Fun with Mislabels...

We've all had the horrible expedience of buying one plant, waiting a couple of years and finding out it isn't what you wanted. My first, was a mislabeled rose. I have since come to terms with that happening. Labels get switched, lost, stolen and nobody is perfect.

This Spring, I picked up Daylily labeled 'Spanish Glow' at a local nursery. The tag was sitting on top of the pot next to some others and, I'm hoping, it is what I wanted.

At Home Depot last weekend, I was browsing through the new arrivals and found Daylily 'Lavender Vista.' All the pots were labeled the same, from the same grower. Lavender would look lovely next to some pinks I've received in a trade. The one I chose has 4 fans and is big and healthy. HD hadn't yet had a chance to ruin it. I got it home and 2 days later a gorgeous yellow appeared! I looked at the growers website and my flower is, apparently, a new one, 'Lemonn Vista.' A few must have slipped through the cracks. I love it, it's perfect!

Not all mistakes turn out as well, so share your stories and pics. I'd love to see the mislabels!

I would never buy a daylily at a big box store mainly because a lot of them are tissue cultured, but even buying from a reputable daylily grower, one can still get a wrong plant. I have had many through the years and have always been disappointed in what I received in its place. Last year, however, I received Calamity Jane accidently in place of Cranberry Island and I like it very much.

That's a nice big happy bloom Kwanjin. So far I have at least two that are not what I ordered. Pomp Perfect and Queen Of Everything. QOE turn out to be Moonlit Masquerade which I already have. I am going to email the sellers and send pics after the other new ones bloom that I got from them.

I have had only a couple....one the hybridizer I bought from did send the correct plant plus a very generous bonus once I contacted him. The second is this one nice yellow one. It came from Wild's as a bonus plant and marked Happy Returns. It seem to not be that one but I like it very much.

At least with the examples above, it is pretty clear that the plant was mislabeled.

What is maddening to me is the "Is she, or isn't she - ?" quandry. You buy what you think is Plant A, it blooms, the bloom has a lot in common with the pictured/described bloom of Plant A, and yet....

A couple of years ago I got 'Mr Obvious' from the Lily Auction. It finally bloomed this year, and I don't know whether it is the correct plant or not. The foliage is dormant (check), the flower is humongous and of the right form (check), the flower is diamond dusted (no comment on the description to that effect).

BUT...

The scapes are pitifully short. (But then again, it was somewhat neglected and is in a small pot - and other tall daylilies don't necessarily achieve their registered height here.)

I'm dubious about the color. 'Mr Obvious' is supposed to be a pink cream blend, but there's very little pink to this thing; from a distance it overall looks a light cream/lemon, with maybe the tiniest hint of other color (pink or melon). Looking close-up and hard at it, I'm not sure if I'm imagining that or not. (But on the other hand, lots of things don't color up here as they do in other climates, so that doesn't necessarily say this is not the correct plant.)

The thing that really makes me skeptical, though, is that the hybridizer description states that 'Mr Obvious' is fragrant, yet I cannot detect any fragrance in this bloom (unless, again, by straining I might be imagining the barest of whiffs). Certainly it does not match the fragrance of 'Osterized' or a seedling of mine.

So, is it a mislabel or isn't it? Arrrrrrrrrgh.

That is frustrating! I have a couple that are what they say they are but do not get as tall as stated. I haven't had much trouble with colors but I have to see them early in the day or they fade.

The above mentioned Spanish Glow opened last night. It IS what the label said! Woohoo!

It's funny but I have had more wrong plants from mail order than from big box stores. If I buy one from a big box store I pot it up till it blooms to be sure it's what it should be and healthy. I haven't bought from a big box store this year because I have spent so much on mail order. My husband might have a stroke if I spend anymore on new plants any time soon.
This year I have had 3 that were mislabeled from last year. I only have a pic of one of them. It was suppose to be Freedom Ring. Freedom Ring is listed as a coral pink self. Mine bloomed a bi-color that I find very pretty. I had bought 3 plants and all three clumps bloomed like this. I also had a Orchid Candy that ended up being Moonlit Masquerade. The third one was Dragon's Eye it ended up being a yellow bloom. The seller is going to replace the third one. I have not called about the other 2 yet. I have been lucky that none of the plants were expensive plants. It would be harder to accept if you paid big money and had waited so long to see the wrong bloom.

Another thing that I have had happen 2 years in a row is 2 different plants in the same clump. Last year I had a Janice Brown that bloomed with a Pardon Me fan in the clump. I assume it is Pardon Me because it's the same color and size and blooms the same time as my Pardon Me. This year it was a clump of 6 fans of Prairie Wildfire that had a orange colored blooming fan in the middle of the clump. I'm thinking it could be a self sown seedling.
It's like 2 plants for the price of one.

It's lucky they didn't cost much but sill...you'd like to get what you paid for. Lucky you like them!

All of the wrong ones I've gotten have been something I really like. There will come the day when I'll give something away that I really DON'T like. I have some deep orangy-red glads I waited for that were supposed to be Plum Tart. I'm waiting on 4 more dayliles that all have buds. 2 I KNOW will be what the labels say because they're from our very own Mike! LOL Alpha Centaury had buds but they dried up. Not sure what happened there. Oh well...I can wait for next year.

We are fortunate to have a local hybridizer from whom we get our daylilies. We like to see them growing at his place which is 20 miles away. Even the picture from a catalog is somewhat misleading since it is hard to capture some of the colors accurately. Pinks and purples in person can be so different from the actual flower in your yard. I can not take a good picture of my Bela Lugosi which is a dark velvety purple in the morning. Daylily colors can change during the day and the size of the bloom definitely varies with the temperature, humidity and rainfall. This year is the best in recent memory in my area. The blossoms are huge. We do mail order some from the Lily Auction and have been pleasantly surprised with many of them.

Kwanjin, Yes, it would be nice to get what you paid for. It would also be nice if all growers stood behind their plants. Some places only stand behind their plants for 30 days. That is not enough time to know if you have what you ordered. I find it ridiculous that a grower would only stand behind their plants for such a short time.
I have had good luck on the Lily Auction and with Maryott's.
I have never bought Glads and had them look anything like what they were suppose to look. I now only buy mixed bags of Glads. They tend to be cheaper in mixed bags. I figure that is what I get anyway. I have been lucky the past 3 or 4 years and my Glads have come back each year. The funny thing is I planted Hardy Glads at the same time and they never came back. Go figure!

My SIL and I went to a local Iris grower when I visited her in Oregon. Shreiner's! We missed the bloom season but I can imagine how beautiful it was a couple of weeks before. They did have some Japanese Iris in bloom and I got to drooling over some of those. LOL

I will have to lift and store these Glads. I like the color but I'll have them in pots next year so I can put them where they'll be nearer to like-colored plants.

I would have been drooling over the Japanese Iris as well. They are so pretty.