I read somewhere where it would take 100's of truckloads of sand to significatly change clay soil. Small amoounts of sand as Brooke said makes good bricks. Add no sand. I add Sphagnum peat moss, top soil and cow manure. Ground pine bark is good if available in your area. Lots of folks down south use this to condition their soil. One advantage to clay soil is that it retains moisture. Some of the Southern nurseries that I visit have to water almost daily, due to the fact that their sandy soil does not hold moisture. Tom

Hi, I live in Texas, too, in zone 8b. The heat is horrific this year, and it's only briefly rained once in 136 days. It certainly is not the time to do any transplanting! Here's my advice: Get your beds ready now or ASAP, if you can stand the heat. In that way, they will be just right for planting new daylilies at end of September, for it takes time for the beds to "ripen." Here's my suggestion for having a great daylily bed. We used this formula as suggested by Jack Carpenter in the Region 6 magazine. Mix the following ingredients listed below into the soil per 250 sq. ft of bed: three inches of twice ground pine bark (we just used pine bark mulch we got from Home Depot - have no idea where to find twice-ground pine bark mulch unless you have your own shredder/chipper) 50 lbs. alfalfa meal or pellets (available at feed store) 50 lbs. cottonseed meal (available at feed store) 25 lbs. corn meal (or corn "chops" - available at feed store) 50 lbs. Nutricote (360 day time release fertilizer - your feed store can order it if not in stock; it's pricey - but well worth the expense) We prepared our first daylily bed before we received this information. Our next bed was prepared in August using Jack's formula. We planted young seedlings in this section, and it has resulted in tremendously vigorous plants with a long blooming season. I covered the soil with 8 layers of newspaper topped by pine bark mulch. The daylilies in this bed so outperform all the other 1500 plants I wouldn't think of putting in another bed without doing the same. If you get your bed ready now, it will settle and be ready for your plants in 3-4 weeks. It should be perfect for new transplants by end of September. I've also experienced a "crown rot" problem with with daylilies shipped during the hot summer, so you could place your orders now, but ask them to ship later by USPS or FedEx. I find their methods of handling live plants very satisfactory. If I can be of any further help to you, please let me know. My e-mail address is najoba@hotmail.com. Nancy

Oh wow, I am overwhelmed by all the responses. I want to Thank each of you for posting. When I logged on and saw all the replies it brought tears to my eyes. Thank You again. I have been lurking around in the background reading some of the post and everything seems so easy until I try to do it. (grin)I think I probably have the early signs of Alzhemiers. Sometimes I can't remember how to get back to things I've found on here. Thanks Jan for offering to help with the daylilies and the computer. Trust me I'll need lots of help. I think I need to ask you a question right now. Exactly how deep do I plant my daylilies? I think I have 3 that may not be deep enough. I know you don't want to plant them too deep. But how deep is deep enough. One is kind of laying over some on it's side, and the others the outer leaves keep dying on them. They still have green leaves and new growth what do you think? Oh Laurel the photograph of the daylily is beautiful. Thanks for sharing it with me. I'm drooling over all of ya'lls beautiful babies already. Betsy, thanks for telling me to put my zone in the box. I really don't know for sure if I'm in 8 A or B. I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Fairysoapgirl I think I gave you a hard time earlier today on a post about no dirt under your finger nails. Like I said I have a difficult time remember somethings so I may have you mixed up with someone else. Anyway I do thank you for all the links in your post. Thanks Rick, Chris, Jake, Janet, and Kathy. Each of you have made me feel much more comfortable. I look forward to our friendships blossoming just like the dayliles and other flowers. Sincerely, Marian P.S. I wondered how people remembered everything everyone had said. Then I noticed I could scroll back and then say something after I had re-read one post at a time. Hey, there maybe hope for me yet.

It will be fine to plant bulbs in late Oct. The best planting time for bulbs is different than the best fall time to plant perennials. This weekend, I will hustle to finish getting the rest of my perennials into the ground because the optimum time for planting is passing me by and I want to give them a decent start. But bulb planting season really begins as the ground gets cooler. However, let me give you a tip. One year I ambitiously placed a very large order for bulbs in the fall. It may have been a fall sale. The problem was that everything arrived pretty late. So instead of planting my bulbs over 3 or 4 weekends, I suddenly had to do a marathon planting. If I had placed an order for bulbs back in July, they would have sent the order to me much earlier. The zone you are in probably matters a lot less to most companies than the time you place the order. So, I will never again place a large order in the fall, unless I check very carefully about when the company will actually deliver.