Exactly, Brooke! Distinction is required for AHS awards (for seedlings) but not for registration. People have many different reasons for registering a daylily. It is perfectly fine to register a daylily to honor someone, for instance. If you go only by photos and websites to judge, you are missing out. Nothing beats seeing daylilies in person. I've been fortunate to visit, for example, the Millers' garden a couple times. Michael's plants are wonderful and he is very selective. He has thousands and thousands of seedlings from which he selects. I would happily grow any of them (I have three right now, I believe, of his introductions) because I know they will thrive. It isn't just one market...hybridizers (hobbyist or more) are working all over to produce daylilies that grow wonderfully in all the various regions of our country. It is about more than a pretty face...and sometimes, even a distinctive face. It's great to have choices! There are many reasons for buying a daylily (or daylilies...lol!). It's like anything else...some people want the latest and greatest (of whatever it is) and others are content to wait. It's all fine. Also, what's wrong with making money?? It takes a lot of work to bring a daylily to the point of selling. I have the big (ha) two years experience now of growing seedlings and it is a lot of effort...and who knows if I'll have anything worthy of registration. Finally, if you have the opportunity to hear a hybridizer speak, go! You can hear why they selected a particular flower for introduction. Plus, you'll learn a few things (always good!). P.S. I feel I must say something else. This spring, Michael Miller taught a few of us a scape grooming class. I learned a lot from him. We worked with plants from their gardens...and I just want to say, if you think his plants are like everyone else's...then, I think you haven't seen them. The Millers grow a lot of other hybridizers' plants as well as their own. It is a neat opportunity to see Michael's plants as well as the latest and greatest from others. I say Michael's plants hold their own. And, for me, here in Virginia, his plants are valuable because, as I mentioned, I know they'll grow well here.

'Lakeside Cindy Cee' is a great-looking hosta of that I've just become aware. I'm happily surprised it's not hugely popular. Heh heh heh. It's the spitting image of my Aden-420 and Aden-553 hybrid. This is a pic of Steve's plant, Taken by Steve. So he says, anyhoo... Aren't you going out of town for a few days next week? I can water your gardens if you like, Steve. Hostas take lots of water; I could be there to make sure they get all they need, young man. Sincerely, Pauley Aden P.S. I heard you have a Stingray hybid that is simply DEVINE. I'll have extra TLC for that strapping young seedling. Needless to say ; )

Tomato Folk, Thanks much to Cecilia for all her hard work and for bringing all her kin; I had no idea she was one of 7. Cecilia's had folks sign in and she said we had 42 people. That beat's last years count which was 36 people attending. It made it fun to have so many folks from so many places. (HI, NJ, PA, VA and MD). The number of tomato varieties was down to somewhere around 50 varieties which was partly because we started a week earlier while the tomatoes started a week later. NO ONE TALKED TO THE TOMATOES! They were all in the dressing room discussing this before the show. How rude they said ;-) Also we were missing Trudi who contributes so many and Dunkel (Doug) from WV, who was with us 2 years ago and grew about 60 plants of many different WV varieties but didn't like to eat them. (huh?) I counted the empty beer bottles from my homebrew that I was "recycling" last night and 29 were empty. That's impressive! I didn't know that folks would care much except for the novelty of the idea. As far as how the competition went, I was hoping to test the quality of the "Emily" tomato in this competition and as you can see from Cecilia's results "Emily" came in 4th place. Don't let this fool you because it was the highest ranking Large Pink beefsteak among the winners. Over the past 3 years we have always found that cherries have come in way ahead. This suprised some folks that are part of other gatherings. Perhaps it is a Maryland weather or soil issue? Perhaps, statistically 3 years is too small of a sample? Black Cherry and Sungold are always up top and other cherries are in the top ten that include Dr. Carolyn Pink and White Current. This puts "Emily" on top of a whole class of tomatoes that includes, red and pink, large hearts and beefsteaks. Of course this only one competition and I doubt that it will be repeated next year. If it does and this tomato continues to produce with the same size and vigor, I would say that this a variety worth keeping. I have been debating this question since it seems like "Just another" large pink beefsteak to add to so many others that are already so good. Hopefully it will stand the test of time. The parents of this variety are Prue and Marianna' Peace. These are good parents. On that note, one of the winners from last year that was also a cross from similar parents but the F3s segregated so much this year that it was not the same at all from last year. Too bad really but some of those lines still seem interesting and there's always next year :-) The "Penny" method of judging has one distinct weakness. That is that it favors early entries in popular locations. We could dampen these effects by having enterants interlace their entries with other competetors on other tables. I may add that there was general agreement from the regulars that his was the most fun we had at a MAGTAG event so far. It seems that many thing were in our favor this year. The weather was perfect. Hope to see you all next year. Greg

Ok, here are some more of the things Ill have at the swap! This first pic is a multi purpose one! The 5 plants in the pic are listed below! From Gardening Top left: 3 - Sempervivum "E" Top right: 3 - Sempervivum Icicle Lower right: 4 - Sedum Tricolor Sedum spurium Tricolor, 4" X12"+, Full sun, pale pink, Jun-Jul, z4 Evergreen, xeric, remove any new growth that has reverted back to plain green. Pink, white and green foliage in summer, mostly pink in winter. Left side, in bloom: 6 - Delosperma White Nugget Delosperma basuticum White Nugget Iceplant, 2" X 12"+, Full sun, White, May-Jun, z4 Sparkling white flowers. Evergreen, xeric, patented. Spreads more slowly than many other iceplants. Top center: 4 - Delosperma, Mesa Verde Iceplant Delosperma Kelaidis Mesa Verde Ice Plant, 3" X 18"+, Full sun, salmon-pink, May-Aug, z4 Evergreen, xeric, PlantSelect 2002 Heres a pic of the Mesa Verde blooming! And theres another pic of the Icicle Semps in the top right corner!) From Gardening 4 - Sedum pachyclados Sedum pachyclados, 4" X 12"+, Full sun, white, July, z4 Evergreen, xeric, if stems get too bare looking, cut all the way down and wait for new growth. From Gardening Sempervivum, Hen & chicks. Sempervivum - variety name unknown, sizes vary widely, Full to part sun, z3 Individual hens bloom sometimes, flowers range from white to pink to green, individual rosette dies after blooming, evergreen, xeric, winter color is often dramatically different from summer color Please check your list of the ones youve gotten from me before and request ones you havent gotten before so I can spread the different varieties around to different people! As many of you know, I dont know the variety names for most of these, so Ive assigned letters to each to identify them. If you get some, please keep track of the "names" of the ones you get so you can ask for different ones each time as I have more available. 4 - K blue spruce color From Garden - 2009 thru June 3 - C the red one in the center. It gets very large! 4 - I the yellow-green one on the right From Garden - 2009 thru June 3 - G From Garden - 2009 thru June Remember, the pictures are of them in their winter colors! When you see them in the pots, theyre all gonna look green and the same! 4 or 5 - Angelica - species unknown, I got it at the very first Spring Swap - but its the herb form! (Its probably A. archangelica) Im not sure what its used for, but for those of you that are into herbs, maybe youd like one! Queen Anne type flowers are very prettybut I think they stinkand it was right by my deck, so I dug it out! Actually, I tried to kill it with Roundup, but it was coming back, and I discovered 5 small plants that didnt have tap roots yet that I could stick in pots! It gets about 5' tall, and if you have a place thats not near a window or deck, it could be very nice! Tap rootedplant it where its gonna stay! Blooms early/mid summer. Not at all xeric! Its the tall white one on the left! From Garden - 2009 thru June And I have 6 small variegated spider plants Ive potted up! These are the ones with the green center and the white margins! Strictly house plants, tho will do fine outside in summer if gradually acclimated to direct sun (and with a lot of water!) Does anybody else have any idea yet what theyre gonna bring? You dont need to have pictures of them! Just post the names! Id love to see if theres anything I want to get dibs on! Just two more weeks till the swap, Skybird P.S. Private note to Jennifer! Did you get either of the two emails I sent you within the last month? Maybe they went into your spam box like that other one did! If you didn't get either, let me know so I can resend!