Visiting with "The Pensacola Daylily Club."

Good Morning Daylily Friends,

I regret that I haven't posted like I normally would have done this past week, but as you will read in this post, I have just been too busy doing so many wonderful tasks.  And actually, this morning I am sitting in my hotel room at the Hampton Inn in Pensacola, Florida.  Pensacola is only a few miles from Hurlburt Air Force Base where I served as a young Airman about 50 years ago.  I was a Guard on the main gate where those entering and leaving the base were monitored according to the rules we had at that time.  I served at Hurlburt for two years and then was reassigned to RAF Mildenhall in England.  Looking back on my time in the military, well, it was a grand experience.  I started with my education by attending night school, and years later, after I left the military, I graduated from Mercer Law School.  I would just add that of all the experiences that I've had, nothing approaches the joy of growing daylilies.  To this moment I even like the smell of the plant.  I'm showing an old black and white photo of myself from back when I was in the military.

Well, I'm here in Pensacola because last night I was privileged to speak to the Pensacola Daylily Club.  My new friend, Buddy Hall, picked me up at the Airport and took me to my hotel, and then a short while later, Buddy took me to the meeting.  The President of the Club is Ms. Michelle Taylor, and she is a wonderful leader.  It was obvious to me, while watching Michelle, that people like her, trust her, and enjoy doing things with her.  I was asked to present my program at the beginning of the meeting, and then we had an auction.  I am so pleased that a number of my daylilies will now be growing in the Pensacola area.  After I gave the program I was allowed to take a picture of the Club, and also take a picture of Ms. Thekla Morris.  I enjoyed staying to hear the Club business issues, and after the meeting Vice President Kim Reber took me back to the hotel.  I'm showing several pictures.

One reason I've been occupied is that this past week-end, Diana and I went to our Sunday School Class Retreat which was at the Winshape Retreat Center on the campus of Berry College.  Berry is in Rome, Georgia, and there are no televisions and no computer connections at Winshape.  We had a wonderful retreat led by Ron and Pam Bolander.  Our speaker, Pastor Fred Finzer, told us that all of our problems at home would be waiting for us when we returned, and he was right.  The problems were still there, but hopefully, as time passes, I, personally, will have the ability to deal with these problems.  You know the kind of problems I'm speaking of: an ugly daylily when beauty is expected, a yellow edge rather than a green edge, and only a few teeth when many are expected.  Of course, you know that these really aren't the problems that would bother anyone.  I'm showing a picture of our Sunday School Class.

I have to tell you about one of the daylilies that I'm trying to convert.  The name of it is SUNRISE SHADOWS.  It was given to me by my friend, William Marchant.  William bought the flower from the Shooters up in North Carolina, and William likes the size of the flower.  So, I'm doing my best to get it converted for William.  Well I bring this up because I've been writing about how to convert a diploid to a tetraploid.  On Oct. 28, I was looking at one of the fans I treated and I saw the emergence of a green shoot.  I took a paint brush and found that the shoot was coming from underneath the plant.  A shoot like this will more than likely terminate the conversion effort.  So I know that I had to remove the
shoot.  I took my pin knife and cut the shoot away.  The shoot was growing well in that it already had two roots.  After I cut it way I left the area of the cut open and put the plant back in front of he fan.  It seems to be doing ok, and hopefully, there will be no other shoots to emerge.  When I say, "back in front of the fan," I mean this literally.  All plants that have been treated must remain in front of the fan to hopefully help prevent disease.

When I say that I've been busy, this is also because I had to get all of the remaining plants in the Greenhouse potted into trade gallon pots.  I potted fewer plants in the Greenhouse than I ever have before, and the reason is that I just didn't want to be as crowded in the Greenhouse.  A second reason is that I wanted to see more of my plants at two years down the road rather than just seeing them after one year in the Greenhouse.  I'm thinking that I will grow more outside, and if I see one that is good after having gone through our winter weather, then I will bring it into the Greenhouse to perhaps increase its multiplication, and use it for hybridizing.  I'm showing a picture of the Greenhouse after the 568 plants were potted. 

Another issue that has kept me occupied is that Diana wanted several areas tilled after she cleaned these areas.  So, I took my tractor and tilled the areas, then rotted wood chips were added, plus a good amount of lime.  Then, these areas were tilled with the hand tiller, and the ground is now very nice.  So, Diana went to work planting her plants, and Little Lily Rae was really a help using the shovel.  I'm showing a picture of this Blessed Angel.

The time has now come for me to catch the Shuttle and go to the Airport.  Thanks again to the Pensacola Daylily Club for the invitation to come and visit!  More news soon.

UPDATE!  Since William wrote a "note," I'm adding an update to show what SUNRISE SHADOWS, Plant Number #1, looks like now.  Quite a change from what it looked like on Oct. 28, 2013, when I cut away the shoot.


Bill