The Greenhouse on February 27, 2010

Good Evening Daylily Friends:

This morning I went to the Greenhouse very early. I watered the Greenhouse this morning, and so when I walked in, everything smelled fresh and clean. So, so green! The daylilies are growing so fast that it would perhaps be good to find a way to slow them down, but I just can't make myself reverse today's path to blooms. I even noticed a second BEST EDGE that has a fully mature scape. It will bloom within a short time; perhaps blooms will appear within two weeks. Maybe sooner. I took one picture of the Greenhouse from the right side, and then took a second picture looking from the left side. I wish that everyone could see how healthy and large the daylilies are today. Just gorgeous. I'm posting two pictures; you can see for yourself how beautiful everything is today.

A second point of interest is the "dormants." I have been selecting dormants from among my seedlings, and moving the dormants from one-gallon pots into two-gallon pots. When the dormants are moved to the 2-gallon pots it seems that they just instantly grow larger. I have been particularly pleased with this cross: VARSITY ORANGE x TET. ORANGE VELVET. I have 14 of these growing in the Greenhouse, and then there are another 16 growing in the outside garden. Out of the 30 plants, there is only one semi-evergreen. All of the other 29 plants are dormants. You may recall that VARSITY ORANGE is dormant, and notwithstanding its registration, TET. ORANGE VELVET is also a dormant. I am showing a picture of not only my 2-gallon seedlings, I am also showing some of my dormant seedlings that are in 3 and 7 gallon containers. In the second picture you can see two plants of TET. ORANGE VELVET. You can see that it is twice as large as any other dormant.

I can't leave without also pointing out how well one of my conversions is doing. The conversion is TET. PINK RUFFLED LOVE. I had it partially converted last year, and so this year I took six (6) partially converted plants, and retreated them all. It seems that a partially converted plant is easier to treat than a plant that has not had any treatment. I am showing plants 2, 3 and 5. I am just putting them hereafter for you to see:


















I am so excited to have all six of my conversion efforts to work with TET. PINK RUFFLED LOVE. It will be good to have this lovely pink flower to work with to create new introductions. The only drawback is that the diploid is only 18" tall. The rose color, however, is accented with a rose halo and a green throat. I feel confident that I can take TET. PINK RUFFLED LOVE to a number of my other seedlings, and create a much taller plant but with the appearance of PINK RUFFLED LOVE. I will of course let you know what ultimately happens.

You might recall that any of the above pictures can be enlarged by "clicking" on the picture. I hope that you have enjoyed looking at the plants in the Greenhouse.

Bill