How to keep track of your daylilies

Thursday, 01 October 2009 20:35 |

There are several ways to keep track of your daylilies. Here are four common methods:

1. Make a Plastic Label using blinds cut to size or nursery labels. Write on one side of the label with a paint pen the name of the cultivar and on the other side with a number 4 lead pencil. You can then bury this label in the soil in front of your daylily, this will prevent the sun from making the label brittle.

2. Metal Markers can be purchased from a variety of suppliers. Always use a paint pen to write the daylily name and/or hybridizer and year of introduction. If you plan on hybridizing, you may want to put the ploidy on the label as well (Tet. or Dip.).

3. Mapping Your Garden takes some time, but the results are amazing. You can, but don't necessarily have to make an actual map. Instead, you can number your beds and add a field in your database of cultivar names for the bed number and the directional side of the bed (East, West, North, South). For instance, 'Prince John' B1E. When looking for 'Prince John' you will find it in Flower Bed 1 on the East side.

4. Creating an Actual Map is ideal to prevent mixing up the daylilies where animals or young children may be present as they love to pull up labels. A rough diagram of the bed may be drawn, then a small circle with the cultivar name written in. Use a pencil, as you may relocate daylilies for various reasons over the years, and you don't want to have to start all over again.

_{Updated November 19, 2009}

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email this

Comments (3) add comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Kathy said:

...
I write out an index card for each new dayliy. The card contains the daylily's stats and other information. After planting, it's location in the garden is noted on the card and the daylily is given a number. The number contains letters to correspond with it's location. Example: #455AB; AB meaning arbor bed. The index cards are filed alphabetically and come in handy when I can't get to the computer for necessary information. The cards can be taken to the garden and are helpful when deciding which daylily to plant where as the cards contain the daylily stats.

A metal plant stake is used to identify each daylily and includes the daylily's assigned number.

Information from the index card is entered into a software program called BloomSoft.

I also use a hand drawn map of each garden which notes the plantings by number.

November 18, 2009
Votes: +2

Ditchlily said:

Bed Maps
I was fortunate that I only had a few daylilies before I realized the need to keep track of them. I also had saved the tags (the first ones I bought at Home Depot) and was able to match picture with flower the next year. I made a Bed map that spring when it was easy to see where each plant was located. I just drew circles and approximated where they were. I then made a more extensive map using MS Paint. The first incarnation used ovals to represent where the plants were and letters (A,B,C, etc) to indicate which plant. A later one used a small photo of the plant where Paint was used to "cut out" the picture. One of the last incarnations included color coding the letters to indicate bloom season.

Currently I use plastic plant markers bought in stores to mark my plants. I write on them using a paint pen. Do not use Sharpies, they WILL fade! I have also used plastic knives or forks in a pinch when I needed a lot of markers quickly. I had a big box of the knives left over from a picnic and about 400 plants to label! It worked to get them labeled as I planted them in a space of about 3 weeks. I plan to replace them with more permanent markers later.

I too own the FLOWER 2009 software from Plantstep and love it. I have all my plants enterd in it. It helps prevent me from buying a plant again because I like the bloom and have forgotten that I already own it! LOL.

November 07, 2009
Votes: +1

Becki Pavlik said:

Tracking Daylilies
Great suggestions. I too have drawn layouts of each of my beds with a corresponding legend sheet stapled to the bed layout. As I move things around, sell or cull plants, the layout is updated periodically.

The greatest 'helper' I've found in keeping track of my daylilies and also my seed crosses is the software FLOWER 2009. What a great invention. Wish I had thought of it! As a Master Gardener, I also love it because you can use it for any and all kinds of plants, not just daylilies. There is also a journal in the program and you can print off any number of different kinds of reports (which I love).

I use the method of tagging my plants as mentioned above with the plastic adhesive printed labels on the metal plant markers and like it real well. Going on my 4th year and the labels still look as dark and legible as when I first made them (and I didn't cover them with any additional tape or anything.)

Becki
't