Friday, May 7, 2010

Friends Visiting the Daylily Garden

Good Evening Daylily Friends,

What a wonderful day Diana and I have had. Yesterday around 5:00 p.m. our good friend Larry Grace arrived to come and visit and see the garden. This morning I got up around 6:00 a.m., fed our cat Sammy, and then headed to the Greenhouse to clean it up before Larry's review. Got it finished and headed back to the house and met Larry at the barn. Larry was headed to the Greenhouse. I went and called my friend David Arthur and asked him to come across the street and also see the new blooms. Then I took a quick shower, put on my shorts and a shirt, David arrived, and we walked together to the Greenhouse. In the meantime our good friend David DeKort from Raleigh, North Carolina, came and also promptly headed to the Greenhouse. In just a few moments Diana arrived in the Greenhouse and I simply had to document this historic moment with a Greenhouse picture. Looking at the picture from left to right you see myself, then Larry Grace, Diana, David Arthur, and David DeKort. A fine group of daylily friends indeed!

I didn't bring my books in from the Greenhouse to tell you about the crosses or the number of some of the new seedlings, but you must see these. The first new bloom is awsome. Would you believe 5-way branching and a stunning royal orange color with a peach blush and a green throat. I could hardly believe the creation. I took it and put it into a 3-gallon pot and I intend to use it to make many seeds over the next four weeks. Here is a picture:

The next new daylily that caught my attention was an astonishing cross: [(Bluegrass Music x Blue Desire) x Tet. Out of the Blue]. The thing that made it so astonishing was that the flower was about 5 1/2 inches in diameter. This is extremely unusual for this type of flower. Also the plant was tall. I gave it a number but I will pass of this aspect of my midnight report. I did take the pollen so that I can use it with Diana's new seedling that I reported about several days ago. Blue and yellow colors in daylilies are just nice to see.

The next new flower really caught me by total, complete surprise. David Arthur said, "Bill, come look at this." I went to look and was puzzled at first then I checked the parentage. I crossed my own Seedling 8-160 with Nancy Eller's ALL BRANCHED OUT, and this created the new seedling. It has height, a beautiful appearance, an apparent tendency to "double," and many buds and good branching. What more could be hoped for. In fact, there were so many daylilies to record that I didn't make a single cross today. Instead, I spent my time pulling selected seedlings from the Greenhouse and either planting them outside, or I put the seedlings into 3 gallon pots for more use over the next four weeks in making seeds. I'm showing a picture of the seedling.

I want to show you an important daylily. I am so pleased with this because it is a gorgeous purple with white teeth. I wouldn't believe it myself if I had not seen it with four witnesses. It is tall. It has branches. The cross is with my Seedling 8-49, along with another seedling. The white teeth are just so prominent. I'm making progress with teeth. It won't be long and there will be plenty of teeth in many different colors. But for today, this new seedling is just a wonderful treasure.
Well that is the story for today. More news tomorrow.
Bill

2 comments:

  1. I can't believe there have been no comments on this blog post. These are some really amazing flowers you've shown! I especially like the flower that is purple with white teeth. You really have something there in my opinion. :)

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  2. Thanks Kelley. I'm also a little surprised that there have been "no comments" on these wonderful creations. However, they were posted on "Mother's Day" week-end, and this is perhaps a good explanation. You mention the purple with teeth. Later today I will post a new purple with teeth, and I would wager in advance that there will soon be comments.
    Dad

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