Hello 2012: Looking forward to your arrival!

Hello Daylily Friends,

Got up this morning and my beautiful wife, Diana Rae, fixed "waffles" for breakfast.  She used a "Bisquick" mix, and added walnuts to enhance the flavor.  I kept watching as she worked.  Then we sat down at the kitchen table, and we covered our waffles with syrup given to us by our good friend, Larry Grace.  A great way to start the last day of 2011.  Thanks Diana for the delicious waffles, and thanks to my good friend Larry for the wonderful syrup.

After breakfast I walked out toward the Greenhouse, and on the way I looked at some of our work from yesterday.  First, there was the row that was prepared for winter, and then there was the row that I tilled.  We started putting ground up "wood-chips" into the walkways, and there is more of this work yet to be done.  Still, it looks good here on the last day of 2011.  Then, as I walked closer to the Greenhouse, I took a picture of two more rows that I tilled with my John Deere tractor.   It is so, so much easier to till the rows with the tractor rather than having to use a hand tiller.  I believe that the tractor does better work!

Speaking of the tractor, I did a big time task.  I certainly am not a mechanic, but being a daylily hybridizer requires having multiple abilities.    My big time task was to replace the "starter."  I left the tractor to sit for about 6 weeks before I decided what I would do to resolve my problem.  Then, I ultimately decided to remove the starter, and have it rebuilt.  I did this, but I had to buy a specific wrench to remove the starter.  I then had to charge the battery, and then the tractor started with no problem.  It ran just fine.  If I had called the tractor dealer I would have spend about $600.00.  Doing the work myself cost me a mere $176.00.

One of the problems that I've been experiencing in the Greenhouse is that there isn't enough sun.  The problem has been that one of my neighbor's Pine trees is so big that it blocks the sunshine for about 3 hours every day.  This causes 1/2 of the Greenhouse to have less than optimal sunlight.  I mentioned this problem to my neighbor, Mr. Russell, and I offered to pay half of the cost if he would have his Pine tree removed.  I pointed out to Mr. Russell that there was a large cankor sore in the tree.  Mr. Russell did agree to have the tree removed, and then in addition to this, he removed three other Pine trees as well.  Now my Greenhouse is much more beautiful with the morning sunshine just beginning to appear.  Thanks Mr. Russell.

In the Greenhouse I was so glad to see that one of my attempts at creating a Tetraploid is now more hopeful than before.  I treated GOODNIGHT KISSES, but I lost all of the plants, except one.  The one plant that I thought might be converted, however, seemed to turn mostly brown, and I couldn't see any green in the growing tip.  Well, I was sad, and yes, disappointed.  I just prayed over the little plant, and then over the last several days I've seen green from the growing tip.  What a surprise, and now, again, there is hope for a conversion.  Seeing the green color gives me hope for a good result.

As I look back over 2011 there is so much for which we are grateful.  A very good year.  We had the Regional here this year.  We had many wonderful speakers.  We traveled to visit daylily clubs in Detroit, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and to many places here in Georgia.  We had a great daylily show at the Galleria Mall.  So many friends came by and visited the garden.  Christmas was wonderful, but the best event this year was the birth of Little Lily Rae.  Oh what a joy it is to see her!

Well there is so much to look forward to in 2012.  So many good things will happen.  As my good friend Lee Pickles always says, "life is good"!

Bill