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.

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REDUX: Tale of Two Clumps ... Daylily Blog Blooming Where You Are Planted...

So, you remember the Tale of Two Clumps...click here to refresh your memory.  Seems we have come to the end of the tale very early in the daylily season.

WARNING: The tale does not have the expected or anticipated ending.  

Seems the second clump - the one on the right in the picture below - the one that went completely dormant early last fall - the one I bought for a too-good-to-be-true price sold as the beautifully purple H. 'Bella Sera', isn't H. 'Bella Sera' at all.  

<insert sigh here.>

See for yourself.

I thought I was buying a second clump of the gorgeous purple thing in the photo here.  I already had about 4 fans, but like this flower so much I wanted a larger display of it, so I purchased it from a live auction last fall.

But instead, I got this unruly, in-your-face character that seems to be mocking me and my disappointment in its identity crisis.

Really?

So, whoever at the Greater St Louis Daylily Society auction last fall who intended to donate pots of H. 'Bella Sera', maybe you can help me identify whatever this actually is...

In the meantime, I enjoy the unexpected interloper and the laugh it gives me.  I imagine it has a thick Boston flare to its voice...and a sick sense of humor.

P.S.  Taking off from Daylily Haiku Thursday this week and next.  I have so much to blog about and my brain is in such sensory overload from the gardens that I cannot focus on such details like syllables and simile.  :)

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Daylily Haiku Thursday | Haunting Yellow Memories

How to describe this?

Intense. Clean. Glowing and bright.

It's just not yellow!

There are thousands and thousands of yellow daylilies.  Tens of thousands of different cultivars list yellow in their descriptions.  Many exhibition judges cringe at the sight of yellow in the seedling section, but if they look carefully at the head table selections as a collective, I would bet more times than not they would find a yellow-dominated winner's circle.

To my eye, yellow always advances in front of other colors and mentally stimulates me in a happy, optimistic, and creative way.  I guess there is a reason that legal pads are yellow; it helps the brain!

This first daylily is H. 'Self Propelled.'  I love the thick substance and green overlay.  I think yellow daylilies surely have a place in the garden.  Yellow tends to cleanse other surrounding colors, give a punch and light to an otherwise "darker" area, and provide a smile for the passerby.  It always grabs my attention!

I added a couple more yellows to my collection this year - "H. 'Planet Claire,' and H. 'Aruba.'  That last one has the greenest, waxiest throat I have ever seen.  I hope it likes it here in Illinois.  This second picture is H. 'Aruba.'  I see LOTS of hybridizing possibilities in this one...

The splash of fresh in the center of this daylily gives it the distinction it needs to set it off from other "just yellows."

This picture was taken at Leo Sharp's Brookwood Gardens in the summer of 2009.  My friend Nicole and I spent the morning with Leo in his gardens and had some BIG laughs during our visit.  We had the pleasure of being alone with Leo in the garden and listening to some of his stories of the past.  We watched him hybridize and watched him talk with his field workers.  We met some folks we wished we would have never met, and laughed every second during the stalking incident in front of Leo's house (which is NOT where his garden is, by the way.)  

My car was filled to the brim with new purchases and gifts when we left that day.  Little did I know that it would be the last time we would be able to visit Brookwood Gardens.  Things have changed now, but my memories of that trip haunt me.  Some scenes that your eyes take in serve as memory bookmarks to another time.  This trip was one of those times.  Over the years I've visited LOTS of gardens and unfortunately, some of those visits blur together in a swirl of flowers and bus fumes.  Others?  Well, they stick.  

Brookwood Gardens and Leo Sharp | Michigan City, Indiana 2009

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Reconstruction Recap | The 2011 Adventure

NOTE: Daylily Haiku Thursday moved to Saturday this week to celebrate the holiday!


I've been holding on to the last days of 2011, grasping at the months that swirled by in a tornado of black nursery pots, dirt, and concentration.  

This is how the southeast corner of our back yard looked the week after we moved in - bare, dry and flat.  Note the stakes in the ground indicating where the dirt would be dropped.  I changed this configuration about 4 times before I settled on a shape that was both pleasing and functional for a large planting of daylilies for display.  250+ of my potted daylily friends took up residence here in the blistering sun for almost a month while I recovered from pneumonia in our new home.  It was terrible to be stuck inside for weeks designated for gardening.  

But once I recovered, the first call was to a top soil supplier to deliver 30 yards of dirt to raise my island beds.  The trucks came and went, dropping clumpy river-dredged dirt as the drivers shook their heads at my grandiose plans.  One has been back (driving 50 miles one way) to see what became of those dry piles of dirt and dreams.    

I just needed a base to get started; I planned to add yards of compost on top of this.  I needed the top soil for the bones of the bed.  Three big piles of about 10 tons each needed to be spread and shaped.  Steve and I often pushed around dirt by moonlight.  My cough was still pretty bad and the heat was really unbearable through all of August and into September, so it was the only time I could really put some effort into working the dirt.  


Once it was all spread out, I had to re-evaluate the drawings I had planned for the space.  I was pleased to discover that I had about 10 extra feet of gardens than I had planned for, so I was able to pull in more daylilies and a few other perennials from the stock I brought with me from Michigan. Having "stock" to choose from was the most fun element of this reconstruction.  I certainly got to know my daylily collection a lot better during this move. 


I knew I wanted a flowering tree for the corner focal point of this island.  The Eastern Red Bud finally won out and it was the first thing planted.  The shape of the tree is what finally won me over.  It is very symmetrical and I'm very excited to see it next year!  Once the tree was in, I started plugging in daylilies in a large swath across the bed. 

Then the rains came.

And so did "Lake Schmith."  Oh no!  I had created a dam.

Damn.  Read more about that here.

So, a little drain installation and lots more top soil later, the renegade lake was mostly conquered.  

Sigh.

We grated the space again and I got back to planting.

I fit in 49 more daylilies than planned for in this bed!  That's awesomeness.  It was even more exciting for my husband who didn't have to remove sod for me to get that much more growing space like in our old yard.    

Each daylily planted was selected just for the spot it got.  I carefully considered all the neighbors before placing any daylily, so the doubles, miniatures, and unusual forms are all sprinkled about the garden in just the right amounts.  My most promising seedlings are placed in with other well-loved cultivars, just to see how they perform and are judged among the proven introductions.  I hope to hear some comments from visitors next summer about the seedlings. Maybe they might even outshine some of their more famous neighbors!


These are some of my seedlings - the hidden gems.  The third one measures 10" consistently.  What do you think?

After it was all said and done, almost 200 daylilies fit in these first two beds, and the grass started to come in wonderfully - all in less than 90 days.  Most of my collection is planted and the rest has been stored for winter under the decks, ready for planting next year. I had a personal goal of getting this one big bed done this season and I DID IT!  It feels great and I have a lot more peace than I thought I would going into our first winter.

2012 will be quite a show.  Although it really is only one island bed (and there are many more to come) I'm not sure my neighbors know what they are in for...

picture taken October 18, 2011- the last official day of planting (when I planted the daylilies I brought home from Atlanta!)

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Eureka! It's Winter! | Daylily Blog on photo inspiration...

The snow has fallen and my excitement about the 2011 growing season has risen!  Yesterday I picked up my copy of the 2011 Eureka Daylily Reference Guide.  This book has been an annual coffee table book at my home for 11 years and this year is no exception.  I buy it new each year primarily for the photography.  It has become the inspiration print book for daylilies.  I can count on it to show me new cultivars and help me develop my photography skills - there are countless examples of stunning photography to study during the winter months or long bus tour rides.  I bring it along on garden tours to look up cultivars I may see in the garden and want to know more information about.  Its spiral bound, and very easy to use.  The cover selection is always of interest to me.  Landing this cover is, in my opinion quite an accomplishment.  Claude Carpenter's photo on this years cover could have been any one of the dozen A-MAZ-ING photos he has featured in this edition.  Not only is the composition stunning, but his lighting, exposure and choice of subject in all his photos are impeccable.  Way to go, Claude!  (So many wonderful photographers featured - I won't name any more for fear of forgetting someone...)  The image of the cover seen above is from the Eureka Reference Guides website.   If you want to know where to buy daylilies, you want to sell your daylilies or you want your photography considered for publication, check out the site. 

I also bought my 2011 wall calendar and started marking off plans already made for the new year.  The first quarter will be busy- I'm starting off the touring year near Kansas City, Kansas for the Region 11 shindig.  Ill have three seminars at this event - all new programs for 2011.  Bob Faulkner is the keynote speaker at this event...hopefully some of his new 2011 introductions or select seedlings will be in the auction!!  If you are able to get to KC in February, please make an effort to attend. 

Here are three daylilies that I'm looking to buy, trade or otherwise own.  Got any ideas where I can find them?

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Michigan Nikki | Daylily Blog on trusting your own eye...

This daylily was introduced this year by the incomparable Dan Hansen of Ladybug Daylilies.
During the AHS National Convention in 2009, this seedling stopped me in my tracks while touring his garden.  Now, remember, on a tour of daylily-related gardens, you see thousands and thousands of daylilies and for a seedling to stand out in the crowd as one of the coolest things I saw on tour, well, that speaks volumes.  I took a dozen photos of it that day.  When I placed my mail order for daylilies from Dan that year, I included a good photo of it and told him of my admiration.  Much to my surprise, Dan sent me a piece of it to try in Michigan.  I planted it in the front beds, where it would get the best sun.  I didnt treat it any differently than I do my other daylilies; if it is going to live here, it has to do so on its own merits.  H. 'Michigan Nikki' did way more than just live, it thrived and bloomed its head off in 2010.  Visitors commented on it, a few offered to buy it (not for sale yet!) and most all took many photos.  The photos of it here in this blog are taken by me, in my Michigan garden this summer.  I was so proud that I picked something out of thousands of seedlings that so many noticed and more importantly- liked. You can see more of H. ' Michigan Nikki' here on Dan's website.

Dan called me late this summer to say he was going to introduce it and wanted my help naming it. 

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! 

Even though I have never introduced my own daylilies, I have pages of names that I think would be cool names.  I always note song lyrics, or book titles or phrases my friends say as possible future daylily names.  So, I gave Dan some of my favorites and he gave me a lesson (or two) in naming daylilies.  He finally settled on his own suggestion of H. 'Michigan Nikki' and I loved the idea.

You can buy it directly from Dan if you are interested in adding it to your collection.  That strawberry colored eye, size and frilly-dilly edge will certainly entice several buyers this fall.  I wouldnt wait until spring to buy...especially with the special he's running.  You can buy 10 of his newest introductions for a really good price - that's unheard of, and once you see the selection, I think you will find a few wonderful things.  Dan also has some awesome videos on his site on interesting topics.

I like daylilies that are unlike anything else.  I liked this one because it was long and stretched out with a wonderful, bubbling edge.  These types of edges you dont see on longer, close-to-unusual-form daylilies.  Lots of hybridizing possibilities in this one.  I love its size and cannot wait to see it compete in the Extra Large section of an exhibition show. 

 The lesson I learned with this one is to trust my own eye. I saw it, I liked it, and I followed up on it. I have confidence in my own internal gauge of what is beautiful and what is inspiring. Rarely do the year of introduction or the hybridizer's fame influence what daylilies I add to my collection. Building confidence started with me making the conscious choice to stop listening to what "everyone else" was telling me was beautiful and started listening to the thumping in my chest when I see particular plants. That thumping is in each of us...my hope for all of you is that it's loud enough for you to hear.

H. 'Michigan Nikki' is fabulous, unique and offers something new to the daylily community.  Exactly how I like to think of myself.  Thanks, Dan!

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WOW! | Daylily Blog on simple AND interesting...

The breathlessness continues today.  H. 'Holiday Party' was the show stopper.  I measured this bloom at 7.75", which is way larger than it is registered, but the first blooms are usually the biggest.  I have had some serious lust over this one for a few years and finally added it to my collection last fall.  This three fan clump produced scapes with about 10 buds each.  It is in a prime viewing spot in my front perennial border and it sure stopped some foot traffic yesterday.  I must find a way to be more tolerant of the nosy passersby.  I find myself bottom-end-up in the front garden digging out, planting in or pulling weeds when I hear someone talking to my backside.  Maybe I will start to wear a sign on my behind that says -"iPod in use...do not disturb gardener."  I could even put a smiley face on it to make it seem more friendly.  No?  Okay.

As I meandered to the other island bed in the front of the house, there was H. 'Mexican Magic.'  Oh, be still my heart.  This muted purple-peach-apricot color combination is so unique.  I also like how the petals are slightly raised from the sepals, allowing me a peek at their pattern, too. 

The term used for the pattern in the throat area is "applique"  which some pronounce app-luh-kay (with the emphasis on the final syllable) and others pronounce app-lee-kay (with the emphasis on the middle syllable) while still another group says app-leek (with the emphasis on the last syllable.)  You pick your own pronunciation, I'll just continue to call it stunning. 

I got this one from Bill Maryott and his BOGO sale last year.  He's running a massive sale right now that is worth checking out...click here for his website.

And then there is one that is typically not on my radar, but truly exemplifies its given name - H. 'Simplicity In Motion' by region 2's own Sharon Fitzpatrick.  It really is about eight inches of simplicity in motion.  Not too many overt bells, whistles, teeth, patterns, app-leeks, pleats and the like...just blissful form and function.  The edges fade to a complementary white as evening arrives.  The bloom is extended as well, which means that it stays open well into the night, after most daylilies have started to close up shop.  It is tall and has scapes that support the bud count and bloom size.  All good stuff.  Look at those sepals.  See how they curl at the ends?That's simple beauty.  And it's interesting.  A combination that is hard to come by. 

As always, if there are daylilies I write about that you may want to add to your own collection, here are a few sources I recommend for finding something I've mentioned.  However, when at all possible, I always try to buy from the hybridizer of the plant.  It helps support their efforts, and I am more confident I will get what I want if I order it right from the horses mouth.  Secondary markets are great for most things, but for some stuff you want extra assurances...(IMHO)

1.)  Google it.  For instance, go to google and type "simplicity in motion daylily" in the search bar and see what comes up.  Usually you get several options from which to purchase the desired daylily.

2.)  http://www.daylily.com/  This is an auction site dedicated to selling daylilies and daylily related producs.  Visit the site and key in the name of the daylily to search the auction listings for it.  You may just get lucky and have some fun along the way.

3.)  Use the Eureka.  Go to http://www.gardeneureka.com/ and scroll to the bottom of the page.  There are about 20 daylily-specific nurseries that sell thousands of varieties.  Click on their names to see what daylilies they have for sale.

4.)  Ask me!  I may have some to share, sell or trade.

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Daylily Haiku Thursday | 86 pounds of daylilies!

generosity

knows no bounds (in daylilies)

i'll pay it forward.

The Southern Michigan Daylily Society is hosting the 2011 Region 2 Summer Meeting and Garden Tours.  I am chairing the planning committee and let me tell you...it is a lesson in delegation and teamwork.  Each week someone does something that makes me smile and remember that I'm not the only one obsessing about things continuously.

Two weeks ago, the Region 2 newsletter editor Narda Jones sent me an offer I couldn't refuse.  Her club, SWIDS, had a plant sale which left them with some extra plants.  She sent an email asking if we could use them for the 2011 meeting.  YES!  I think she could hear me screaming YES from three states away.

Four days later, three large boxes containing 86 pounds of daylilies arrived on my doorstep. Yes, folks, that's eighty-six.  8. 6.  86.

Kathy Rinke quickly arranged to have the three boxes picked up at my house and carted to her place near the center of the state for safe planting until next year.  She is chairing the 2011 plant sale and this makes her job so much easier.  How often do 500 fans of daylilies just fall on your doorstep when you need them?  And even more, how often do you find a volunteer like Kathy who steps up and says she will plant them until next summer?  In the daylily community, it happens all the time.  Which is why most of us give so much, because we know it will come back to us just when we need it.

Amazing contribution to the region by the Indiana group.  The bargain table plant sale at the regional meeting in 2011 will now be UNREAL thanks to their generosity and forward thinking.

WAY.  TO.  GO.

                                              

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