notes from a plant sale

Blair and I spent three days this week helping LIDS sell daylilies at the Farmingdale State College plant Sale. A few observations:

• I noticed we're selling a cultivar that happens to have the same name as a coworker of mine. It's not one that I would have bought for myself -- kind of pink and yellow pastel-y. But I bought one for her and potted it up afterwards. At some point in the near future I'll bring it to the office for her.
• It's amazing how many people want perennials that act like annuals (except for the dying part).
• Easiest sale: One women came over, looked at our tent for a minute and then said "I'll take two." Uh, which two? We have a couple dozen different cultivars, and there's a wide variety in characteristics. Bright yellows, bright reds, muted pinks, off whites. Tall, medium, short. Early bloomers, late bloomers, rebloomers. It's like going into a diner and asking the waiter for "food." But she said it didn't matter. She just wants two. The pressure was on. Which two to give her? Maybe this was really the hardest sale. Eventually someone else (thank God!) picked out two for her. Then, after paying, she wanted two more...
• The hamburgers at Farmingdale State were OK. Not great, but edible. Or, as Blair put it, "Crappy, but so what?"
• For the first time, I bought metal stakes with nameplates so I can label plants. At this point, I have a lot of daylilys in my yard that I don't know what they are. I've always figured they're pretty flowers and I don;t need to remember much more. But there are a few I know, which I will label. And I'm labeling the new ones. This marks my descent to the second circle.
• Our spot -- for the Long Island Daylily Society -- was right next to the spot for the Long Island Dahlia Society. I noticed that the latter had their plastic tables clearly labelled (in Sharpie) as belonging to "LIDS." So were ours. Oh, the potential for mayhem.
• There was the customer who gave us a comedy routine. She would read a cultivar name, and follow it up with a joke. "'Third Witch'? Sounds like my sister!" or "'Broken Heart'? Story of My Life!"
• I was discussing colors of the flowers with one of the other members. I mentioned that there are a lot of yellows, and I'm not really into the solid yellow daylilies. He said that studies have shown that men are attracted to red daylilies. I haven't seen the studies, but it rings true for me. I'm a sucker for the reds. The bright reds. Especially if they have some yellow mixed in. The first daylily I bought was "Santa's Little Helper," which is solid red. And my favorite is "Spider Man," which is red and yellow.
• I learned about the existence of risque and ethnically offensive cultivar names. My favorite of
  
  these names is "Crotchless Panties," but the flower doesn't live up to its name. I would have expected to see more pink.
• The days at the sale are fun, though long. And I kept seeing daylilies that I wanted to buy. "'Face The Nation' looks good. What the heck?" Of course, that meant that every day when we got home I was planting in the yard. These were long days...