Sir Reginald

We drove three hours this morning in a constant rain, to pick up the newest member to our family.
Meet Sir Reginald. (Reggie to his friends) He is a four month old mini Australian Shepard. He stands 14 1/2 inches high and should not get over 18 inches.  He has a natural bobtail that is about five inches long. Just had his first bath and is not a happy camper right now. Still exploring everything new around him. We are in love with him already.

Eight Month Old Seedling

I was pleased to see this seedling blooming today. This one could be my very own Best Edge seedling.
I planted it from seed in the house in Jan. Kept in the hobby greenhouse until April and  then in a raised bed outside . So it is eight months old.,  I am loving the form on this one as well as the edge. It gets the number today of 11-0904  A  five inch bloom on a short scape but blooming above the foliage so when it is mature
it should be taller.  It has already multiplied and is two fans.  For sure one to watch.  Think I will take one fan and pot it for the greenhouse and leave one fan outside to test for winter hardiness. With the parentage involved I expect it to be evergreen. A cross of Born To Run X Butch and Babar's Cracked Eggs
Any comments would be appreciated.

Pop Poll Voting

Boy did we have a great time at our Pop Poll party. Great food and fellowship. Here we are after dinner talking about the nominations on the list. We couldn't get the DVD to work, so we didn't get to see a picture of them all to refresh our memory of the bloom season. Have you voted your pop poll yet?

Huntsville Botanical Garden

The last garden on our tour at the Regional was the Huntsville Botanical Garden. Again I have to thank Marsha Williams from TN for the use of her images. Mrs. Rosa Bella Van Valkenburgh at the age of 90 years young is the care taken of this amazing daylily garden in the Botanical Garden. At our regional Rosa Valkenburgh was honored by an assistant of the Mayor who declared June. 17th to be Rosa Bella Van Valkenburgh Day. Had you been there to hear the decelerations to her you would say that she certainly deserves a day in her honor. Also she has a lovely daylily named for her .
ROSA VAN BALKENBURGH  This image was taken in the garden of Bill Waldrop.

Now the images of the daylilies that Rosa take care of, I might add that she does a wonderful job of it to.
                                                     There are 850 varieties grown here.               

Village Visions Garden

Randy and Madloyn Whitt are the owners of Village Visions Garden is found in Elkmont, AL
Thanks to Marsha Williams of TN. I have some garden picture to post here.  I only took individual  garden pictures in this garden. Randy is one of the superb dayliy growers, that is with Madloyn's guidance. The garden surrounds the entire house. Just last fall adding several new bed to the back side of the pool.
Now can you image laying on a float just staring at all the beauty?

The pool is where you will find Madolyn and Randy after a hard mornings work in the garden. What a wonderful way to cool down.



Lets continue around the pool  now.....
 

Now out the gate around the side toward the front yard.  I have been working hard trying to get Randy to hybridize. No luck yet. He certainly has some great cultivars to work with. Now that Madolyn is ready to retire I might just have to get her to do the hybridizing...   The daylilies continue around the other two sides of the house. Just didn't get any pictures.

Bella Vista Garden

Located in Guntersville, AL is the garden of Mary Terrell. Resting on a rock laden bluff over looking Lake Guntersville is Bella Vista Garden. Mary's home was built by her farther in 1939 and is now a historic home.

As you enter the front yard at the top of the hill you will see wonderfully grown clumps of daylilies.

Notice the lake in the middle of the right side of the image.

Well here is another view

How would you like to go out the door with a cup of coffee each morning with this view ??

For sure I wouldn't be wanting to go to work , I would be wanting to hit that lake with a fishing pole.

                                                     Or out the side door onto this lovely patio.

Mary grows all her hosta in pots so the garden can be ever changing just by moving them around. As a matter a fact that is what was done after a storm blew one of her large shade trees over. I have never seen hosta grown so perfectly.  The next few images will be of hosta and other plants grown around the perimeter of the  property.

The big black stone is actually a fountain.

As you go around and behind this shed , guest house or utility house. Which ever it is, you will come upon another daylily garden. Unfortunately I only took pictures of individual bloom there.The next image is the path behind the shed.

Diamond Vally Gardens

At the base of Brindlee Mountain in the rich silt of the Diamond Valley you can find the garden of
Jim and Martha Brazelton. Martha is the daughter of the late Richard Webster .
I would love to see this garden in the spring as it is a peonies and daylily garden. This is the first view I saw as I stepped off the bus.  You may have to scroll to the right a little to get the entire image on your monitor. I did not want to take away any of the beauty of the garden by making the image smaller. A big Thank You
to Jim and Martha for hosting the Sally Lake Bed and being on tour for all of somewhere over 150 people tromping through their garden.

This is the garden that hosted our Sally Lake Bed. Jim and Martha grew them to perfection.  Unfortunately I did not get images of all the entries or even the two beds they grew in. I could not draw myself away from Jim's seedling.The following will be images of angels of the garden.

I wold loose a crop if I had this pond. It is just off the patio that adjoins their house.

Correct me if I am wrong Jim but was that a 10 lb bass caught in this pond ?

The following images were made by Marsha Williams from TN.

Forgotten Cookies

These really were a hit in Randy and Madolyn Whitt's garden , So for you who were at the Region 14 Spring Meeting and got a taste and for those who just want an easy, great tasting cookie here is the recipe.

                                                   Forgotten Cookies

3 egg whites
½ teaspoon Cream of Tarter (optional)
½ cup sugar
2/3 – ¾ cups Milk cho. Chips
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ - ¾ Cups finally chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat egg whites with cream if tarter until stiff. Slowly add sugar
Add vanilla.
Fold in chocolate chips and pecans,
Cover the cookie sheet with nonstick foil or spry regular foil with Pam
Drop cookies by spoonful onto the cookie sheets.
Place in oven Turn oven off and let sit overnight. Do not open the oven for at least 10 hours if you are making these during the day.


You can add red or green food coloring if you wish for a different look around Christmas. Or you can substitute mint flavoring for the vanilla flavoring for a change of taste.

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.