Visiting with the New England Daylily Society

Hello Daylily Friends,

This past Friday and Saturday Diana and I were most privileged to visit with the New England Daylily Society.  We were invited by George and Kathy Viamari, who met us at the Airport, showed us their hometown, took us to a delicious evening meal, and took us to our hotel, which they personally arranged.  Early the next morning George and Kathy took us from the hotel enroute to the Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boyleston, Massachusetts. It was interesting at the meeting because many members met to play "Daylily Bingo."  If you have a "Bingo," then you win a daylily.  After Bingo there is a delicious meal, and then the Meeting begins.

I was delighted to meet Zack Hinkey and Curtis Noel who are very much interested in converting daylilies from diploids to tetraploids.  They are having success!  They have been reading my blog and they told me that the Blog had been most helpful in understanding the steps to take to achieve a conversion.  Then, shortly thereafter, I met Cameron Stern from Vermont.  Cameron will soon graduate from Cornell University, and Cameron is also very much interested in the conversion process.  Indeed, Cameron has also been following my Blog and has a number of conversions to his credit.  Sometimes I write about the conversion process, and it is good to meet daylily friends who follow the Blog and are having success.

Diana and I also met Claudia Conway at the NEDS Meeting.  I had exchanged messages with Claudia after she showed a picture of her flower that was created by using TET. ROSE F. KENNEDY.  The flower is most interesting because it has cream colored sepals, darker purple petals, and a wonderful green eye.  It is the bi-tone that makes the flower so delightful and beautiful.  Then when we met Claudia again, it was indeed a special treat.  I'm hoping that I will have the opportunity to convert Claudia's seedling.

I also met Adele Keohan who is the Editor of "Daylilies in the Great Northeast."  Adele game me a copy of the Journal and I read quite bit and then I noticed that a good part of the Journal is written in French.  I tried to learn French in High School, but I wasn't very good at learning the language.  Then Adele showed me that there was a "translation." section for the selections written in French.  Region 4 is so fortunate to have parts of Canada in its Region.  A picture of ROSE F. KENNEDY is on the cover page of the Journal, and George Doorakian is very popular in Region 4.  There was also considerable coverage in the Journal of my friend Rich Howard from Connecticut.

In the picture I'm showing everyone can also see our friends, Karl and Marlene Harmon from New Hampshire.  Karl said that when the Presidential Primary was held in New Hampshire, their phone range "non-stop." Marlene also gave us a disk with pictures from the AHS National Convention which includes pictures from our Garden.  Most of all, I will always be grateful to Karl.  On the day before the convention began, Karl came to our garden and worked very hard all day long.  One request that I made of Karl was that he "dead head" the flowers.  I knew that it would take a lot of work but I just couldn't get everything done.  Thanks Karl!

We want to again say how glad we are that we were invited by George and Kathy and NEDS to be with you at your meeting.  How fortunate we are to have you and NEDS as friends!

Diana and I left early on Sunday morning to get back to Atlanta.  Our meeting of the Cobb County Daylily Society is on Sunday afternoon, and Scott Elliott was coming to speak.  We got back in plenty of time and I found that one of my conversion efforts has been successful.  I converted SOMETHING SPECIAL, which I had thought was a Jack Carpenter introduction.  I was surprised to learn that Childs introduced this delightfully pink daylily, and I hope to make new flowers using it as a pollen parent.  I'm also showing a picture of some of the pollen.  It is good when a conversion effort is successful.

When we ultimately arrived at our Club Meeting we were so pleased that having Scott to speak really helped with our attendance.  We had 40 people present!  This made all of the wonderful snacks, treats and  sandwiches even more special because everything was so plentiful.  Scott did a wonderful show, and then held a very successful auction.  After our meeting finished,a few Club Officers went to Supper with Scott and talked much about Region 5 business.  Thanks Scott for coming and being with us and showing us your program!

On Tuesday morning, March 15, 2016, I had a dump truck load of new soil delivered, and then placed near the Greenhouse.  I needed the soil because I used all that I had.  On Monday afternoon I went to the company that prepares the soil, and I was told that my order could be delivered on Tuesday morning, and it was.  The dump truck drove through the area when the wood chips are usually kept, and then made a precise placement.  I should be good for soil for at least another year.

Speaking of the wood chips, I keep these piled behind my Greenhouse, and last week we moved the wood chips into even larger piles.  The "Bobcat" was used to move the wood chips, and now we can move around much better.  The wood chips are so good because I mix these with our soil, and they make the soil turn into potting soil, that is even better than what can be bought at a gardening store.  I'm also going to try an experiment.  Remember the new soil I just showed?  I am thinking of mixing some of my older wood chips into my new soil.  Perhaps I can make even a better soil for the potted plants that I put in the Greenhouse..

I've also got to show pictures of daylilies that are blooming in the Greenhouse.  First I want to show Seedling 8-160, which is a cross between Sherry Candy x Tet. Out of the Blue.  I've had this seedling for years, but I just never could see how I could put it to good use.  Now that I'm working with doubles I'm seeing possibilities.  The blue eye should give me some advantages, and the double should also give me some advantages that would otherwise be hard to achieve.  I'm also seeing plenty of blooms on Seedling 4-564 which is a cross done using TET. PINK STRIPES.  I'm getting plenty of blooms, and I'm collecting the pollen.  I'm freezing plenty of pollen so that I will have it to use most of the coming summer.  I've also started putting the pollen from 4-564 on my red BLAZING CANNONS.

I've had a lots of help from Lily Rae in the garden, and in the Greenhouse.  She helps Grandpa with watering the daylilies, and she particularly likes to water OPA KLAUS, perhaps because it is so big.  She takes the hose, squirts the water, and gets most everything plenty wet.  Lily Rae is coming to visit this week-end and we can't wait until we can pick her up.

More news soon.

Bill