Daylily Haiku Thursday | Bite-Sized Pieces of Perfection...

This I know - daylilies are never boring.  There is always some facet to explore and enjoy.  I have discovered that I am now enamoured with the miniature and ultra-miniature ones.

Get small, y'all!    According to the standards, a miniature daylily is registered to measure less than 3" in diameter.  The AHS Daylily Database shows 1422 daylilies registered that match this size constraint.   (Use this advanced search on their website to see how I figured that out...) It was fun to page through the search of 1400+ cultivars, looking at some of the pictures in the database.  I already grow several of Leo Sharp's "Brookwoods" because they are small or miniature and perfectly formed. 

I love H. 'Two To Tango.' (pictured above)  This one is not only considered miniature, but it is also dormant, diploid and double.  WOW!  Most years it also blooms 100% double.  It is an amazing show flower and multiplies very quickly.  I have it in the front of a bed and it does just fine there on its 14" scape.  I would love to see a stark, dark, intricate pattern splashed on something this color and size.  The fact that it is diploid could make that happen!  (hint, hint- pattern hybridizers!)

H. 'Spacecoast Tiny Perfection' and H. 'Siloam Grace Stamile'

I could not talk about mini's without mentioning H. 'Spacecoast Tiny Perfection.'  This one never has a bad hair day.  It has been a candidate for the Stout Silver Medal and it has won my vote.  It is registered at 2.87" and just shines with a heavy substance and clear color.  I love the seersucker texture on the sepals.  In 2005, I sold daylilies from my garden as a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina Relief and this was the top seller.  I sold 24 double fans of it!

Pictured on the right above is H. 'Siloam Grace Stamile' which is a tiny, luscious, little kiss of a daylily. Registered in 1984, the bloom is only 2.12" and is a wonderful scape to take to a daylily show. This is a true red to my eyes.  Below is one of what I think is the most famous illustrations of big and small daylilies.  It is not my personal photo, but it is courtesy of Floyd Cove Nursery, home to Patrick and Grace Stamile in a prior life and now the thriving business of Guy and Karen Pierce.  Yes, that is a tiny little ultra-mini daylily in the throat of H. 'Judy Farquhar.'  

What are some miniature daylilies that excite you?

Today's Daylily Haiku Thursday is brought to you by my serious case of seasonal affective disorder.  I'm crabby and busy and overwhelmed and in need of some dirt time. 

Please pardon the melancholy.

digging in the dirt.

making a mess. I'm changing

landscapes of my mind.

Daylily Haiku Thursday | More Screaming Yellow...

how can a color

brighten your soul and take you

to a place you've missed?

Oh, yellow. 

The virtues of a color that screams optimism, enlightenment and happiness do not require too much explanation.  The color yellow affects our mental and physical state by stimulating our nervous system, activating memory and encouraging communication.  It's just the jolt we need as spring finds its legs.  This daylily is H. 'Concrete Blonde' by Curt Hanson.  It is waxy, saturated and grows nicely for me in zone 5.   He describes it as "golden yellow."  I describe it as "just what I needed" today.

What's Overrated... | Daylily Blog on The Joneses

It's worth saying that in our quest to belong, we isolate ourselves into a world of comparison and imagined competition. Often I meet people who are not comfortable sharing pictures of their seedlings or their garden, fearing that what they have is not on the same level as others. They might have some gorgeous seedlings, but they are fearful to share them because they aren’t a "breakthrough" or they don’t think anyone will care about daylilies hybridized by someone who isn’t "well-known" in the daylily world. Others stand on the mountain tops and proclaim their successes – finding only the frustrating echo of their own voice as company. Poor them.

I recently shared pics of my seedlings for the first time to a broad audience.  I was nervous.  But an amazing thing happened.  Others started to share for the first time.  (We have to be brave with our own lives so others can be brave with theirs...)

When we falsely compare ourselves to others, we needlessly belittle our accomplishments. We also give weight to the wrong idea that small successes are overrated or inconsequential. Doing what other people expect you to is what's overrated!  The skies may never open up to shower you with gold coin, but regardless, you should feel proud of trying. You got out there. You saw it through. Many never feel the sweet sting of success, good or bad, simply for lack of trying. 

Two ladies approached me at the meet and greet of a general gardening event this past weekend to said they wanted to go home and delete every garden photo they ever took after seeing my presentation.  They inspired this post.  I told them that glossy, over-processed gardening magazines and flowery PowerPoints filled with gorgeous photos were not the boss of their garden.  They shouldn't even be considered as a compass.  I also shared with them my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quote-

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Never despise small beginnings, and don't belittle your own accomplishments by comparing them with the perceived successes of others. 

Don’t believe everything you read.

Don’t get wrapped up in what others appear to have.

Despite what some may wish to be true, there is no magic success ladder.

There is no field to traverse to find the elusive pot of gold.

There is no finish line.

Paraphrased from a thousand minds smarter than my own, the journey is what is important.

Keep hybridizing.

Keep gardening.

Keep asking questions.

Just. Keep. Walking.

As Spring arrives and we get back out into our gardens, let's lose our subconscious social comparisons and be ourselves.  "This too, shall pass" and when it does, you can lie down satisfied - knowing you had the courage to have skin in the game.  And that is something not everyone can say.

Go YOU!

Daylily featured above is H. 'Aunt Ethel' by Frank Smith

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Daylily Description Decoder Ring

light moods are yellow

dancing in the bright sunlight

begging for more time.

It's official!  I have had my hands in the dirt in 2011!!!

Yesterday evening, while my five year old played in the driveway and covered it (and himself) with sidewalk chalk, I got my hands dirty outside for the first time this year.  It felt amazing.  I just had time to clean out one 12' border along the driveway, but still...I was gardening.

I noticed that many tags need replacing, and that reminded me I told you I would help decode daylily registration information.  Let's use the above daylily for an example.  Here is its published registration information from the AHS Database:

Anastasia (Salter, 1985)

height 20", bloom 6.5", season M, Evergreen, Tetraploid, Yellow self with lime green throat. (sdlg × Jade Lady)

What in the world does all that mean?!  Let's read it from beginning to end.  First, Anastasia is its registered name. 

In parenthesis, is the person's name who registered this daylily and the year it was officially registered with the governing body who documents these registrations.

The next line tells us how tall the scape is (20") and how big the flower is (6.5").  We also learn that this daylily blooms MIDSEASON, which is indicated by the M in the second line.  This means I should expect this daylily to bloom about mid-July in my climate.  Daylilies can be registered as extra-early, early, mid, early-mid, mid-late, late...you get the point.

In that second line, the description also tells us the foliage habit (which is evergreen) and we also learn how many chromosomes this plant has - which is indicated by the word tetraploid.  A tetraploid daylily has four sets of chromosomes in each cell of the plant, 44 chromosomes altogether.  Ploidy is important to know when breeding daylilies.  

The description tells us what the daylily should look like (yellow self with lime green throat.)  And finally we learn what the parents of this daylily are, which is indicated by the last parenthetical phrase, (seedling X Jade Lady)  This means that the hybridizer took pollen from a seedling and put it on the pistil of H. 'Jade Lady' and made seeds.  One of those seeds grew up to be this flower, which Jeff Salter thought to register.  Incidentally, this is Jeff Salter's very first daylily registration!  He has gone on to register over 400 others and win the AHS' Stout Silver Medal!

The registration information is helpful to establish expectations for the daylilies you purchase.  Knowing how tall it grows helps you place it in the right spot in the garden.  Knowing how big the flower size is helps you coordinate surrounding plantings.  If you have the registered name of any daylily, you can go here to look up the registration information for free!

The important thing to remember about registration information is that all of the data is provided by the person registering the daylily, so the data is only accurate to the extent of that person's documentation.  This flower may grow to 20" tall for them, but may grow 24" tall for me.  I must make adjustments to that number based on my own gardens cultural conditions.  It may grow bigger or smaller or later or earlier than registered.  You should consider your own climate when deciphering and using this registration data as the gospel.  The only way to know it is to grow it where you live!

Good luck with your new knowledge of registration details for daylilies.  Now you are armed and dangerous with just enough knowledge to sound like a obsessive at your next garden club meeting.  (as if you needed another reason...)

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Don't just walk by...

blowing by - these days

fly by and pass by too fast.

you must take the shot!

This is the daylily H. 'Royal Kaleidoscope.'  It is a unique smoky gray purplish thing.  Any photo I have ever seen does not do it justice.  It pinches and recurves so nicely.  Here are its registration stats: height 28", bloom 6", season MLa, Dormant, Diploid, Fragrant, Lavender and purple reverse bitone with wine purple eyezone and green throat. The parentage is (Trahlyta × (Ra Hansen × Super Purple)) Registered in 1997 by Reinke.  If you dont know what any of that means, stay tuned for the secret decoder ring of daylily registration information... 

I have to share this excerpt from Alice Walker's The Color Purple.  It's purpose here aligns with (and inspired) the haiku and the post title.  Maybe you'll get your copy of this book off the bookshelf, dust it off and enjoy a few pages this weekend.  Earlier this week I caught a glimpse of it on my bookshelf and did just that.

Shug: More than anything God love admiration.

Celie: You saying God is vain?

Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it.
Celie: You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?
Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention... except walk?
[they laugh]
Shug: Oh Miss Celie, I feels like singing!

O say can you see... | Daylily Blog about individuality.

I'm nervous. 

This is the first post that contains photos of my own seedlings. 

Showing these means I'm throwing back the curtain on a piece of my private world - one that exists 500 miles from my home garden and a world that no one but family has ever seen.  Hence the nerves.

 

What is a "seedling?"  In the daylily, this term is used to reference any unregistered plant raised from seed.  To give you some perspective, some of the larger growers plant thousands of seeds each year.  THOUSANDS.  Sometimes tens of thousands.  I plant about 100 each year.

A daylily moves from being called a seedling to a cultivar when it has been officially registered and published with the American Hemerocallis Society as the agent for the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP.)  More info on that registration process here.

 

Now THAT is what I call diamond dusting.  This is a seedling of mine that sparkles, even in the evening shade.  It's about 7", and every great big translucent inch of it is sublime.  I love the neon lavender edges - look at the sepal edges.  This daylily is soft, silent and commanding at the same time.  A bonus is its habit of staying open very late into the night to allow me to enjoy it by moonlight.  I'm keeping my eye on this one.  

Below are a few more I like.  From left, an 8.5" H. 'See Me Feel Me Touch Me' kid, then the sunfast, leathery orange one from H. 'Momentum' X H. 'Bittersweet Holiday' and finally a little sprite (4") of a bloom from H. 'Blackthorne.'

      

Below is my favorite from last season. I love this color combination.  I'm hoping as this one grows a little older, that is will pull those sepals into better shape.  It is only three years old, and like most toddlers, it still has some time to grow into itself.

 

If you don't like the seedlings, or if you don't find distinction in them, I'd love to hear from you.

I just felt like sharing something big today.

Change of topic alert...

 

True story:  Someone mentioned earlier about "cliques" in AHS and having a hard time "breaking through." I responded to them to ask more about their feelings of exclusion, and they accused me of being in "the clique" and I wouldn't know what they were talking about so I should just mind my own business.

Well, then.

We will just put a pin in that one and assume that their warm and fuzzy attitude was no reason that they feel excluded and left out.

Here is what I think about "cliques". 

Daylily Haiku Thursday | Size does matter!

daylily dreaming.

waiting for a sprung Spring and

enjoying the wait!

The snow is slowly melting in Michigan.  I can now see the boiled cabbage looking daylily clumps waiting for sunshine and warmth to shake them out of their winter funk.  I am waiting, too.

This photo of H. 'June Williams Memorial' brightened my morning today.  What is most exciting is that it was taken in Georgia on a hot, hot, hot summer afternoon and the bloom still looks fresh and the morning dew.  No melting or degradation of color there!  I also really like the coloration on the BACKSIDE of the tepals, which gives the flower some depth.  And look at those pinched midribs....lots of interesting characteristics on this one.

You'll also be interested to know it is registered at 11".  ELEVEN!  Yep...its THAT big.  I measured this exact bloom at 10.5" as it stood.  I did not touch the bloom or extend its segments while measuring.  (Yes, I do carry a small tape measure with me on garden tours for just this purpose.)

Again, there are almost 70,000 registered varieties of the daylily.  Because I don't have room to grow them all, I seek out the ones that are especially unique in size, color, or distinction.  I think this one fits that criteria. 

Do you grow it?  Have you seen it at 11"?  Are you using it in your hybridizing program?  Tell me your experiences with it!