late season bargains.. are almost ALWAYS problematic .... especially if they spent the season on the blacktop of a bigboxstore ... sometimes the bargain really isnt worth it ... thats another way of saying bargains are a carpshoot ... on top of the stresses of last year ... there would be issues of whether you planted it properly .... and how horrible winter was in your neck of the woods .... its still very early .. i have never had a problem in my z5 with the purple smokebush ... scratch ONCE if you want ... but dont go scratching to much ... its still very early ... it is not a spring flowering shrub .... so it isnt going to be in tune.. with all those types of plants ... give it another month.. and you will know .... and i doubt it is grafted.. even if the above is dead.. it might resprout from the roots ... in mid summer ... if you have a warranty .... if you see no signs of life in 30 days.. discuss such with the seller... good luck ken

Beyond amazing... Nature is something that holds wonder and surprise... even in the simplest of things. I walk my gardens every morning to see what happened overnight, and something always has, however small... I am awestruck by every new bloom or pod or bud... and I could just sit and watch it all for hours on end... but life intrudes, and off to work I go!

Excellent post (as always) Debra! I can always count on you for such good advice and wonderful pictures. Since I'm just starting out with daylilies, it is very helpful to know which are the lates. (You and Rita are the queens of the enablers, you know!). I am taking notes because I need to have more late-bloomers. It is so, so difficult to choose any one favorite of those you posted. I can see that I would want ALL of them! Do you remember where you got 'Adrienne's Surprise'? I really like that one, and 'Techny Peace' as well. I have long admired 'Magnificent Dad' and always think I should get it to honor my Dad. Wonder how it would do in zone 4? 'Charlie' is one I remember from another post and that I really LOVED it...so adorable. And I love your unusual forms too. I pretty much like all daylilies (the only ones I am sick of are the orange ditch lilies because they are growing wild everywhere up here and folks who don't give a hoot about gardening dig them up off the sides of roads and that is ALL they plant in their yards!! Yuck.) Thanks for always having such delightful, beautiful, and inspiring posts! Celeste

Wow, that's incredibly awesome! Your Aztec Gold bloom is so beautiful. I hope mine will develop an inflo soon before it's too late. Your musk rainbow seems like an awesome plant - I've never seen a plumeria do that before! I bet you're really excited for these awesome blooms in the future. Please post pictures when they bloom!