Bloom season started a couple of weeks early this year and has continued to progress a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. Usually peak bloom is around the middle of May but this year I believe I am pretty close to peak now.

Tonight I deadheaded my garden so it would look good for my yard sale tomorrow. Removing all today's blooms means there will be nothing to detract from the new blooms. I removed four 5-gal buckets of spent blooms. That's typically how many I remove during peak bloom, ergo it must be peak or pretty close to it.

Seedling 13-054

Seedling 13-054 is another pretty face that has not gotten the bud count I had hoped for. This year I'll watch to see how many times it repeats. Three or more sets of scapes can make up for a lower bud count because the overall season's bloom is still good.

After careful observation I have come to the conclusion that my pot culture is not the best way to go here in my Houston garden. I originally moved many of my cultivars to 7-gal pots because I was contemplating moving out of the city and having everything in pots would have made the move easier. I have now pretty much decided to stay put so the decision needed to be made whether to continue to grow in the pots or put the daylilies back in the ground.

I still have a lot of seedlings growing in the ground and made an interesting observation. The ones in the ground have responded tremendously to the wet weather this spring. Daylilies love ample rain and those in the beds have done exceptionally. Those in the pots have done ok, but nothing like those in the ground. My theory is that the pot soil probably drains a little too well. Also, once the daylilies in the pots clump up they quickly suck up the remaining available moisture in the pots very quickly.

I figure it may take me two or three years to redesign all my beds and get the plants back in the ground.

Seedling 14-026

You have probably noticed that I've been posting mostly eyed daylilies. I really like eyes as they make a daylily stand out in the garden. I do have some seedlings that don't have eyes and seedling 14-026 is one of them. The 6" blooms have tremendous substance.

It has been a busy week. Most of the last five days have been spent getting ready for my annual daylily yard sale. The ample rain this spring has made for some larger than usual plants many with scapes. It's always an exciting time getting to meet other daylily enthusiasts. This year there will be lots blooming for the garden visitors to enjoy.

Seedling 16-021

During the past few years I have worked more with bright colors in my seedlings. I have always liked yellows, creams, and the pastel pinks but those colors don't stand out when looking at the overall garden. Seedling 16-021 stands out even from across the yard. Also, it opens flat most of the time which makes the bloom seem even larger than it is.

I posted a while back about being concerned about scapes blasting. I have found quite a few blasted scapes over the past week or so but none as dramatic as the one I found yesterday. I was grooming plants for my upcoming daylily yard sale and taking them to the front yard. I found the top 8" of a nice fat scape laying in the driveway about five feet from the nearest bed. It wasn't there about 10 minutes earlier so it must have just blasted. One common thread regarding scape blasting is it frequently happens shortly after the morning sun starts shining on the bed.

Seedling 07-013

Seedling 07-013 doesn't always have such dramatic color breaks in the eye as the picture above. Yesterday was one of those days that reminds me why I keep this seedling despite it never reaching the magic number of 20 buds for registration.

As more and more daylilies are blooming It's taking longer every morning to make my rounds taking pictures and recording the seedling stats. Oh, what a WONDERFUL problem to have (smile).

Seedling 13-015

Today's picture is seedling 13-015. The additional sun from the trees being removed and the abundant rain have resulted in an increase in the bloom size from 5.5" to 6.0". Many of the seedlings in the front beds are larger this year.

A couple of days days after a heavy rain the daylilies seem to be at their best, especially if those days have been sunny and warm. Today it has been a couple of warm days since the last one inch rain and the daylilies were putting on a nice show.

I'm still learning the finer points of my camera even though this is the third year of using it so I'm still missing some of the best shots. What I really need is a white umbrella to diffuse the sunlight when it is especially bright like today.

Seedling 14-062

Today's picture from the garden is Seedling 14-062. Even though it was in full sun, the picture came out fairly nicely. This seedling has been a pleasant surprise. I originally marked it because of the edge and eye color even though the bud count was only 8. This year it has gotten nicely settled in and the bud count is now in the low to mid 20's on well branched scapes.

The rains came again this morning, interrupting my picture taking. No complaints however as the daylilies are enjoying their regular doses of nature's fertilizer.

One downside with all this rain is that it has kept me from keeping up with the weeds. I have one bed where the weeds are starting to become excessive but I have a busy schedule coming up and the weeds may have to wait for a few days.

Seedling 14-003

Mississippi MementoWild Cherry Roundup

Seedling 14-003 comes from a cross between Mississippi Memento X Wild Cherry Roundup. It has an interesting salmon color (interesting to me at least). It has turned out to be a decent performer with 4-way branching and about 20 buds. What I like most about it is that it opens consistently with all the blooms having pretty much the same symetrical form.

After a massive rain event like we had Monday, it sometimes takes the daylilies a couple of days to start looking good again. So there wasn't much to photograph in the garden yesterday, but things were looking up this morning. Tomorrow may be even better if it's not raining again.

Seeding 15-019

Today's picture is seedling 15-019 which first bloomed last year. It had some trouble opening but I selected it anyway because of its color. This year it seems to be opening much better. The bright colors makes it stand out in the garden especially when the sun is shining on it.

It started raining hard about 4:00 am this morning. By 9:00 am the rain guage had 6" in it and it's still raining. If it ever lets up I'll go out and see what new blooms I missed (smile).

Seedling 16-001

Today's image of seedling 16-001 was taken a few days ago. This first year bloom is well proportioned with a 6" bloom on a 27" scape.

The weather forecast is calling for some heavy rain and storms for the next 3 days. Rainwater is much better for the daylilies than city water so I guess I can't complain to much even if it will probably mean no pictures for a few days. Hopefully, an abundance of rain won't cause too many scapes to blast. I noticed today that there were a few partially blasted scapes from the rain the other night.

Scape blasting typically happens when a scape is in its rapid growth phase and there is a heavy rain following a dry period. This is especially true in a nutrient rich soil or when fertilizer has been recently applied. I'm told that the nutrients and heavy water uptake combine to cause the internal part of the scape to grow faster than the external part. Scape blasting can be a partial break in the scape which can allow the blooms to mature and open or it can completely sever the upper part of the scape.

Many years ago I was working in the garden one morning after an overnight rain. I heard a noise, somewhere between a pop and a snap, and a piece of a daylily scape landed on the ground near where I was working. Yes, the entire top section of the scape had been blasted into the air, landing several feet away.

Seedling 16-015

Seedling 16-015 first bloomed yesterday but today's bloom was much nicer. This is an example of what they call the 'bagel form', something that I really like.

Today was a good day in the garden. I marked six new seedlings. So what does it mean to mark a seedling? The short answer is I mark a seedling so I can find it later when it isn't blooming. I also take a picture and write down a few statistics for those I mark to help me remember how they performed.

The primary reason I mark a seedling is because the bloom is good enough that I may want to evaluate it further. I also mark seedlings that show outstanding performance because sometimes a daylily with a pretty but not especially unique bloom may be worthy of registration because of the way it performs. I also mark seedlings that perform well and look like they may make a nice garden plant. I usually give these to friends who just want some color in their garden.

I always mark way more seedlings than I have room for in my evaluation beds but I give away those I don't plant.

Seedling 16-012

Today's seedling is another from this year's first blooms. Sorry but no parentage as I don't gather the parentage data for the marked seedlings until the fall. It has a nice round bloom but the scape is only about 20". It may make a nice border plant because so far the blooms have opened facing upwards.

Most growers of daylilies are more than satisfied just to enjoy the beauty of the blooms. There are so many possible sizes, forms, and colors as well as fancy edges. I know many who head for the garden first thing every morning to see what new blooms the garden has to offer. Most daylily fanatics start their addiction by just growing daylilies.

Others have found that daylilies have more to offer if one is willing to invest the time and effort to hybridize. Hybridizing brings the excitement of not only seeing fresh blooms every morning, but the blooms from your own crosses are something that you are the very first person on this earth to see.

Yes, it's true that not all new seedlings have beautiful blooms but because they are something that you played a part in creating, even the common looking blooms can be enjoyable to look at. And when that truely special one comes along, there are no words to describe the excitement.

Seedling 16-002

Seedling 16-002 actually first bloomed last year but I didn't mark it for evaluation. Sometimes a seedling will be quite ordinary or even not open properly the first year. This seedling was one of those. While it's still not exactly a knockout, it's opening better this year and has looked good enough to be marked.

While on the topic of mulch, I ran into a situation many years ago that I'd like to share. I had been heavily mulching all my daylilies each year. One year, a number of daylilies that had previously bloomed nicely didn't bloom at all. A daylily suddenly not blooming is not a common occurance but having several in the same bed not blooming was quite unusual. Even more strange, the plants themselves looked nice and healthy. That fall, I dug up one of the non-bloomers. The reason for not blooming was apparent.

The original crown on each fan was now 3" or more below ground level (they were originally planted about 1" deep). The annual heavy application of mulch had been breaking down and building up the topsoil. Over time, this had added 2" or more to the surface soil and the daylilies were now planted too deep. The fans had stopped blooming were instead producing a new crown about 2" above the old one. Each of the cultivars that didn't bloom had new crowns being formed.

Of course, that never stopped me from mulching because it's good for the daylilies. I did however start planting my new arrivals on slightly raised mounds so it takes longer before I have to divide my daylilies because of the soil buildup. I also switched to a hardwood mulch because it doesn't break down as quickly as the composted stable sweepings I used to use.

Passerby seedling

My friends laugh at me when I call a daylily a 'passerby'. So what is a 'passerby'? It's a pretty bloom in the new seedling bed that upon closer examination turns out to have an extremely low bud count. So I pass 'er bye and move on to the next bloom. This image is my first 'passerby' this year with a bud count of 3 (smile).

Last month I posted that I couldn't decide if I was going to mulch this year or not. Now the jury is in... no mulch. This coming fall the main bed will have to be moved to get it out from under the rain shade of the neighbor's oak tree which has gotten quite large. I can't see putting a lot of effort into improving a bed that will be moved in a few months. I can live with the extra weeds for now.

Seedling 15-002

Today's image was taken this morning. Seedling 15-002 first bloomed last year and was moved to the front yard last fall. While the fans are of average size, the seedling is a good grower putting out four well branched scapes this year.

The roller coaster ride continues this morning. After yesterday's disappointment, I saw this FBO bloom from the kitchen window and even from a distance I knew I would be marking it as a keeper.

Seedling 16-004

The scape is shorter than I like (20") but otherwise it seems to have possibilities. I especially like the boldness of the applique eye pattern.

The opening of the first flowers on brand new seedlings comes with a real roller coaster of emotions. On one hand there are the sudden surprises when an ordinary looking bud opens into a beautiful bloom. On the other hand is the anticipation that's felt when a really fat bloom, seen the night before, turns out to be a big disappointment. Such was the case today.

Last night there was a big fat bud that I knew would open today. This morning I rushed out to see what the bloom looked like. The 6.5" bloom had wide petals which opened flat but the color was, as best as I can describe, like unbleached muslin... wrinkled unbleached muslin that is. Sorry, no picture available (smile). The good news is there'll be a more new seedling blooms tomorrow.

Seedling 14-0080

This was seedling 14-008's 2016 FFO from this morning. I like the dark purple edge color and the starburst effect caused by the midribs. It has improved over last year but the bud count still leaves a lot to be desired.

Sometimes a new seedling seems kind of ordinary when it first blooms. Seedling 12-010 (below) was one of those seedlings. I didn't mark it at first because I was looking for distinctive flowers and this one is not all that distinctive. After about the third bloom however, I noticed that it always seemed to open nicely and typically had a very symetrical bloom (something I admire in a daylily). So I marked to for further evaluation.

In successive seasons, I went through the same thought process. The first couple of blooms would cause me to ask myself why I hadn't replaced it with a new seedling. By the end of the bloom season however, I had watched bloom after bloom open with that same good form and was pleased with my decision to keep it.

Seedling 12-010

Each year it seems to perform a little better. This year the scapes have 5-way branching. The first picture is the FFO for 2016.

The front yard seedling beds have scapes everywhere. A few have already started blooming but overnight temperatures have been in the upper 40's and low 50's so for the most part, the blooms have opened poorly.

Seedling 13-024

Seedling 13-024 is one that has opened better than the others. This seedling's claim to fame is the unusually tall scapes. This year they are about 45" tall, down about 5" from last year. Unfortunately, the bud count is low.

This is Luck Be A Lady (Smith-FR, 2009) and the first picture from my 2016 bloom season. It's registered as EM but has always been E if not EE in my garden. Early season blooms are usually a bit disappointing IMHO because of the relatively cool temperatures. Once the overnight temperatures are consistently in the mid-60's or higher and the daytime temperatures are in the mid to upper 80, daylilies seem to be at their best.

This is actually the 3rd bloom I've had on this scape but I missed the first one and the second was rather beat up by a heavy rain about dawn. It rained again about 5:00 am this morning but it was a much lighter shower and the bloom seems to have survived fairly well.