Blooms March 29

Blooms in the greenhouse, March 29, 2012

Left click on image for a larger picture.

Blooms are really beginning to pop in the greenhouse. Each day there are a few new ones. Some from named cultivars that I am using for hybridizing and others from seedlings. Of course, the seedlings are the most exciting. When I bloom 9-minth seedlings in the greenhouse, I always select by bloom face, form and color. In my experience, plants grown in my greenhouse never have the branching and bud count than when grown out in the garden. And, yes, some of the faces change when grown outside. That is why I always grow my greenhouse selected seedling outside for at least 2 years before deciding whether to introduce or not. They do change.

Seedling No. 8065 (Mandalay Bay Music X Larry Allen Miller) Garden name, Jo Kellum. This flower was selected in the field by Jo Kellum, garden author living on Signal Mountain, TN. We agreed to watch it for 3 years before deciding what to do. This is it's 2nd year. The bloom looks exactly like it did in the garden. Branching and bud count were much better in the garden. We shall see!

Also blooming this morning was Bob Carr's H. 'Wonder Of It All' (Carr 2006). In my humble opinion, everyone should try to grow this cultivar in their garden. This is a great garden flower. It is yellow, thus commands attention from a distance. But, in my opinion, I would consider it an ever bloomer. Right now, scapes are blooming and if you look down in the foliage, another set of scapes is beginning to grow. When one scape finishes blooming, another begins, etc., etc. Yes, I know it occasionally hangs up, but most cultivars have a fault. Most of the time when it does open correctly, it is breathtaking. If any flower deserves the Stout Silver Medal, in my opinion, I believe this one does.

 This is H. 'Juanita Manley' one of our 2011 introductions, named for our sister-in-law. The bloom is a very saturated cherry red with an ivory watermark and ruffles. One from our H. 'Jean Pickles' line of reds.


Life is very, very good.

Lee