It's time once again to share your best budded plants of the season. I know our members to the far North will need more time to determine this. But most of us know who the Bud Kings and Queens were.

I've always said that no daylily gets 40 buds in my garden, but I can't say it anymore. In a year of generally pitiful bud counts, I had two daylilies with buds in the 40s.

My Bud King is a dormant oldie and a late. It's Royal Jester with 41 buds and seven-way branching on its best scape. The other scapes had bud counts in the 30s. It's made the list of best budded a couple of times in the past, but it's never had bud counts this high. It must have repeatedly rained hard in that part of the yard.

My Bud Queen is Black Panther in its second year in the garden. The best scape on the Panther has 40 buds and seven branches. The other scapes have bud counts ranging from 26-34. I wish every daylily could perform as well as this one. The only drawback this cultivar has is fading by evening on days when the heat index is 100 or over.

Tuxedo Junction's best scape had 31 buds on the best scape. I've had this daylily for many years, and it's never cracked even the 20s for bud count. I guess it liked the extra cold winter and the rainy spring.

Lavender Stardust had the fourth best bud count, with it's best scape having 28 buds and most other scapes with bud counts in the low 20s.

Coming in fifth was August Cherry with 21 buds on the best scape.

It's interesting to note that all my top bud daylilies are dormants that bloom in the later part of the season.

I can't wait to see who your Bud Kings are.