Little Lily Rae and her Piano.

Hello Daylily Friends,

It is a wonderful Saturday morning.  The only point of sadness is that I cannot see Little Lily Rae.  She is such a beauty, and always so much fun to be with.  She plays and talks and learns, and is just the best little friend I've ever known.  I like to go walking with her, I like her dresses, and believe it or not, I even like to change her diapers.  I like to feed her, I like to sing to her, and I can say for sure, I just love and adore her.  Anyway, this past Wednesday she was with her Mother, Kelley Rae, and Kelley was teaching Little Lily Rae to play the piano,  Lily Rae learned the difference between the white keys and the black keys, and she heard the difference between the high notes and the base notes.  Little Lily Rae may be a musician.  In fact, beginning on Monday morning, September 10, 2012, I'm going to begin taking Little Lily Rae to Church Choir.  I'll be right there with her.

I also have to tell you about Jane Trimmer's little double daylily named MICRO WAVE.  Such a little beauty.  It is registered to be 20" tall, but ours is 26" tall.  It is registered to have 3-way branching, but ours has 4-way branching.  Every time it blooms I just have to go over and look at it.  It has a coral or strawberry color with a darker light  pink eye.  Diana moved it up by the side dooor to our house so we always see it when it blooms.  I'm showing a picture.

Another daylily that is blooming now is Seedling 11-322.  It is a cross between my Seedling 1-300, and TET. DOUBLE OLD IVORY.  My Seedling 1-300 can be seen on the "Future's Page" on my website.  The parents in Seedling 1-300 are as follows: (Wild Hair x Fantastic Fringe).  Diana and I both just really like Seedling 11-322.  It is 30" tall with a 5" flower.  However, we have not seen branching, and we have had only 10 to 12 buds on each scape.  Nevertheless, it is truly an unusual daylily.  I'm am hopeful that next spring we can find a way to get the genes from 11-322 into our program.  I'm thinking about other daylilies that I could use to cross it with so as to continue to produce the "hose-in-hose" effect, as well as to also improve our branching and bud count, please let us know.

I must also say that Diana Rae created 11-322.  I would not have crossed 1-300 with TET. DOUBLE OLD IVORY.  Also, when 11-322 bloomed in the Greenhouse, it did not have teeth.  Even if I had made the cross I would have tossed the seedling because the teeth and the hose-in-hose feature only appeared after 11-322 had grown outside.  I would have been too quick on the trigger.  Diana Rae is to be congratulated on the cross, and is also to be congratulated on keeping the cross.

My good friend David Arthur has been helping me move seedlings from the Greenhouse to outside rows.  David is such a good friend to help me with this "mammoth task," and without his help I know that I could not get this work accomplished.  I'm showing a picture of David working fertilizer into a row that we are about to plant.  Since all of these seedlings were planted early, and are being moved outside at this early time, I would expect them all to bloom next summer.  David and I will work at least another week to hopefully get everything planted.

More news soon.  Happy Labor Day week-end!

Bill