To the man who is actually in the arena... | Daylily Blog

<posted April 29, 2014>  This is H. 'Ida Mae Norris.'  This is my favorite cultivar of Richard Norris' to date.  I grow and enjoy several now and have had even more over the years that I have traded, sold or given away to friends as tastes and space evolved.  I also love his H. 'Ashwood Dark Side' and H. 'Plane Geometry,' but this one takes the cake.  First, it is 7"+, matte and flat as a pancake.  Although flat and matte, it also has a supple texture that grabs my attention.  I'm surprised to see he still has some for sale on his website.

Here are two other pinkies I like.  First is H. 'Rose Colored Glasses':

And the second (below) is H. 'Small World Looney Tunes' from Michael Miller.  It's the first introduction of his I bought directly from him and I'm very pleased with its performance.  Looking forward to taking it to a show this summer to see what it can do here in region 2.  This one also has a very funky pattern in the morning - and pretty consistently.  It is also a fast increaser in my Illinois garden.

I've been buried under some wonderful projects lately with people from many different areas of my life.  I had some big school projects at my son's school, some home improvement projects, some large-scale garden tour plans, daylily club projects and some big writing projects, too.  Dealing with these simultaneous projects has been delicate.  I am working with people who aren't so easy to work with in situations that aren't easy with the best of teams.  Some of the teams were so high performing we never convened as a group and the event went off without a hitch.  I haven't much liked the last 60 days of hard brain work, but I did lean on some writings of people way smarter than me at some of my most frustrated moments.  Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favorite politician, soldier and outdoors man. I've shared this story before, but its a good time to share it again.

He presented a speech entitled "Citizenship in a Republic" at the Sorbonne in 1910, two years after Henry Ford rolled the first Model T out of Detroit.  In my office at Ford Motor Company World HQ, there is a photo of Mr. Ford and Mr. Roosevelt, riding in a Model T on the slender streets of Dearborn.  The photo gives me goosebumps to see such "movement and thought" sharing a ride together.  The speech from the Sorbonne brings an overwhelming sense of personal call to action every time I read it.  Here is an excerpt, and I hope you find some strength in it, too.  It's pretty fierce, IMHO.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. THE CREDIT BELONGS TO THE MAN WHO IS ACTUALLY IN THE ARENA, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, IF HE FAILS, AT LEAST FAILS WHILE DARING GREATLY so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

It is the season of doing in our gardens and in our communities as they come to life with Spring.  

If not YOU, who?

H. 'Brookwood Hiawatha'

DAYLILY DEFINE: Oh, my eye! | Daylily Blog on Definitions

<posted April 17, 2014>  This week's haiku highlights the daylily CAJUN LAGNIAPPE, a 2009 introduction from Ken Begnaud of Louisiana.  This photo was taken in his garden during the 2011 National Convention tour!  I especially love the clean-colored base of this flower, and the metallic edge just sets it off perfectly.  I dont grow this one in Illinois, but it is on the wishlist.

Usually when I do a haiku, to select a photo I randomly scroll through my photos and let them speak to me.  But this time I was looking for a specific kind of photo to go along with a topic I wanted to mention.  

During a recent presentation, the speaker described their flower using the term "banded eye."  I was confused.  The definitions as I know them do not allow for such an occurrence.  If I were judging a show and a flower was entered with "banded eye" in its registration data, I wouldn't know what I was looking for...

As a garden judge and as an exhibition judge, its important for me to understand and internalize how the American Hemerocallis Society (the "industry standard" if you will for daylilies) defines characteristics and forms.  The AHS defines markings on daylilies and most of the common vocabulary is seen in the Daylily Dictionary.  In the photo above, note the purple markings around the center of the flower.  By definition, this is a BAND.  Not an eye.  I'm going to bet most of you would call that an eye.  I would have until I studied the distinction between the terms.

If you interchange the terms EYE, BAND, HALO and WATERMARK - don't.  They are not interchangeable and do not indicate the same traits.   I have learned to remember them in the order of how much color is exhibited on the flower.  An eye is the "most color", followed by Band with less color, then halo with even less color, and finally watermark.

An eye is a DARKER colored zone on the petals AND sepals of the flower just above the throat. 

HATS OFF TO SUE (Herrington, T. 2008) exhibited by Claude Carpenter at a 2013 Atlanta-area accredited daylily show.  

This flower shows an eye.  Note the darker color appears on the petals and sepals.

Eye and band are related terms, but with a distinct difference.

If the DARK color ONLY appears on the petals, it is called a band.

OKLAHOMA SAND BURR (Holley-S., 2009) shows a band at the same Atlanta-area show.
Note the darker color does not show on the sepals.

Even less so, a halo is an eye that is relatively narrow or indistinct.  You can see in the below picture that your eye registers an area of color above the throat, but it is not distinct.  It is faint, but it is there.

EDGED IN INK at a show in Michigan.

Finally, a watermark is the zone above the flower's throat which is LIGHTER in color than the petal color.

Bill Waldrop's winning seedling entry at the Atlanta-area show.  Note the lighter color that appears between the glowing yellow throat and the petal edges.  

This area is a watermark by definition.

These are just some examples, and obviously with almost 80,000 registered daylilies and millions of seedlings under evaluation each year, interpretations of these definitions are being challenged and further studied.  I enjoy knowing the differences based on established vocabulary.  The daylily community, most effectively, hybridizers of daylilies have been inventing words for decades to describe what they see in their seedling fields.  Dan Hansen of Ladybug Daylilies reinforced that fact during a recent presentation in Nashville.

If you are passionate about the daylily like I am, it is important to start from a base set of vocabulary.  This I know: the words we use to describe what we see in daylilies today will evolve over time, as we do.  I enjoy knowing as much about the intricacies as I can.  The depth is fun.

What do you think?  Do you accept established term definition, or do you prefer to verbally define as your heart/eye sees it?

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SPECIAL NOTE:  I am presenting a special video-enhanced program in the "Monday Night Lights" Daylily Facebook group THIS MONDAY at 730/630C. Come join the group and enjoy the weekly presentations given by daylily people of all interests.  Click here to join! 

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