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!
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!
Comments can be made at the end of this page . . . it is easy and I would like to know how you enjoy the blog. If it not against your nature, please identify yourself.
If you don't want to leave a public comment, send them directly to LeePickles@epbfi.com A left click on your mouse will give you a larger picture.
The Daylily Hybridizer's Summit meeting was held in Chattanooga on December 3-4, 2010 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. There were daylily images for everyone . . . round and bagel, spiders, doubles, unusual forms, patterns, etc., etc. Over 1,000 images were shown on Saturday.
I could rattle on for a long time on here and not be able to say it any better than Karol Emmerich of Minnesota wrote on the email robin: (Used with permission)
"A big thank you to David and Lee for organizing the Chattanooga hybridizers' event. They were very welcoming and supportive, and set the tone for a great day. There were lots of gorgeous pictures, including: the deeply saturated and beautifully formed Barbara Mandrell and Mary Baker(from David K); heart-throbbing purples and lavenders from Bill Waldrop, Mort Morss, Randy and Ted Preuss, and Josh Jacques; double and triple edges from Tommy Maddox; patterns in colors I had never seen from Sandy Nall. Beauties from diploid breeders, doubles breeders, unusual forms and spider breeders, pattern breeders, and those who love the color yellow (like Lee's Wonder of it All kids) also caught my eye even though those forms and colors don't always "talk" to me the way the purples and roses do. It was fun seeing the diversity, and the results of folks focusing their efforts in specific areas.
But what impressed me the most was how much we enjoyed being with each other and the joy written all over the faces of those attending. Lots of smiles and beaming faces as folks talked about the flowers they were creating, the videos they were making about daylily people (Charles Dorsey), the rewards of being able to do the daylilies with the next generation of their family (like Dan and Ben Bachman), or the work they were doing outside of daylilies (like William Marchant - an elementary school principal who clearly has a passion and vision for transforming the way kids are taught). So thanks again, David and Lee, for making it possible to be together."
After the meeting, we had several visitors to the greenhouse. Seedlings are growing nicely and several thought I would have bloom this spring in many of them. Here are some pictures.
Josh Jaques from Louisiana and Tommy Maddox from Mississippi
The next group was Randy Preuss from Mississippi, Barb and Bob Pappenhausen from Illinois, Ted Preuss from Mississippi, and in the back, Tommy Maddox from Mississippi.
Another group was Tommy Maddox from Mississippi, James and Sandy Nall from Arkansas, David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss from Kentucky, and Josh Jaques from Mississippi.
I really think that Tommy Maddox left after the first picture, but as you know, an old penny just keeps showing up everywhere.
I hope you will plan to join us next year in 2011 for the Daylily Hybridizer's Summit on December 2-3 in Chattanooga, TN.
Now is the time to start planning to attend one of the many symposia that are coming up, including The Mid-Winter Symposium in Chattanooga, 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 and Jean were born and raised in Iowa. They met in 1954 and were married in 1957. Both attended the Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) and graduated in 1962. Both accepted teaching jobs in Council Bluffs, IA where they lived until moving to Tennessee in 1974. Lee retired as an administrator in the Dean's office at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Jean retired from the classroom in 1999. They have two children, two grandchildren and currently live in Hixson, TN with their two dogs, Sara Jessie, a yellow lab, Spikey, a rescued mixed breed, and a Snow Shoe Siamese cat, Shiloh.
