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
