Visiting in Florida

Hello Daylily Friends,

 

I had to have one of Guy Pierce's daylilies, and so I got in my GMC Truck, and drove to Enterprise, Florida.  I arrived on Tuesday morning at around 8:00 a.m., and Guy greeted me at the front gate.  Guy and Karen knew that I was coming because I called to request a "mid-winter visit."  When I arrived at the Garden I could see that Guy was in the process of continuing to install wooden fencing.  Even from the front gate, it is obvious that the new Floyd Cove Nursery is just a "must see" in the world of daylilies.  The daylily that I had to have was Guy's SMILING COBRA.  Just an astonishing daylily: 40" tall, 6-way branching, and 40 buds.  Also, the flower is 10.75" in diameter.  Although I have TET. ROSE F. KENNEDY, I haven't been able to produce anything like SMILING COBRA.  I intend to use SMILING COBRA in my program, and the "green color" should be a big help, particularly on very large flowers.

A few more thoughts about SMILING COBRA.  The pod parent is EMERALD PRISM, which goes back to TET. MALACHITE PRISM.  This has to be the background where Guy achieved the height and branching he has in SMILING COBRA.  In my own work with TET. ROSE, I haven't been able to produce the branching.  I'll now use Guy's plant with my own TET. ROSE SEEDLINGS.  Guy has done a wonderful work with SMILING COBRA.

The new garden, behind the Pierce home, is built on what was a sloping landscape, but Guy fixed it by building an "unusual concrete wall."  Guy took bags of concrete and stacked these quite high.  The best way that I can describe what Guy did is just to show a picture.  These bags were shaped into the places where they were
put, and then when water was applied, the bags hardened.  Guy could have had a concrete wall constructed, but the cost would have
been just too expensive.  Guy's idea for his concrete wall is really very, very good.  As Guy and I walked the new garden, we were soon joined by Karen.  It was a perfect time to have our picture taken together.

Karen and Guy invited me into their home, which was just so wonderfully designed for "Florida."  Karen's desk is at the front of their home, and the desk is made of glass which is quite large.  Karen prepares the design for their catalogue, she takes orders, and basically, she does all of the marketing work for their Nursery.  I was then invited to have coffee and also share with Guy and Karen the wonderful, delicious Pound Cake that Karen had prepared.  It was so, so good! I could have stayed much of the day with Guy and Karen, but alas, it is a 9 hour drive heading back to Marietta, Georgia. 

Oh, I must also mention the new Greenhouse.  It is designed to be quite the ideal place for "making seeds."  It has sideways ventilation: That is, the "coolant pads" are on one side of the Greenhouse, and the four fans are on the opposite side of the Greenhouse.  Quite nice; great idea!  Guy's Greenhouse is about 75 feet long, and about 35 or 40 feet wide.  Guy and Karen are set to continue to be the best at producing the highest quality of daylilies.  Thanks Guy and Karen for your wonderful hospitality!

I also went to see Nicole Harry DeVito.  Nicole has had a real "breakthrough" with her new introduction, UNDEFINABLE.  It is most interesting because the background is ivory in color, but the marked areas are a darker color.  I've seen one that is similar to UNDEFINABLE, and this similar daylily is called SHATTERED.  It has a darker background, but the marked areas are lighter in color.  I've crossed SHATTERED with TET. PINK STRIPES, and I want to do the same with UNDEFINABE.  It was good to visit with Nicole and see her new garden.  Thanks Nicole!

I also had to stop and see Ted & Susan Petit, and Greg and Marcela Goff at Le Petit Jardin.  I wanted one of their new introductions which is SWEET GOLDONI.  I like the color of this new flower, and I particularly like the incredible multi-colored circular patterned throat.  I also want to cross this beauty with TET. PINK STRIPES.  Can you envision the circular pattern with pink stripes?  I'm going to give this objective a chance to happen.  Thanks to Ted, Susan, Greg and Marcela for spending so much time with me when I came to visit.

When I got back home there was plenty of work to be done.  The Leland Cypress trees that are growing along one side of my Greenhouse have become just too large.  These trees were causing a very large shadow over one half of my Greenhouse, and I just couldn't tolerate this any longer.  So I asked my good friend Stan Wills if he could trim the trees so that the sunshine would again fill my Greenhouse.  Stan is skilled in his work with trees, and he has the right equipment.  So Stan, along with two of his sons, and Jimmy, another employee, took all of one day to change the penetration of sunlight into my Greenhouse.  Stan took a large truck with an aerial ladder, and cut the trees to one half the size that they had been.  Then the trees were shredded and added to my mulch pile.  Thanks Stan and crew for all your hard work.

Well the rain has stopped so its time to go back to gardening.

  Bill