Breathing Room.... | Daylily Haiku Thursday

It is fall clean-up time in the gardens.  Its also the time where I notice all those garden chess moves I said I'd make and never got to in the bloom season.

moving and changing.
the fall is falling too fast
for my summer dreams!

These are the raised beds that serve as the home to my seedlings.  They live at my parent's house about 35 minutes from here - far enough away that I cannot obsess about them every day.  My dad does that.  About five years ago he went through several very serious surgeries and we (and he) didn't think he would make it out the other side.  For a man who hardly ever went to the doctor in 60 years, smoked and drank like every night was a bad redux of a Guns 'n Roses song, eight trips under the knife in one year is enough for anyone to start looking for God.  But, he pulled through - after a long and hard recovery - and started to enjoy the overflow gardens I planted in their yard for my seedlings.

That was in 2006- and today that one original raised bed has now mutated to six raised beds that house only daylilies I have hybridized.  These daylilies do not exist anywhere else, there are none exactly like these in the world.  I didn't buy them.  I pollinated flowers, created seed, germinated the seed and POOF!  A new daylily was born!  My dad gets a special kick out of being the only one who has these particular daylilies.  He likes to be the first one to see them open.  Some of them are dogs, and some are wonderful and registration-worthy, but he likes them all.  And I like that after his forced-disability into retirement he has found something to fill his days.

After bloom season this year, I lamented about the state this overflowing bed.  The above pic was taken in June and the below pic was taken at the end of September.  You can see the PVC pipe lengths that allow me to insert the tag for better viewing above the foliage.  This also helps his ailing back when he takes pictures.  NEAT NOTE:  I also made these so that 26" sticks out of the ground, therefore, I have a quick, real measure of what height the scapes are at.  Look back at that first picture.  Now realize the pipes are 26", you can guesstimate how tall some of those seedlings are.  These clumps need dividing and culling something fierce.  So, I tackled it one Sunday this month.

First, I cut back all this foliage to about 6" and made some tough decisions about which ones no longer deserved some garden real estate.  I dug out 31, 3-year old clumps (some bigger than others) and ruthlessly culled.  

My dad said he could hear the plants screaming as I threw them in the compost.  Sigh.

After 3 years, the soil also needed some amendment and aeration.  Some of the roots had fused to the sideboards of the bed, so I knew I needed to get deeper in the bed and provide more space.  I added mushroom compost, sweet peat, top soil and a couple cups of Milorganite (yes, I am well aware that it is pelletized waste dredged from the sewers of Milwaukee) to the bed and stirred well.  I used my trusty Garden Claw and mixed by hand and hazmat suit.  I think we were able to add about 3" of depth in the bottom of the bed, too, so that will help.

The arduous task of dividing the clumps and replanting began next.  See them there in the background of the above photo?  I only kept seedlings that had future promise as stand-alone introductions.  I did not keep any of the "well, maybe someday..." or "it has potential as a bridge plant..." seedlings.  18 of the 31 got a space in the new bed.  Some clumps I divided, others I did not.  If it was 3 fans or less, I either culled it or replanted it as it was.  (IMHO, 3 fans in 3 years is not a good increaser.) 

I used my Daylily Divider (click here for the website) to divide the clumps.  That tool, with its new foot-post add-on is like a hot knife in butter.  Now that I have learned how to use it properly, I wont be without it.  My hands have a perpetually dull ache from old injuries and prying fans apart by hand is excruciating after about an hour.  I love this tool.

I planted the double and triple fan divisions in rows, replaced the PVC pipes, inserted the plant tags at the top, sprinkled with PREEN and called it a day.  My dad will mulch it after Thanksgiving to allow for the fall rains to reach the bottom of the new bed.
  
There are six real contenders for a future introduction in here and a few others that deserve just one more year of evaluation.  The bed heaved a sigh of relief at its new organization.  The plants definitely have more room to soak up sun and water now, unobstructed by overgrown and no longer desirable neighbors.

I cant wait to see what these burst into next summer.  Here are a few of the faces that bloomed in this bed this year. I kept them all.   Some parents in these crosses are DEBBIES VOWS, BUTTER CREAM, and SABINE BAUER.  (FYI- H. 'Butter Cream' and H. 'Sabine Bauer' is a major dream cross for me, and one that is doubtful to ever be fruitful...)  That second one below had 45-50 buds on it!  The highest bud count in my seedling bed!

I think you can click on the images to make them bigger.

Anyhoo, that's the biggest construction going on here now.  I have my "circle bed" in shambles right now trying to replant clumps and move hunks of low-growing salvia around.  Today the temps are in the 70's and I'm hoping for two hours of dedicated gardening time this afternoon.  If I could just keep Floyd out of the dirt and stop him from eating the mulch and attacking the shovel and chasing the rake and biting my ankles, I would be more productive.  

FLOYD!!! (he's so high fashion)

Til next time...

Making a List...checking it twice! | Daylily Blog about List Making

Its been one hot mess of a week with a cough that wont go away, an extremely successful elementary school book fair that has eaten more of my life than I will admit to, a new puppy, a growing (and challenging) seven year old and a pending weekend of travel.  When I can slow down enough to wrap my own hands around my own neck, I will surely choke myself for another overbooked week.  But, to be fabulous, you have to lose some sleep. AND you have to be a neurotic great list-maker.  

Daylily collecting comes with many opportunities to make lists.  Lists of what plants you own, which plants you used to own, which plants you are buying, which plants you WISH you could buy, which plants are dormant, which plants are rust-resistant, and which plants you want to sell.

I made a big list of "Plants I Want To Sell" this summer and used that list for the Central Illinois Daylily Society's Summer Plant Sale.  This sale has two facets, one for the club to sell donated plants to make 100% profit, and another where individual sellers can set up their own booths to sell plants.  The sellers share 30% of their sales with the club and everyone goes home happy.  I had a booth at this sale and wanted to generate some cash to help pay for the soon-to-happen front yard boulderscape plan.  So, I needed to sell a ton of plants.

In the first picture above, that is the view from my booth.  The Washington Park Botanical Garden was a great setting for this sale.  All those tables above are color-coded, which means the plants on the table roughly matched the color of the tablecloth and balloon. Great organization.

Above is another booth, manned by Coates Daylilies.  She had her double fans clearly marked and had a master board of all the photos of the daylilies.  I picked up six fans of H. 'Moroccan Sapphire' from her at this sale.  I've wanted that one for a long time and I couldn't resist buying it from her for $5 per double fan!

Here is my booth below.  I did not bag the daylilies (wasteful of time and resources, IMHO) and showed off the healthy, thick roots to my customers.  Another seller remarked to me as I was setting up - "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anyone just plop the daylilies right on the table before."

  

Well, leave it to me to do something no one has ever seen.  I would argue the bag tied/taped around the roots creates a hot house of moisture and a great opportunity for rot to occur, but Im not going to open that can of worms.  No one complained, I sold out of all but a few, and left a happy camper.  I used my own photos on the picture board and had everything clearly marked with a price.  I had some for $5 and others for $30 and even two that were $50- just in case a daylily gourmet happen to sashay by looking for a must-have.  And indeed, they did!

Here are more happy shoppers, making more lists of plants they need to add to their collections.  I even had someone drive almost 2 hours to buy plants from me.  She is an avid follower of this blog and it was great to put a face to an email.    Thats what this blog is about.  Starting a conversation.  This blog, and these plants sure give me the opportunity to meet some awesome folks who brighten my life with their stories.  I am very grateful for the connections.

If you are in the market for a computer program that will help you track your garden plants, sales, income, make plant labels, plan crosses, track parentage, store photos, publish a website,  generate a catalog and much more, you should be using PlantStep.  Visit this link to learn more.  You can buy it online, upgrades are always included and the technical support is awesome.  Its easy data entry, and you could be up and running with a great daylily database before you know it this winter.  Check it out here.  Good demonstrations of the program are there, too.  I love its label printing feature, and I love its easy catalog generation capabilities.  I have no stake in the company and am not being compensated in any way for my mention.  Its just my customer testimonial for my friends.  This program helps me manage my busy life by making "list-making" easy and fun.  

Im currently checking out an application called BENTO for my iPhone.  (google it) A friend recently showed me what it can do for daylilies and I was impressed.  He created a cool database for his iPhone that allows him to store his collection (with pictures) in an easy-to-scroll-through catalog on his phone.  I need that.  More lists. 

Anyhoo, the CIDS folks meet in Springfield, Illinois and they would love to have you at their next meeting.  If you are looking for a local club to join and learn more about daylilies, check out this link here.

Right now... | Daylily Haiku Thursday

It is officially Fall and many tasks associated with the garden are in full swing.  First, you must meet the newest member of the family, Floyd.  He is a Boston Terrier and at 10 weeks old is the biggest tornado in a cute suit that I have ever seen.  He is full of energy and curiousity about the garden.  So far he has only uprooted one plant tag and eaten a few daylily leaves.  Oh, Floyd.

This is also my favorite time of year to get all the plant tags updated and replaced so that I know what is where when the snow melts in 2013.  I went to using a new tag this year (thanks, Nic) but still love the Avery 5160 clear labels.  I run them through a laser printer and have great success.  Some tags I have had printed this way and in the garden for a decade.  I don't notice any fading in the label at all.  The trick is to USE A LASER PRINTER and not your inkjet.  In some cases, the metal stakes have rotted before the label is out of life.  This is the only label I have ever used and do not experience peeling or fading in the least.  Office Depot carries a 3M version of this label that is cheaper, and works just as well.  I bought this after my huge supply of Averys were gone.

These are the tags I needed for last summer and early fall purchases.  I really made great strides in my "one-in-one-out" rule for new purchases.  If I want to buy something, it must be better than something I already have in order to make room for it.  Although I have tons of space now, I have only been here one season and Im resisting the urge to just dig beds all over the place simply because I can. I want the beds to be mixed perennial beds that have color, texture and deliberate  rhythm.  I cant do that if Im just bailing water to get daylilies in the ground.  I am already stressed out about the 40 or so pots that are still waiting for homes.  I look at those pots and think - did I really need to buy this so it could sit in a pot and wait for a home?  Nope.  So, I regret some impulse purchases made this summer.  Some that I bought I "needed" because I was in love with a photo I had taken of it or in love with the memory of when I saw it for the first time.  From now on, Ill love the photo and the memory instead of insisting I own it.  I'm afraid some of those things I HAD to have wont make it to see Spring and that's all my fault.  "Ill try to not make that mistake next year."  (said everyone.)  But the good news is that all the plants in the ground have proper markers and are almost ready for winter.  One last application of Milorganite to the whole collection and I will be done.  Ill probably do that after Halloween, just in time for the early winter rains.

The rebloom has been the star of fall here, and I am amazed at the amount I have here this year.  Here is H. 'Spacecoast Color Scheme' blooming on its second set of rebloom scapes.  These buds have a large amount of thrip damage to them - more than earlier bloom cycles.  I'm sure the critters in the garden are enjoying the late show as much as I am.

The small circle garden I put in last year to divert some water flow and raise a low spot in the yard is already getting a a revamp.  This is what happens when you rush to do something.  I enjoyed the show in it this summer, but the colors didn't play well with one another and it didn't have enough textural contrast for my tastes.  So, as you see below, I have selected a new crop of "better" daylilies to feature in this spot and also have two upright Japanese Maples ready to go in here to add height.  Everything in here will be dug out and reset.  This bed is also where I saw the garter snake for the first time.  It slithered out from between the wall bricks and headed toward that back island.  Behind that island is where I inadvertently ran it over with the lawnmower.  :(  

Below is the photo that I have on my desktop right now, full of Fall and waiting for Winter.  So many textures and colors and flower sizes here.  The sedum (or "Live Forever" as my grandmother called it) is actually from her garden and now must be 60 years old.  I took starts from her house in 1990, 10 years after she had passed away.  My mom has photos of that patch of sedum from 1956, and it looked established then.  I love having these same flowers, not just the same kind, but the actual same root stock in my own yard.

Those hardy pink mallow in the background bloomed up to 12" flowers when it first started flowering.  I just planted those last fall, and now I am in love.  This one is Hibiscus 'Peppermint Schnapps' and it is spectacular with its red veining. 

   

I'd like a pink daylily THIS pink.  Look at rebloom on H. 'Kings Cloak' in the foreground above.  It looks almost tan compared to the pink of the mallow.  I like REAL pink.  I have H. 'Pistachio Eyes' and H. 'Cerise Masterpiece' and H. 'Cotton Candy Pink' and tons of other "pinks."  

Who's got some recommendations for THIS pink? 

In the meantime, Ill keep enjoying the photo below of the raspberry-kissed eye of H. 'Thundercat' by Jamie Gossard.  This photo below was taken in his yard during the National Convention.  My kindred spirit, Teresa gave me this as a gift this summer so I am very excited to see it bloom here!

right now is turning

into the what-should-have-beens.

jack frost is coming!

Other Contenders... | Daylily Haiku Thursday

Last week I posted about H. 'Laura Harwood' , a daylily that is contending for this year's Stout Silver Medal.  Many commented on that post, on both sides of the coin.  Some shared my like of this daylily, others questioned my sanity and taste in daylilies.  The good news is that everyone is right.  Either way you fall on the daylily, I'm just glad you commented.

With well over 70,000 registered daylilies and millions of seedlings each year to enjoy all over the world, its okay if you hate some daylilies I like.  We should still be friends.

So this week I thought I would share some of my photos of other daylilies who have made it to the top of the AHS Garden Judges Ballot as contenders for the Stout Silver Medal.

This is H. 'Creature of the Night' and although I have shown this photo before, I am so in love with this daylily you needed to see it again.  I found a clump of it for sale at the Central Illinois Daylily Society sale this summer and snatched it up for $10!  It is still in a pot waiting for a home in the garden, but at least its here.  It will add some real drama to a bed that features a few new upright Japanese maples.

I also like H. 'Thin Man', (seen below) but I only saw this one in tour gardens outside my region the last few years, so I don't really have a gauge on how it does in Region 2.  As I saw this one, it is striking in the landscape and towers above many.  The coloration and form isn't groundbreaking to my eye, but it is consistently large and a real attention-getter when it has multiple blooms open on one day.

standing tall in red

bright and deep in the garden

calling out to you.

So, yes, neither of the above daylilies are my typical "thing" that usually gets my heart pumping in the daylily world.  They aren't beefy and full-formed and laden with ruffles.  But... I'm coming around.  Especially to Jim Murphy and Margo Reed's creations.  Have you seen the Woodhenge website?

Here is the matte-colored H. 'Jane Trimmer'.  I like the texture of this one and it consistently bloomed with no color breaks or form flaws in both my Illinois and Michigan gardens.  Thanks to Nicole Willis for sharing this one with me.  I might not have otherwise added it without your personal recommendation and gift!  (Nicole is also the hybridizer of next year's release H. 'Nikki's Haiku'!)

Here is the complete list of contenders.  How many do you grow and what would you vote for if you were a Garden Judge?  (Ill be giving a presentation on "Demystifying AHS Garden Judges" at the upcoming Lilyhemmer convention in Pennsylvania.  How these daylilies get on the ballot in the first place is quite a process and one that everyone should understand.)

American Freedom 

Carnival In Mexico 

George Jets On 

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be 

Margo Reed Indeed 

Spacecoast Gold Bonanza

Awesome Candy 

Catcher In The Eye 

Grey Witch 

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 

Mynelle's Starfish 

Spacecoast Sea Shells

Bella Sera 

Creature Of The Night 

Heartbeat of Heaven 

Jane Trimmer 

Nutmeg Elf 

Symphony of Praise

Belle Cook 

Firefly Frenzy 

Heavenly Angel Ice 

Laura Harwood 

Palace Garden Beauty 

Thin Man

Betty Ford 

Forestlake Ragamuffin 

Her Best Bloomers 

Lies And Lipstick 

Persian Ruby 

Victorian Lace

Brer Rabbit's Baby 

Francois Verhaert 

Hillbilly Heart 

Mandalay Bay Music 

Shores of Time 

Wilson Spider

Wispy Rays

I have seen all but four in person.  I grow a small handful and enjoy seeing many others in gardens I visit.  I voted for one I grow and love, not for one that has great photos on the internet and is overly-boasted on (marketed) by its hybridizer or its fans.  The AHS Garden Judges have voted for the winner with written ballots (votes were due September 1) and the AHS Board of Directors will make the winning announcement after their fall board meeting this month.  I am excited to see who wins this year - not only the Stout - but the other AHS Individual Cultivar Awards, too.

Til next time, friends!