January 25 . . . Growth of greenhouse plants

Left click on the images for a larger view.

A 10-day update on the growth of the greenhouse plants. The last update was January 15.

These are the seedlings to the right of the entrance door. The seeds were planted on July 23 and transplanted to the gallon pots on September 24, so they are now about 6 months old.

These are the seedlings left of the entrance door. They are about 1 month younger than the seedlings on the right bench.

These are the left center bench looking from the rear of the greenhouse. They were started in peat pots about two week later than the first bunch and were the last to be transplanted to gallon pots on October 18, almost a moth later than the ones first planted.

This is the right center bench, image taken from the front of the greenhouse. The plants show considerable growth in just 10 days. The dormants are not quite as evident as in previous post.

This image is the right center bench taken from the rear of the greenhouse. Compare it to the image in an earlier blog page.














Just a word about lights. As you can see in some of the above images, I have 2 1000 watt high pressure sodium lights over each center bench. I have used these in the past, having them come on for about 4 hours in the middle of each night. As of last year, I only used them for 1 hour each night, having them come on about 6:00 AM and go off about 7:00 AM. This one hour in the morning helped the blossoms open completely and they were open when I wanted to hybridize.

As always, we thank you for visiting our blog. Please leave a comment below.

Life is very, very good.

Lee

January 15 . . . Growth of greenhouse plants

Today is January 15, exactly 15 days since my last post showing the potted hybridizing plants as they appeared just after taking them into the greenhouse from outside. They had had plenty of cold weather and the evergreens were mushy and the dormants were dormant. Just 15 days from being taken in, you can compare the images today with the images in the last blog to see their progress. There are several dormant daylilies in this group. Many of those in the foreground of this image are dormant. Most noticeably are the ones in the second row from the right. Among those pots are Don Lovell's H. 'Selwyn' (2012), his H. 'Hawkeye Fringe' (2011), Joel Polston's H. 'Carnivore' (2010) and Jamie Gossard's H. 'Outer Limits' (2008) are all extremely hard dormant here.

Way back when I used to show my daylily greenhouse program with slides, I took three pots of daylilies into the greenhouse from outside and showed a series of slides with evergreen, semi-evergreen and dormant plants in pots. My first slide showed evergreen with considerable foliage, the semi-evergreen with slightly less foliage, and the dormant was showing no foliage at all. If I remember correctly, I showed the growth with slides week by week. Within 8 weeks, the dormant had caught up in growth with the other two.

This is the right center bench, image taken from the front of the greenhouse. The plants show considerable growth in just 15 days. The dormants are quite evident.

This image is the right center bench taken from the rear of the greenhouse. Compare it to the image in the previous blog page.














On Saturday, January 7, Jean and I took a cruise up the Tennessee River to the Hiwassee River Conservancy area to view the Sand Hill Cranes which are in their migratory to winter nestings. I don't know what we expected, but we were a little disappointed because the boat had to stay in the river channel and we could not get very close to the birds. However, at times there were thousands in the skies. Here is an image showing them in the air.

As always, we thank you for visiting our blog. Please leave a comment below. Left click on the images for a larger view.

Life is very, very good.

Lee

Happy New Year 2012

Remember, a left click on an image will give you an enlargement.
As we enter a new year, Jean and I wish you all very Happy New Year. It has been about one month since I posted images of the seedlings growing in the greenhouse. Remember, these are planted in trade 1-gallon pots. As you can see, the seedlings have grown considerably since my last post. I believe we are on our way to at least 50% bloom in the greenhouse around April/May. There are some crosses that are not as vigorous growers as others and this really shows up in the greenhouse. Most are double the size of those lagging behind. I will put the images on in the same sequence so you can compare them to the earlier blog and the growth in a month.

This is the bench right of the door along the right side of the greenhouse. These seedlings are now about 5 months old. The tallest foliage is approximately 18" to 24" high.

This is the bench on the left side of the greenhouse. You can tell the difference in size between this one and the one above. The plants on this bench were planted about a month later than the ones on the right bench.

This is the left center bench taken from the rear of the greenhouse. Again, these seedlings were planted about 1 month later than the seedlings on the right bench.

This is the right center bench taken from the front of the greenhouse. This bench contains about 150 cultivars in 3-gallon pots that I will use for hybridizing. At the far end on the left are seedlings that I will be using for hybridizing. As you can see, I could probably add about 16 more pots to fill the bench.

This is the same bench, only taken from the back of the greenhouse. On the right, you can see the two rows of seedlings that I intend to use in hybridizing. These seedlings were probably taken in about three weeks ago. On the left, you can see 3 rows of pots that contain my introductions for 2012 to be used in hybridizing.






As always, we thank you for visiting our blog. Please leave a comment or question below.

Life is very, very good.

Lee