Our Daylily Show was a Great Success!

Hello Daylily Friends,

This past Saturday morning, our Cobb County Daylily Society and the Greater Atlanta Daylily Society, held a joint "Daylily Show" at the Galleria Mall.  324 Flowers were entered that were brought by 36 members of our two Clubs.  Although we are now near the end of our bloom season, there were so many first bloom daylilies that it seemed as though we were back at the first week of June.  This grand Daylily Show was covered by the Marietta Daily Journal, and we received the "full page spread" on the first page of the Lifestyle Section.  In addition, a horizontal picture of our show was spread across this morning's top, front page of the newspaper.  Just fantastic newspaper coverage of a great event.  http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/25336315/article-In-bloom--Daylily-show-turns-heads-at-Galleria?instance=home_lifestyleI

I was particularly pleased that my Seedling 11-81 was chosen as the best seedling.  However, I also entered my Seedling 4-582 in the show.  This Seedling, 4-582, was from my third scape, and it was just the second bloom on that scape.  There were no discrepancies on the plant that I could identify, except perhaps that the scape was not straight up and down.  Knowing that I had it to bring to the show gave me considerable confidence that it would be selected as the preferred seedling.  I was really disappointed that 4-582 was not chosen, but since my 11-81 was selected, how can I be "unsettled"?  I expect to call 11-81, "DENTAL DELIGHT."  It has beautiful white teeth, along with some yellow teeth, and it is just dazzling.  When a Dentist looks at the teeth on 11-81, I would expect that he would "decline" to attempt any repair; Nothing is needed!  Thanks to the Judges who selected 11-81!

One of the events at our Daylily Show that makes the Show a success, is the Luncheon we share with our Judges.  They and their spouses are invited to have Lunch with us, and we are so fortunate to have them to talk with us about both their work and our Show.  I specifically want to thank Serena Verner for her work in preparing the menu for our Luncheon, which was just fabulous. We had Chicken Salad with a large Chicken Breast served over Lettuce.  There was also sweet Georgia iced tea along with apple pie for dessert.  Thanks Serena for all that you did to make our Luncheon a big success.

As our Daylily Show came to a close, our Cobb County President, Mark Franklin, spoke with Dennis and Sue Calbreath, telling them that he was totally satisfied with the work of Club Members in making the show to be a wonderful success.  We will not have another Daylily Show until the year 2016, because next year the AHS National Convention is coming to Atlanta.  We will give all of our effort toward making the National Convention be the best that it can be!

One flower that I wanted to enter in the Daylily Show was my Seedling 3-374, which I have been calling, CHEROKEE GOLD.  I previously spoke about this seedling blooming in the Greenhouse (See 4-23-2013 and 7-22-2013), but over the past 10 to 12 days I have seen three "outside blooms."  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to photograph the earlier outside blooms, but I did get a chance to photograph the one that we had today.  In fact, I took the picture at about 1:30 p.m., and the flower was just gorgeous, just bursting with glory in the afternoon sun.  Hopefully I'll know more about CHEROKEE GOLD before the summer ends.

A daylily that has bloomed frequently here, that I photographed several days ago, is my Seedling 11-89.  It is just spectacular.  Although I'm pleased with my work in creating this beauty, I have to give considerable credit to my friend, Karol Emmerich, who introduced two of the parents of 11-89.  Without any delay, here is a picture.  There is a nice blue eye, and a lovely, deep purple color, and a good assortment of white teeth.  I'm just going to have to use 11-89 as a parent with my seedlings.

A political adventure that Diana and I shared this past week was to go and visit with Senator Jason Carter who is running to be the next Governor of Georgia.  Sen. Carter is the grandson of President Carter, and he is a lawyer with a law firm in Atlanta.  His wife is a public school teacher, and he has two young sons.  Diana and I were most impressed with Sen. Carter, and we had our picture made with him.

I've had one very tall red to bloom, Seedling 4-584, and I think that it is dormant.  It is a cross between Paul Lewis' A. D. LEWIS, and Larry Grace's THE BLESSING OF FREEDOM.  It is 42" tall and is a delightful red.  Although the branching is not as pronounced as I would like, I nevertheless think that the plant will be a good parent.  I know already that it is fertile.  Another of my new daylilies is Seedling 4-585 which is a lovely pink with a strong, strong scape.  I often see multiple blooms, and I've used it to make seeds.  I just like the soft color.  I might name this gorgeous flower for Little Lily Rae.

Speaking of Lily Rae, she and I, and her Mother, Kelley Rae, had a wonderful week at Vacation Bible School (VBS).  We got up and headed to School, and visited with friends and teachers, and we learned and we sang and we just had fun.  Then, this past Sunday, Little Lily Rae went to Church with Grandma and Grandpa.  Lily Rae likes Sunday School.  They play games and have cookies, and just enjoy being at Church.  I'm showing a picture from Sunday.

On Thursday morning Diana and I will go to Ashville, North Carolina to be at our National Convention.  We're looking forward to seeing friends and seeing gardens.  We really enjoy Ashville, and we're ready to go!

More news soon from Ashville.

Bill