The Happy Daylily Blog - daylily pictures and thoughts from my garden

June 29th, 2017

This is seedling 15-061. It looks very much like 15-090 posted earlier in the month. While the blooms look similar in the photos, 15-061 is actually about a half inch smaller (5.5"). It comes from the cross (Bella Vita X Frank's Hot Tamale).


Seedling 15-061


June 27th, 2017

Recently there's been a couple of days of 1-inch rainfall. The rain and the accompanying lower temperatures have lead to some improvement in the daylily blooms. Quite nice for this time of year.


Seedling 14-019


Edwardian CharmHappy Halloween

Today's image is seedling 14-019. It has 6" blooms on 24" scapes. This came from the cross (Edwardian Charm X Happy Halloween). I was really hoping to get more of a double edge from Edwardian Charm on the resulting seedlings.


June 21st, 2017

Seedling 15-102 comes from a cross between Honky Tonk Floozy and Fool's Errand. It has 5.5" blooms on 24" scapes. I don't yet have a feel for bud count potential because I've moved it each fall and it hasn't had a chance to settle in.


Seedling 15-102


June 19th, 2017

Today's image is seedling 13-089. It has 5.5" blooms on 28" scapes. It came as a bit of a surprise when this near white first bloomed as both parents were yellow so I decided to do a little research to see if I could find out where the white came into the lineage.


Seedling 13-089


Seedling 08-035Lacy Dusk

Seedling 08-035 came from a cross between Larry Grace (yellow) and Spacecoast Gold Bonanza (gold). One of Larry Grace's parents was Ben Adams which is listed as a cream self. On the other side, one of the parents of Lacy Dusk was Winter Springs which is listed as an ivory white blend. Having an off-white in both sides of the lineage contributed to the resulting ivory white seedling 13-089.


June 16th, 2017

Summer in Houston means there's not much going on in the garden but I still plan to post some pictures.


Seedling 14-045

This is seedling 14-045. The blooms approach 6" on 26" scapes. I like the small vivid green throat. This comes from the cross (Running Hot X Priscilla's Smile).


June 14th, 2017

Almost no rain for about a week now and everything is getting quite dry. Tonight I finally got a chance to water a little so hopefully that will perk up some of the ongoing rebloom.


Seedling 14-071

If you've been following my posts you know I have a soft spot for yellow daylilies. This is probably my favorite from this season. It has up to 35 buds on 6-way branching. Blooms are 7" on 30" scapes. The cross is (Daydream Spirit X Priscilla's Rainbow).

Last year it was growing in the back of a bed where it received shade from the neighbor's huge oak until about the middle of the afternoon. It still bloomed very well however the scapes were not very upright. This year after moving it to full sun, it bloomed upright. My guess is that last year the scapes were leaning, trying to reach the sun and the heavy bud count added additional weight causing them to lean even more.


June 6th, 2017

I'm currently seeing quite a bit of rebloom and some of the scapes have pretty good bud counts. I like to give the beds plenty of water during bloom time and this year mother nature has helped with decent and timely rain. Water is one of the keys to having a good rebloom.

During early bloom, lots of buds usually means an extended bloom time because typically only one or two buds will open at a time. Now that it's getting hot the situation changes and it's not uncommon to see three, four, or even more buds open on the same day. On one scape, I even saw four open one day followed by three more the next. These bloom clusters are nice but it shortens the overall length of time the cultivar is in bloom.


Seedling 15-090

Seedling 15-090 comes from the cross (Dragon Knife X Bella Vita). It has 6" blooms on 27" scapes.


June 4th, 2017

The garden still has some blooms but nothing like a month ago. Because bloom started so early this year it's winding down early also. But it's totally different in the more northern parts of the country. Growers there are just beginning their bloom season. I belong to the AHS email robin and always enjoy reading what others write about the approaching season. Then, almost suddenly, posts become few and far between. Everyone is busy enjoying their gardens. Once their season starts slowing down the posts will pick up again as everyone shares the beauty and successes in their individual gardens.


Seedling 13-015

Seedling 13-015 has been a favorite since it first bloomed. It's not always open flat (like this picture). Sometimes it's more recurve. When it's flat it shows off its double edge while resurve blooms tend to emphasize the eye, even giving it the appearance to cover most of the bloom. It has 6" blooms on 27" scapes and comes from the cross (Hedwig's Eyes X New Paradigm).


June 2nd 2017

I was browsing through some pictures trying to decide which one I was going to post and I found another etched eye seedling. Originally I hadn't thought of this as having an etched eye but the picture shows a distinct red border separating the pink eye from the cream petals. I looked back at the pictures taken during the past three years and yes, it has an etched eye pattern. I'm not sure why I had missed that but it shows the importance of having a pictorial history.


Seedling 15-089

Seedling 15-089 never has true symmetry in the bloom, something that I like, but the bright colors have earned it a place in the evaluation bed. It has 7" blooms on 24" scapes. It comes from the cross (Carol Todd X Jessica Lynn Bell). The lack of symmetry probably comes from the Carol Todd side of the cross as that cultivar also lacked symmetry in my garden.


May 31st, 2017

This etched eye seedling first bloomed in 2011. It was a cross between 07-013 (below) and Bit Of Blue. It has 5" blooms on 27" scapes with bud count in the upper teens. Unlike 07-013, the colors of this seedling are more consistent especially the blue in the eye. The blue is most vivid early in the day.


Seedling 11-003


May 30th, 2017

This is another of the etched eye seedlings that I grown for a number of years having first bloomed in 2007. It has 6" blooms on 31" scapes. Bud count is in the mid teens.


Seedling 07-013

One interesting characteristic of this seedling is that it can appear quite different from day to day. The petal color can vary from a creamy ivory (like the picture) to a pale buff yellow. The eye also can vary. Sometimes the eye can be mostly silvery blue inside the etching while at other times the blue hardly shows at all. Typically, some blue shows as in the picture.


May 28th, 2017

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had dabbled in patterned eyes with only a little success. None of the results were particularly exciting but I thought I'd post a few anyway to show other examples of etched eye patterns.


Seedling 04-003

Seedling 04-003 first bloomed in 2004 and was probably the first etched eye seedling that I liked. It has a 5.5" bloom on 27" scapes. Bud count on this is only in the mid teens. I still grow it because I like it and perhaps for nostalgia reasons. This picture was taken this spring.


May 27th, 2017

I have now completed selecting my new keepers for further evaluation (see previous posts). The process this year was easier than usual because I'm in the process of cutting back my garden. I was more rutheless than usual in selecting seedlings to remove so I ended up with space for all the new keepers without any hard decisions.


Seedling 12-070

Seedling 12-070 is another that did very well this year. It has a nice flat form that opens very consistently even with the heavy ruffled edge. It has 6" blooms on 24" scapes. It comes from the cross (Winter Wayfarer X Priscilla's Smile).


May 23rd, 2017

A couple of weeks ago I visited 'Paynes In The Grass Daylily Farm'. They are located just south of Houston in Pearland, Texas. It's always fun to travel to see daylilies other than those in ones own garden but this trip brought a pleasant surprise.

I arrived with camera in hand and after some pleasant conversation with Leon Payne, I headed for the beds to take some pictures. One of my objectives was to take a bunch of photos so I could put together a program for presentation to the Houston Hemerocallis Society.

In the past I've experimented using patterened eyes in a few crosses with only a little success. I have always liked this type of eye but was unprepared for what I found in the Paynes garden. Many of the patterned eyes in their garden were fantastic. After a short while I found myself wishing I had done more hybridizing in this area.


Payne patterned eye seedling

This picture is probably my favorite of the images I took that day. I estimate the bloom was only about 4" which is average size for these types of eyes. I believe work is being done to bring these types of patterns to the world of large blooms.


May 22nd, 2017

The next step in preparing my spreadsheet is to make a list of which new marked seedlings I want to evaluate further. It would be nice if I had enough room for all the new ones I marked but on my small city lot that usually doesn't happen. Every new seedling that is not moved to the evaluation bed will be discarded to allow the bed to be replanted in the fall. So keeping this in mind, I review pictures and bud count and branching statistics and make a list of those I believe have potential. I then count up how many there are on this list.

Now comes the hard part (for me at least). The number of seedlings I'm removing from evaluation seems to always smaller than the number I have to replace them with. Somehow I have to get to the point where the number of removes and the adds are the same. So I go back through the process to see if I can increase the number of removals to match the new adds. If I still don't have anough spaces available, I then have to go back and review the new adds to see if there's any I'm willing to drop from the new add list. This can be a back and forth effort but the removals have to equal the new adds as I don't have space for any new beds.

Once the final decisions have been made I make sure they are documented in the spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is the beginning of my fall garden changes plan.


Seedling 16-023

Seedling 16-023 is one from last year's crop that I moved to the evaluation bed last fall. It has a 6" bloom on 25" scapes. It comes from the cross (Cimarron Rose X Rose Sensation).


May 21st, 2017

The next step is to take a closer look to see if there are other seedlings that I can remove to make room for the new ones. Basically if I believe that it won't ever be worth registering, it's a candidate to be eliminated from the evaluation bed. There are some exceptions however. For example, I continue to grow a number of seedlings that have a bud count only in the mid to upper teens and are good growers. I keep growing these simply because I like them.

Once I have decided which seedlings will be removed to make room for new ones, I mark them in the spreadsheet to either 'give away' or 'discard'. Then I count up the total spaces available for new seedlings. More to come.


Seedling 05-013

Seedling 05-013 first bloomed 12 years ago. I have kept it all these years just because I like it. It has a 7" bloom on up to 34" scapes. Recently, having better growing conditions bud counts have approached my personal minimum of 20 so it might yet be registered.


May 20th, 2017

Once the new spreadsheets have been set up with the current garden configuration, the first step is to identify any seedlings that I have already decided to remove from the garden based on the current season's performance. In the action column I list what I plan to do with the plants. This is usually either 'give away' (if I think someone would enjoy having them) or 'discard'.

In my garden I can grow only a specified number of seedlings. I don't have any room for more. The objective of this exercise is to determine what must be removed to make room for the new seedlings that I want to evaluate. In other words, for every seedling I want to add I have to eliminate a seedling. More to come.


Seedling 15-048

Seedling 15-048 is another that performed very well this year. It is a consistent opener with almost every bloom looking good. It opened multiple blooms per scape a number of times during the bloom cycle. It has 5.5" blooms on 27" scapes. There is a fair amount of green in the yellow edging. It comes from the same cross as seedling 15-077 posted on May 12th, 2017 below.


May 19th, 2017

Evaluating which seedlings will be eliminated from the evaluation beds is part of a larger process of planning changes for the fall garden. I keep my fall garden changes plan in Excel as I find the spreadsheet format the easiest to manage. I start preparing the plan as I get near the end of bloom season as each seedling's performance is fresh in my mind.

Each bed has its own worksheet. The worksheets contains columns for cultivar name or seedling number, location within the bed, and blank columns for 'action' and 'replacement'.

The first step is to set up spreadsheets to show how the garden is currently configured. This means making a copy of last years plan and updating it with any changes. More to come.


Seedling 16-092

The word that best describes seedling 16-092 is GAUDY. It doesn't have beauty of symmetry but it does stand out in the garden. It comes from the cross Honky Tonk Floozy X Jessica Lynn Bell.


May 17th, 2017

Bloom season is on the downswing now. There are still quite a few blooms but the past winter's transplanting means that rebloom will be low this year. It's now time to start evaluating the season's results in light of what goes and what stays for another year. More on this to come.


Seedling 16-004

This is seedling 16-004. It has an appliqued throat patten which gives it a painted on look. It has 5" blooms on 20" scapes which will make it a good border plant or for the front of the bed.


May 12th, 2017

Tomorrow the Houston Hemerocallis Society and Houston Area Daylily Society will hold their joint daylily show and sale. Normally, I wait all year for this event but because I transplanted almost everything this past winter, I won't be entering anything in the show. My bud counts were extremely low and the few that performed well enough have already bloomed out due to the early start to bloom season. I'll still be there to support the clubs however. Admission is free to all.

For location and times click the flower shows button on the Houston Hemerocallis Society website.


Seedling 15-077


Springtime RomanceDiamond Silk

Seedling 15-077 is one of the better performers this spring. It has 6" blooms on 22" scapes. Parentage is (Springtime Romance X Diamond Silk).


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