I strongly suggest you visit local daylily farms/gardens and check out daylilies in person. I did this and found many I loved - but had almost dismissed them simply because the description/name didn't adequately reflect the bloom's beauty. I didn't care for the name Red Volunteer or its description & was surprised at its vivid, rich beautiful bloom. It should be named something like "Royal Red Velvet". Conversely, many I LOVED the description/photos of were disappointing in person & had paler, muddier and/or different colors than the photos. To me, very few daylilies look exactly as pictured on the web (due to monitors' color, etc.) or in catalogs. Every pink I've bought is a peach in my soil & temperature. With your cooler weather they may be pink as advertised. Don't be overwhelmed by all the cultivars. Daylilies are generally in the large color groups of white/cream, yellow, pink, orange, red, purple. A LOT of cultivars look almost identical you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. I love to check my selections on Tinker's Daylily Database (link is http://db.tinkersgardens.com/). Just plug in the cultivar's name in the search box, and it will give you ALL the dope on any daylily. If 2 cultivars are virtually the same, I'll chose the one that has 2-fan daylilies don't need a long period to get established, so if it were me I would take my time getting a garden planted. I regret quite a few of my initial purchases, but don't have the heart to pitch them. My new motto is "plant in haste - repent at leisure". Half the fun is learning & adding new cultivars each year as you gain knowledge.

Having purchased a large number of daylilies this summer from different nurseries, I have learned a lot about them, Most of them were either good or exceptional, and one or two were downright sorry, in my opnion. First, I'd recommend that you do an internet search for each separate cultivar you wish to purchase. In the Google search, type in "daylily + (name of cultivar). You will then find a number of daylily farms that are offering the specific cultivar for sale, and the price. The prices will vary considerably, but you can get a good idea of what it is worth. I would definitely do this before making a purchase at auction! It is very time-consuming, but worth it in the long run. Keep in mind, though, that the cheapest or the most expensive prices do not necessarily reflect on the quality of plants that you will receive. Second, before ever placing an order, I'd research a nursery carefully by reading the reviews by their customers at Dave's Garden Watchdog, You can also search here at GW, as many of us have read and contributed to a number of discussions regarding specific daylily sources. (When you get to the link for Garden Watchdog below, you have to scroll down the page until you see the alphabetical links to the individual nurseries.) Here is a link that might be useful: Dave's Garden Watchdog

thanks all for the advice!! Beachlily - I am zone 7b. I have been ordering from the Shooter's and they are in NC - when I visit my sister there, the weather is always very similar to what I have here at home... so I hope that their dormants will do well for me... I hope the Stargate Explosion I got will not be a lesson in loosing dormants, 'cause I'll be a little pissed if I loose a $50 plant... but I guess it is a plant... Debra - Thanks for the practical knowledge! I just love a ton of the Stamile's stuff - so I hope they will work for me here! Most of the ones on my list are SEV's - I just love the work they are doing with blues and Grace's mini's... I just adore the idea of the new "Little Blue Bell" - blue and mini!!! Ed - I have looked up all the AHS gardens around here, and I could make apts. and make a weekend of it (most of them are people's yards). Tyler is about 2+ hours from the house and Center about 4... Maybe I need to find a place to stay the night around that area! So... where is YOUR AHS garden (I have seen all your lovley pictures)???? :o) Barb - If you can believe it, my anniversary is on Sept. 22nd! I have been trying to strong arm the BF into going to the Fort Worth DL sale (awwwww.... how romantic)! Angie and a few others from the TGF are going I know for sure! If I can talk him into it, I'd love to meet up with some of you all!

The renewed interest in talls is pretty recent and the hybridizers working toward that have had to go back to species crosses to regain the "tall" genes. Hence you'll see more yellows and a older forms. In addition to Brian Mahieu's talls, here are a few more recently registered in "non-yellow" colors... reg @ 90 in.: Prince Des Marais (Harrisson, 2004): gold with burgundy eye and edge above tangerine throat reg @ 72 in.: 'Watusi Fat Boy' (DickERSON, 2000): rose purple self above green throat 'Watusi Spider' (DickERSON, 1998) pale yellow with wine eye and green throat 'The Cow Jumped Over The Moon' (Reed, 2006) cream with wide violet eye above green throat 'Berlin Tallboy' (Tamberg, 1989) orange yellow dusted cinnamon with orange throat reg @ 68 in: Jolly Red Giant (Stamile, 1999): red self with chartreuse throat There are lots more. Some of the older Stout's are quite tall. Hamblin registered the most very tall daylilies but most of his seem to have been lost. The only one I've found still being grown in display gardens or possibly in commerce is 'Dreamlight' which is another yellow.