Daylilies and Friends on Saturday Morning!

Hello Daylily Friends,

Diana and I got up early today, that is, on Saturday, February 5, 2011. Diana got her hair cut yesterday, and I'm sad to say that I didn't really notice. I was so concentrated on thinking about the course of my work on Friday that I didn't notice what I certainly should have noticed. Since Diana had her hair cut on Friday, she was determined to get it "fixed" early Saturday morning before we went to pick up David and Camilla for breakfast. Even though it seemed like Diana was making us late, we in fact arrived at David and Camilla's house right on time. So glad to see David and Camilla! We then drove to the West Cobb Diner, and leisurely ordered breakfast. It was such a casual, restful Saturday morning; I would have been content if it had lasted all day. I'm showing a picture of David, Camilla and Diana at the breakfast table.

While Diana was "fixing her hair," I went to the basement to "check" on several daylilies that I am trying to convert. One of the daylilies is HANDSOME ROSS CARTER. I was asked by my friend in Louisiana, Josh Jacques, to get this plant converted. I brought it into the basement on Tuesday morning, February 1, 2011. I'm showing a picture of what it looked like before I started my conversion work. There are five (5) beautiful plants. My good friend Larry Grace has been talking to the "Duckman," Don Eller, about Don's conversion work. Don has a unique formula: He uses 380 milliliters of Colchicine mixed with 6 milliliters of DMSO. To this, Don adds "food coloring" like a Baker might use when preparing a cake. Larry decided to try Don's formula, and, well, I decided that I would do the same. That is why I brought the HANDSOME ROSS CARTER to the basement. When I checked on HANDSOME ROSS CARTER it was still not absorbing the Colchicine.

Well, we were at Saturday breakfast, and then we went to visit David and Camilla in their house, and we returned home at around 11:30 a.m. To my amazement, after we returned home, I found that the five HANDSOME ROSS CARTER plants clearly had been absorbing the Colchicine during the morning. I got a little excited, and decided to cut the plants for a second time because the center of the plants had grown so much. In my opinion I needed to do this to help the Colchicine penetrate to the growing tip. The first picture that I am showing is Plant Number #1 before it was trimmed. I labored until around 2:00 p.m., making sure that I cleaned the old Colchicine out of the plants, making a better "moat" around the green center, and, as I say, cutting back the center growth. The second picture that I am showing is after the Colchicine has been removed, and the plant has been trimmed. I think I have helped in this conversion work: the Colchicine, with the addition of more of the DMSO, is more likely to change the plant to a tetraploid.

I finally finished my work with the daylilies, and applied the Colchicine that appeared to be red in color because of the red dye that I used. I have never used dye in any of my prior conversion efforts, and so the red dye certainly appeared to be odd. In fact, Diana saw some of my pictures, and she asked why the color was red. I then explained that I was following the Duckman's formula, using the red dye, and that was why my Colchicine was red. I intend to apply the Colchicine for four more days, and then wait and see what happens. You might follow the blog, and see what takes place. You might find it interesting.

Bill