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". 

There are a lot of them and so what. Because AHS is not in a vacuum, but exists in open global society, there are layers of involvement, income and interest. Some have never left high school and are still trying to be someone they never turned out to be.  I think you should put your big boy pants on and get over yourself. If it seems that a group of hybridizers or a group in a forum are a "clique" - maybe they are. They have time invested in one another, they trust each other and have proven themselves to be a real part of a reciprocal relationship.

Your paid membership in any society doesn't change the fact you still should be a CONTRIBUTING member so others learn to trust you and your ideas. I see new folks come in like gangbusters, present ideas forcefully, get frustrated why others just cant see THEIR viewpoint or idea and go off in a huff- cursing and trashing everyone who dared to not see why they are not the next daylily messiah. It may seem like a good scapegoat to blame everyone else, and I'm sure it looks better in the mirror you look in every morning, but it doesn't change the way we see you out here.  

I'm just sayin'...