Hey Bill, What's happening?

Hello Daylily Friends,

I know that I have been silent for several weeks, but I have a number of very excellent excuses. My first excuse is that I went just over the Georgia line, and visited with my good friend Larry Grace. Larry is doing well, and I'm pleased to be able to report that he has finished his daylily work for the 2009-2010 season, and is now working full time at the Peanut Processing Factory. Larry is "on top" of all issues. Here is a picture of Larry and myself as we enjoyed breakfast together. I had pancakes, and Larry had two eggs and toast. It is always a good thing to visit with Larry who is a person of extraordinary daylily talent. I like Larry.

Another very excellent excuse that I have is that Diana and I went to Rome, Georgia, with our Sunday School Class to see a Division "A" baseball game. We saw the Rome Braves play a team in the Pittsburg organization, and the Pittsburg team won the game by a score of 4 to 3. It was an excellent contest with all of the players doing their very best because they want to advance up the Braves Division Calendar, and hopefully play in the Major Leagues. It took about an hour and a half to drive to the game, the game lasted from about 7:00 p.m. until about 11:00 p.m., and then there was the drive back home. Thank goodness that my good friend Jack Rigsby drove while we all talked. Baseball is fun but the game takes too long to play.

Another good excuse that I have is that I have been planting seeds in the Greenhouse. I am sad to say that this past spring I did not make as many seeds as I normally do, and so I had fewer seeds to plant. The fact is that I planted only 2,278 seeds. I normally plant between 2,500 and 3,000 seeds, and I normally have about 7,000 seeds from which to select those that I plant. I would also add that I planted my seeds in three inch peat pots. The peat pots were put into plastic trays, and the trays have been watered regularly since August 11, 2010. Of course, August 11 is when the first seeds were planted. I have watched the seeds for days, and the first seed to emerge was a cross between my own seedling 9-107, and Pat Stamile's TALLEDEGA. I like TALLEDEGA because it has such an enormous edge, and because it is such a very large daylily. I have noticed that it is not quite as strong in the "noon day" sun as I might have thought that it would be. However, it should be a good parent with my Seedling 9-107.

Here is the cross that made 9-107: [[(Red Skies Over Kennesaw Mountain x Glory in Red) x Fear Not] x Tet. Uncle Bryan]. 9-107 is 32" tall with 5-way branching and 25 buds. It is a 6" flower. Most importantly, 9-107 is dormant. I am hoping that I can take some of the wonderful edge from TALLEDEGA, and transfer it to my dormant seedling. I made the cross by taking pollen from 9-107 to TALLEDEGA, and by also taking pollen from TALLEDEGA back to 9-107. My plan should work. I am showing a picture of 9-107. If my plan is successful I could create a beautiful red daylily with nice edging, with wonderful branching and bud count, that will grow anywhere.

Another excuse that I have for not writing recently is that I was busy writing an article for "The Georgia Daylily." The article is about my success this past spring in converting the dormant DREAMWORLD from a diploid to a tetraploid. The article should be published in about another week. Indeed, I must say that I'm looking forward to reading my own article.

I have more excuses for not writing recently, but I'm now focused on September.

Bill