The first daylily I bought was one I saw at a daylily farm during a countryside garden tour. I still preferred all types of flowers, it wasn't until we bought our retirement farm 15 years later that I decided to start growing daylilies more. I bought from garden shows, plant sales and eventually from growers. I grow both dormant, semi evergreen daylilies. I leave the foliage and spent scapes up all winter to help catch the snow for some insulation during winter, it can get down to -30 here sometimes and we get some gale force winds. Mine are staggered bloom from spring til fall. Marg

Well, that's a mouthful.....lol
I got started from getting some plants from my Aunt and Dad that had become overgrown. Then began looking into it more and finding what I liked best-They like spiders, I like rufflies. I have added a few new ones every year replacing the ones that I didn't like as much or didn't do well. I get some from trades, some from fellow gardeners that share overgrowns, some from purchases, and some from making my own. I have a limited budget so I won't spend over $30 for one plant-and usually keep it under $25. Dad and I get together and buy from Maryott during the BOGO sale and if we both want one he buys one and I buy another kind and we share.
I have all three kinds-evergreen, semi, and dormant and try to make sure I have some that are blooming in all seasons or rebloomers. Realistically in the north though, many plants that are listed as rebloomers don't always rebloom. The growing season isn't always long enough. How often they get divided depends on the plant. Some grow faster than others. I have one plant that I have had for about 8 years and only have 4 fans. It has never been divided. If I didn't like the bloom so well, it would be gone. I have others that grow like a weed and have to be divided every few years. I use the divisions for trades, suppliment my Dad's sales (as he does tours and sells out of his garden) and go to a plant sale every spring-which is where I get my budget for the purchases that I make for that summer.
I usually clip mine down about to 4" in the fall as it makes it faster for me to clean up in the spring. I zip through my yard and help Dad with his gardens. I think I covered all the bases. :)

Lisa,You answered a lot of my questions. One question I had for anybody is when you order from companies, are you actually get a fresh bulb or do they did up their plants from a field, cut them back and ship to you? To make a nice showing, what is the recommended number of plants to put together, realizing that they will multiply as years go by and then one will divide by digging them up. When you plant, do you go by recommended space between plants? If you did up a plant to take to a plant swap or give to a friend, do you just put one plant into that nursery pot or plastic bag(I've seen this done at plant swaps)or do you put several plants/bulbs into one pot? I bought a digging fork last year from Home Depot and I use it more than I do a shovel..I love it! It's a lot easier and faster to dig something up with that than a shovel. When you plant your daylily, do you add any nutrient in the hole/soil?

Just a few thoughts. Oakes is one of the first places I bought any daylilies. They send not just a couple of fans but large clumps which is one reason their prices tend to be higher then some others. Next, in order to answer any fertilizing question, it really is important to get a soil analysis done. In our area we have high levels of Phosperous and Potassium (the P,K in the N,P,K #'s) and adding any more to the soil is not only wasteful but can actually harm the plants. If possible it's best to see daylilies growing at a daylily nursery. But if you can't do that remember that some daylilies can have issues, such as melting and colors fading by afternoon. Who wants a bleached out soggy mess by 4:00? I found that out the hard way. So if you are going to be spending alot on a particular variety it's best to ask here about it first, or google it........Maryl

I did a lot of trading & have received some lovely daylilies as gifts. I have quite a few daylilies now, but always want more, they are just so beautiful & I tend to love each & every one. I have several daylilies that most people would toss out, but I just can't do it :) I can see it happen at some point though, there are much better daylilies out there.
I do tend to look to the forums here, listening to opinions on which daylilies perform well, especially in my growing zone. Trying to look for daylilies that bloom for a long time, with heavy bud count, or especially early or late.

Stella was the first, Clothed in Glory started the obsession.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bloomin Designs daylilies

I dug my first daylilies up along a roadside---ditch lilies and even though they can be a bit invasive I still like them. I first saw them in a huge clump out on a dirt road where my oldest aunt had a farm --a farm with a two hole privy, a pot bellied stove in the parlor, and a huge wood kitchen range. I bought my second clump at a regional market from a woman who claimed the plant had come from Austria-Hungary. I still wonder, but they are a small, coppery red, rapidly multiplying, little daylily that I now have five clumps of. One has been in the same place for thirty years and still blooms. I've never been able to identify the darn thing. Anyway the woman who sold it to me grew clumps in her back yard and dug a small clump of three or four fans for three to five or more bucks----so I bought a few more. By the late eighties I had found mail order places and bought some species and some old varieties from Saxton and others. Since no one told me you can't use wild fulva or ditch lily for crosses, I did it anyway, crossed the old little red with fulva pollen and got eight seeds. Still have the plants---some where in the weeds here some where-------------------Weedy

pippi .. daylilies are not bulbs, they have a root mass so you dig up a portion of the plant with the root mass to share. The shipper usually cuts the foliage down to anywhere from 4 to 6 inches, because the foliage will re-grow.

I can't help you with spacing or how many to put together to make a good showing, especially since different daylilies behave differently. Some will multiply and fill in quickly, some won't. And I never have enough space for all the daylilies I need to plant, so they are never far enough apart! LOL!

I put dug daylilies in grocery bags when I give them to people so they don't get dirt in their car ... when I ship them, I clean the dirt off.

And I use composted donkey manure as my nutrients, but you'll probably get a lot of answers from people who buy all kinds of products for their daylilies ... I don't.

I received my first daylilies from my Mom and my grandmother ... both are/were amazing gardeners.

I have been blessed with some amazing friends that love to share, and I have bought a few. Most of my beds are dayliles with bulbs and a few perennials thrown in. sharon

I'd like to recommend Sunset Meadows daylilies for reasonably-priced daylilies that do great for me. You can find them on the internet. Since many of the latest ones are costly, I use the cheaper priced ones to fill in. The Rogers are really great people, and could help you pick some that would do well in your area. I have been buying from them since I started, and have some really nice clumps now. Since I live in zone 8b, most of mine are either evergreen or semi-evergreen, but they also have a lot of dormants which should do well in your area.

There are a lot of other vendors that have reasonably priced daylilies, too, but time doesn't permit me at the moment to add their names. You really don't have to spend a lot of money to have a lovely garden. In fact, a lot of the older (and less-expensive) daylilies are tried and true performers.

A word of caution: if you start hybridizing your daylilies (they are easy to cross-pollinate and raise from seed) you may get addicted to them, like those of us on the forum!!!

Nancy