This site has some great info/photos and if you'll notice the second paragraph refers to Ismene as the Peruvian Daffodil. All I know is that through the years I've ordered both Hymenocallis and Ismene from various dealers but none match the beautiful Hymenocallis which I got years ago from a lady advertising in the Georgia Farmers' Bulletin...unnamed and by the time it bloomed (and I wanted MORE!) I had misplaced her address. Hope you have better luck identifying yours. They are all beautiful but some more so than others. And as for the "Peruvian Lily or Daffodil" I've been somewhat disappointed with the Ismenes I've received. The foliage isn't as glossy or sturdy and the flowers not as long lasting as the Hymenocallis..but it might have been my growing conditions or the particular cultivar. josh Here is a link that might be useful: Hymenocallis

Karen, It is possible that you may have seen the calla lily that is sold by Plant Delights called "White Giant" Zantedeschia aethiopica. In the catalog description, the calla lily was "discovered" and it is described as having foliage around waist high,(the hieght of the describer is unknown!?)and the flower is around 7 foot tall. I bought mine this spring and it is growing fantastically well as I feed and water it well. I have it in a 5 gallon black pot and it gets sun most of the day. I am not sure if I will get blooms this year, but the spotted leaves are very ornamental and it is approximately 2 feet tall from the top of the pot. KA

Pam and Susan, You both are making me blush. ;-) Seriously, thanks for saying such nice things. It made my day. I've just always believed in helping people, and of course I'm trying my best to help the butterflies. Pam, I don't know what to tell you about the V. bonariensis. Have you tried wintersowing? I guess when I planted mine several years ago, I hadn't been aware about it being hard to germinate. Actually, when I sowed my seeds, that was before I found out about wintersowing and I guess I sowed the seeds just like I had been sowing all my other seeds. I think I merely sowed them in potting soil in late winter and the plants came up. Since they are small seeds, I wouldn't plant them very deep, maybe just press them into the soil. I'd try various ways and see which works. I sure hope that you can get some to germinate because the butterflies sure do love those plants. Susan, Thank you and I think we're lucky to have you too. I've been reading here lately more than I've been typing. I do really enjoy seeing what other people are doing in their gardens, and I keep up with what you're doing. I remember your generosity to me and if there's anything I can do for you, I'd do whatever I can to help you. :-) I just looked at my profile because I didn't know exactly how long it has been since I joined here. It was in August of 2006. I started my butterfly garden the previous summer and it included several swamp milkweed plants that I had bought at a local nursery. I didn't get Monarchs that first year, maybe because it was so late in the summer when I got the garden underway, but I was thrilled in 2006 when I found some cats on the milkweed plants. I don't remember exactly when I first found the forum (reading but not yet posting). I guess I read enough here to pique my curiosity and to become interested enough to start a butterfly garden but didn't post right away. I suppose I felt an urgent need to post when I didn't know what I was doing when I found the first Monarch cat but didn't know the details of raising one. So I guess you could say that when I first found the forum I probably read just enough to become dangerous. lol Thank goodness that there are such nice people here like you, MissSherry, CalSherry/aka tdogmom, and others who didn't discourage my questions or I really would have felt beside myself. I suspect I'm not the only one who starts into a project only to feel like she got in over her head. Well, I think when I first started planting for the butterflies I didn't really have any intentions of raising caterpillars; however, then once I found some I felt the need to protect them. All of a sudden it became urgent to me that I not let anything get to the cats. If I had been told by people that I should go read first, I probably wouldn't have been able to save those first cats because till I had read enough to feel like I knew what I was doing, I'm sure it would have been too late for them and they'd have perished. Because of the generosity of you and others I've learned a lot and raised many cats over the past 4 years and have been trying to pay it forward ever since. Thanks so much for opening up another world for me and enabling me to help another part of nature, which I love so much (I've been into birding for 20+ years and have online birding friends too). I think my butterflying and birding friends are some of the nicest people that I've ever met. I really did get to meet many birding friends in person about 5 yr. ago when we were at a get-together in TN, but that's a whole other story. Yes, that would be too cool to celebrate people's birthdays and join dates. I noticed that your birthday is just 4 days before my husband's. Cathy

Flowerfarmer, you're at least a month ahead of me! Some of the peonies look like they might bloom in about three weeks, but most of them will be later. A few of the foxgloves are just starting to form the first bits of what will be flower stalks. Everything else is several weeks out. Cold nights, short season, etc. If I had grown Asiatic lilies in the greenhouse, they might be close to ready now, but I didn't. Orientals and a Longiflorum-Oriental hybrid are my only greenhouse lilies. My greenhouse is small, so space is very precious and used mostly on the big-money flowers. The outdoors Asiatics and Asiatic-Longiflorum crosses are at least two weeks out, maybe three. Cheryl, my favorites so far are these Single Late (also called French or Scheepers) varieties: Maureen, Big Smile, and Queen of the Night, and Lily-flowereds White Triumphator and Mariette. Maureen is BIG. It starts ivory and turns white. Big Smile, yellow, is HUGE, even bigger than Maureen, and the biggest tulip I've ever seen (many customers say that also). I've also grown Single Lates Menton (good-sized, a lovely color, pink with tinges of apricot) and Kingsblood (red, average-sized), and they are very nice, especially the color of Menton when combined with Queen of the Night, but they don't have the Wow factor of Big Smile and Maureen. I'll grow them again, though. In the Lily-Flowered, White Triumphator starts sort of a greenish off-white and turns white. Mariette is a deep pink. I'll grow both of those again. There was a yellow Lily-Flowered I grew once and will grow again, but I've lost its name. I've grown Lily-Flowered Elegant Lady (or something like that) whose colors are muddy, just not terribly useful and not as good as they look in catalogs. I won't grow it again. ALL of the Single Lates I've grown had just-barely-cut-able stems the first year and VERY long stems the second year. Ditto the Lily-Flowereds, although they weren't as long as the Single Lates either year. Queen of the Night, a Single Late, is a rather small flower but has a long stem and is absolutely wonderful combined with practically anything else. With Menton it's a knockout. I don't recommend Bleu Aimable. I think AMG classified it as a Single Late. It's just too short and stays that way. On going outside and looking at the last few tulip blooms, I think Kingsblood might be a Lily-flowered. It's good no matter who it is, and has nice long stems. And I didn't mention Sorbet, a white with pink stripes or streaks. I honestly don't know whether it's a Single Late or a Lily-flowered. The flowers are quite small but they're on long stems and the colors are fantastic. I'll grow it again. As usual, I talk too much! Jeanne