Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Miss Georgia Comes to Visit!

Good Morning Daylily Friends,

This was indeed a special morning. My good friends, David and Camilla Arthur, came to see the new blooms in the Greenhouse, and they brought with them another guest. The guest was the reining Miss Georgia, Ms. Emily Cook. Emily has represented the State of Georgia so well, and we are indeed proud of how well she has assumed her duties. When Emily completes her reign as Miss Georgia, she will then enter the Law School at the University of Georgia. I might add that Emily is a graduate of the University of Miami, and that she is a resident of our own Marietta, Georgia. I'm showing a picture of myself, Miss Georgia, and David and Camilla.

In just a few minutes my dear wife Diana Rae arrived at the Greenhouse, and was introduced by the Arthurs to Miss Georgia. Diana and Emily then looked at many of the new blooms in the Greenhouse, and Diana particularly liked my daylily, Seedling 1-366. Although it does not have as much of a green edge as I would prefer, it nevertheless has a heavy ruffle on its petals, and it will probably grow much larger outside the Greenhouse. Miss Georgia was intrigued that daylilies come in so many shapes and colors, with different colored edges, and with such different heights and bud counts. Diana explained that Seedling 1-366 will be important in continuing to work toward larger green edges on round daylily forms. I took a picture of Diana Rae and Miss Georgia while they were talking.

As Diana and Miss Georgia enjoyed their conversation, our good friends from Arkansas arrived to also see the daylilies in full bloom. Carey Roberts, and his wife Kathy, along with their three sons, Russell, Sutton and Austin, came by to see us during their vacation. You may recall that back on September 21, 2009, I visited the Arkansas State Daylily Society in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I did so at Carey's invitation. Carey was the Club's President, and I continue to say that the trip to Arkansas was just delightful and tremendous fun. Diana and I stopped to see President Clinton's Library, and we also stopped to see Elvis' mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. One of the daylilies that Carey liked this morning was Seedling 1-368. Carey wanted to know if I had plans to put a green edge on an orange or gold daylily as I have done with the pink and cream, IRISH HALO. I proudly answered that this was indeed part of my plan. My plan actualy includes using my Seedling 9-38 to go to dormant golds and orange colored daylilies. Miss Georgia listened to our conversation, and again, she was quite interested in what can be done with the creation of new daylilies. I encountered very little difficulty with convincing the Roberts family to have their picture taken with Miss Georgia. Here is the picture.

Even with such important guests in the Greenhouse, it is still important to look at "all" of the new seedlings, and I'm glad that I did. One of my new seedlings is a cross between two of my daylilies that have not been introduced. The seedling parents are the dormant 8-213, and the evergreen 7-53. These two seedling parents can be seen on the "future introductions" page of my website. My new seedling is a double, and now is called Seedling 1-382. I damaged the petal when I removed it from the row, and I have now replanted it in a 3-gallon container. It will be an excellent parent to use with Stamile's LAVENDER MOONBEAM. The excitement of the morning was such that I had to sit and rest. I was fortunate that Miss Georgia also sat, and we talked about the "joys of daylily gardening." I explained that daylilies can be created to follow any color pattern, except blue, but Miss Georgia pointed out that she was seeing blue in a number of my seedlings. There you have it: Miss Georgia says that there is blue in daylilies. So it must be true.

A special thanks to Miss Georgia and to the Roberts family for coming to visit the Kennesaw Mountain Daylily Gardens. I invite you to come back tomorrow and see what else happens in the daylily garden. Remember, "every day is a new day in the daylily garden."

Bill

7 comments:

  1. You have the best guests in the greenhouse! Thanks for the story!

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  2. Bill, you should be so lucky with visitors! I think I see a chance for teeth with your seedling 1-366. I hope you hit it with your toothy seedling of the other day.

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  3. Hi Nikki,
    I really have had wonderful guests coming by to look at the daylilies, and they make my day even better. I would rank Miss Georgia high on the list of visitors!
    Bill

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  4. Dan I hope teeth are in the background of 1-366. As for the purple with teeth, I am so pleased. I'm using its pollen on every purple that I grow. I even use it on reds as well.
    Bill

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  5. Bill, we had a wonderful time. Folks, Bill has an abundance of fine seedlings--only a portion of which are ever shown here. If you thought the purple with teeth he posted the other day was great, he has many, many other seedlings of excellent worth, and the best is ... they will survive a cold Arkansas winter!
    Carey

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  6. Thanks for the notes! I answered each note several days ago, but for some reason my answers are not shown when I try to access my comments. So, Nikki, we are just fortunate that good friends like to visit. Hope they keep coming. And, as to 1-366, I will work on it with my "best stuff." Thanks to the Roberts family for coming to visit as part of your vacation. It was fun.
    Bill

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  7. What a treat! I like Emily Cook...have read a few articles about her in the AJC and MDJ. She looked like she enjoyed herself and you enjoyed her company. :)

    Dad - today, I am pleased to say that, I have four scapes and 12 buds on Beautiful Kelley Rae. This is a first for the plant and I am looking forward to seeing her shine this year.

    Glad you made it back safely from Larry's. I know your visits with him are short but full of excitement. Rest well tonight!

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