Maryl, some cultivars are more susceptible to rust than others. PIRATE KING was the first one that came down with it here, and then those around it were affected. From there, it spread throughout the daylily beds. I would think that with the colder winters in Oklahoma, you won't have the severe problems that we are plagued with living down near the Gulf Coast. We had rust so bad this year that almost every plant had at least some. I've had a professional spray weekly, alternating with with Nickel Plus, Mancozeb, Cabrio and Banner Maxx. It has diminished it, but with our water restrictions, we can only use our sprinkler system (or hose-end sprinklers) twice a week between 10 P.M. and 4 A.M. This leaves the daylilies wet at night, which creates a perfect environment for rust. Since we were able to eliminate all visible signs of rust by spraying only with Nickel Plus when we lived in the country (with no such water restrictions, being on a well), I suspect the water restrictions are causing a big problem here. Rust does not kill a plant, normally. It does weaken some of them, depending upon how bad it has invaded the plant. Most of them have it in the outer leaves only. Several years back, the first rust I saw in our garden came from a bonus plant from Maryott's. I understand from another member of our forum that he sprays weekly for it. Usually in the hot summer, rust goes into hiding and I don't see it again until fall, when the nights are cool and the days are warm. The daylilies have a lot of heavy dew on them in the mornings, which brings out the rust once again. Rust spores travel through the air. I can attest to that, as the little round bed of Lambertson seedlings I have in the front of the house (pictured earlier) were separated from the big daylily bed in the back of the property by a high board fence - a couple of hundred feet away. They had no signs of rust until it got bad at the back. They were far removed from the others, but in a direct line wind-wise. They, too, eventually were affected by it, but not badly. We are going to try one more thing this week. I have used Soil Mender's Plant Wash in the past with what appeared to be very good results. I haven't used it here in our new location, but we are going to give it a try. As I recall, it is not a fungicide and non-toxic. Someone here at the forum recommended it a few years ago, but were promptly shot down as being effective. I was impressed with it, and will see what it does here. Recently a vendor in Florida recommended Azomite. I looked into it, and contacted a supplier in this area, but never heard back from them. She said a daylily from Florida uses it with good results. I'm not sure how to use it, as it is a ground-up rock from Utah with many trace elements in it. Jean lives in northwest Arkansas and I don't think she has any problem with rust. So I think your climate will be such that you are...

I think I share aesthetic DNA with a lot of the posters on this thread. Love the French look; prefer colored appliances with SS/nickel/brass/etc. trim over all SS. My house is a 125 y.o. "second empire" style, which I feel deserves some sort of hat tip, if not slavish devotion to old-looking stuff. To me this means avoiding visible electronics, and overtly modern lines. OTOH, anything simple, chunky, roundish, using materials that have been around for at least a hundred years, works fine. We will be remodeling our kitchen soon, but as my current (awful, unmentionable) range just died, I will be replacing it somewhat ahead of schedule. A few months ago I went crazy over online picture of an AGA legacy. Later I met one in person, and was underwhelmed. Crushed, actually. The oven doors and knobs just didn't feel solid. Kind of reminded me of a very adorable "Easy Bake" oven. Interestingly, the same showroom had the pricier AGA 6-4 cooker, also duel-fuel (not the true cooker that the name would imply), and I was shocked at how different it felt - super solid heavy cast iron doors with integrated hinges and latches, although the knobs were the same. The Cornufe was there as well. The doors felt more solid than the legacy, as did the knobs, but like the 6-4 it was a bit out of my price range. And then there was... ... the small oven thing. I tried to tell myself this didn't matter, was actually an advantage, less energy to heat up, etc. And I really DO want to be able to cook two things at different temps simultaneously. But among my friends who actually cook, virtually all said I'd sooner or later regret not having a regular-size oven. (Wall oven/s not an option for me.) Not sure how the Lacanche stacks up in terms of oven size. It's probably my favorite looks-wise. Their owners seem to really cherish them. But to me it only makes sense to spend that much on a range if it's going to hold some sort of visual dominion over the rest of the kitchen. My range will only be seen head-on from the fridge wall; not from the kitchen entrance or kitchen table or any other rooms, so I'd rather put my aesthetic eggs in other baskets... Which has brought me back to the pro-styles. My husband eliminated Bluestar because of the open burners. He thought we were too lax in our cleaning habits to prevent that drip plate from turning into a smelly, scary disaster. I think we're about to settle on American, most likely black (with SS trim), in a 30" AG, which has an unusually large oven, and pretty good burner capacity (2 @ 17K btu, 140 degree simmer). We plan to get a countertop toaster/confection oven combo to accomodate our second/small oven needs. Or maybe a microwave/convection oven combo that we will hide somewhere. We are looking into a modern aire PS26 range hood in black with SS trim. One cool think about American is that you can swap out the color down the road. So if our upcoming remodel screams for a different color, say, fire engine red, we won't be stuck with the black. (The hood is another matter... hmm...) The color kits are about 250-300 bucks, I think, and require a pretty handy, if not professional, person to make the switch. I'll worry about that if and when it comes to it... Good luck on your search, susied3, and everybody else (including me). Let's keep each other posted.

Just a note about service and electrolux. I'm in Canada FYI. - called electrolux as I was missing a part with the oven. After going through the parts list online with the customer service agent, we figured out what it was and they sent it by courier a couple of days later. - I had problems getting my door back in the oven (totally user error!!!!). I talked with one of their technicians on the phone and after not being successful, they sent out an authorized technician in a couple of days for free to put the door in. It took the guy 20 seconds to do this but he explained what I was doing wrong. I was impressed that electrolux would foot the bill on this. The oven is cool for a gadget freak like myself as there are all sorts of bells and whistles and it just looks beautiful. It has 3 gliding racks which is perfect as we mounted it underneith a cooktop. I have tested the oven and the air it blows I guess is just cooling for the electronics inside as it's not hot at all and the glass doors stay cool even at 450 degrees! Great oven so far...hope it stays that way! LIP

I was very pampered as a child. Toys, dolls, books, you name it, I had it. My Mom saved a few of my Little Golden Books.(The Pokey Little Puppy,The Saggy Baggy Elephant, etc.) She gave them to me to keep when I got married and had a house where I could store them. I think she was de-cluttering more than anything. I held onto them, looked at them once in a while. I eventually had two daughters. When one was a toddler, I gave her one of the books to look at. She started tearing out the pictures! Tried again when both were older and in school (more responsible) but by then they were not interested. They liked their school books better. So I donated all my old books to a local charity (Salvation Army). I went back a few days later and saw them on display. I don't know what happened after that but I knew my kids didn't want them. And I was rid of them without actually throwing them out.Maybe a young mother with little money bought them for her child. At least that's what I'd like to think.