Thursday, July 2, 2009

Getting Ready for 2010.

Hello Daylily Friends,

The time has come when there will be no more new seedlings to admire. The time is here, when it is 90 degrees plus every day, that preparations have to be made for next year's new daylilies. So, I have started to move selected seedlings out of the Greenhouse, and I have been planting them in a new bed that I prepared. Here is a picture of the seedlings that were moved from the Greenhouse to the outside garden. It will be interesting to see how these daylilies perform after they endure a real winter. I can make practically any plant produce lateral branches and also produce more buds than you might expect, but only by protecting the plant or by growing it in the Greenhouse. When I register a seedling, however, I record and document only what the plant does, without protection, after enduring a cold winter. If a plant has eight branches and more than fifty buds, but is only grown in a sheltered enviroment, what good is the plant where the weather will prevent such growth? My plants have to prove their worth after enduring winters in north Georgia.

I had intended to use the first row in my outside garden to plants the established and registered plants that I used in the Greenhouse to make seeds. However, my wife of 40 wonderful years, Ms. Diana Rae, had other plans for this said first row. I went to till the row back in late May, and she protested. She said, and I quote, "I've planted watermelon and cantaloupe there and so you can't till there!" What could I say? I only capitulated and did not till the row. Today, the cantaloupes and watermelons are doing well as you can see from the picture. I will just have to wait until late September to use that first row. I will also have to announce my plans for an "unused row" before Ms. Diana decides that the row should be used for some purpose other than daylilies.

Since I cannot use the first row to plant my established, registered plants from the Greenhouse, I have had to create another row to use for these daylilies. So, I have removed unwanted seedlings from two years ago, and I have begun to move old, rotted wood-chips from the 3 1/2 foot walkway, and put these into the adjacent 5 foot planting row. This is probably not that easy to understand without an explanatory picture, so, I am showing the "walkway" from where the rotted wood-chips were taken, and I am showing the planting row where the wood-cips were placed. These rotted wood-chips will decompose very quickly in the soil, and in a short time it will not even be apparent that wood-chips were even added to the soil. The microbes in the soil will just pulverize the wood-chips. There will be many worms and lots of room for the daylily roots to spread and grow.

Actually, I am preparing three new rows for Greenhouse plants, and I will show what all three rows look like when I am finished.

Bill

1 comment:

  1. Hello Bill,
    I think you could name one of the green daylilies Diana's watermelon row. Looks like you have got a lot of work a head of you Bill. David Carter jr

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