2017 Introductions

Hello Daylily Friends,

I have been having a high adventure watching our seedlings grow, and then making decisions about our introductions for this coming fall/winter.  I am going to introduce Seedling 11-318, and the parentage is as follows:  (Varsity Orange x Tet. Orange Velvet).  It is dormant.  It is 37" tall, 6-way branching, 28 buds, with a 7" flower.  It is a late bloomer, and the only difficulty with it is that it is a difficult pod parent.  The second orange daylily that I will introduce is Seedling 5-787, and again, the parentage is: (Varsity Orange x Tet. Orange Velvet).  It is also dormant, and is a late bloomer.  It is 32" tall, 5-way branching, 30 buds, and a 6" flower.  It also is a difficult pod parent.  I think that both 11-318 and 5-787 are difficult pod parents because they bloom late when the heat here in Georgia is so hot.  Like today, Saturday, it was 100 degrees.  Who can set a pod in this weather?

When I say it was 100 degrees, I make this report because this was shown on TV.  I was watching the news while I was typing this Blog entry, and there on the screen I saw the report.  100 degrees. It is usually about 88 degrees this time of year, but today the heat was just awful..

Back to daylilies.  Another daylily that I will introduce will be named KENNESAW RASPBERRY SORBET.  My dear wife went to the home of our friends, Jim and Mary Jo Reeves, and the Reeves grow Raspberries.  Diana came home with a bowl of Raspberries, which we ate for days, and I just decided that my new seedling should have a name that includes the word, "Raspberry."  It is Seedling 3-351, and it is a semi-evergreen.  It is 26" tall, 3-way branching, 15 buds, and a 6 1/2" flower.  It is pod and pollen fertile, and it is just incredible when it blooms.  When friends were in the garden over the past several summers, many wanted to take it home, but I just couldn't sell it because I knew that it would be introduced.  If you add KENNESAW RASPBERRY SORBET to your garden, you will be glad that I saved it to be a 2017 introduction.

Another introduction will be Seedling 5-782.  It is a semi-evergreen, it blooms in midseason, and then reblooms late in the season.  It is a seedling crossed with a seedling, which is unusual for me, since I very seldom introduce seedlings crossed with seedlings.  It is 24" tall, 3-way branching, 17 buds, with a 5 1/2" flower.  Seedling 5-782 is so distinctive because it has such rich colors.  There is the deep, green eye, the lovely yellow self, with the alluring and gorgeous bold eye and edge.  You will love this in your garden!

I must mention one other seedling that I will introduce.  It is Seedling 3-432, and it is an unusual form.  One of its parents is WALT LOWRY, and the other parent is WINDMASTER.  It is a daylily with one of the most sturdy scapes that I've yet put on the market.  The scape doesn't bend, rather, it just holds the weight of the flower, quite vertically and quite nicely, aloof in the summer breeze.  It has a beautiful purple color, with a very noticeably green eye.  It is strong, and most importantly, it is pod and pollen fertile.  It is often hard to have an unusual form to be pod fertile, but 3-432 is pod fertile.

I want to travel back in time now to the middle of May, 2016.  Our Club went on a genuine adventure by Bus to middle Florida to participate in the Florida Mecca.  While I would like to comment on every garden that that we visited, and I may do this over the course of the next several months, for the moment I want to comment on Floyd Cove Daylily Garden.  We arrived at the Nursery and had our picture taken.  We had so much ahead of us to see on our Florida journey!

We went to see Guy and Karen Pierce.  Two fabulous people who love daylilies every day, all day, and work as hard as any two people I've ever known.  When we arrived at the Floyd Cove Garden we met Guy and he allowed me to walk with him as he walked through his seedlings.  What an adventure!  I saw so many glorious daylilies, but one daylily in particular caught my eye.  I do not know the seedling number, if there is one, but I liked the daylily because it has a massive green eye, and a lovely purple edge.  For years growers have done their best to produce such a flower, an edge with no eye, but no one anywhere has matched the Flower that I saw Guy growing.  I'm showing a picture.  Results like this come only with hard, hard work, and as I said, Guy is a hard worker.

I've got an update on my Seedling 4-564.  This incredible daylily has bloomed and bloomed and bloomed.  I've tried and tried to make improvements on it, but I haven't had much success.  The most recent improvement is Seedling 6-49.  I think that 6-49 has helped emphasize the "stripes," but I've lost the edge I have on 4-564.  So, I've crossed 6-49 back with TOOTH FAIRY PRINCESS and I have quite a few seeds.  Should see improvement with the edge within the next 2 years.  But I have to also show Seedling 4-564.  And more news:  I have decided on a name for this new seedling.  It will be called SERGEANT KENNETH LANE.  It will be named for the most outstanding Non Commissioned Officer that I met during my service of 10 years in the Military.  More about this soon.

Lily Rae loves to ride her bicycles.  She actually has two bicycles: One is a Pink Huffy, and the other is a Princess.  Lily Rae rides the Pink Huffy the best.  I think that this is because she can get both feet on the ground quickly and this helps prevent any serious falls.  On the Princess, which is a bigger bicycle, she can only get her toes on the ground so there is a greater danger of a slip.  When we went to the Circus/Fair with Lily Rae the Clowns were riding their bicycles and didn't hold the handle bars.  They put their hands in the air.  Well, to my shock, Lily Rae has unexpectedly done this several times while riding her Pink Huffy.  It is genuinely interesting to see her try something new, but as her Grandfather I confess that I get so nervous.  Can't wait to see her again.

Looking forward to the National Convention in Kentucky this coming week.

More news soon.

Bill