Patsy - I have read your experiment with care. Not certain that I understand what you are trying to do.... Just transplanting or trying to multiply your stock of some rare Hem. or?

Where I live, southern Ontario, all hemerocallis are pretty much impossible to kill - you can grab a chunk with a hoe anytime of year and plop it into a new spot where you want them and within a few weeks, they are doing just fine, blooming even.

What a conincidence! I don't know what I'm trying to do either. :)

I think you hit the nails on the head. I want to avoid rust and multiply rare Hems. I want to do it all, and as quickly as possible. I would hybridize myself for the sheer joy of it, but I think mostly I want to be able to give my mom and dad a proven clean, rare hem. My dad is 72, and he had a major stroke two years ago. They have a small daylily farm, rust free, in Kentucky, and he has always hybridized his own crosses. Mom said this year he didn't even write parentage on his tags. They won't buy through the mail, or from the south. We live in a zone where rust is not endemic, yet not reliably killed on dormants during winter.
I'd like to be able to rekindle his excitement, and do it next fall, as he is older and in poor health. I'd never purposefully divide a new daylily! Once they came apart I just didn't know what to do.

Of course, I'm lost to the beauty of the blooms and the fun of hybridizing myself. But anything that comes through this winter alive, and next summer rust-free would be happily dug completely up and taken to mom and dad.

My first love was gardening in general, and I believe organic processes are the best, both for long term ease of maintenance and for healthier plants. Mother nature is a complex thing that I don't fully understand. I try to do things her way as much as possible! If I alter the breeding and natural selection for vigor, I'd like that to be my only alteration.

I've been way impressed with the strength of these plants to bounce back from my extreme handling. Rust is a headache once you get it, and I think I'll opt for an ounce of prevention and hope for a lifetime of radically beautiful blooms. What I've done so far is soooooo easy. I mean, even old ditch lilies had better dirt in the ditch than the potting soil they sell in bags.

I've got a five gallon utility bucket to make up bleach soak, and a dinner plate just fits to weigh them down over night. After a rinse, they just sit in a regular bucket of superthrive. Then they go into a tub for a few days to recover. Of course, if I still get rust and they all rot I'll be bummed. I have immense faith in the natural disease control of real compost, though, and I hope to have blooms to post next summer.

Patsy,
It sounds like you are giving these daylilies great soil, and the steps you are taking for rust prevention are sound. I hope everything works out well for you.

Debra

Thanks, Debra. It means a lot to me, to hear you say that. :) I emailed Wayne a bit ago to join the MTDS, but I need his addy to mail my dues. I'll email him again. I'd enjoy the newsletters and speakers.

BTW, did you get a bloom from Magnificent Hummingbird? I get Ledgewood's (Abajian) and Lambertson confused, still. And since I'm maxed out for this fall I'm busily making fantastical spring wishlists. :)

Yum! to Ledgewood's Tropical Butterfly and In Cahoots, and to Lambertson's Painted Bunting as well.