Sammy is Sleeping

Good Morning Daylily Friends:

Wow. Cold! Snow. Ice. When I got up this morning and walked downstairs I could see out my back door that it had snowed. I offered to let my cat Sammy go outside, but Sammy declined. Sammy was not interested. You can see from my picture that the porch was covered with snow and ice, and that here in North Georgia, winter is here. After Diana was up and moving, our good friend David came over from his house across the street. We talked about that football game between Texas and Alabama. What a game. We regretted Colt McCoy being hurt, but you have to admire the work of the Alabama defense, and the work of Mark Ingram. Well, David, Diana and I all went for a walk to the Greenhouse. On the way to the Greenhouse I took a picture of some of my seedlings that are planted outside. As you can see, these seedlings are handling the winter just fine.

When we finally reached the Greenhouse we were all relieved. In the Greenhouse the temperature has stayed between 34 and 38 degrees. It has stayed at a minimum of 38 next to the coolant system window, and it has stayed at a minimum of 34 at the front of the Greenhouse. The night time temperatures will be in the "teens" for the next four night so I decided to lower the Greenhouse temperature. It will now go down to the middle twenties in the Greenhouse. This will give the plants a good dose of winter without too much harm being done. I always have to remind myself that daylilies are "not a tropical plant." They need cold weather. Well, although I have allowed the Greenhouse temperature to be in the middle to high 30s over the past month, you can see from my picture that the plants are all still big and beautiful.

From my Greenhouse picture you can see the pots that are sitting on top of the Coolant window. I am particularly pleased with my conversion effort with Elizabeth Salter's JELLY BASKET. It is so, so "hard and stiff," and it is clear that I will have several sprouts. At various times I have cut the main sprout and the smaller sprouts as well. When I treated JELLY BASKET I did so for twice a day for five (5) days. I am reasonably convinced that I have it converted. However, all "conversion-judgments" must await the ultimate examination of pollen.

As I noted, my cat Sammy did not want to go out this morning. I went ahead and fixed his breakfast, and he did eventually go out, but not for long. Sammy doesn't like cold weather. When Sammy came back in he went into the living room, and went to sleep on top of the couch. I'm showing a picture. Sammy likes to sleep for 6 to 8 hours every day, and then he sleeps at night as well. Sammy is the best cat ever!

Bill