Great question, Celeste gets the richest colors, the best purples.

I don't know, but I always suspected her later starts and cooler weather had somethings to do with it. Mine are darker and more intense before the blast furnace starts.

kay

Back before I was a daylily addict, I was a rose collector. I had over 200 rosebushes and was big over on the antique roses forum. People began commenting about my gallica roses and how they were such a dark, deep purple while theirs were more burgundy red. Then I came over here and noticed that my purple daylilies were also deeper purple. I guess I should have at some point done a ph test to find out what I suspect is a very acidic soil, but the old saying "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" has kept me from doing so. Everything grows so well I never got around to having it tested. However, New Hampshire has very acidic soil, mainly due to the high rock content in our soil. We are known as 'The Granite State'..... the soil is full of rocks. My yard was heavily forested before I turned it into gardens and there is a high content of evergreen needles and leaf decomposition. I also amend the garden beds every year with shredded leaves, mostly

from oak, maple and birch, with evergreen needles mixed in. In fact, I don't buy mulch. Every Fall when the leaves pile up in the yard, hubby and I use a leaf mulcher machine to pick up

the leaves and shred them for the garden. It makes the soil very light and rich with earthworms, but it also makes it more acidic. I guess some day I should test the ph out of curiosity, and when I do I will report back. Like Kay said, the cooler weather will intensify colors, so the very early and late bloomers will show the most color. However, the month of July and first part of August while the majority of the daylilies are in bloom is very often in the 90's and quite hot. Another factor is that I have a lot of trees surrounding my property so my daylilies get more shade than I'd like them to. I notice that the ones which get the most shade tend to have the best color.

This is a close up of my seedling bed to show the shredded leaf mulch, and then a picture of

our leaf shredder machine which we overwork every Fall.

I apologize for HOUZZ wanting to turn my hubby sideways! And also for the text being so fragmented, which is not the way I typed it!

Nice seedling bed! How many seedlings do you have planted?

Debra

Celeste - look at all those babies! You've been busy. :)

Alex