Today's blooms

With temps hovering at 98 and 99 and no rain in site for at least another 10 days the plants are so stressed right here at peak bloom time. The only ones I can water are my potted plants that are sitting on the porch and all around the edge of the house. I did water one raised bed this morning as the foliage was looking real bad. This was the bed with my newest plants in them.
But blooming in pots today was first bloom on  BUTCH AND BARBRA'S CRACKED EGGS

 

 and

                                                          COACH'S BRAIDED ANGEL.
                              Hope to see a lot of you guys in Huntsville at the Region 14 Regional.
                                                                       on June 17th. 

What is Instant Rebloom

I think I know what instant rebloom is. But if anyone should know or have another opinion I would appreciate a comment and your ideas on what instant rebloom is. To me it is when a scape will appear from a single fan before the original fan has started blooming or soon after. Without haveing the first scape bloom out before seeing the rebloom scape In this image of one of my future introductions look closely at the scapes.

See the new scape emerging at the bottom and the original scape should have first bloom open tomorrow or the next day.


Would instant rebloom here in the south make for rebloom which is not normally seen in the north ?

Rewards For Our Labor

I believe we are all rewarded for our labor. For we reap what we sow and with out hard labor the reaping of the rewards will be small. With hard labor the rewards will be numerous and plentiful. This is true in all aspects of our life. But today I would like to show you a few rewards I have reaped from my labor. I think they are plentiful. I will start with this image. Remember the small seedling bed I reworked in the post of Feb 16th (check it out) Well here are the rewards from that laborious day.

This is going to make a great casserole for dinner tonight.




Next is another type of reward that anyone who hybridizes will know the hard labor that goes into the seedlings we produce. Actually this is from a seed I purchased two year ago on the auction but growing it off to see the first bloom was labor. Although not as much labor as producing the seed myself.  This lovely 27"in. (5.5") bloom with two lateral branches and a terminal Y got it's own number this morning. Will now be tested for fertility and moved to a selected bed this fall. So I feel that with Gods help I have reaped more rewards for my labor.

A Few Greenhouse blooms

I actually took these out of the greenhouse and placed them on my porch where at least someone might get to see them. left is AFFAIR D'AMOUR with one double bloom and one single bloom open today. It is lovely either way. Center is SYCAMORE FRUIT PUNCH just below SFP is a Fred Manning seedling and to the right is . Paul Aucoin's HOLD ON SALLY image doesn't show the rose edging on it with the angle of the sun .

Second image I caught them in the act!!!!!

Raiding my strawberry patch is Kera (my youngest granddaughter next to the gas tank and three of her friends.

A few greenhouse blooms

I have had a couple of blooms in the garden but nothing to take a picture of because the weather has been so cold. Starting to warm some at night now so it want be long I will have some nice blooms. But today I do have a few greenhouse blooms.  I have been using frozen pollen and have a few pods set.
Will post later on how I store my pollen.  Got to take the girls to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean today.

     Always a pleasure to look at is Dan Trimmers introduction named for his daughter
                                                                JENNIFER TRIMMER.



 
                           This is first bloom on BLUE EYED ANGEL I am sure it will get better.
 

Then here is SHAMROCK DELIGHT blooming again today.

Kennesaw Mountain Hayride

Today I have the third bloom on Kennesaw Mountain Hayride. Yes the color is getting stronger as I expected it to do. But still I see more rose/orange. I had to take the pollen from it this morning to freeze, so forgive the missing stamens.

Cool Morning Openers

This 2011 introduction of Bama Sunshine was keep in the greenhouse all winter but removed about three weeks ago and placed outside. That being the reason for an early bloom. But I was very pleased to see it fully open at 7 am this morning with a temperature of only 53. Nothing else was fully open at that time of morning. As a matter a fact Cherry Valentine is the only other one that has opened fully as of 8:30 am and only one degree warmer (54).   So although it is cloudy and cool this morning I have a little Bama Sunshine to brighten my day. 

Large, Bitone, Patterened, UF?

I am not into the patterned thing YET.... This Paul Aucoin daylily could change that.  Was I ever surprised this morning when I went out to the greenhouse and saw it. Brooke won this from Paul's last year when our club visited his garden. It measures 6 1/2 inches so it is large, sepals are lighter than the petals, so it is a bitone, and the widest part of the petal is at least half way, UF ???? Paul gave this seedling a name of WHICH WAY OUT and registered it in 2007. Although registered as a five inch, it's first bloom here this morning was as mentioned earlier a full 6 1/2 inches.

The Eye is definately patterned. 

Bloming Today

Scapes are popping up everywhere so it want be long until bloom time. I am seeing some good branching on some of my first year seedlings.
This is the second bloom on Kennesaw Mountain Hayride. I purchased this from Bill when he was in Birmingham speaking.  The color is not as orange as I expected but a beautiful coral pink to my eyes. Took it out of the greenhouse and put it on the front porch so as to get an accurate image of the color. My little hobby greenhouse has green tinted panels.

I have so far this spring given away all my ripe strawberries but today I have saved some for myself to make a fresh strawberry cake for me and one for my son.

So yall come!!!!!!!!!!

The special thing about these strawberries is that when I was at Linda Agin's and purchased  Alabama's Bleached Blonds there was a strawberry plant growing beside it. When she dug the daylily she tucked the strawberry plant in the pot with it. From this one plant three years ago I have a full 16 X 5 ft bed full of strawberry plants.

And finally got finished with the first one. One is still cooling.

Shipping Daylilies

Spring shipping has arrived so I decided to do a video on my method of preparing plants for shipping.
I am a state inspected commercial garden. If you are thinking about shipping daylilies as a commercial garden. Check with you state Agricultural Department to acquire a license.. Also check with you county Probate Judge as you might be required to purchase a store licences. Then check with your state Department of Revenue to see if your state requires adding sales tax.  In Alabama daylilies that are grown for sale are considered a farm crop and therefore no sales tax is charged. If I were a store purching them for resale then sales tax is required.
The second video is of the packing of the daylilies to be shipped.

Chattanooga

What a wonderful trip to Chattanooga last week. Before going to the Tennessee Vally Daylily Society to speak, I got to tour Lee Pickles greenhouse. Boy what some beauties growing inside. I guess my favorite was this seedling out of Wonder of It All X Roses and Gold. Please correct me Lee if I have the cross wrong. Then it was on to Wally's restaurant where the meeting was being held. Good old fashion cooking.

I haven't had fried cornbread since my Dad made
it many years ago.
A very nice group of folks, I think there were
35 in attendance. With two visitors form my backyard hybridizers group there. Marsha Williams and Loyd Picklesimer.
We spent the night in Chattanooga and visited Rock City and Ruby Falls on Sunday.
On Monday I had the pleasure of visiting Bill Waldrops greenhouse. Another wowing day.
Since Bill has already posted an image of my favorite seedling on his blog. I want re post it here. But will say it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, But I do so love those red eyes and edges.
So I will just post a picture of the seedling I purchased from him. Again red eye and edged.

Oh I have got to show you guys a picture of Diana's Ivy bed. This was so cute.

On Tuesday we visited the Botanical Garden in Atlanta GA.We were kinda in between bloom seasons but still a beautiful place to visit. On the final day of my stay at my sisters Anne's house we built her a hosta bed.Not completely finished but she has already added to it. Image below:

So a wonderful week for a spring break. But now it is back to the real world.

                                                                                              

Temporary Greenhouse

With thunderstorm and hail the last two nights I was glad I had built the temporary greenhouse around my tomatoes. These were planted on March 18th. The temps have been in the low 40's at night and mid 60's during the day. They don't even know it. I actually have a few buds on a couple of them.

With the cold weather moving in last night and me already having tomato plants set out for nearly a week, I had to build a temporary greenhouse around them. I had some old plexus glass sheets. I just leaned them up against the frame. As we southerners are well know for good uses of duck tape. I used some plastic across the top and duck taped it to the plexus glass I then used some plastic to make the end covers again using duck tape to attach it to the plexus glass We did get frost last night with only a low of 35. I live in a bottom and the cold air just wants to settle in here. The plants were snug inside. I will just open the ends up today for air circulation and close them again tonight.

 

Selecting Seedlings

Selecting seedlings can be a mind boggling task. It is easy to find a pretty face among the seedling, but one should not let that pretty face turn your attention away from the plant itself. What do you look for in a daylily you want to grow in your garden ? This is what you should be looking for in your seedlings. Myself I first look at the flower. Doesn't everyone? Next I want some good branching and bud count. Although bud count can be somewhat on the low side it can have instant rebloom giving you a longer bloom time. I had rather have a daylily with 15 buds that blooms two or three time than one with 40 that all bloom out within a matter of a few weeks. So I am going to show an example of a selected seedling and hopefully you will see why it was selected.  This is a image of a third year seedling. It was dug and potted after maiden bloom. Left in the pot until second year bloom. Now this year I will be observing it out in the garden again.

Notice how tall it is and how well branched. Also notice the rebloom scape that has not yet had a pod set on it. You can see it is very fertile also. Nice arching foliage too. Basically just overall good plant habit.

Raspberry Beret X Border Music

Not a bad looking bloom either.
But one more good thing about this seedling is that it has thrown me some really pretty babies too. I should see quite a few new babies from it bloom this year. Below you will see images of three babies from this seedling that I will be looking at for second time this year.

(Raspberry Beret x Border Music) X Sense Of Wonder 

 If a seedling doesn't have at least three way branching it will not get to go to the selected bed, But it might be used for a bridge plant with something like the above

seedling to give it that branching. Actually I have waited until the bloom is gone. Being able to see only the branching a bud scars and choosing that plant for the selected garden. Have to wait until it blooms again to see if it has any other trites that I might want to keep going forward with.

(Raspberry Beret x Border Music) X Sense Of Wonder

Final test will be for hardiness. All my selections are tested in So. IL where there are some very harsh winters. Well this year we had a harsh winter. With four snows and temps as low as 10 degrees. All of these seedling have come back and multiplied well.

(Raspberry Beret x Border Music) X Sense of Wonder

First bloom Texas Blue Eyes

Remember the Texas Blue Eyes I got last fall and keep in the kitchen window all winter. I moved it to the greenhouse about a week after the scape appeared. Well it has all of two buds on it. This morning it is trying to open. I have not left the heat on in the greenhouse in over a week and the temps are kinda cool out there. So I took it from the table and set in on the floor closer to the heater and turned the heat on, hoping it will open fully so I can collect the pollen.  First image taking around 9:30 this morning and second one at 2 pm
Hasn't opened fully, but I pretty much expected that. At least I was able to collect the pollen from it.

Planting seedlings

Needing to make room in the my small hobby greenhouse for tomatoes plants, I decided to plant some seedling outside today. Three weeks earlier than I normally plant outside.  But these seedling have been in the tree tray all winter and are ready for some room for those big roots to spread.

I had to remove about five clumps from the raised bed and refill the bed with soil conditioner.  This bed now has 65 seedlings planted in it. Some of them were as tall as 21 inches high. Hopefully I will get some bloom this season.