In The Eye

I hope all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy and Great New Year. Sandy Nalls of Texarkana has been emailing me and i was already getting in the Daylily Mood she got me to day dreaming. It has been raining here since before daylight and may rain all day, thank the Lord, we need rain so bad. So i have taken the day off and first thing Sandy sent me an email wanting to know How To? Thanks Sandy. I havent written on the blog for a while, letting my brain rest cause you know im not Oprah.

I have never been a fanatic about eyes in lilies, i always liked the selfs, big pastell and poly chromes, with reds and royal purples mixed in. I saw on the robin that Verna wants lilies that bloom in the snow, like a big blood red on a snow bank, now thats exciting. Then i started going to Jack Carpenters Lily Farm. wow. The eyes have it there. Jack has been one to follow the seedlings, that is he takes what his seedlings give him and he goes after the new things that he has developed with his seedlings. Like Lavender Blue Baby and Josie Bomars Cranberry Eyed Picotee. Those 2 seedlings made the Lily Farm famous with not only those flowers but all that were bred from their genetics. What if Jack and Josie had sold those 2 seedlings to me and i never bred from those genetics, would we still know of the Lily Farm. When Jack toook them and converted them to tets, BOOM, then the world started looking at this school teacher that loved his lilies. I think the greatest flower i ever saw was a kid out of tet CEP. This plant was in Jacks green house and blooming that day. 6 inch and more ruffled than anything i had ever seed double edge of darker red and gold, but increased very, very slow. It never made it ti the market because of that. Most of the tets have the genetics of these 2 plants that are growing on the Lily Farm today.

Then Jack named one Georgia Pansy Face. Super big eye for that time actually ahead of its time. I saw a whole shade house that year of all these dips with super big eyes, i called the coffee table eyes for some reason. I didnt buy any cause i didnt like eyes. Then here comes Peppermint Delight, extra big red eye. Pat Stamile loved it enough to convert to tet and has introed a whole line from tet PD. Best thing is not only the eyes are so big but the colors are vibrant and clear. Why do people say the dip days are over when all the new patterns and eye colors are comming from the dip side of this plant we love so much.

At the Chattanoga Winter show last month in Tenn., my friend Sandy Nalls stole the show with her patterned diploids, and there were the best of tet breeders at that slide show.

So i am still here doing dips for the love and playing with the tet line for something blue. So are the dips done, no way, we have just started and if i had the sight of Jack Carpenter oh my what would next bloom season bring? Jim Elliott

Fall Planting

Seems like forever since i have posted, my back went out in September when i should have been in the garden dividing lilies. I layed on the floor for about 3 weeks. I believe going from one side to the other is the hardest thing in the world when your back is pinching those nerves and the pain is terrible. Enough of that.

A few weeks ago my wife and son Jeremy got together for a few days and started moving plants and planting seedlings. I was digging plants(clumps) i wanted to use in the greenhouse this winter and lining out the rest of the clump. I did buy some plants from Floyd Cove like Space Warp and Shamrock Dew and a few of their blue eyed things tyo go with my tets. On my dips i have some of Jack Carpenter intros and seedlings with patterned eyes to play with. And also on some of Grace Stamiles blue eyed dips i will load up with pollen from my bigger thicker substance seedlings. Man if i could get a 6 inch flower in different base petal colors with blue eyes like her Southern Blues i would get excited.

Where the seedlings from the plug trays are planted we have them planted 6 inches apart and rows one foot apart. i think there are 85 seedlings to a row. If we have an easy winter some of these will bloom next summer. About 90% are out of Texas Kalidescope pollen applied to my selected seedlings with much thicker substance.

The picture showing the alphalfa pellets is how we make all our rows and they stay put for 2 years and redone again. Lets say rows are 65 ft long and 5 ft wide so we can get 4 rows of plants in the bed. This is for one row. 50# alphalfa pellets, 25# cottonseed meal, 15# pelletized lime, 3 to 4 inches composted small pine bark and about 3 gallons of 9 month osmocote fertilizer

15-9-12. The second year i will top dress the bed again with fertilizer. When i apply the pellets i use a water hose and wet down the pellets to help break them down. Just a good wetting will break open the pellets. Till it all in and plant your plants. Water well for several days. I also use pine needles as a mulch and it helps keep out the weeds. Just add water and watch your plants grow. Fall is here and we have had 2 frosts but we will have a killing frost saturday morning. All my dormants will rest for a while till spring brings them to life. We only get one time in this life before we get to eternity so make it a point to let someone else have a Great Day. We can have our day anytime. Jim Elliott

Arkansas State Daylily Meeting

I have just gotten in from church and thought i may let yall know how things went this weekend. I am sorry i havent posted in a while, i guess i needed a break from things but here we go.

The 17th was friday nite and the club had their show and tell for those of us that hybridize and those that just want us to see what has been going on in their gardens this past summer. We had about 25 people present and we saw some beautiful pictures of new seedlings and yard fixtures that were shared with the group. We had a discussion for about 2 hours and some that were staying the nite i am sure stayed much longer.

Saturday morning we had the privelige to meet Dan Bauchman and Jamie Gossard. 2 of the finest guys i have met even if they are from Ohio. They had the floor about an hour each before we broke for lunch. Dan does UFs and some spider looking plants of all colors and gave those of us not knowing, a good education about these catagories. Dan also runs a nursery, so he is a full time gardner. Thanks for comming Dan.

Jamie on the other hand has been hybridizing for a while as he has so many different paths he is following with the lilies. Jamie has more teeth than a dentist!! At least on his plants that is. I really enjoyed his presentation and saw a couple avenues i may explore in my own yard. I am not a thin petaled liking person but these 2 guys really opened my eyes and made me see the future in a different light.

I have always been the one to love the bagel looking lilies, big flat petals and overlapping. I always loved the selfs until the past couple years i have started working with eyed plants. Now i can add the teeth to the fat petals with broken patterns in the eyes on 36 inch scapes and maybe have a future intro. In the past i have been very close minded about my hybridizing but Dan and Jamie kind of woke me up. Dan even showed some seedlings that were almost spiders and trying to double up, imagine that.

This is the reason we should go to our club meetings and visit different gardens to get some new, fresh ideas for our lilies. I hope i havent bored you with this blog and you will come back in the future. We are now lining out plants and we will talk about building beds real soon. Jim

Setting Pods in the Heat

We have had 17 days in the over 100 degrees this summer and it is mid August. It is a little off beat but it works. Dan Trimmer told me a couple summers ago how to make hard to set seed plants set pods. So i will share what i have done. As hot as it is we still have plants in rebloom here in central Arkansas.

I had a clump of Boundless Beauty that was begining to rebloom. I think 4 scapes were ready to bloom. When the blooms started to open i dug the clump with the dirt left on the roots. I cut the root ball big enough to fit a 3 gallon pot(plastic). I did put potting mix in the bottom about 2 inches deep and after putting in the root ball i added potting mix to the sides. Leave plant outside and water thoroughly.

Next morning bring plant inside and if you have some light comming in a window on the south side thats where i would put the plant. I have glass doors on the back porch so that is where i put my pots. The plants stay inside for 3 days and go outside 1 day for watering. I used frozen pollen and fresh pollen depending what i wanted to use. This went on for about 3 weeks. i set a total of 24 seed pods on this pot. After bloom is over i moved plant outside in part shade so the plant could recover as it finished off the pods. 3 inside and 1 outside. I have tried this on 4 different plants and it works. I hope you will give it a try. I did cut the blooms off short so there wasnt as much weight on the ovary. you will see in the photos the pods are shedding the old bloom.

This bloom is a 7 inch dip seedling with a height of about 40 inches. We hope you had a great bloom season. jim

Easy Garden Markers

Well the heat has ended for a day as today we got a half day of rain of 3 inches here at my house. We have had temps all week at 105 to 108. now add the humidity and its very hot.

I have seen on the Robin where people ask about what kind of Garden Markers or stakes do you use? Here is what i have come up with, with help years ago from Jack Carpenter showing me how he made his. You can find this wire i use at any welding supply store. I use aluminum welding wire that is 36 inches long and about 1/8 inch in diameter and when put in the ground it sits above the plants. I also use a 6 inch white plastic stake with a hole punched in it using a paper hole punch. I also use a pencil to write on the plastic marker, it doesnt fade and will not wash off with rain. Works for me. So here goes.

I use a half inch diameter thin walled pipe and cut a slice in it about 1/4 inch deep into the pipe. The slice must be wide enough for wire to slide into slice. With left hand hold wire and right hand twist pipe and wire will wrap around the pipe. Slide wire off pipe and next you can attach your marker. these will never corrode or rust while in the ground. You can also use stainless steel welding rods but they are more expensive. The wires i make and use are somewhat flimsey so hold the wire close to ground when inserting in the ground. Here in Conway you can buy the wire by the pound and they add up to 20 wires per pound and about $6.00 a pound.

Also this is the time of year for prolifs, here is a cluster of about 10 prolifs on a seedling scape. Thanks for looking. Jim Elliott

Yellow is Hot

This time of year i try not to pay a lot of attention to seedlings in the mornings and when we get in from work they are burnt up. The past couple days i have been pulling out of the yard and i have been seeing yellow bloom in the bed. This morning i saw the yellow seedling flower again and at first i thought it was 2 blooms side by side. Its color just stuck out like a full moon comming up over the trees. I had a small job close by so i left and when i came back in the yard there was this yellow bloom shining thru all those dry scapes. Well my curiousity got the best of me, i just had to know what named lily that was. to my amazment it was a single bloom and it is a seedling on its rebloom scape. It is a tet, yuk.

We havent watered hardly any this summer cause i wanted to see how much rebloom i would get without a lot of water. i am not getting rebloom like i did last year with all the rain but i am getting lots more than expected. The plants that want to rebloom in this 100 degree heat i can learn to appreciate even when they are tets. This seedling got lost among the other seedlings during regular bloom season but she is shining now. I do not know the cross as the tag was lost during the move from the old garden. So what do you think? Stay or go?

Drink lots of water during this hot summer we are having. Jim Elliott

Mini Crete Myrtles

Before we went to work this morning, Kathy asked did i see the Crete Myrtle out front that was in full bloom? No Maam. So i had to look and it was full so i thought i would share this picture on our blog. Kathy has them in several different colors, red, purple, pink and white. They are basicly ground huggers. We have a couple older ones that are about 10 years old and about 3 foot tall and about 5 foot across. If you will go to our website and look under other plants you will see the different colors of Crete Myrtles. You have to click on ENTER at bottom of web page. http://www.woostergarden.com/ . I thought since everyone is past peak bloom with daylilies you may like a little variety. Jim Elliott

White Diploids and Tractors

Good Morning to All, i intended to blog last nite but i was brain dead. Just a long day at work i guess. We are into rebloom in the garden here and lots of bloom and scapes comming up. We have been picking seed at a steady pace and maybe have about 1500 dip seed now. These i hope will go into the new beds in mid September. If germination is normal we should have 3000 seedlings to plant.

I am really looking forward to this batch of seed when they bloom should cause a little stir. I have been putting blue eyed pollen on my whites hoping for a 6 inch white with a sky blue eye. i think it is realistic cause i am only looking for one plant like that. Also my dip seedling d2210 i put its pollen all over the garden. d2210 has about 30 buds 5 way branching and very thick substance and on first blooms is over 7 inches. I have been putting Cosmic Kalidescope on d2210 and its sibs trying for the patterned eye and a lot better substance. Plus we have used Texas Kal. on thicker substance flowers also. Then we have the blue eyed seedlings to bloom and used some of that pollen. So when this seedling crop does bloom their will be some nice flowers to look at.

I have seen all the talk about white daylilies on the Robin and thought i would show mine. I didnt have a closeup shot but in this picture you can see the white. I do have some closeup shots but what folder did i put them in. I have a couple seedlings that the green throat comes way out on the petals and makes the flower look green.

And about tractors, anyone know anything about the small chinese tractors. I have the chance to buy one that is a 23 horse with pto tiller. Are they a good tractor or should i pass? Drink lots of water as summer is still here. Jim

Seed Pods

Great Day to All. Thank the Lord for another beautiful day, we did get up this morning. We have begun to pick seed pods so i thought i would show what mature seed pods look like. It isnt rocket science being able to tell when a pod is ready to pick. If you pick and the pod is too green then the seeds will not germinate.

The picture on our blog show that these pods are a little past ready and could have been picked the day before. As the scape quits feeding the seed pods you will notice brown at the base of the pod like it is drying up the food source, these seed pods will come off and where you picked them the scape is brown where the pod came loose. I have miseed picking pods for several days and they just get more dry, even though the pod is cracked open it usually wont spill the seeds on its own.

Also if one chamber is cracking open and the other 2 chambers are still green i will wait until the other chambers are drying up before i pick the pod. Once i see pods beginning to open i check my scapes every day as the heat will move them to crack open. I use a 3 oz solo bathroom cup to collect my pods and write the cross on the side of the cup as i pick. Please wait to open pods when in the house because if you drop a seed on the ground it is very hard to find.

Here is D-01-08 Dip seedling. It is out of Edna Shaw. Edna Shaw gives lots of substance to its kids. So if you breed dips you will be wise to use this plant in your hybridizing. Edna is short, blooms at the top of the folage but D-01-08 is about 30 inches tall. You will notice the edge on this seedling goes all the way around the petal and it reblooms twice. Right now we have about 14 plants so one day soon we will intro this seedling. Thanks for looking and drink lots of water this summer. Jim Elliott

Feathered Dip Seedling

This is an odd dip seedling that came out of Lavender Blue Baby. I have had others that had this( feathering as Jack Carpenter calls it), but not to this extent. It is 5 inch flower and a dark lavender. Some days it has extra tissue that looks like double arrowheads that are way out on the midribs. This is not extra petaloids as this material is attatched to the petals. It has a scape about 30 inches tall. I have seeds from last year and this and am looking forward to its seedlings. It has been raining here most of the afternoon and Thank You Lord for the rain. We need the rain and cooler temps. Have a great day and Pray for our country. Jim Elliott

Chatter Select

As i look at some of the old pictures i have i wonder where did time go. Did we use our time wisely as it goes by. Your last thought is nothing more than a memory now. It is in the past. I think about the night of some years back we had a chat group on the Lily Auction where we could email a website and everyone who was signed in could chat. People from all around the country was on there and a great time was had and lots of info was there also.

This picture is at Jack Carpenters(now Mark Carpenters) Lily Farm. We have Ronie Johnston (Arbie)from Denver, Co.. Myself from Arkansas, Tony Mangold from Houston, Tx.,Judy Farquar(oleo) and (Peanut)Elrin Fanguy. We all met at Center, Tx, to go see Jacks place for a couple days and get aquainted. Then we met the next year at the Symposium in Louisiana and more people showed up that were on the Chat. It sure is great to put a face on names that you have been only emailing to. Come for the flowers and we Stay for the people. We have been Blessed to meet so many nice people in this business and with Gods Grace we hope to meet a few more. Thanks for looking. Remember this picture is maybe 10 years old. Jim

Pollen Theives and Tet Seedling

I hope all had a Great 4th of July. it was a great family day here. I let the inlaws cook for lunch and my daughter cooked for our supper and a little while later that evening we watched the fireworks display. A great time was had by all especially the kids"grankids and nephews and neices" all ours are grown. Since today was a holiday for most we stayed home and cut grass and repotted some crepe myrtles. About 10 am i thought i would go out and collect some dip pollen for use next summer. Some of the lates never get used much cause when they start blooming we are just about through hybridizing for the year. When i saw all the honey bees stealing our pollen i went in and got the camera. What pollen they didnt eat they had it all over their back legs. That orange in the picture is a pollen covered leg not an anther. They would just wrap their bodies around each anther and eat. I didnt collect any pollen today but tommorrow i will get mine before i go to work.

The tet seedling is out of Darla Anita, i know the color is muddy but it has rebloomed twice and has branching so that will be a good base for the tet line. While all this was going on i had fired up the smoker for supper with some ribs and a whole chicken. Daylilies and BBQ it dont get much better. Thanks for looking. Jim Elliott

Is Fertile Really Fertile?

When is the truth going to come out about fertility? How many times have you bought a plant to use dip or tet and if you use it outside you get no seed pods. When you ask the hybridizer about this plant being fertile and you cant set a seed pod they tell you "I dont know about outside i do my hybridizing in my greenhouse." Not everyone has a greenhouse and then to tell the plant is fertile, that aint right. Why cant we have 2 boxes on the registration about fertile and we can check either greenhouse or outside. Then when plant is listed put a big asterics beside the fertile. When i am getting 2 pods maybe on a plant, those using greenhouses are getting 10 pods per scape. So it must be 10 times easier to set seed in a greenhouse.

The weather turned hot and dry this summer as the tets started to bloom. I dont think i have but one pod set outside out of probably 100 tet scapes. I am in full sun all day. On the other hand i set lots of pods with my dips. These pods were set in full sun, field grown. Pod fertility is a big plus but also so is bud count. When i am hybridizing outside i want all the flowers i can get to set seed pods on. I guess in a greenhouse it dont matter about bud count. I think we"the buyers" need to start being more selective about which plants we buy for hybridizing. We need to find out if this plant will set seed pods outside. Maybe if we start asking these kinds of questions the guys putting out these' fertile introes" will take notice. Am i the only one that is concerned about where our plant is headed? Leave a comment below. Love to hear from you. Thanks for looking and have a Great Fourth of July!!Jim Elliott

The Hulk

I believe with this plant from Pat Stamile this is what tets were suppose to be like. Big flowers, vivid colors and big strong scapes. In my yard, that is where it counts the most, The Hulk makes all other tets look like they come from kindergarden. It has 3 way branching and the terminal y so you may say 5 way branching but in my yard it is 3 way. It has a full 6 inch plus bloom that is flat and ruffled each day. The scape is the biggest in diameter in all my yard. Looks like an oak tree. I have about 8 fans of it and about that many blooms this morning, just beautiful. I am going to keep the tet seedlings i like and use The Hulk pollen on them to start my own MAN SCAPES. There is nothing feminine about this plant, actually i am trying to get a purple seedling like this. If you dont have The Hulk, get it. I hope all of you a great bloom season. Jim Elliott

Big Ole Creamy Dips

What can be better than a big bowl of vanilla ice cream on a hot day? Maybe 2 big cream dip seedlings. These 2 seedlings are of my kind that i like. Lots of sepals and fat petals. They really fill out the flower. I love when petals are wide enough to overlap and the sepals just fill in the curves and you have a nice round Bagel then. The seedling beside the cell phone is 7 inches. I thought the contrast of having a phone there could show just how big this dip flower is. Both seedlings are down from Talbotts Carribean Whipped Cream. This parent has added branching and size to my dip program. Temps are a little cooler today and the high will be 90 tommorrow with lows about 65 degrees overnite. I may have to spread some pollen tommorrow. The past week of high temps have shut down the seed pod factory. Remember to drink lots of water.

Jim Elliott

Going Green!!

So much talk about going green and saving on electric bills, going organic to help save our environment here is what we have done to remodel our kitchen. I bought Kathy a new dishwasher and will serve as my squirrel dog this winter. Dont even ask about the rinse cycle. Isnt it fun we can laugh at our selves. I hope yall have a great weekend and keep in good spirits.

If it doesnt rain today i will spray roundup again on the 2 acres i sprayed a month ago just to make sure grass and weeds are gone before tilling. I hope to add seedlings this fall in the new beds. Smile. Jim Elliott

Diploids With Eyes And Edges

The edges continue to get larger on our dip seedlings. I especially like the red eyes and edges. I cant take the credit for this as Jack Carpenter had this in his dips long before now. But we are going to try to make them bigger and in various colors. The patterns in the eyes are whatever you can dream of. I want them in blue, red and black and all tints inbetween. I have shown a few tets this week and i got some emails about where did the dips go? Well here we are again. I have some dips on our website with bigger edges but these seedlings are bigger flowers. I hope you enjoy the veiw and will continue to comment. Thanks for looking. Jim

More Tet Babies

Lee Pickles told me to keep them comming so here are a few more. For some reason no one seems to want to comment, maybe its better they dont. but we do hope you enjoy the pictures of what we do on our blog. I think Lee is trying to make me run out of pictures. I have heard he is going to visit and work out a deal with David and Mort to get some of their seedling pictures to put on his blog. Just Kidding. I hope yall can work in the shade and do drink lots of water.Jim

Tet Seedlings

Here are 3 of our tet seedlings that we have decided to keep for a longer look. Anyone that knows me knows it has to have branching and bud count for us to keep another year. I will show 3 today and more in a few days. Even though these are beautiful tet seedlings and Lee Pickles wants them, i still like my dips more. The pink seedling with teeth is a Forestlake Ragmuffin seedling. The other 2 with double edges are out of Savanah Royalty. You didnt think you would get the full cross did you?

It is Hot and Dry here in central Arkansas so that makes it tough for setting tet seed pods outside. I have tried the past few days and hopefully will get some seed set. If you enjoy what you are seeing on my blog please feel free to email at woostergrdn@winstream.net or you may leave a comment below this blog. Is there something you would like to here about, maybe i can help.

I do have a new friend down in Brazil. I think i will send him some dip seed after i collect mine to help him with patterns and branching. Thanks for looking. Jim

Where Did My Fertilizer Go?

As i was cutting grass yesterday i saw this green spot, Dark Green that is. The spot in the picture is where i had 3 gallon pots that had my 9 month release in them. Over the winter with rain and all it did leech out and the grass loves it. We are on our way to South Arkansas to our youngest daughters wedding. Reluctantly i will give her away. Pray for us on our trip and hope for a beautiful Wedding. There is a house sitter by the way. Thanks Jim Elliott

Today Was Carpenter Day

In our garden we call Tuesdays "Happy Tuesday". On HT Day we can put any pollen we want on any flower instead of using the best pollen on certain best plants. If i had any spiders we could use fat bagel pollen on a spider. Thats Happy Tuesday.

Today started out to be a best on best day and i was using my dip seedling D2210 that has the best branching and biggest scape in the whole yard. My wife was gone to carry Megan "grandaughter" to daycare. While she was gone i did it. I cheated. Please dont hate me or call me Stoopid. I couldnt help it. I got to Cosmic Kalidescope and got excited because it was the last bloom. So after 400 seed pods of D2210, i made today Carpenter Day. I laid the hammer down so not to get caught!! Then i got down to the named dips and here was Mount Herman Giant all 8 inches of orange dip, i walked back to D2210 and got an anther of pollen and Giant didnt have a pistil. So i threw down that pollen and got me some of Mt. Herman Giant pollen and spread that pollen far and wide with the intent of getting giant dips with eyes and all colors.

As i look at all my blue eyed seedlings, patterned eyed seedlings and just great dips all over the garden i realize now how much influence Jack Carpenter has had on my breeding program and my life as a Christian. How is that possible when Jack lives so far away"7hours". He has allowed me to come to his greenhouse in March and sit there for hours on end letting me pick his brain, answer the phone countless times when i had a little problem i didnt understand. I just want to say Thank You Jack Carpenter publicly for all the patients you have shown me over the past 12 years or so. May God allow me to be so patient with someone new to daylilies and want to know everything right now. If your seedlings are not showing that AHH that you are looking for just lay the hammer down and get you a Carpenter. Jim Elliott

Region 13 Meeting

Region 13 Meeting is done, Arkansas and Lousiana make up Region 13. It has been long overdue about us going to the Big Dance. Kathy and i used to go most of the meetings but with moving a garden and building a new house we had to let some things go. It was a great time for all who attended. The meeting was held in Hot Springs, Ark and i think it was the best ever. We really enjoyed it and we saw lots of beautiful gardens. There isnt enough room on our blog for even a small percentage of pictures we took. i will show a couple and prove Lee Pickles has been in Arkansas this weekend. Thanks to All who participated in this Regional. We had 130 people and had to shut off any more visitors. Next meeting will be in Baton Rouge for the National.

The garden picture is of Floyd Worleys garden in Benton, Ark.. Floyd has worked his tail off for 3 years to get to this point. The water fall in the picture wasnt complete but someday it will be beautiful. Thanks Floyd.

We had lunch saturday at a marina in Hot Springs Village, with Lee, Sheila and me just after lunch. What a beautiful place.

Heres a wacky combo of 3 Cajuns and a Razorback. Clarence Crochet, Muriel and Tom Walker and myself. My wife and i have been friends with these 3 Cajuns a long time. They welcomed us when we first met and believe it or not they still talk to me. Clarence thought we had died and were long gone from the daylilies. Nope, it just takes a long time to get organized again. Muriel did the Regional Newsletter for region 13 and won several nation awards but does other jobs now. I was telling a person on the bus going to the gardens that if Muriel still did the newsletter that she would put me on the front cover saying" Jims Back". Thank You All that came and enjoyed the 2 days of beautiful gardens, great food and great people in Region 13.