the last unopened bud. :'( As far as winter chill goes... I'm not sure what our chill factor in scientific lingo... but our first frost is usually late Oct. to early Nov. and last frost from mid Apr. to mid May... coldest temps can be down to -30º for a few days, -10º for a week or so, and can hover around 0º for months at a time. Our milder winters may never drop below 20º. I don't know if that's the info you need to calculate winter chill, but feel free to ask any info you may need to accurately calculate it. :) Disease resistance... disappointing... After all the talk about it not being disease resistant, I went to examine mine and discovered quite alot of early Anthracnose symptoms, so I sprayed it with Bayer for disease, and it is clean now. It's VERY early for me to be spraying for disease this year, but my two biggest indicator plants are 'L.D. Braithwaite' and 'The Prince'... and they went all lights and sirens about three weeks ago with BS, so I guess I'll be on a regular spray schedule this year. Last year I sprayed once in August and all was well. I feel it was worth the wait... but other than my Faith and family, gardening and roses are my life, so there are very few that don't find a way into my heart and a permanent home here. :) Rob:)

Speaking of the "devil" Dawiff, we where just talking about you and how, because of you moving to the other side of the country, we have about 100 fewer containers outside. PLANT THOSE SEEDS ASAP. IF THEY HAVE SPLIT THEN MAKE A HOLE, I USE A WOODEN CHOPSTICK TO MAKE A HOLE ABOUT 1/4 INCH DEEP, CAREFULLY PUT THE SEED IN THE HOLE AND COVER IT UP. YOU DON'T WANT TO DAMAGE THE BEGINNING ROOT SYSTEM THAT IS STARTING TO DEVELOP. You never want to wait till there are leaves or long roots or anything else coming out of the seed in the water. that will make a huge problem in planting and growing and may rot the seeds. As for how I soak them. I bought a box of those zippy bags, 2x3 inches at AC Moore, when I was on one of my business supply runs a couple of years ago. I use those to soak the seeds in. Since I grow so many MG seeds, it takes me quite a bit of time to label each bag, one at a time and put in the seeds. I use a deco paint pen to label each packet. sharpie washes off when the bag gets wet. I usually soak them for about 12-18 hours, but not more than that. I fill the bags at the sink, 1 at a time, with fairly warm water and zip them closed. They are all standing up in a plastic tray thing so that the seeds are at the bottom of the bag in the water. I usually soak the seeds for several hours after first putting them in the warm water and then take all the packets and one by one, drain out the water in the baggie and fill it again with warm water a second time. Not all the seeds will fall to the bottom. That may indicate that they are not viable seeds, but it doesn't always mean that. Most of the time, the seeds will swell in size, sometimes double and triple the size. Not all of the seeds will, and again that may mean they are not viable and it may not mean that. I sow all of them. If the seeds are mushy, then you no doubt have a problem and the seed isn't going to germinate, but then again, it might be OK. Sometimes the seeds will crack and split, like yours did, and start to send out a root, sometimes they just send a shoot out without really cracking and sometimes they just change color in the water. OR you could have what I had today with the seeds I collected from my heavenly blue last year. Never saw this before, but every one of the seeds swelled in size, cracked open and sent out this green thing of roots. Since you've said that you have to container garden this year, you should put only one seedling in a pot, unless you are using huge, huge, huge pots. I put one seedling in a 10 or 12 inch pot with miracle grow potting mix and there is no way, the pot could handle more than that. Oh those chocolate silk MG seeds. Are they the same kind you gave me a packet of last year to grow? If they are, keep an eye on the true leaves of the seedlings. Remember what happened last year? We got 4 different types of MG from those seeds. You took 2 of them and I kept 2. didn't get any seeds from them though. I just put out today, 4 more seeds from that packet. Will be interesting to see if I get 4 different MG plants this year. Oh, don't be jealous now but we put out all the MG seeds today. You'll be proud of us though, we really did cut back on the number of kinds this year. Instead of 75 different ones, we cut down to 40 different ones. Hope they grow well for you and send me some pics. I already really miss my WS partner. Fran

Not protected at all Nancy...that big bed does not even get watered (Except by Rain) and it is in full sun...it is about 100 foot long bed by about 12 feet wide..I keep the "Less Expensive" ones in that bed...LOL Heck the soil is like concrete too...LOL oh well....they enjoyed that brief but extremely hard downpour.....Thank you all again for the very kind comments......:) Here are a few more...of course still just a Kodak Moment....ROTFL...I can't seem to figure out how to transfer the Pic Files from the Nikon Program to photo bucket...oh well....maybe tonight I'll get "Lucky"..;) Kodak says: A Nice one that Jan was very nice to share with me....gotta appreciate the kindness....Thanks Jan..it's Purdy! FFO An oldie from days forgotten...... A gorgeous old Munson...I wish I could capture the true colour of this one...you have to see it to believe it... Another Beauty that Jan was nice enough to share with me...I think I like Sharing and Trades/Swaps better then getting daylilies any other way....Thanks Again, Jan.... Rick

Cutworms? Do a google search for pics, habits, and preventions. They feed at night, so you would not see the culprits, but there are ways to "control" them. Nature's adaptations are amazing: From the link below: "Cutworms are caterpillars that feed on the stems and leaves of young plants and often cut them off near the soil line, hence their common name. Although there are many important species of cutworms, the black, granulate and variegated cutworms are particularly destructive to flowers. Each cutworm differs slightly from the others in details of habits and appearance, but their life histories are generally similar. Adults and larvae are nocturnal and hide during the day but become active on cloudy days. The overwintering forms of cutworms occur in the soil either as pupae or mature larvae. In the spring, the hibernating larvae pupate. Adults begin to appear in the middle of March. Females deposit eggs singly or in clusters, and each female can lay as many as 500 eggs. Under optimum conditions, the eggs hatch in 3 to 5 days, and the larvae develop in 3 to 4 weeks passing through 6 instars. Pupae mature in 2 weeks during the summer and as many as 9 weeks in the fall. Some of the cutworms can produce as many as four generations each year in the southeastern United States." BlueBars Here is a link that might be useful: http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/Foliage/entomol/ncstate/cater6.htm