Oh these are funny y'all!
When you have to BORROW money to pay for more DLs because you are already broke from buying too many!
Nancy

I loved this eniire thread, all I can say guilty on all counts, but you never have enough daylilies.

I also loved this post.

My postman leaves my packages at my sister,s
She calls to tell me another package.

Start a new bed and ruin out of room in a month.
And wonder where the next one will be.
My dear Husand thinks I love my Daylilies more than
him. At least they don't talk back...And they love the
extra care.
My Lab Bear sits and waits or leaves me when they has had
enough.
Have family or friends over and they find me outside
planning. My grandaughter is learning some of the names of my Daylilies and she is only 2. My family thinks I have lost it, but I love it
And it is getting bad when I have to go and look to see if
I have that one..forgetting in my old age.
And you are right about photo's. I have my own memory
card for them.
Have lost listing a lot of them too many to remember.

1- well, I also work around vacations around dl season.
2- I have more pics of dls than Grandchildren or Greats.
3- My postman leaves my new arrival's in a full wooden barrell on my porch if I'm not home.
4- We have 8 acres and I am out of dl room. We will have to cut the timber next.

In fact, a lot that you folks have posted applies to me....Ellie

8 acres and you are out of daylily room ??? Holy Moly!! Yeah, but ain't they PURDY ? I know mine are and next year I will have seedlings blooming also, God willing and the creek don't rise :)

Dot

Hey Dot. It's not that there is no room for them, it's just that it's woods. So all the yard that's in cultivation is taken. Also, there are a lot of trees in my yard. I have shade plants there( Hostas.) I may have to cut some trees...LOL...Ellie

But it sounds like a nice place Ellie,,congrats,,

Dot

When your children think all flowers have clever names of two words or more. When your daughter asks, "What's the name of that red flower in the pot on the porch?", and you say, "That's a geranium", and she answers, "No really, what's her NAME?"

Plus everything above. I wish I could take all the time spent filling out orders, and never sending them, and spend it pulling unwanted plants out of the garden. I have 3 orders on my desk waiting for me to cull the choices: because there is really no room left to plant even one. If I wait long enough they will all be sold out and I can say, "Oh well, I'll try again next year."

Oh boy! We bought another house because it had 10 acres with excellent soil, ponds and great water. I've been digging out my daylilies here, thinking yippee! I have lots of room in the new place! My husband bought a tractor and a tiller, and we're making big daylily beds, bringing in trailer loads of composted horse stall cleanings. I thought I had enough space with the first two 75 foot long beds, but nope, they filled up with new orders. Two more, each 10' wide, 75' long, and they filled up with plants from the front yard after I divided them. Then 2 more, and 2 more! I'm still out of room, needing to till more, and I still have lots more clumps to dig! And of course, I HAVE to buy more clumps from Ida Mae Flynn's sale...
They were so compacted in the old yard that I had no weeds since it was wall to wall daylilies, iris, hosta, heuchera. Hopefully soon I'll have enough dug that the yard won't be overwhelming to potential buyers and we can put this place on the market and actually move more than plants to the country place. Who cares that the foundation is crumbling and the roof leaks, it has space for daylilies! Let someone else buy my like new house with the suburban lot...there's no luxury like space and silence. Yep, I've got my priorities in order! I've had a few people point out that they think I could buy all new plants for what we're paying in double house payments, and I say...do the math...I've moved several thousand plants, not just daylilies. Too many? No.

Thanks again...it's great to hear from so many of you! We are a good group!

Cindi in ks....you have my dream! I wish! And, I'm with you...they don't know what daylilies cost...or other plants, for that matter! I hope you'll keep us posted on how things go. Lucky, lucky you!

Cindi in ks - I am soooo jealous! Thankfully for me I only have an acre and 1/2 - rapidly filling up. It's good that something is restraining me from going absolutely "hem" crazy! LOL
I keep telling myself - it's a harmless addiction.
The next step will be "Hemaholic's Addiction" - I can hear myself already. Hi, my name is Amber and I am a hemaholic~
It helps to know - I am not the only one~
Thanks to everyone for such a great post.

Gee, I never thought I did have a lot of daylilies. And digging up the grass to put in more daylily beds is perfectly normal.

You know you have too many daylilies when ...

1. Neighbors ask if you're the president of the daylily society.

2. The postman wants to eat lunch in your gardens because he feels somehow responsible for them.

3. You ask your relatives for Lowes and Home Depot gift cards for Christmas - so you can buy compost and mulch for your daylilies in the spring.

4. It takes you 3 hours a day to water your daylilies.

5. You can no longer remember the names of all your daylilies.

6. You realize you still have more than 100 in pots!!!!!

Debra in Nashville, TN

When.....
#1..You wish it only took 3 hours to water your dl's but instead it takes 3 days!
#2..You're outside watering from dawn till dusk and your child demands to know who you are when you enter the house!
#3..You have 3 acres and you've run out of room for new beds!
Jan

When:
your first though when something dies in the garden: "It will give me room for another daylily"

Alice

WHEN........You began talking to your daylilies. Example: Going out in the morning to pollinate and saying things like "ok now listen up, I've got Forestlake Ragamuffin pollen here, who wants some raise your hand".

You guys are really funny.

How about:

You run out of room in the garden beds, so you decide to put "a few" extras in pots alongside the house. This works until you have over 100 pots, which have begun to overrun the driveway and front walkway. You now have room for only one person to walk to the front door at a time.

Your choices are to (a) stop buying daylilies, (b) take out some shrubs, and (c) put even more pots on the flat roof outside a second story guest bedroom window. (After all, a bathroom is right next door to the bedroom, so why not simply run a hose from the tub out the window and onto the roof?) You also consider the flat roof at the end of your third floor hall as yet more "wasted" gardening space, but fortunately (or not), the nearest bathroom is at the other end of the 25-foot-long hall.

Since (a) is not an option, you choose (b).

But this is after ACTUALLY considering option (c).

You buy another dl that you have cause you didn't get enough the first time.

When you go out at daybreak because your gonna have a bloom on a new one. If it's raining, you take an umbrella. If it's still dark, you take a flashlight along with your morning coffee.

You check everyday to see if your seeds are ripe.

You check the GF every hour to see if a picture of a dl is posted that you don't have.

When,

You're realyy surprised by how many things on this thread fit you.

Your *incredibly* picky, slightly autistic son drops a chicken strip on the kitchen floor and eats it anyway. He's watched the daylilies arrive, get bleached and potted in the kitchen. Counters are bare of all canisters and appliances for easier clean-up. Rugs are gone for mopping with Lysol and bleach. The trash can gets bleached. The fridge (for the seeds) got very weak bleach, then baking soda. The ceiling fan gets.....bleach.

His comment-- "The whole kitchen gets sterilized every day."

LOL Petalpatsy! Boy, can I relate to the comments volunteered by a picky, slightly autistic son (ours is almost 9, with AS). He enjoys my daylilies and gardens, but has NO interest at all in helping with them. Now, if daylilies had gears, motors, doors, or buttons, he'd be all over them. I think I'll plant the daylily "My Ways" in honor of him one of these days. . . .

BTW, you know you have too many daylilies when

. . . . your MIL knows the name of your favorite nursery, so she can give you gift certs for birthday/Christmas.

. . . . and when you promise the kids you'll buy them a swing set for the shady spot by the trees if you can have the last patch of sunny, level ground at the top of the yard for more daylilies.

Laurel

laurelin, Asperger's Syndrome is also my 15 yo's diagnosis. How well I remember trains, model roller coasters, etc, etc. Lucky for me, after an explosion over three flies in his basement computer retreat, I brought him a Venus Fly Trap. BAM! We have carniverous plants everywhere! Next, he started to go "planting" -- long walks just about anywhere with a focus on interesting native plants. Next, he was wow'ed by the iris in the garden. So far, he had no particular interest in daylilies, which he thinks of as Stella d'Oro, but he's helpful because "at least they're plants" He has become a tremendous companion for me, always wanting in on any nursery, garden show, or Lowe's trip.

We still hit the coaster parks, but his interests have expanded past coasters and computers, to plants and their culture, and jumped from plant nutrition to his own nutrition, and comedy (of all things.) His Asperger's comic delivery is bizarrely effective and I can think about yesterday's joke and crack up all over again. His grades are up, and he's concerned about how much college tuition is going to be, so he can double major in IT and botany. He has a best friend at last, and they run back and forth between the two houses just like regulars kids.

He's different, but more and more I realize it's not going to be a such a bad thing for him after all. :) Patsy

Thanks Patsy!! It's encouraging to hear about kids with AS farther down the education path doing well. I think our son will be just fine in the long run, but sometimes the short run makes me doubt my sanity. Our son wants a Venus fly trap - maybe that will help him get interested in the garden.

And, to keep my posting almost on-topic (yours at least included botany!), I KNOW I have a lot of daylilies because I'm wondering if I can convince my DH to take our anniversary trip next year down to the Philly area, so I can vist Don Herr's daylily nursery not too far from there. . . .

Oh, and I wonder why botanical gardens don't have more space set aside for daylilies? With all the varieties available, I don't remember seeing a major daylily display area in a large botanical garden (I've been to MOBOT - Missouri Botanical Gardens - and Longwood Gardens). What a dreadful oversight on their part!

Laurel

You know you have a lot of daylilies when you move to another town and you have to rent a extra moving truck just for the daylilies...
(I've done it) :-)

I want to hear all about the move, etc... We are going to attempt this in a year or so ourselves... Is it worth it??

I moved from Temple, TX to Corpus Christi in January 1997. I moved all my keepers with the help of friends in November ('96) to a small town South of Austin. I purchased a home in the summer ('97) so moved the daylilies in August. They were all in pots so it wasn't as much work as it would have had they been bareroot. I placed all the potted plants under shade trees until I was able to get the beds ready that Fall. I moved about 240 named cultivars...
It was quite worth the money, time and energy. Unfortunately, I lost many daylilies the next few years, mostly from crown rot and the extended heat and sunshine of South Texas.
I didn't have as many to move this past year to San Antonio

I have been waiting for a year to have my house painted, but when the guy said he was ready to do it I had to tell him I needed to wait until fall (b/c of the dls). I'm in a complete panic about it though, b/c I'm afraid they are going to trample the dls even if they are dying back for winter. Unfortunately, in KY you can't paint in the winter. I'm VERY stressed about the whole thing!

Leslie

I will add that you have a lot of daylilies when you move a planned spring project such as putting in a new retaining wall, redoing a garden bed, and moving all the plants, from the logical idea of doing it in the spring, to doing it now in October. If I do it this fall, I will know how many daylilies I can order over the winter to fill it up come spring.

You know you have to many daylilies when one doesn't reappear in spring and you think oh well now I have room for another. I am about to the point where after tromping around the garden looking for more space for just one more I feel like yelling, "Move closer together one more is coming to join you" My neighbors love when I offer to come pick up their leaves with our lawn tractor, they even call to offer as they heard from someone else that I will clean up their leaves. This daylily obsession is just going to far, I think I need help before it gets worse. The neighbors would certainly think I had gone completely around the bend if I really would yell at my daylilies to move closer.

I am really looking forward to retirement in a couple of years so I get more time in the garden to rearrange my plants, get rid of some, hybridize more, and of course get more daylilies that blow your socks off in the north.

I'm with you flowergardener. I am thinking of retiring next year, & really anticipating being able to work in my daylilies more. I've even dreamed about daylilies! You should see what beautiful daylilies I grow in my dreams.

You know you have alot of Daylilies when you talk your 17 year old son into getting a job at a local nursery in order to get the 15% discount on Daylilies in case they bring one in you don't have.

This is so funny, thanks for bringing it back for us newbies to see!
You know you have to many dls when your lawn used to take a hour to mow now only takes 10 minutes.
You move the dog pen in the woods so you can have more lawn to put beds.
Messages on the answering machine stating " Ok I take it you are outside with your dls, call me when you remember you have a daughter".
You put up with the husband grumbling because you have him outside building a new bed. Oh but hunny, think about how pretty it will be!
You found a spot to plant one dl so you run in to look up some you really want and order it.

So many of your replies relate to me! Thanks for the laugh guys

Tammy

When you just planted a new daylily three days ago, but can't find it anywhere! Took me about 10 minutes to find it, and my backyard is pretty small!

HA! I can relate fairysoapgirl! I did that recently, I was sure it had died, then finally found it perfectly safe right where I planted it. How do you guys with hundreds keep up with them?

LOL....I've got 955 named cv's not to mention all my seedlings, but let me tell you an interesting story.
A couple of months back I reinstalled Flower2008 software program after having had a major pc crash last fall. It took me quite a while to get all my dl's entered into the program, but I finally did it. Then, a couple of days ago, I was out looking through my dl beds to see what was blooming or about to bloom when I came across a dl marked Jedi Pink Princess. I said to it (yes, I talk to my dl's)"Well, I don't remember adding you to my database!" So, I checked on it when I came back inside and sure enough, even though I have 955 cv's, I remembered that I hadn't put that one into my database. I was telling my son, and he said, "Well, Mom, that just goes to show that you really know your kids, don't you?" He thought it was hilarious that I would remember one name out of 955 and that I also could recall that it was left out of the software program. :) I can just about tell you exactly where each and every one of them is planted too. LOL
Yep, my dl's are my life, or so the rest of my family thinks!!! ;o)
Jan

I bow to you Jan. I am constantly mixing my 2 son's names. What is really bad, once I was fussing at one & called him by our dog's name; he wasn't amused. I really couldn't figure out why I would have gotten the dog confused with my son, the dog is much better behaved :)
I also tend to talk to my plants, but I try not to refer to them by name, I don't want to give them a complex that they don't bloom.

This is fun to see this back up again! It's been great reading all the additions!

....you realize that for two years you have been cutting back your daylilies only to realize that this year you now have more than you had in the previous two years! (the math doesn't seem to work...remove ten, bring in twenty...or something like that)

....the tree guys ask you if you'll mind if they move some of those labels when they take the tree out...and as you stand there thinking 'I knew I should have made a map of this area'....they all burst out laughing, saying they just wanted to see to your reaction! (No labels were moved)

....door-to-door salespeople get distracted and ask you what you're growing out there before they push their products.

....your year consists of looking-for-scapes season; bloom season (the highlight); reorganizing-beds-season (in order to add more); and catalog/ordering-new-daylilies season (which supposedly ends when the daylilies start coming up...ha).

....you have too many to count and if it weren't for automatic numbers on spreadsheets and plant software, you'd have no idea.

....you really enjoy reading about other people who have too many daylilies!

I was really worried, because it was Clouds of Kisses, which was kinda hard to find in the first place, and I bought the last division from the seller... and I wanted it BAD. I started to second guess myself... Did I plant it? Maybe I accidentily left it laying in the yard ( I looked around). Did the seller really put it in the box? I was pretty sure I remembered getting it, but you never know... Think, think, think Winnie the Pooh! :o)

By the way, I though of another one...

When you are thinking about buying a robe with more pockets because the one you have doesn't have enough for the scissors, colored wires, hybridizing list, camera, pen, baggies full of pollen, and tweezers.

Fairysoapgirl I use an old carpenters apron for my tweezers, tags, pollen etc. If you don't have one they are cheap at Homedepot.

Well, I guess I don't have to many...Yet LOL, I still have good size side yard just begging for some plants if I can ever get beds done up.
I do feel like I have a lot,Does that count? I've ran out of space in the beds and have many in pots.

When I have sold 260 daylilies on the bay and my hubby asks "When are you going to thin these out"

When you are giving away all your plants that aren't daylilies just to make room for the order that is already in the mail.
When your husband says that there is no way you are digging up any more of the yard, because I know when we move all this crap is going with us, and we're going to be leaving empty flower beds full of mudd!

When there is no room in your shed for the lawn mower because you have so many pots saved to put your DL's in when you move.

When your lugging a huge bag of change to the bank just to cover shipping charges, because you maxed out your mothers day money on the plants them selves!

When you consider getting rid of one that hasen't even bloomed yet, because your into a different color this year!

When you get mad at your mom for booking vacation (which she is paying for, mind you) in the middle of june when all your daylilies are in bloom! Then you ask your best friend to water and take pictures of them all on her phone and send them to you so you don't miss them!

And even though ALL the labels I made for them last year faded in the sun, I still remember exactly where every one of my 130 cultivators is planted even though they haven't bloomed yet this season.

This is a funny thread, no wonder it has lasted for two years! -Jessica

You have no room left were you could dig up lawn to make a new bed even if you want to.

When someone says, oh, I just love ____ (insert hybridizer name here)'s daylilies! And you know what state they live in, what their garden is named, and what kind of daylilies they are known for. (But you still have to go take a look at their website - which is bookmarked in your "daylilies" folder - just in case you missed one you have to have.

This is so funny!

OK, another mom of autistic son here, 5yo wih High Functioning Autism and twin sister with Sensory Processing Disorder (aka autism w/o the social delay)...

You know you have too many daylilies (and are totally obsessed) when:
1. Every time you take your kid to the occupational therapist you wander around the commercial landscape crossing the daylilies and then checking to see if the pods have ripened.

2. You no longer accept the freebies at club functions because you already have the ones everyone else brings.

3. You take the kids to respite care so you can attend daylily events all summer

4. Not only do you have more pictures of your daylilies than your kids, but all of your daylily photographs have captions and are cataloged.

5. You make Powerpoint presentations with pictures of every cross you make during the summer. They are organized by Tet and Dip crosses plus any that fail to set are put into the back of the deck. Then you print out the "notes" pages so that you can make a booklet to carry around with you for the next 3 years while you dream about what the seedlings might look like.

4. You spend all winter making the same type of Powerpoint presentation as #3 but this one is for planning your crosses for next summer.

5. You wander through your garden checking for ripe pods at least twice per day.

6. You'd rather save your vacation for a daylily convention than visit family that you haven't seen in 5 years.

7. Instead of learning to plant beans like all the other pre-schoolers, your kids learned how to plant daylily seeds.

8. You have to keep your daylily database on your pda so that you can reference your "want" list, your "have" list, and several hundred others at any moment. When you walk through the garden center you use it to reference the height, bloom season, hybridizer, and other details of each daylily that they carry.

9. You set up your cell phone with internet access to this forum and the e:mail robin so you won't miss anything while you are away from your computer.

Ok, here's one I haven't seen: You know you have a lot of daylilies when MOST of the bonuses you recieve are cv's you already have!! I have had that happen a lot this year! This is a great thread and so much fun!! Ellie

I love this thread! I did notice I was taking way more pictures of the DLs than the kids. I think they noticed too. Soon I had them posing with the DLs!

Even though I have over 4 pages on my wish list, I consider myself lucky because I'm not drawn towards the more expensive ones.

You know you have a lot of DLs when:

-You PROMISED your husband you just need a new bed in the back so he unwillingly tills it for you and then you order many more so now the front yard needs to be tilled.

-You got your neighbor down the street interested in daylilies too and she bought 4 already.

-I'll repeat this one, you give some away to family to make room for more coming.

-You're counting the years until the kids no longer need so much of the back yard for playing. (and yet I wish they would stay this age forever! They are so cute!)

-You've stopped buying toys, clothes, impulse buys at BJs, etc... so you can save up for more DLs.

-You want to kick yourself for wasting so much money on things like food, toiletries, gas, etc... LOL

-You really want to ask your family for specific DLs for your birthday gift, but know they will think you're insane the minute they see the price of just one!

-I will repeat this one, you go on your ONLY summer vacation and it's just when one of your DLs has decided to rebloom and you'll miss the blooms so it's all you can think about!

-Repeat - you stay up till 2am viewing DLs online and making an order list you know you'll never be able to do anything with anyway. (no space or money)

-You visit a Daylily farm in 100 degree weather and it's SO freakin' hot but you have to buy some so you rapidly write down some names only to realize you missed the ones that were on your wish list but you don't care too much because you're still getting more DLs.

I feel better.
I may be crazy, but I'm not alone. I have really enjoyed this.
kay

This has probably been listed but here goes:
When you have to check your master list before bidding on a dl that caught your eye on the LA!!! Hey, don't laugh, I have been known to bid on cv's I already have, then discover I have it when placing it in my database!
Jan

Man! Everybody sure came out of the woodwork on this one! What a hoot!!! Thanks!
Pat

You know you have to many daylilies when you do not
need or own a lawnmower any more just a small elec.
weedeater.****
PAT L.