Today's image is seedling 13-001. It has a 6" bloom on 24" scapes.

Seedling 13-001

At this time of year most of my time in the garden is for basic upkeep such as removing scapes and weeding. I'm much happier being inside with the air conditioning. As the daylily bloom is winding down, I like to find a scape with the last bud blooming and bring it inside so I can enjoy it. Today's image is the bloom I brought in yesterday.

Seedling 15-085

In May when seedling 15-085 was blooming, it didn't look anything like this picture. In fact, yesterday I had no idea what seedling this was until I checked the garden tag. In May the form was round and full and the bloom color was a light pink. The green throat seemed to be the only consistency between the early and later blooms.

I've been spreading coffee grounds on top of the soil in the 7-gal pots. Earthworms help make healthy soil and I figured the coffee grounds sould give them something to eat and hopefully increase their numbers. There were three days of rain last week with clouds and cooler temperatures followed by 100 degree days.

Yesterday I was scouting the pots for weeds and noticed that there were quite a few dead, dried worms on the surface of the soil. I've watered the pots each couple of days and the soil hasn't dried out so my guess is that the worms came in when the days were cooler and then the sun heated up the pots beyond where the worms could survive. This is another good reason against growing daylilies in pots in this hot climate.

Seedling 14-055

This is seedling 14-055. It comes from the cross SUNSHINE KISSES x FASHION POLICE. It has 6" blooms on 27" scapes.

Sometimes a daylily will have what looks like a small fan that forms on the scape. These small fans are called proliferations or prolifs. With a little effort, many of these prolifs can be rooted to produce additional fans of the cultivar. The easiest to root are those that already show the beginnings of roots at the base of the prolif. There are several ways used to root these prolifs. Because I'm really a lazy gardener, my favorite method is as follows:

• Remove prolifs that show the beginnings of roots leaving about 1" of scape both above and below the base of the prolif
• Trim off some of the prolif foliage leaving 2" or 3"
• Push the bottom part of the scape into the soil along side the parent plant just deep enough that the base of the scape is buried in the soil
• Keep the soil moist until you see signs that the prolif is actively growing. After it starts growing, don't let the soil get too dry as the roots will still be shallow.

Here's a prolif that was rooted using this method.

Today's seedling is 15-009 which is one of the THOMAS TEW seedlings from last year. The dark eye holds up even when the temperatures get hot.

Seedling 15-009

The summer doldrums are making it hard to get excited about daylilies. I'm still getting a few blooms here and there but the better than average bloom this year has taken a lot out of the plants and their foliage is showing it.

Seedling 14-054

This is seedling 14-054. It comes from the cross FOOL'S ERRAND x FASHION POLICE. It is a 6" bloom on 25" scapes. So far the bud count hasn't been all that great but it is improving each year.

This is seedling 13-071. The heavy yellow gold edge really sets off the light pink blush petal color. The jury is still out on how this one will end up performing. So far it seems that it blooms fairly well one year but after sending up 3 sets of scapes the plant is quite small resulting in a mediocre bloom the next season. In its current location it gets competition from a Crape Myrtle bush so it will be moved to a better location this fall to see if that may help resolve the problem.

Seedling 13-071

A couple of my beds are just under the drip line of large oak trees. These trees located on neighbors property have grown over the years. They only provide shade for part of the day with full sun the rest so the daylilies do quite well in these beds. My problem is with the huge crop of acorns they drop in the beds every year. There's no way to remove the thousands that drop each fall and the squirrels make matters worse by burying them for food during the winter.

Every spring and early summer a huge crop of oak seedlings sprout. If I don't remove them before the tap roots grow down more than a foot or so, they have to be removed by digging them out. Over the years I've figured out that if I soak the garden thoroughly in the evening, I can pull most of them out. The key is patience. Pulling to quickly just breaks off the seedling leaving the root to grow back. With constant pull pressure near but not at the breaking point they usually give way after 10-15 seconds. I removed a couple of hundred of these oak seedlings yesterday from one of the beds.

Seedling 16-119

This new for 2016 seedling didn't bloom until May 18th which was later than most of the new seedlings. It has a decent bud count on 30" scapes (I prefer tall scapes).

Today's seedling is 12-078. It has a 6" bloom on 27" scapes. Bud count is around 20 so registration may be coming after it increases a little more.

Seedling 12-078

The garden has really slowed down now. I'm still seeing some new scapes coming up but I'm not expecting much because temps are now in the mid 90's every day. In fact it's currently 6:45 pm and the temp is still 95 with a 'feels like' temperature of 103 - typical for this time of year in Houston.

I have recently started breaking off newly emerging scapes when it looks like blooming another scape might be too much for the plant. I really hate to do this but I'm sure it helps prevent overstressing the plants. Blooming uses up a lot of a plant's energy reserves.

Seedling 16-023

This is seedling 16-023 - another from this year's crop. It has 6" blooms on 25" scapes.

I thought it might be of interest to some to see an example of how high temperatures can affect a bloom here in the south. Seedling 14-040 has put out three sets of scapes this season. The first set of scapes had 40+ buds while the third set of scapes bud count was only in the mid teens.

14-040 first bloomed on April 24th. The blooms on the first scapes were nice for color but not particularly photogenic because they tended to open in clusters (a fault IMHO). The first picture below was from one of the second set of capes taken on May 18th. The second picture was from the third set of scapes and was taken this morning. The hot and humid temperatures have made the color much less intense but have increased the gold edge dramatically.

Seedling 14-040 taken May 18thSeedling 14-040 taken June 26th

I'm told that some cultivars that have a nice edge here in the south have practically no edge when grown in cooler climates.

This is seedling 13-009. It's one that hasn't performed very well from a bud count standpoint but I keep moving it so maybe once it has been in a permanent location for a couple of years it will do better. I especially like the round form.

Seedling 13-009

Seedling 12-017 is not one of those super-flashy, heavy edged beauties that so many hybridizers dream of. It's claim to fame and the reason I continue to grow it is because it's so consistent. It has medium size foliage and the blooms are carried just a few inches above the top. Its bud count is in the low 20's and just about every bloom opens like the one in this picture.

Seedling 12-017

Hedwig's EyesCrazy Ivan

Parentage is Hedwig's Eyes X Crazy Ivan.

This is seedling 13-056. It has a 6" bloom on 24" scapes. Its bud count increased quite a bit this year so it will make the cut and remain around for another year. The only issue I have with 13-056 is that the blooms sometimes hang and don't open properly early in the season. It's not always as recurve as this picture shows. Nice green throat.

Seedling 13-056

Carefree SunsetSteve Martin

Parentage is Carefree Sunset X Steve Martin.

I have always liked cream colored daylilies. They are frequently robust growers with great bud counts and branching. They also tend to be good openers. I especially like them if they are set off by a yellow gold edge.

I mentioned a couple of days ago about the hot sun fading the daylily colors. These cream colored daylilies can be bleached almost white by the hot sun at this time of year. The yellow gold edges however don't fade and seem to stand out even more when the cream has been faded to white. When it gets this hot, cream daylilies can be the stars in the garden.

Seedling 15-102

Seedling 15-102 looked pretty decent this year. As I transplanted it last fall, I won't get an idea of how it will perform until it gets better established but early indications are promising.

This is another of the new seedlings that I am excited about. Seedling 16-007 has quite a bit of green in the ruffled edges which is something I look for. It also has 4-way branching and 18 buds which is unusual for a first year bloom due to the crowded conditions in my seedling bed. It should be a decent performer once it gets moved to the evaluation bed.

Seedling 16-007

Bloom season is definitely on the downside now. There's still a fair amount of bloom but temperatures in the mid 90's have taken their toll. The blooms are smaller and the colors are fading.

I have a number of new seedlings that will now need a place in the evaluation beds. I have started reviewing my older seedlings to decide which will be given the boot to make room for the new. Nothing will be physically moved until the fall but I like to make my decisions right after bloom season so everything is fresh in my mind. Pictures don't always show when a seedling has a serious flaw.

Seedling 16-078

This is another of this year's new seedlings. 16-078 already has shown a better than average first year bud count so I am optimistic about this one.

Rebloom scapes typically have fewer buds and less branching than the first scapes of the season. I have noticed however that this is not always the case. Every year I have some those whose rebloom scapes are much better. I haven't had the time to track this to see if it happens with different daylilies or if perhaps it's a cultivar specific trait. That might be something interesting to look into.

Seedling 05-013

I have grown seedling 05-013 for 11 years. The bud count hasn't been high enough to register but I really like the bloom. The past couple of years it has done better getting close to the 20 bud minimum I set for registration so there's hope for it yet. It has 7" blooms on scapes that average around 30".

Seedling 14-074 is a problem for me. So far the bud count has been quite unimpressive. I like to get at least 20 before I register a seedling and this one probably won't make it. 14-074 is fairly unique (to me anyway) and I have a real problem discarding uniqueness. So for now I'll continue growing it and seeing if I can persuade it to do better. Who knows... I have seen seedlings suddenly come to life after being undisturbed for 3 or 4 years although that is rare for sure.

Seedling 14-074

Parentage

Shipwreck CoveSeedling 10-046

This is an example of a cross with unexpected but positive results (IMHO).

I started removing spent scapes yesterday. I didn't even get the second bed done before the rain moved in. More rain this morning is keeping me inside at least for the time being. No complaints as the daylilies are LOVING the rain and the temperatures remain lower than usual.

I found lots of rebloom scapes. Some were blooming and others were just coming up. A bit of a surprise was the number of daylilies where a third set of scapes were beginning to show. Of course, the third set has fewer scapes. Lots of rain always increases reboom.

Seedling 11-052

This is seedling 11-052. It's blooms are somewhat inconsistent but not in a negative way. There are some daylilies that have blooms that are so consistent that they all look pretty much the same. When looking at a half dozen open 11-052 blooms, no two look exactly alike. Form varies from oval to round to triangular. Even the ruffled yellow edges are not consistent from bloom to bloom. While I prefer consistency in blooms, a pretty bloom is still a pretty bloom.

It's hard to believe but we still have not yet reached 90 degrees this year. We haven't gone into June without hitting 90 since back in 1970. Our average first 90 degree day is April 30th so this has indeed been an unusual year.

The lower temperatures have extended the bloom season which is a good thing but not all the effects have been positive. The lower temperatures have caused a late season resurgence of rust. Typically once we reach the 90's rust isn't a problem until it starts to turn cool again in the fall. I'm probably going to have to spray but I'm not sure when as rain is forecast for at least the next 4 days.

Seedling 11-078

Seedling 11-078 started blooming a little over a week ago. A lot of my seedlings are early to mid season bloomers so a mid to late season bloomer is a nice addition to the garden. If I can 'sweet talk' this seedling into putting a couple more buds on the scapes, I'll probably register it. This picture was taken about a week ago.