2012 National Convention Recap | The Osman Garden

About ten years ago, I visited a garden on a National Convention tour that brought me to tears.  Many of you might have been there at Faded Flamingo Gardens - owned and created by Ralph and Becky Adams.

I mention this here because there are those places in time, that grab your soul and change the way you want to garden.

My visit to the Osman Garden during the 2012 National Convention was such a time. It transported me to a place of giving - a deep giving of the gardener's soul.  1400 cultivars spread out over five acres awaited me as I got off the bus.  It was misting heavy, so I got a chance to use the large, white umbrella I sought for just this occasion. No one complained about the rain...not even I, who chose a white cotton dress for the day's tours.  The custom white sails on the Osman pier made for a nice snapshot.  I'm saying - "Come on y'all, let's go see some more daylilies!"

The rain did not spoil the blooms at all. This collection of daylilies reminded me of my own; no one form dominates, colors are saturated and lots of textures are present.  I also saw many things I had never even heard of!
The purples were regal...

H. 'Foxy Filly' and H. 'Heartbeat of Heaven'

H. 'Henry Boykin' and H. 'Quicksilver Girl'

The yellows and blends were radiant...

H. 'Give Me Eight' and H. 'Bonnie Holley'

H. 'Peasant Blouse' and H. 'Dream Machine'

The fabulously gaudy things were not to be outdone...

H. 'Candie Dwyer' and H. 'Moses in the Bullrushes'

H. 'Love and Dazzle' and H. 'Magnify the Lord'

Aside from the pier at the beginning of this post, the best part of this garden, and quite possibly the best feature seen in any of these tour gardens, are the large beds at the back of the property filled completely and exclusively with WOMEN hybridizers.  All around this pavillion are daylilies hybridized by women!

Yep, this one is for the ladies!

As I walked the paths, I saw living history.  These are mostly modern women, and the most moving part is that I have met or know most of them very well.  

Im not sure I could have felt more proud, seeing the triumphs of women I know overcome so much personally and professionally.  Women who are still fighting battles - and winning on all fronts.

Each woman had a hand-made sign near their introductions, and I saw many women featured in these beds standing by their signs getting photos taken.  It was like a red carpet and this was the Grauman's Chinese Theatre of daylilies!  

Here is Carol 'Seajay' Mock's H. 'Supreme Tangerine'...

Nan Ripley and Karol Emmerich were featured, and were on my bus!  I saw daylilies from Margo Reed and Kathy Lamb and Pat Salk and Heidi Douglas and Gerda Brooker and Nancy Eller and Cindy Dye and Jane Trimmer and Grace Stamile and Bobbie Brooks and so, so many other women I admire and cherish as friends.  

It is a thoughtful tribute, a time capsule and a total treat.  The signs for the women's feature were hand made by her and her husband all winter long.  What a wonderful effort, and a lasting legacy for daylilies!

Nan Ripley's H. 'Love of Ruth' and Karol Emmerich's H. 'Wall of Fire'

Call it 'Girl Power', but this bed had a ton of energy in it.  I enjoyed seeing a body of work from one hybridizer on display.  I liked seeing several of Kimberly McCutcheon's introductions growing in clump strength in one place.  It is a testament to the whole of the work.  

You rarely get the chance to answer the question:  Are all of the plants from a particular hybridizer worthy of adding to a collection?  

Seeing the daylilies on display like this helped me to fall in love with hybridizers work I may have not otherwise considered.  

For example, I had the opportunity the night before this garden visit to win Carol (Seajay) Mock's H. 'Supreme Tangerine' in the auction at a very reasonable price.  I did not purchase it; the picture used wasnt that great and I had never seen it in a garden before.  Buuuuut, seeing it in clump strength the next day in this garden made me regret not taking the chance.  It was a real stunner for something that someone may describe as just-another-orange.  Here is a close-up:

The paths were packed with photographers and gawkers and some visitors in tears - seeing collections of women who have passed on, and some who were just deeply moved by the sentiment contained in the creation of this display. 

So many neat treats here - the pond, the pier, the snacks (fresh quiche), the wagon ride (how wonderful for the walking challenged), the abundance of smiling faces, the seating areas, the perfectly mowed expanse of lawn...  

The Osmans also had a wonderful bed for Guest Plants, seen below, with a great totem featuring the names of all the gardens who had sent plants!  I'm not sure you can get more thoughtful than this...

Looking back at the Women's Hybridizer Bed, I can see the magic hovering above it.  The horses playing in the morning mist added to the majestic mood of the area.  I just cant get over how carefully laid out these beds are, and how proud the women who were featured must have been.  

I wish I would have had another hour here.  Or maybe even another day.  This is the one garden I felt cheated for time.  Happiness lives here and I wanted more.

Here is a wide shot of the Women's Hybridizer bed, looking out from near the house - the horses were out of the barn in the back left corner.  

Dear Osmans- from all of us, thank you.  

Your years of hard work and attention to making every part of our visit meaningful could not have been better spent.  You played our heartstrings and our creative minds, and I am sure you inspired more than one of the 600 us to go home and do something meaningful in our own gardens.

SEE ALL THE RECAPS OF THESE TOURS HERE!

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I am still an exhibitionist! | Daylily Blog on beating slim odds

I cut the scape the night before (as you know I grow all my seedlings about 30 miles from my house) and I was worried that it wouldnt open.  Even if it did open, the chances of the bloom being perfect was slim.  Seedlings hardly ever win a purple or a blue ribbon, as 25 points of the 100 they are allowed goes for distinction.  If the judges do not think the seedling "speaks" to them, shows some qualities superior to other observed daylilies, or contributes to the daylily landscape in general...then the chances of winning 90 of those 100 points aren't great.  

But, knowing that seedlings are a tough section, I needed to bring this scape.  

She towers over everything else in the bed, and for a red, the surface and hue are flawless.  You know red is not my color.  Red in the daylily garden rattles my rhythm.  It is so hard to mess up red.  Its browny-red, or purple-red, or brick-red, or tomato-red.  I like crayon red.  Real, rosy, radiant red.  And I think this daylily has that color in spades.  It is clear and clean and I wanted judges to comment on it.  I cut it 13 hours before the show, immediately plunged the cut scape into cold water and left it outside to soak up the moonlight.

5am came early, and I thought about this scape before my feet hit the floor.  I shuffled outside, still shaking the dreams from my hair and the sleep from my eyes, to see how she faired.

Oh.  My.

I ran back inside.  I wanted to scream.  But the house was still silent, gentle snoring coming from two bedrooms and no one awake to celebrate.  I did a solo happy dance anyway.  

None of the other exhibits in my buckets compared with the screaming red one on the left.  She not only opened well, but was perfect.   I packed the car carefully...knowing that if I was going to lose this flower, it would be in transport.  

I took 39 scapes.  Many seedlings, since this is the first opportunity I have had to really show anyone what Ive been doing the last five or six years in hybridizing.  Until this summer, I have only seen these daylilies once or twice a season, and for only a day or two even then.  I think I took 12 seedling scapes and entered 8.  

The big red one stared at me in the rearview mirror the whole way to the show.  I watched it bounce up and down as I seemed to hit every big bump on the road there.  In the picture above, its the one on the far left.  You can't miss her.  With my favorite tunes blaring, I enjoyed the 45 minute ride in...  

She was the first scape I entered with classification.  I wanted the exhibit on the table as soon as possible to avoid any accidents near grooming and placement. 

The rest of the morning is a blur.  Grooming questions and placement questions and computer database questions and wi-fi issues kept me busy.  Keep in mind hardly ANY of these volunteers have been to a show, let alone WORKED at one, so we had lots of teamwork and patience in play.  Everyone rocked.  Seriously rocked.  I am so proud. (On a side note, 16 people came to my gardens the week before the show to learn how to select, transport and groom daylilies.  They were serious about doing this right!)

There was a nice representation of daylilies in the show except for unusual forms and spiders.  In those two sections, there were only 4 entries.  I thought about my own garden and was disappointed I hadn't looked more closely for some of those.

H. 'Dyna Girl' and H. 'Threshold of a Dream' - both by Paul Owen of Slightly Different Nursery

I took Paul Owen's H. 'Threshold of a Dream' and his H. 'Dyna Girl' and scored purples with both!  It is the first time I have used his cultivars in a show and they really rocked!  The branching on TOAD was bananas.  Had it not been for a tiny color break on a petal, I think that one would have won the section.  Sigh.  H. 'Dyna Girl' had two well-spaced blooms open and was a contender as well. They are both great garden plants and translated very well inside, too!

When the dust settled, 13 exhibitors won blue ribbons!  Almost half of the 111 scapes were awarded first place honors!  I won 22 blue ribbons, which made me the Sweepstakes Winner!  I have never won that award before, so I am so excited to check that one off the list!  

And, as the Best In Show ballots were tabulated, it was revealed that this seedling had won Best In Show!  

Are you kidding me?  

I almost cried.  

Seriously.  

I did.  

WHO CRIES AT A DAYLILY SHOW?   

Had it not been for the existence of Facebook and YouTube, I may have broke out in that happy dance again, but I was not risking an appearance on America's Funniest Home Videos, or worse, someone else's blog doing a really bad macarena.  Thank God I have the threat of social media to help curb my outbursts in public...

So, that's it.  We did it.  A third Best In Show, and a real boost of encouragement for our daylily eye in the seedling bed.  A big shout out goes to my dad, who first saw this seedling in 2008 and told me that there was  a red daylily I would finally like.  And he was right.  I love it.  

We will divide up this huge clump once it is finished blooming, and if it does well next summer after the dividing, we will introduce it next year.  The name is already reserved, and was suggested by my darling husband, Steve.  If he has to admit to liking daylilies at all, he says he loves the red ones.  

Here she is in the garden, standing on a 45" scape with a consistently extra large 8" bloom.

Congratulations to all the winners of the first AHS-accredited daylily show for the Southwestern Illinois Hemerocallis Society.  

Way to go, folks!  WE DID IT!

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Daylily Haiku Thursday | Describing the differences...

i do love stretching

 a lazy day into many.

blooms are not far now.

Here are six photos from the 2008 Region 2 Summer Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.

Top L-R: H. 'Atlas Shrugged,' H. 'Tholian Web' and H. 'Becky Stone'

Bottom L-R: H. ' Star Spangled,' H. ' Wayside Painted Lady' and H. 'Double Breakthrough'

I chose these photos because each one of these daylilies has a distinct quality that is different from all the others.  Can you describe these distinctions?

Last week's Daylily Haiku Thursday became Haiku Monday instead.  Celebrating Easter, Spring Break and my son's sixth birthday filled my days with joy and fun, so there was none left for haiku. 

I hope you enjoy today's entry. 

You know you can go back and see all the haiku, right? 

Click here.

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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". 

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