hmmm, well, I can't stop moving mine around. However, whenever I do move them, I make sure to dig really deep so that I get the whole root ball and they don't look stressed at all afterwards. I even move them in full bloom and they just keep blooming perfectly.

They did not look stressed out after I moved them either. In fact they just keep growing and looking like they didn't even miss a beat.

Interesting stuff, Rita! I'm seeing fewer thrips and thrip damage now too. As for bud counts, it's my dormants that have taken the hit this year. Most of them are way down on bud count. I can only think the early hot weather and no rain in April caused the problem. Most of my evergreens and semievergreens are up considerably on bud count, but not all of them.

As for getting rid of cultivars to make room for others, I am using the same process you are. I'm looking at the ones with similar coloring and comparing performance. There are also some that are just too splotchy here for several years running. Another factor I'm considering is can they hold up in temperatures in the high 90s. We had extremely hot Junes the last two years and so few of my 600 daylilies look good at the end of these hot days. If they melt by noon, they've got a ticket to ride.

Debra

Debra-

So glad that your thrip damage is down also. I never realised just how annoying too many ruined blooms can be till this year as I just never had the widespread thrip damage before. So if my blooms clear up from the treatment (s) and there is still something that can't straighten out them it will end up on 'the list' to go. Not the desired daylily list LOL!

I am puzzelled by the evergreens having lower budcounts here. So I can't evaluate the low budcount wonders like I had planned to. Will just have to wait and see what happens. Maybe they will surprise me and rebloom.

Honestly this is the first year the blooms have had to deal with this much early heat around here. Usually we get very hot and muggy in August here, not June. But I deffinately am looking for the poor performing look alikes in my least favorite colors and patterns.

Does splotchy daylily blooms mean thrips caused it?I haven't seen any pests on mine, but don't mean they not there.

Jean

Rita, thank you for your chatty posts. There is almost always some little tidbit where I say to myself, 'Oh, I didn't know that.'

Christine

Jean- You are not going to see thrips. They are much too tiny. And yes, usually splotchy blooms means thrips.

Christine- Thanks. I like to talk about the garden so I post things that are of interest to me. I hope they are of interest to others too.

A coworker of mine at the garden center showed me how to tap and jiggle a plant over a piece of white paper. Then, even with my failing old eyesight, I can see the thrips.

Christine

As I remove spent scapes, I'm counting buds/branching. Eye-opening, to say the least! We had a lot of rain over the winter (unusual) and then cold (for FL) in February and March and it didn't warm up until mid-May. Our bloom season is 3-4 weeks behind the normal season.

Bud count is way low on most with no branching at all--just the top "V". Some of the Ned Roberts stuff, however, is in the 45-50 budcount range, with 5-6 way. So much for the Stamile stuff. I am so disappointed--Song Writer (6-12 buds--he says 40); Lacy All Over has 14 or 15 and according to Stamile it should be 45-50; Celestial Shore has 13 buds and Mr. S. says it should be 30-35. These are all plants that have been in their boxes 2-3 years, and those boxes aren't crowded. I live in the same county as their hybridizer (before he moved), but I'm on the coast and our winters are milder than they are inland. Fertilizer, water, and sun. I love the blooms and the colors, but very, very disappointed in the amount of bloom. Right now, I'm blaming it on the unusual cold we had--but boy those plants were beautiful in April and May--big, bold, beautiful!

Thanks for letting me get this off my shoulders. Probably shouldn't have counted those spent scapes!

very interesting and informative. thanks for this post.

I also was thinking there is a chance that northern hybridized daylilies might end up performing better than the published stats, slightly south (mid-atlantic area). will try to observe the handful that are growing here.

So victimized by the thrips. H. Gary Colby has lost more that half the buds. This is also true with Moments in the Sun, Candied Popcorn Perfection, Tet Siloam Ralph Henry (only one bud made it to bloom in this one), and the purples, reds and violets. I don't do much spraying, but will try something systemic.

Ben

Beachlily - I'm surprised the Stamile's don't do better for you since you grow in Florida near where they were bred. I've been complaining about my Stamile bud counts for several years, but I thought it had to do with our perpetual freeze and thaw winters here in Tennessee. I was very pleased with some of his cultivars this year. Arctic Lace had the 30 buds advertised. Zephyr's Song, Adamas, Shores of Time and Moonlight Sail were in the low 20s. Ricter, which he lists as 40 buds, had 17. Last Snowflake, my number 1 favorite daylily, has 24 buds. Stamile gets 70??? But at least that's up over the 13-14 in the two previous years.

Debra

It has been a very strange year weatherwise. So warm so early up here in my neck of the woods. Obviously not warm early everwhere! I don't know why but the thrips seem extra bad in just about everyones gardens this year. We keep discussing thrips and everyone that posts said they have been bothered. No one posted and said things are great with no splotchy blooms. So go figgure. I haven't figgured it all out, that's for sure.

As far as my garden, we just had a small rain shower. Seems to be stopping now. Hasn't really made it any cooler though. Today was rose spraying day for me. I spray with fungicide only every two weeks on the dot. If its supossed to be a rainey day, I move it up a day. This way my roses stay clean, no blackspot. I sprayed really early afternoon so everything was dried before our rain shower and thats all thats needed.

I have mulching and weeding to do but not getting done the past few days due ti the heat. Supposed to cool down soon so going to have to get cracking out in the garden again.