My soil is also well drained and I have never had any bulbs rot as a result of summer watering. Al

I was afraid that heat was causing my problems. Most of my plants are in the shade atleast 6 hours of the day after the first of June. The ones that I use the most are in light dappled shade more than that. I know I lose bud quantity by not being in more sun but since I'm fighting the heat, I figured the shade from my big old oaks would help. This year our weather was really freaky. It was so cool in April and the first of May that I didn't start having blooms until the last week of May. I usually have some the first week in May and by the second week, I'm getting around 100 blooms a day. So, the blooms were late and then, Blammm!! It goes from 40 at night to 95 in the day and the lows only in the 70s. I dare not even try to explain how high the humidity was. Next year, I'm going to be up before dawn putting on pollen. I hate getting up early, but I hate worse working 4 hours everyday for nothing. No, I don't freeze my pollen. I leave it in the vials, in my cool home until I get ready to use it. I don't know the science behind pollen, so I hope pollen doesn't "die" for the lack of a better word??? I did freeze some the first year, but it would sweat in the vials before I could use it and this just didn't work for me. My blooms usually don't have fluffy pollen until around 10am. The ones in the early morning sun fluff up first and then the ones in the shade will be ready to gather by the time I finish gathering the ones in the sun. It's amazing, the little bitty bees can sniff out dry pollen the second it gets ready and they are gone with it before I can get to it!! I use the little light weight hair nets to keep the bees off if they really get to greedy. I sure appreciate the feed back. I thought maybe you had a magic potion to hold the pollen to the pistol or something when you said you were getting such high success. I even wondered if some were wetting the pistol since I see so many photos made with water showing on the petals. Ya'll made me feel some better. Now, I'm going to work on getting my plants in good shape for next year. I need to repot about 300 pots and it will probably take atleast 600 pots to put them into. Sooo I have a lot of potting to do. Any recommendations on good fertilize. I'm using Mircle Grow garden soil in my pots and topping them off with mini pine bark mulch and using MG slow release fertilze. It gets expensive to repot this way, but when you think about paying $50 for one fan, using $3 worth of soil to put it in, isn't outrageous. I just haven't been able to pay $250 for one fan. I'd have to sleep with it to make sure the ______!!! voles didn't eat it. While I'm asking, what's your favorite parents this year? I'm going to purchase about 10 plants later this year, and I'm wanting to get the best pod builders I can. One more question: When the bud count is listed in the description, does this mean the total buds on all scapes for the year?? I have never seen a scape with 50 buds on it. I do good to get 15, most of mine is 8 to 10. I do have some that say they should have 35 - 40. Have a great day, Mona

You can trim them back after they are done blooming, they will just grow fresh new leaves.

Most of the plants are a year old, some are two years. I dont plan to do any dividing....just want to replenish the soil and raise the beds. Usually I topdress my beds with composted horse manure, mix of mushroom compost/barkfines/sand but havent in the last couple of years, the beds have sunk and the plants suffered in our 105 temps last summer - I want to get them back in first class shape. I plan to just do a section at a time so I can dig a rootball around the lilies, put them in the shade and sprinkle them with water while I am putting the new soil in the bed, then replant them. I plan to dig them, rework the beds then have them back in place as the sun is fading, so they will have the evening and night to settle back in. Of course this means I will have to be shoveling soil in the heat of the afternoon, but so what? Oh, and one other question......I have quite a few potted lilies that are doing well and have bloomed this year. When I get these beds finished [and am building a couple of new ones], will it be OK to go ahead and plant the potted lilies, even it if means they will be in alot of sun once planted? If so, any special treatment I should give them? I thought about errecting some stakes and staple sunfabric over them for protection. Any thoughts on this? Thanks, appreciate the advice!! Judith