Happy Easter!

Hello Daylily Friends,

I've just had a bloom on SMILING COBRA, that I received from my friend, Guy Pierce, on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015.  This is an initial bloom, and although it is not from a plant that is at full strength, it nevertheless provides pollen, and also provides an opportunity as a pod parent.  The pollen is now stored in my refrigerator. I thought that I would show a picture of the bloom.  The one fan that I had on SMILING COBRA has now grown to four (4) fans.  Should have another bloom tomorrow.

I also want to thank my friend, David Arthur, for driving, and for taking us to meet Karen Pierce in Valdosta, Georgia.  David and Karen and I met at the Ole Times Country Buffet where we all had a wonderful lunch.  We also received the entire 2015 spring collection of plants from Guy and Karen from their Floyd Cove Nursery.  In all, we received 20 plants, and we want to thank Guy and Karen for allowing their plants to be shown in our garden at the AHS Atlanta National Convention on June 11, 12 &13, 2015.  I now have the plants all planted, and they are being regularly watered in well prepared soil.  We look forward to seeing the blooms on these most desirable introductions.  Thanks also to Karen for the "Cakes" that she prepared and gave to both myself and David.


I've also had initial blooms in the Greenhouse, even though I haven't turned up the temperature.  One bloom that I had was on Seedling  4-514, and then today I had another bloom on Seedling 4-536.  The parentage is the same on both of these plants, and this parentage is as follows:  ((Lacy All Over x (Irish Halo x Tet. Cinderella Sue).  Both flowers are just beautiful, and I also expect to see these seedlings bloom outside, perhaps during the National Convention.  The effort with these two plants was to incorporate  the genes from TET. CINDERELLA SUE, and to improve on "white daylilies."

We were also pleased that Pete and Rossen Harry came by to visit  after they finished speaking to three Georgia Clubs.  They were in a hurry to get back to Florida, but we were delighted to have their visit for over two hours.  It seems that Daylily friends can't stop for just a few minutes; there is always so much to see and talk about.  I now have three of Pete's new daylilies which are CHARLES IN CHARGE, ARCTIC WIND, and IT'S THAT GREEN.  I've planted two of these introductions in the outside garden, and I've kept one in the Greenhouse.  Thanks Pete and Rossen for coming by to visit!

Behind our garden we have had a lot of "Bamboo."  Years ago, before I grew daylilies, I went to Pike Nursery and bought two separate pots of Bamboo.  I wanted these to use as stakes for my pole beans.  Ultimately I started growing just daylilies, but the Bamboo just kept growing.  The Bamboo became so prolific that representatives from the Atlanta Zoo came to our garden to cut and collect the Bamboo to feed to the Zoo's Panda Bears.  Finally, I cut down the Bamboo on our side of the property, but I still haven't been able to keep it under control.  So, I rented a machine from Home Depot and dug a long, 200 foot ditch.  Then I put a plastic barrier in the ditch to prevent the Bamboo roots from being so invasive.  I'm showing two pictures to show what we've accomplished.  In hindsight, I wish that I had never planted that Bamboo.

In one of the above pictures I've shown Diana looking at the ditch that I dug.  Well, another adventure happened yesterday.  Diana was watering her Tomato seedlings when a King Snake came into the Greenhouse.  King Snakes are harmless.  They eat mice, and even eat other snakes, including deadly snakes.  They are just beautiful, and this particular King Snake ultimately went out the front door where we assume he entered.

I've also been working tirelessly to focus in on my progress with converting TET. ASHEE DASHEE.  I was sure that I had it converted, but then I had several scapes that had both tetraploid and diploid pollen.  Unfortunately, there was too much diploid pollen.  So, I've focused on the three scapes that I believed were converted.  I now think that one scape is much more converted than the other two scapes.  So, I'm using the pollen from the scape that has the most tetraploid pollen.  I'm showing two pictures: one of a tetraploid flower and one of  the pollen.

I want to tell about Little Lily Rae.  She was with us on Friday, and we were all around the Pond.  We were watching the Fish, and then Lily started gathering the small rocks that are near the Pond.  These are just smaller "river rocks," but Lily was gathering them and putting them in a pile in the nearby Lawn.  Then, she would run back to the Pond as fast as she could to gather more rocks.  We don't know why Lily wanted to gather the rocks and put them in the Lawn, but she was so much fun to watch.  She is always so amazing in what she does.

I also want to report that I got the garden sprayed for insects, particularly "aphids."  I didn't really see any other insects, but I'm glad I finished the spraying.  It takes a "lot of work" for one person to spray over an acre of daylilies.  I also got fertilizer spread throughout the garden.  This took a lot of effort, and I'm waiting to see how well the 34-0-0 works.  I understand that this high nitrogen fertilizer should help the daylilies grow better. I'll let everyone know about the results. 

Happy Easter day!  More news soon.

Bill