2011 Introductions . . .

A left click on your mouse will give you a larger picture.

We have selected 8 cultivars that will become our 2011 introductions. All have been grown outside in field conditions for at least two years. Please enjoy looking.

H. 'Dancing With The Stars’ 
31" M SEv Re 6". Five-way branching, 23 buds.
    Elegance and grace are what this flower is all about, like the hit TV show, “Dancing With The Stars”. The large 6” flower is a cream blushed lavender with medium ruffling and crimping. The citron ruffling matches the citron throat which leads to a green heart. The substance is just as heavy as it looks in the picture and stands up well in sun and rain. The form is round and full with petals that are 3¼” and the sepals are 2”. Really a nice clean color. This cultivar is fertile both ways in the greenhouse and I wouldn’t expect it to act any differently outside. DWTS has a very good plant beneath the flower. The foliage is arching and a dark green Seedling No. 8070 (Victorian Lace X Wonder Of It All)

H. 'Glenn Miller’
37" M SEv Re 5½". Three-way branching, 18 buds.
    A flower of impeccable form, H. ‘Glenn Miller’ was one of the show flowers in the garden. The flower is a cream polychrome with overlays of lemon and pale pink.  Petal and sepal edges are heavily ruffled and crimped and the flower is lightly sculpted. The color of the flower emphasizes the lime green throat. Named for the famous band leader, who in my opinion, still has some of the best music around. The foliage is a dark green and of medium width The substance is exceptionally heavy and holds well in the rain and sun. Plant habit is excellent, and it increases fairly rapidly. Pod and pollen fertile. Petals are 3", sepals 2". Seedling No. 0755 (Awesome Bob X Wonder Of It All)

H. 'Groovin’ ’ 
30" M SEv Re 6¼". Three-way branching, 17 buds.
    One of our long line of sculpted seedlings and probably the heaviest sculpting of all. The grooves appear to be carved out with a chisel. If you look at most sculpting in this color range, you will think the raised area of the sculpting is a different color. However, upon close scrutiny, it is the same color as the flower but the sculpting creates this optical illusion. The flower is a polychrome of maize and pink overlaying ivory. The flower can be funky-like in the image, or it can be a round, full form. The petal edges are heavily ruffled. The substance is like cardboard and holds up well in the sun. Pod and pollen fertile. Petals are 3", sepals 1¾". Seedling No. 0624 (Doc Branch X Bas Relief

H. 'Juanita Manley’
27" M SEv Re 5". Four-way branching, 25 buds.
     This cultivar was chosen by our sister-in-law, Juanita Manley, of Cranberry Township, PA to carry her name. The bloom is a very saturated cherry red with an ivory watermark and ruffles. One of the clearest cherry reds that I have seen. The substance is very good and holds up well except in very hard rains. The plant habit is very good. It is pod and pollen fertile in the greenhouse and we have some very nice kids coming. Petals are 2½” and sepals are 1¾”. A very showy flower in the garden. Seedling No. 0726 (Painting The Roses Red X Jean Pickles)

H. 'Memories Of Mother’
29” M SEv Re 5½”. Five-way branching, 27 buds.
    For generations, mothers have been growing yellow daylilies in their perennial gardens. How the yellow has evolved! It is no longer the narrow petaled, lightly branched and budded daylily of the past, but a full, overlapped form with good branching and bud count. Our first daylilies were the lemon colored daylily from Jean’s mother’s garden that we brought to Tennessee many years ago. H. ‘Memories Of Mother’ is a perfectly full-formed daylily of crisp lemon yellow with 3” lightly ruffled petals and 2” wide, blunt sepals. This self ends with an olive green throat. The substance is very heavy and stands up well in the sun and rain. H. 'Memories Of Mother’ would be a great addition to “Mother’s” garden. Fertile both ways in the greenhouse.
Seedling No. 0651 (Macho Macho Man X Wonder Of It All)

H. 'Rockets Bursting In Air’
27" M SEv Re 5½". Four-way branching, 25 buds.
     This has been one of my favorites since first bloom in 2007. I thought long and hard for the perfect name and H. 'Rockets Bursting In Air’ seemed to fit. The bloom is very clean and smooth and the color is a saturated magenta. The white midribs give the impression of ‘Rockets bursting in air’. The watermark of white accentuates the explosion. The edges of the petals are very smooth with a fine band of white. The substance is heavy and holds up well. Pod and pollen fertile in the greenhouse. Seedling No. 07100 (Pure Indulgence X Painting The Roses Red). 

H. 'Rooty Tooty’ 
33" M SEv Re Fr 6". Three-way branching, 19 buds.
    The flower is a near white with a wash of azalea pink. It has the beginning of an eyezone of subtle rose ending with a lemon throat and a lime heart. The petal edges are a light yellow and are very heavily ruffled and crimped and the flower shows some subtle sculpting. There is light ruffling on the sepals.  The substance is exceptionally heavy and holds well in the rain and sun. Plant habit is excellent and it increases fairly rapidly. It is a showy flower in the garden, and it can be seen from a long distance. This flower was pod and pollen fertile for us in the greenhouse. Petals are 3¼", sepals 2". Seedling No. 8057 (How Beautiful Heaven Must Be X Wonder Of It All)

H. 'Tennessee Lady Vols’
28" M SEv Re LFr 5½". Four-way branching, 19 buds.
    Named for my favorite college basketball team. The flower always opens well and the above picture was taken in late September on the third set of scapes after a 55° night. The color is orange creamcicle and shows a pale honey orange over cream. There is a tuscan infusion in the in halo which is repeated on the heavily ruffled edges. The substance is exceptionally heavy and holds well in the rain and sun. Plant habit is excellent and it increases fairly rapidly. One of the show flowers in the garden. Petals are 2¾", sepals are 1½". Seedling No. 0545 (Enchanted Dreams X Candied Popcorn Perfection)


We wish all of our daylily friends a very happy and prosperous new year.

Now is the time to start planning to attend one of the many symposia that are coming up, including The Mid-Winter Symposium in Nashville, TN on January 21-23, 2011. Please join us and greet old friends and meet new ones.

Exciting things happen to those who hybridize daylilies!

Life is very, very good. Remember, when the bloom is gone, you still have your friends!

Lee

Christmas 2010 . . .

A left click on your mouse will give you a larger picture.

Christmas 2010 will go down in history as the first Christmas in the south since 1889 that we have had a white Christmas. The first since the 1800s with this much snow. How much was there? Very close to 4". Now, those of you in the north will poo poo 4" of snow, but for the south, that is a lot of snow, and it came on Christmas. About 100 miles south of Chattanooga, Atlanta had it's first white Christmas since the 1800s.

This picture was taken early in the morning in our front yard. You can see that the flakes were large and wet, great snow for making snowballs or a snowman. When snow falls like this, and you don't have to travel somewhere, it is a glorious sight.

The ground was covered up to the greenhouse, with some snow even accumulating on the top. Inside, the temperature is set at 50° and the daylilies continue to grow. On January 1, I will raise the temperature to 55° and about mid January to 60°. I would hope to have bloom in Mid March.

Many of you know the story of the Christmas wreath on the greenhouse door, but for those of you who do not, I will repeat it. When we built the first greenhouse in November of 1993, this same wreath showed up on the door that Christmas. I was told, "This wreath symbolizes your Christmas present, your birthday present and your anniversary present until such time that it does not appear on the door". You can see that it did, indeed, show up again this year so I did not expect any presents under the tree for me. I was not disappointed!

Our 9 year old Lab, Sara Lee, has one responsibility. She goes out to the driveway near the road each morning and retrieves the newspaper so she can catch up on the day's happenings. The real reason Sara retrieves the paper is that she receives a treat. Sara will do anything for a treat! In the background you can see one of our grandsons, Benjamin.

Shiloh even gets in on the holiday season. He really enjoyed sitting among the presents under the Christmas tree. The tree had ornaments and tinsel missing about 1½ feet off the floor. Shiloh likes playing with ornaments and tinsel.


We wish all of our daylily friends a very happy and prosperous new year.

Now is the time to start planning to attend one of the many symposia that are coming up, including The Mid-Winter Symposium in Nashville, TN on January 21-23, 2011. Please join us and greet old friends and meet new ones.

Exciting things happen to those who hybridize daylilies!

Life is very, very good. Remember, when the bloom is gone, you still have your friends!

Lee

Winter greenhouse . . .

A left click on your mouse will give you a larger picture.


I went out to the greenhouse this morning and noticed that Jean had placed the wreath on the door. This is a long standing tradition here at Chattanooga Daylilies. When we built the first greenhouse in 1993, this wreath showed up on the door and I was told, "This is your Christmas present, your birthday present, your anniversary present, and all other presents until this wreath does not show up on the greenhouse door". Well, this is the seventheenth year it has appeared, so I guess it will be at least another year until I get a present for something.

In August, I started seeds in the greenhouse. In September, the resulting seedlings were transplanted to either trade one gallon pots or No. 38 Seed Trays. Here is an image of the same three pots of seedlings that are shown on the October 3rd blog page so you can compare the growth.

 In this picture, you can see the greenhouse door with the wreath attached, so these are the two benches to the left when entering the door. The bench shown along the right side (in the picture) of the greenhouse is filled with 504 seedlings in trade one gallon pots. The bench to the left is filled with 2,356 seedlings in No. 38 Seed Trays.

 
The last task to get ready for winter and then spring bloom was to carry the potted hybridizing plants in from outside. This was accomplished on Friday. It took me about 6 days to carry in and clean up the 155 potted plants. It has been so cold here that the outside pots were frozen solid. I had to take a group of pots into the greenhouse each afternoon so they would thaw out for cleaning the next morning. The plants were trimmed down to about 2". Part of the cleaning was to add Nutricote 18-6-8 T-180 w/ minors, Marathon (a systemic insecticide), Milorganite and a teaspoon of Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salts).  This picture was taken from the entrance door of the greenhouse. The bench immediately to the front contains 155 potted hybridizing plants.You will notice that there is one empty space in the second row. That space is reserved for David Kirchhoff's fabulous H. 'Barbara Mandrel', one of the most saturated reds I have ever seen. The bench on the right along the greenhouse wall is filled with seedlings in trade one gallon pots.


Right now, I have the temperature in the greenhouse set at about 40°. About mid January, I will start inching it up until it is set at approximately 65° at the beginning of February. I would expect bloom about mid March. I have the 1000w high pressure sodium lights come on at 1:00 AM  for two hours each night.


In past years' I would have had the middle seedling bench filled with potted hybridizing plants, but in an effort to cut down, I have limited the hybridizing plants to one bench which is about 40% less than in the past. I would like to get to the point where I grow 1,000 seedlings each year in trade one gallon pots. I would plan to bloom these seedlings in the pots, thus, I eliminate getting down on my old knees to plant seedlings in the ground

Now is the time to start planning to attend one of the many symposia that are coming up, including The Mid-Winter Symposium in Nashville, TN on January 21-23, 2011. Please join us and greet old friends and meet new ones.

Exciting things happen to those who hybridize daylilies!

Life is very, very good. Remember, when the bloom is gone, you still have your friends!

Lee