Really?? You went through all 75 pages! Good for you, you have more patience than me, at one sitting! I don't know, maybe there are monitor differences because, for instance, Lyndell's Forever Pink is just beautiful...and pink. Of course, would that I could acquire that one...lol! Portofino, Song in My Heart (which I use as my avatar), Ribbons and Things (picture of which will be going up today, I hope...it's very hard...no, impossible...to keep up) and Michigan Magic are pink, to name just a few. You probably already know that some of the later Stamiles (Nancy Billingslea, Time Drifter, etc.) are nice pinks. I do think you'll be happiest seeing the daylilies blooming in someone's garden and then selecting shades that appeal to you. I also don't think you'll solve this with some one size fits all universal truth. Garden conditions vary greatly...even in the same garden. Most of the new daylilies that are coming out with some blue to them...only have it in the mornings...so, if you happened to look after lunch, you'd miss it. I also read on the Robin that further north, some growers believe they get truer colors...who knows! It is what it is. People that are newer to daylilies are often surprised by daylilies that may not exactly reflect the pictures...again, there are many variables there...and I've heard several hybridizers speak to this. Here on this forum, you can see color differences...sometimes due to location, time of day...and yes, those tricky cameras, to name just a few. Last year, One Last Dance (not that it is pink...just using it as an example...for me) had a horrible year. I would have moved it out, except I visited a garden and saw it in spectacular bloom. I decided to give it another chance. I'm so glad I did! It's wonderful so far this year, really performing. Maybe it just needed to settle in a bit longer...and maybe it appreciated the fact that I gave it a little fertilizer last fall instead of just leaving it to tough it out. Who knows. It seems no matter how many years we've been gardening, no matter how many years we've been into daylilies, there are lessons to be learned...and, for me, patience seems to be one I need to continually learn...lol! Do join a club! It is really wonderful to be around others who are just as excited as you are about daylilies. And, check out those garden tours! Nothing beats seeing them in bloom!

Hanford_rose & Digger, sorry I had been living like a mushroom, I spent summer of '93 to summer of 2005 in the mtns on a dial up modem. I couldn't keep the deer off the minis or the full size roses I grew. Anytime I spent on the internet I was tying up the phone line and I never stumbled on this forum in looking around, it would have loaded too slow in any case to use it. Anyways, I was pretty isolated for all that time, the only minis I was aware of came from Sequoia or those at the grocery store:) I keep pretty busy sometimes looking up the ones people mention here. This house we bought was finished July 2006 and we moved in and after I got the minis, I started looking around online for additional information. My sister helped me build the wall around the bed I created and we were arguing over how I amended the clay soil. I stumbled over this forum in my search, I'm just sorry the mini forum is not in use more. Those specific roses are just gorgeous and I'm going to have to buy some and add to my collection in the spring, most definitely. Digger, thanks for the link, if you don't mind I bookmarked it so that when I'm not watching my grandgirl I can look them over in leisure in the evening. I went through some briefly, your roses are absolutely beautiful, excellent photography. Thanks also for telling me about HMF, I really wasn't aware that there was more there, I just stop in look up roses, read comments and sometimes nurseries and go on. Wasn't aware about the Q & A forum at HMF, I'll have to check it out, thanks for saying something. You'll probably see me popping up there now:) I'll check your garden out there also, unless the link is the same? Ok, I think I understand that then. Thanks for opening your photos to me, I will really enjoy looking at all of them. Thanks also for being willing to answer questions, I appreciate that. Leslie

Thanks SO MUCH everyone. I'd like to respond to nearly everyone, and will do my best to do so. When I mentioned we had work done on the house recently it was primarily paint, window replacements, and a new roof (hail storm ~1.5yr ago). Nothing that should directly affect the tree, apart from the crews being in the area. When we moved in in 2013 I did cut away some branches that were touching the house and damaging the old window screens, but I'll bet it was nothing more than I could fit in a single trash bag all said and done. I did wonder about a weather event causing this. Barb mentioned one event above, and we did have some heavy icing/snowfalls this past year (w/ green leaves still on the trees)... not to mention the aforementioned hail storm that basically stripped the trees of their leaves the season before. I thought maybe the stress put on the tree caused an internal structural failure leading to this, but I really don't know. For all I knew it was diseased. I'll check out that link as soon as I finish this post, Barb, thanks. The stripping bark is indeed on the sunny sides of the tree, but in fairness this is the same side of the tree bearing most of the weight if any type of structural "buckling" occurred. With the house so close the branches are mostly on one side of the tree. All that said, I went outside again today to take a look and if it wasn't for the bark falling off so extensively I wouldn't know there was any problem with the tree. It's coming out of dormancy and tiny buds fill every branch I could see. The buds are green at the base, as I pulled one just to check what I was looking at. At the very least maybe that means it won't fall on a neighbor walking by tomorrow (MY biggest phobia). You can maybe see the extent of this "lopsidedness" in the photo I took today below. If it's not obvious it's the tree in the far right of the photo. I super appreciate all the advice. Thanks everyone.

I have a no-name duranta and it thrives with no care. It's tall - almost a small tree. I think the blooms smell like heliotrope. Butterflies do like the flowers. I've grown heliotrope too, BTW, and it smells heavenly. My sister in CA has a white heliotrope shrub that is delightful. Not sure if the white kind grows here. Mine died out in hot weather. I've grown zinnias plenty of times and they seem to prefer the cooler months. I've also grown red tithonia and lots of people around here have the giant yellow kind in their yards. It's supposed to be easy to start it from a chunk of a branch, like plumeria. I have pink pentas in our butterfly garden at the rec center where I work that reseeds in various shades. It also thrives with little care. It spread from purchased plants that I scattered the seeds from. Plants get approx. 18" high. There is also blue porterweed, garlic chives and scorpion tail for nectar, along with a cassia/senna, passionvine and milkweed for larvae. All seem to do well with little maintenance.