Still chilly outside, but somehow minus 10 doesn't feel as bad as it sounds after the minus + windchill of the past few days.

One pick for "M" this morning is Multiform. A term used mainly for AHS exhibitions, but could also be found in a hybridizers description. Multiform is used to describe a daylily registered with two or more forms.

Beware the Wizard is registered as polymerous, spider and double.


Fluttering Beauty is a unusual form double.


Queen Kathleen is registered as a polymerous spider.


You can find more registered multiforms on this AHS website page
http://www.daylilies.org/Dayli...

Mulch....... often here in the north if we plant a single fan or a smaller seedling late in the season, it is a good idea to mulch it the first year for some winter protection.

Miniature....... a flower with a very small bloom. Don't have any myself but think they are sweet.

Midrib........a flower that generally has a middle rib that is a lighter color than the rest of the flower. An example of that would be BEST OF FRIENDS

I have two, meristem and monocotyledon.

Meristems are the areas where growth happens with production of new cells. Also called a "growing point". Daylilies have several meristems. There's the apical meristem on top of the crown and from which the fan grows. Unlike many other plants, in daylilies and similar plants the apical meristem doesn't elevate as the plant grows but remains on the crown. So daylily leaves grow from the base not the tip. The root meristems are at the root tips, however. There are other meristematic areas, such as a type of "thickening meristem" that goes across the top of the crown if I'm understanding what I've read correctly, but that's getting too technical for me.

Some of the differences in meristem areas are because daylilies are monocotyledons (monocots) rather than dicotyledons (dicots). Something like a quarter of all flowering plants are monocots (meaning one cotyledon or "seed leaf"). The monocots are further divided into related groups called "Orders". Daylilies are in the order Asparagales and so are most closely related (disregarding other members of the daylily family) to plants such as onions, hyacinths, irises, and orchids. They are not closely related to grasses, as is sometimes said, that relationship is distant.

Multiply will be my "M" word for today. I want my daylilies to multiply rapidly into full beautiful clumps.
I bought an assortment of daylilies from Walmart last year, you know...the dried up ones in the little bags. This is the result from one year.The first two are Night Beacon with the highest rust ranking(most prone to have rust) I have in the garden at 4.9. The last two just came with the name "Once In A Lifetime Mix".





Edited:
Just wanted to add that I see in the database 'Night Beacon' is an Evergreen, it sure acted like a dormant here.

Mid season come to mind for when some daylilies start blooming.

MUNSON

Maps! My maps have been a tremendous resource for me, especially in winter. I could not remember where I had put Back Scratcher, so a simple text search in my Maps folder found it for me.

Maps are something that I've finally learned to do for my seedlings, after too many years of broken, faded, or carried-off-by-critter plastic labels. (I've also recently moved to impressionable copper stakes. They are more expensive than plastic labels, but even if the garden marker fades, the impression is still there and readable, and the stakes can't get brittle, or broken, or carried off.)

My term for today is Miniatures, which is amusing since I am not really a fan of minis. Truly. The only one I currently have in the garden is an old red one, 'Cranberry Baby', which ironically is also supposedly highly rust susceptible. (I don't think that I have ever seen rust on it before, though that might change this year.)



As I said, I am not really a fan of minis; I like my daylilies much taller and with large flowers. I can see that they may be valuable in smaller gardens though, or even have a role to play in larger gardens, in just the right spot. I have seen some nice ones on tour; I still remember seeing 'Broadway Valentine' in a Regional tour garden many years ago.



With all of that in mind, and coincident with my current search for rust resistant daylilies, I asked for 'Spacecoast Tiny Perfection' as a bonus plant on an order this year. The flower is pretty and the plant is rust resistant; I'm sure I can find a spot for it somewhere, even if only in a patio pot.

Money. This addictive hobby makes my checkbook explode.





(Photos purchased from istockphoto.com)

Good one!

More daylilies! Who doesn't want more or different daylilies, I mean you can always take one or more out of the garden to add more.

Motivation. When the weather outside is awful the thought of checking my dormants for signs of growth is a great motivation to get my thick coat on and my boots and get out there

Betty, that is exactly what I am thinking about doing this year.

Hilary, if it weren't for the ice and snow on the ground, I would be out there pruning my roses and checking daylilies for any growth.

Vickie that is what I have been doing for about five years, it is a good way to get rid of those that no longer appeal to you or don't do as well as another daylily. Once you have daylily fever it is hard to recover!