The vibrance of Come Sail Away blew me away! Gorgeous. You have lots of nice clumps going, lovely post.

What a lot of pretty ones! That cascade of Thomas Tew blooms is fabulous! I just wish it looked as good for me as it does for you. As you may recall, the petal color is beige tan here and the eye is nowhere near the black purple you get. It's on its last chance here. If it doesn't shape up this season, it' will be moved out in the fall. I much prefer the look I get on Crazy Ivan. Yours looks great, and mine looks exactly like that. Come Sail Away is very striking. I see it's supposed to be a 9,5 inch bloom. Quite the giant beauty! I like the combo shot of Omomuki, Marmalade Skies, Clown Parade and sweet kitty Spot. How she has grown since last year's photos!

Thanks for posting the photo of my near-white seedling. As you know, I had pretty much given up on registering that one since it never did as well in my circle bed as it did in the original seedling bed. But I lined it out in the corner of my yard two falls ago, and this year it has one of the best scapes going among the early bloomers with some four-way branching and bud counts ranging from 14-23. I've now learned you really have to wait until the second year after line-out to see improvements. Scapes in this new place are back to being 27-28 inches tall like they were in the old seedling bed. You say the seedling is huge. Do you mean the bloom. It's 6-6.5 inches here.

Debra

Lots of lovelies here. The Thomas Tew photo is great! I can see why you are liking Come Sail Away. We hope to see Crazy Ivan here this season. We traded someone for it last season and it didn't bloom. We were afraid of hardiness issues but it looks good this spring.

Debra, it's great that your seedling is showing the kind of stats you hope for. It amazes me that some people cull seedlings after their first bloom. It might be ok based on muddy or ugly blooms, but plants need to be mature to show good stats. We have found exactly what you have. They need time to develop and, unfortunately, we often see the best stats the year after we register them (they are 6-7 years old, or more, at that time). It's also amazing how a plant in one part of the garden will out perform the same plant in another part.

Nancy, I know you should cut off scapes on received plants but all these new ones scaped with 3or 4 scapes and I had to let them bloom! Come Sail Away puts out 2 blooms every day.

Hoosier Nan, Thomas Tew is definitely one of my top favorites-some years it reblooms 3or 4 times. That purple so deep and velvety.

Debra, I wish Thomas Tew was lighter for you. I also have Christopher Moody-same cross-same registration year-it is definitely lighter and paler but with that same deep purple.

Your seedling bloom was 7 inches easily. That was first bloom. Here is today’s bloom which is more like the 6 to 6 1/2 inches you mentioned. Yesterday’s bloom had slight ruffle but ruined by rain.

Another lovely post. What is the white daylily in the group pic with Clown Parade and Spot (who is adorable). Thomas Tew looks great in a clump as does Pointed Perfection. Come Sail Away is very pretty and I can see why you like that one. I see that Clown Parade has a poly. And of course who can resist a garden shot. I hope to be able to recreate what I had in NY here in WV. Cold here today and we got lots of rain yesterday and just overcast today but more rain coming.Suppose to go down to the high 40's tonight. What a change from all the heat.

Julia

Embarrassingly, Julia, that white is Lillian’s Thin Ice, in its fourth year here and still only 2 fans and small blooms. Nothing like Debra’s gorgeous plant and blooms.

I loved your garden bed with all your perennials and wanted something similar and there are lots of yet to bloom perennials in there but are dwarfed by the daylily clumps. I know you will have a gorgeous recreated bed!!

We will be in high 40s tonight as well. Very uncharacteristic.

Clown Parade did poly and was very nice.

Kate - That's great to know the first bloom on the near white seedling was 7 inches! Several years ago I bought and very rapidly lost Christopher Moody. It was too tender here for our winter that year. I did think it was a pretty daylily. So sorry to read Lillian's Thin Ice has not performed well for you. Maybe you need to try it in another spot.

Debra

So many lovely blooms here! It’s great to see the progress made on that new bed, it looks great. I hope you show more photos of it this season.

Sherry

Wow, so many ones to love! I have thought about getting Come Sail Away a couple of times; I think the one time I asked about it it was not available. Since you're closer in climate to Pierce, I wonder if you will get close to the stats on it when it's settled in for you. Your Julia-inspired bed looks great!

I would never have seen kitty Spot if I hadn't clicked on the picture. Your garden scene also has a beautiful landscape background that the smaller picture gives no hint of. I like to see other perennials scattered through the garden. Photos of Frank Bennett's gardens always show striking displays of various flowering perennials and grasses. Alas, most of us, including me, don't have the space.

Here, Thomas Tew has been rather tender. Christopher Moody has grown but has low bud count.