Bigger Eyes on Diploids

Good day to all, i hope this Memorial Day finds you at peace with oneself. In other words i hope you have a no trouble kinda day. Yall know my first love is dips and more people than i can count feel the same way. We love the big ruffled selfs(solid color) and people ask "whats new and whats comming in the dips? Are the dips done?" No way. My last post i showed you a 6 inch Red dip we will be breeding with trying to get a good line of reds with great branching and good color. Lots of branching and bud count.

Now i am looking into breeding bigger eyes on big flowers. Dont you hate to get a 6 inch flower with an eye that is 1/4th inch in depth. Thats just terrible for an eye. Everyone has them. I want eyes that from the throat to the outside edge of the eye is 2 inches wide. Now those are Betty Davis eyes. So we are going to breed dips in the 8 inch range that have eye patterns and solid eyes that will come close to filling up the petal with color. I have seen Pat Stamiles big eyes on tets but why arent there any on dips?

In the picture is a big 7 1/2 inch dip seedling numbered d1810. The cross is Connie Cant Have It X Cosmic Kalidescope. This flower should breed red eyes, kalidescope pattern eyes and black eyes that i love. We are going to use this seedlings pollen to breed every large eyed dip in the garden and see where the seedlings take us. Just something different than what is there now.

Jim Elliott

Holly Moelly

I have been wishing for a red dip to buy so i could get some pollen. Went out today and there she was, a 6 inch red ruffled dip seedling blooming her first time in all her glory. 22 Buds and 3 way branching. When you cant buy one breed your own. Oh yes i am tickled. This seedling is out of Russell Southall by Dr Elliott. I have posted on our blog and emails i have said that Russel Southall was a good parent. What do you think. Have a Great 3 day weekend and slow down and enjoy life. Jim Elliott

Patterned Eyed Seedling

Good evening to All and i hope you are getting ready for a family weekend. Be Careful and watch those kids so they dont get too much sun. I went out into the seedlings this morning and had about 40 blooms open, but i saw this bloom across a couple rows i knew it was special. It is a tet but it is very unique. I was aiming for a white to cream colored base flower with a double edge. The cross was Boundless Beauty X Mardi Gras Ball. There is no patterned eye in either parent. But sometimes by Gods Grace we get an even bigger and better gift than we ever expected. You cant out give the giver. I gave it a garden name of Splash. My friend that is an art teacher calls this eye pattern Scrunch when painting. Where you kinda dry brush the paint and comes and goes. Yes i got a little excited and put this pollen on about 5 flowers that were blooming in my hybridizing area. I also had a big dip with a broken eye pattern bloomed today but i will save that picture for another day. Today was Splash day. Splash is about 6 inches and has 12 buds but it is a tet. Jim Elliott

Purdy Good Stuff

Its unreal how much longer my right arm is than my left. Could it be from patting myself on the back so much? Just kidding. But we did get some much needed rain yesterday afternoon and through the nite. This morning when i looked out i saw this 6 inch red seedling looking back at me. Funny how the good looking seedlings seem to look toward the house for our attention. With the rain in my rain gauge we got 4 and 3/4 inches since yesterday afternoon till this morning. These 2 seedlings looked really good to me, so i thought i would share. I think the red seedling has 24 buds.

Counting buds on a scape. I have been counting buds for a long time. Usually there will be 4 buds at the end of a lateral branch. Now if that lateral is split at the end then you will have 8 buds. If the lateral is split you will have 2 ends of 4 buds so that makes 8 buds. If you have 2 laterals (branches) then you should have 16 buds if both laterals are split. Same goes for top branching (terminal Y) at the end of each stem there should be 4 buds, so on a terminal Y there are 2 ending stems equals 8 buds right? What about terminal W. There are 3 ends, so 3 X 4 equal 12 on top. Every once in a great while and end will have 3 buds and the other side will have one bud. When your scapes are getting close to blooming go out and count the buds.

Thats my thought for the day, even though you may have never heard about counting buds before. My goal on our blog is to have good information about daylilies and showing a few nice blooms along the way.

Both seedlings are diploids. The red is 6 inch and the purple is about 5 1/2 inch. If you will notice the purple is a bi-tone meaning sepals are a lighter color than the petals. A reverse bi-tone is when sepals are darker than petals. Thank God that the World didnt end this morning at 6am like the false prophet said it would. If you have given your heart to Jesus Christ then you have nothing to worry about, because when that day comes Jesus will welcome you to Heaven with open arms like he did Stephen. Pray for those that cant help themselves. Jim Elliott

Good Pollen, Bad Pollen

This past week here in central Arkansas this past week we have had much cooler than normal temps.. In the mornings we have been in the lower 40s. But now the temps have warmed to above 60 this morning. Daylily flowers dont fully open good until morning temps are above 60 degrees 3 mornings in a row, 2 petals will be normal and the third will be curled up on the edges like a bad hair day. Best part is, is that the pollen can still be good and that messed up bloom will set a seed pod if pollenated usually.

Our friends Pat and Patrica Larsen came over the other afternoon and Pat couldnt believe i already had set seed pods on some plants. We are talking about the Fla. plants i bought back in late February. These plants are still on Fla. bloom time even though they are in Arkansas. Thats why they are blooming here now. After being in the ground over the winter they will set their bloom for Arkansas time and roots will be established and have better plant habit meaning more buds and better scapes.

Now to the pollen. I have always told people that Chunky Pollen was not good or Viable as some say. I think it is my fault that the pollen on Stamiles intro Screen Pattern is chunky. I may have gotten the partially open bloom wet last evening as i was watering in a hurry before church. If you will click on the picture(the one lowest) it will enlarge it and on the lower left petal you can see Strips of pollen that has fallen off the anther. Looks like a yellow line.

Now the upper picture is Stamiles intro Bit of Blue. Look at the pollen on the anthers it is nice and fluffy and good color so it is good pollen to use. Chunky pollen is no good and moisture is usually the guilty party.

We have a few seedlings beginning to open but the cold nights have made some ugly petals. Scapes are everywhere and if the weather keeps warming we should have lots of bloom by the end of next week. Looks like peak will be a week early this year. I hope the temps stay down so we can set lots of seed pods. Have a Blessed Day and Pray for others. Jim Elliott

Those Mysterious Eyes

Well it was bound to happen. The first flower to open and it was Stamiles plant Mysterious Eyes. I had the first bloom last week and i did set pollen on it. Ao today i had 2 blooms open from Mysterious Eyes and i did dab a little bit of pollen from Texas Blue Eyes on them. You can see in one picture there is a seed pod set. So now the bloom season is set in motion and the hybridizing will begin. Remember in past blogs about how to save and freeze pollen, well the pollen i used and set the seed pod with was frozen pollen taken last year.

I dont self blooms. That means i dont use the pollen from a flower to pollenate itself. Like a bug would do if it were to crawl around on the pollen and then crawl out to the end of the pistil. People use to think that when you would self pollenate that the seedlings would be going back to the flowers in its past. I may try some this year just to see if that theory holds up or not. We finished an outside job yesterday and went and visited with a gardening friend of our Sheila Nash. She has a lot of shade so she can have a big variety of plants. Yes she has a beautiful yard and home. Thanks Sheila. Maybe we will finish out the day planting the last of our daylily seed crop from last summer. Jim Elliott

Fire Ants

First i must tell you i am not an expert about Fire Ants but i have been told by others what they do and it works in my yard. The mounds get bigger as the days go by and can get bigger than a foot tall. I have seen some on a Regional Tour and the home owners never knew what they were. A week ago there was no sign of any ant work in my yard. I have been told after a rain the Fire Ants get active. Late last week when the yard started to dry i started to see all these mounds start up. The way they make their tunnels you can spray with gas and light them up and after the fire goes out they just move over a little. You must kill them with a BAIT so that All the ants and the Queen will die.

I have seen yard granules that says they kill the Fire Ants, maybe so but the Queen stays in the mound and dont come out, so how do you kill her. She has to eat. Bait her. The product i use i get at a commercial nursery and cost about $22.00 for a one pound canister that has a shaker top. I will sprinkle about a teaspoons worth on and around the mound and in about 24 hours there is no activity at the mound and no holes present, looks like a cave in sort of. So dont play with these Fire Ants get rid of them and if you have them most likely your neighbor does too, feed his also. They will bite you and are very aggressive in their attack.

Blooms season looks to be early this year by at least a week. Hope you find the perfect bloom you want and have a great day. Jim Elliott

Good Snake-Bad Snake

Can you imagine opening your back door and a 4ft Water Moccasin Snake falls into the house. Tighten up time for sure!! It happened to me last night. The dogs were barking so i opened the side door and smelled skunk. I shut the door and got my 22 rifle and put on my headlight and headed for the back door, the one we use most of the time. I didnt turn on the porch light so when i opened the door i saw something move really close so i stepped back and this 4 ft snake fell off my door knob and landed on the floor of the house. Thankfully i didnt panic and i shot the snake where it layed. Glad i didnt have a shotgun!!

This morning i was in the garden looking at the scapes comming out and almost stepped on this King Snake. He is all speckled in white dots so please dont kill a King Snake as they eat poisonous snakes and mice. If it has a pattern on its back kill it.

With all the high water around here and all over Arkansas the snakes are moving around and it is mating season.

Had my first bloom yesterday Mysterious Eyes of Stamile and yes i did put some pollen on it. Plants are getting waist high and new scapes are above the folage. Beautiful day ahead. Lets all pray for those needing lifted up. Jim Elliott

Double Rainbow

Great Day to All. It is foggy this morning here in central Arkansas. The rains have stopped and the rivers keep comming up. Lots of flooding along the Mississippi River and will keep getting higher till the middle of next week. Lets give prayer to those people and the families that lost loved ones last week with all the storms. We tend to forget about people in need until it reaches our families. Please have sympathy for others starting today and include them in your prayers and lets dont forget our people in other countries in harms way.

Kathy and i were finally cutting grass and working in the yard last tuesday. I looked north of our house and i could see a big cloud with rain comming out of it headed right for us. It came a shower and as the shower was about to quit i looked up and there was a double rainbow. just beautiful and right over our place. It reminded us we have a lot to be thankful for.

I have had a few emails recently from people that read our blog and want to buy some of our daylilies. Or do we just grow them? We do sell plants to visitors who come to the garden. We sell seedlings and named daylilies. We will start next spring releasing our own introductions. We have been lining out plants this early spring but the rains started comming and the ground is just soaked. No way to make more beds, it is tough just pulling some grass. For the last couple years since building a new house we have been trying to hybridize, plant seeds and make new beds for the seedlings and line out some of our clumps of our seedlings. Plus we work for a living full time. If you noticed our web site is not up to date with last years seedling pictures and the new seedlings are starting to scape up. Never enough time. Not complaining as we have our electricity on and we are all healthy so life is really good with our family. Pray for others you dont know and maybe God will Bless you too. Jim Elliott