Saturday, July 21, 2012

ReBloom Is Up To You

Yep i said it, now you can shut me out, not really. But Rebloom is up to the grower. A lot has to do with water and temperature. If you are on a watering system most of the summer and the temps cool down even 10 degrees for a week here come the scapes. I see it every summer. When we have lots of rain and temps not above mid 90s i can have bloom almost all summer. But we must be consistent with our water. If after peak bloom you dont water for a month and in July you decide to water some dont expect rebloom much. When plants are stressed out with the heat like we are having, yesterday was 108,dont expect much rebloom until they get some relief. You cant water enough to match what a good rain will do. If you are inconsistent with your watering during scapeup time you will have scapes exploding, water does that. So what differences does rebloom have. What changes do they show us.
This is H.Janet and Bill from Nichole Harry Devito, on her first scape. Color is more to the blue side and form is round with wide sepals on every bloom, bloom is very flat which is all the things i like in my flowers. Now we show the rebloom flower.
This second picture is the same plant H. Janet and Bill, but calmed down more. Color is more subtle and you can see pattern in eye better. I really like this picture better than the first. Now before you start saying root system is better on rebloom i planted this plant back in Sept so roots should be good to go. For some reason her rebloom is in reverse from normal. Usually colors are more intense, scape is taller and sometimes bud count and branching is better. But on Janet and Bills rebloom plant habit is normal like first scape and color is less vivid. If you save pollen, when a plant reblooms that is a great time to collect pollen. No getting in a rush to hybridize, just get the pollen. H. Janet and Bill was a top 3 pollen parent this year for me.
This third picture is Don Ellers, H.Lady Duck. Fantastic plant habit. Great scape, heavy substance on flowers and very consistent bloom size, as toward the end of bloom cycle flowers didnt get smaller like some. This was my most used tet pollen this year. Setting pods with pollen was very good. The best thing is she blooms a week after the early bloomers, so we can use fresh pollen right at the start of hybridizing. Frozen pollen is very good but when possible i will use fresh pollen. Did i mention big heavy scape above folage. Yep shes a keeper.
This last picture is a tet seedling we like T1210 out of Doyle Pierce. I love Doyle Pierce, but he blooms at the end of bloom season. Thats why i save pollen so i can use these later bloomers on the first flowers of the season. Remember it is cooler at the start of bloom season so pods are easier to get. I love the substance and ruffles of DP but his scape is shorter than i like so i breed him to bigger scapes. Now back to T1210, maybe ever more blue than DP but bloom is about 1/2 inch smaller but the pollen is very strong. I think every flower i took the pollen to made a seed pod. maybe my 5th most used pollen. H. Scarlet Angel of Ted Petit was solid colored flower. Fantastic red color and good gold edge. On 3rd scape i broke it off. 2 bloom scapes was enough for a single fan. Performance was very good and he blooms right at the start of bloom season. This pollen of SA was in the top 4 most used pollens. I used it on all colors but mostly reds and purples. I am reall looking forward to seeing the seedlings from Violet Becomes You X Scarlet Angel. Violet Becomes You i would recomend to everyone without hesitation. Tall scape, great branching and a big 6 inch clear purple with gold edge flower, just beautiful. Very pod fertile for one so pretty. Some beautiful flowers are like people they are so puffed up they think they are the only one in the whole green house and are snobby and wont accept any pollen so we have to use their pollen to get kids from them. Some wont set seed pods on first scape but on rebloom you can load them down with pods. Some wont set on rebloom so we need to be Patient. Jesus Christ is a patient father and we are his children, at least those that want to be. Tim Magraw has a song out thats says all that can be said about a Christian" I am better than i was , but not as good as im gonna be". Thats says a lot. We are a work in progress for what is to come. Have you ever thought about what is to come after death? Our Soul is going somewhere for Eternity, where is is in Heaven or Hell. When we are young we think we are bullet proof and never going to die but when we get older we learn to be more Patient with our family and other people. But what about yourself, who is Patient with You. Jesus Christ is a very Patient Father for those that have accepted him. I was troubled once about dieing but not anymore. I know i will be in Heaven with almighty Jesus himself for ever. Being a Christian is freewill, Jesus doesnt make us choose him, its all up to us whether we accept him or not. Are you troubled about something in your life? Does it keep you up worrying? We have a song at church,"Tell It To Jesus". You dont need to change anything in your life as Jesus will do it for you, When you look in that mirrow, who do you see? Wouldnt it be great to get up every single day and know Jesus is in charge of your life and nothing can hurt you anymore. Oh i get spanked once in a while but i needed it just like a father gives guidance to his children when they get out of line but we still love our father dont we. Will today be your day to open your heart and let Jesus Christ in so your heart will be washed clean with his blood. Thats why he died on the cross, to pay for our sins that we committed. Open your heart and ask Jesus to come in. Let him guide you thru this life till we all get to Heaven, what a day to look forward too!! The Bible says every time a person on this earth is Saved there is a celebration in Heaven, is today your day to be celebrated?

Monday, July 2, 2012

Inside The ShadeHouse

Good Morning, now is the time of year for us to collect our wages of labor from this beautiful flower we love so much. We have started collecting seed pods of the flower scapes. Usually it takes about 42 to 45 days for seed pods to mature and be collected. If you collect pods to soon the seeds will not germinate. Even though they are black and shiney they are immature and will not germinate, so wait for the pod to crack open slightly. We are showing inside the greenhouse that is now a shade house.
This is Nichole Harry Devito introduction named H. Janet and Bill. 6 inch flower and lots of buds. This flower is on a rebloom scape. The first bloom scape has 5 seed pods on it. A lot of times daylilies wont rebloom if seed pods are on the first scape. A plants main objective in its life span is to reproduce by seeds produced. So when seeds are present it thinks its job is over for the year. Rebloom is good for collecting pollen for next year, since the hybridizing has been done there are no distractions for collecting pollen.
This is a closer look of seed pods on some scapes. I think these seed pods are on the plant H.Open My Eyes. It is fairly fertile and sets good on cool days. I think the most pods i have on one scape is 9 pods.
This pod is a little past ready to pick. It is outside and when they crack open in the sun the pods start opening further than we want and we may have seed spill out onto the ground and when that happens they are very hard to find.
This seed pod is just right. the pod is starting to wither and not so green and when you gently squeeze the pod it is semi soft and you can feel it move. I then take the pod and put into a seed cup along with the cross tag and take them into the house. Never open seed pods outside especially while walking around, they will jump out of your hands and lose seeds. I use bathroom 3 oz. cups to collect my seed pods.
Here is how we dry our seeds before putting them in the refrigerator for 3 weeks or even the whole winter sometimes. They think that they{seeds} have been thru the winter and will germinate once planted in about a week. We open the pods, place each cross in its own cup with both parents printed on side of cup. like this. D2407 X Tiger on the Mountain. After seeds have set on table for 3 days then we put them into smal {2inch X 2 inch} ziploc baggs with cross written on each bag. Then they go into fridge for a 3 week or longer before planting. I hope this helps you with seed pods. We started this blog about the wages of our labor with daylilies but what about the wages we owe Jesus Christ. Now dont cut me off just yet. just as we have a plan on breeding daylilies, Jesus has a plan for you. The Bible says the wages of Sin is Death.Not dieing but death of your soul, meaning you are Lost, not to say you cant be found all you have to do is let Jesus into your heart and not close it up waiting for another day. Jesus said he is the Vine and we are the branch. We are to bear fruit. That means we are to share the Gospel to others. Prayer works. The other day i was at the dentist office and the dentist was about 40 yrs old. I had 3 teeth to be pulled and while we waited for gums to get numb we had a chat about the economy. I told him about i wasnt worried cause i had faith in the lord to keep me working. I also told him i thought the way this world was in shambles that the Rapture would come soon. He looked at his nurse and asked, Whats the Rapture? She jumped in and told him that was the second comming of Jesus Christ. Thats when Jesus will take all saved people off this earth in the blink of an eye. He was open to listening and we told him about Jesus. We planted the seed of being saved, maybe this seed will take root and he will open his heart to Jesus and bear more fruit. After getting out of the chair she and i talked and she has been trying to tell him about Jesus for 6 months and he just turned her away. She prayed for god to soften his heart and god did just that and sent me as conformation of the power of Prayer. Why wait till things are tough before you ever pray for Gods Help. Just bow your head, close your eyes and let god take over your life. Praise him for your healthy children and loving neighbor. Why not start your relationship with God Almighty today. Recieve his blessings from this old world, are you looking for a better life let him help. Today is a good time to start. Just say Thank You Father and feel his magic enter your heart. Amen

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

More Sugar Please

Feed the Hummers!! We are feeding 5 cups of sugar water everyday. We mix 1/4th cup sugar to 1 cup water and no food coloring added. This spring we started with one pair then it stayed at 2 pairs for a while. Then 2 more pair showed up and after a few weeks the babies showed up and now we have Hummers all day long. Every morning i wash the feeders and fill them and they are good for the day. Cant quit without showing at least one daylily. This is D4712 dip seedling that started blooming this spring. It does rebloom, this bloom is a little lest than 6 inch and has good bud count. I love that green throat radiating out on the midribs. It is a Texas Kal. kid, i dont remember the pod parent other than it was a selected seedling of ours. Texas Kal. is a great parent for eyes but it has terrible plant habit. Scape is very thin and must be propted up if it has seed pods on it. So when using plants like this use the pollen and apply to good pod parents with big sturdy scapes. But you will still get lots of seedlings with thin scapes and beautiful flowers. Be selective when selecting seedlings. If you start with bad selections then you will have a bad bunch of futures. Pat Stamile says keep only the A pluses and I agree 100 percent. Summer is here as it got to 109 yesterday and 100 today. Dont overdo it and work in the shade if you are outside. Drink lots of water. Have a bad day today, did you bless the food when you ate lunch or supper. Did you give Thanks for getting up this morning. Have you thought where you were going to spend Eternity? The Bible says life on earth is like a mist that fades away in the morning and then its gone. Jesus will open that door if you will just ask for him to come into your heart. Even as a Christian we will have bad days but they dont get us down cause we as Christians know where we will spend Eternity, do You? Sure feels good to be an A Plus in the eyes of Jesus. Jim Elliott

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Gold Edged Diploid

Here is our blessing. Never before seen by the public. The first gold edge dip. For me this is better than a blue daylily. If you breed dips you will understand. Yes we have colored edges and now we have this gold edge. Before you start thinking its a tet, forget it, i have put this pollen all over the garden and have growing seed pods and dip seed pods on this plant. It is numbered D4112. Can you imagine once it is converted to tet how big the gold edge will be on tet seedlings. Best thing is it is from Texas Kaliedescope breeding so it has the genetics to give pattern eyes to the kids plus gold edges. Wow. I can see it now a pale pink flower with blue broken pattern eye and a gold edge. Would that be fancy enough for you to start buying dips. Also it has a good scape with 2 lateral a bud count of 22 and reblooms. I cant wait to see the kids begin blooming next season i hope. Thats what makes breeding flowers so fasinating is to see your dreams come true. Will it be moved to the green house, yes it will. God blessed us with this seedling and now i hope God gives me the wisdom to use it wisely. Look up and lift up those that need your help, you will recieve a blessing for it and feel better about yourself. Jim Elliott

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Quit Spreading Pollen

But why? If you hybridize you know what i mean, when i say why? We wait 10 months maybe less, for that first flower to start the bloom season and you get lots of seed then quit, i cant do it. If i only had someone elses plants i could quit for the year but these are our babies that are brand new to the world and they just keep getting bigger and better. And rebloom is killing me. I havent watered to see how plants would perform and i havent been disapointed with their performance. The selected seedlings have had no watering and reblooming like crazy. I saw what i wanted and have been watering twice a week now. In our selected dip seedlings we have about 8 different seedlings that have these huge base and tall scapes. The flowers are from 6 to 8 inches on these huge scapes some are 40 inches tall. I had this brain storm this week and have been breeding these very special seedlings to each other. One day using red pollen, then cream, then purple. Why didnt i do this from the first day of bloom season i dont know. But i have been hitting about 20 blooms a day. I try not set any seeds on our selected seedlings so they will increase better just use the pollen, right? Why just look a gift horse in the mouth. These will be some very special seeds for us here at Wooster Garden. I havent released any of these selected seedling because they are so crucial to our dip breeding program. Im going to run with it for a while longer. This is where it started, me loving those big dips. D4509 big 7 inches, huge scape, wide blunt sepals. 4 inch petals, 3 inch sepals. Its a Carribean Whipped Cream X UP4 lineage. Huge scapes, reblooms and flat. thats my kind of flower, dip or tet. This picture wa taken at 745 pm just before sundown. No shade, field grown and still looks good. Nicknamed Baby Jack, Jack would love this dip. Did i mention fertile both ways. This dip is D2512. Cross is LBB seedling X LBB. Lavender Blue Baby breeding. The slatey bluish eye just keeps getting bigger and the edge goes out further each bloom. I want to take this color eye to creams, thats my goal. It is fertile and a new baby that bloomed this summer first time. i want to know it is fertile before it goes in green house. 6 inch flower. I have shown this dip seedling before but the double edge just gets biggger and darker. D1412 is the number even though it bloomed last year first time. It is a 5 inch flower and scape is above folage and is fertile both ways. I have used quite a bit of this pollen and have set pods on this plant. It is from Texas Kal., so even though it has an eye but not a patterned eye the genetics are there for patterns on its kids. Thats why we try and keep up with parentage and use it to our advantage. I want big flowers like D4509 with fancy patterns, thats my goal. This tet seedling is T0812 from Pure Indulgence. This is the rebloom scape blooming in this picture. 2 flowers were open and i thought this was a good picture to use. I like tets too but not as much as dips. Even though the tets are supposed to be an improvement over dips i dont see it. Bud count is lower but the colors are more clear so i am trying to breed the tets for performance also. It is all about selection. if you go with a pretty face and 4 buds then you will have some fancy face kids with 4 buds. Try to use good pod parents with lots of buds and rebloom for you. If a pod parent is not what it was suppose to be then cull it or give it away. Way too many plants being introduced that have very little to offer. Are you having a good day? Have you given God his Praise today. I know i have so much to be Thankful For. Keep looking up. Jim Elliott

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Double Edge Dips

Good evening to all. The future has become reality here at Wooster Garden. Double edge dips are here and i have a sibling that has a bigger gold edge that my wife says not to show now. Mark Carpenter and Josh Jacques have seen it. This flower opened last summer for the first time and i could see the double edge then but i wanted it to have another year and see if the color changed any. It has as it has gotten darker and the lavender is now more grape color. It is fertile both ways as a dip. I wanted to be sure it would take dip pollen before i spoke too loud. Remember Idas Magic, it was one of the first tets with a gold edge and look where it has gone. So now i have a first(to my knowledge)double edge diploid. This is D4210 a selected dip that is lined out for future release. Big scape, lots of buds about 40 and great branching(laterals). This plant is in the shade house and when i saw 3 blooms open this morning i thought about the spacing on scapes so blooms can open fully. This plant has lots of buds and great substance. 6 inch plus flower about 36 inch scape, did i say green throat. This flower has lots of green for those looking to breed green daylilies. Woodland Radiance breeding. Woodland Radiance is an excellent parent for those wanting to breed dips. This seedling is T0812 a Pure Indulgence kid. if you like reds as much as we do i think you will like this red tet seedling. Great color and a water mark for the eye. 6 inch flower and one lateral. For sure if it makes it thru the summer then this fall a fan will go into the greenhouse for hybridizing next spring. The red is very vivid red and i think i can take it to purples and get the water mark. Another sibling from the same cross is vivid red with a white chaulky eye will be shown later. T0611 is a very nice 5 1/2 inch tet selected seedling. If you like big edges then you will love this baby. the cross is Open My Eyes X Gavin Petit. a much lighter base color than either parent or siblings. Color is a very soft lavender with a choclate eye and edge, at least to me thats what i see. Or more grape eye? T0611 will also go into the green house for hybridizing next spring. I dont know if it is possible to quit hybridizing in the seedling beds and shade house. I walk the beds and see something i like then there i go spreading pollen instead of going to work. Wouldnt it be great to work with your daylilies allday everyday!! Have a great week and remember Fathers Day is this Sunday. Take the family to Church and begin a foundation that you can build on for the rest of your life. Your children will thank you later. Lift Up, Raise Up and Stay Up is what God has for you. All you have to do is say Come In Father, and let him guide you thru life. Have a Great Day. Jim Elliott

Monday, June 11, 2012

Patterned Dips and Red

This is Tiger On The Mountain a diploid by Jack Carpenter. This is Jacks picture he sent me before he released Tiger. Whats not to like. If you like pattern dips this is your flower, it has a great big eye, lots of color in the eye, substance and reblooms every year. It is an early bloomer for me and i get to use the pollen when others begin to open so i dont miss many blooms to pollinate. My seedlings from Tiger havent bloomed this year but when they do i expect great things. Fertile both ways. WOW!! Pattern Maker by Jamie Gossard and dormant. The picture that is on the AHS data base is better than mine as theirs has more white breaks in the pattern. Last year it didnt bloom for me and this year it was trying to get the pattern going as it had 3 layers of color in the eye just like the tet patterns do. I sure wasnt going to use that but then after about 4 blooms the arrowheads appeared and i got excited then. I have been using it on all colors and saving pollen for next year. Tall scape and a 6 inch flower. Great job Jamie. Whats Not To Love! David and Alan by Bouman, beautiful red color and a dip. Someone sent this plant to me as a gift plant and dummy me put it in the tet side of shade house. Why would you send a diploid to someone who ordered tet plants They were trying to confuse an old man. Last fall i saw that it didnt set any pods so when we dug up the plants for dividing i did look up the data in a Eurecka and was surprised to see it was a dip. DUH! It really has a nice solid red color with no orange in it. But it is a later bloomer so you will be hybridizing it when others are done blooming. I have been useing my D2310(mop handles) pollen on it set lots of pods and am finishing up with Pattern Maker Pollen. Looking for a red bloom with a white pattern on it. Thanks to who sent me this. I hope this helps those that are breeding dips a little bit. I am open for questions if you need help breeding dips not that i am an expert but i have been there and had great mentors. It all starts with selection wether you are breeding dips or tets. Keep your eyes and ears open and set realistic goals. For me i like solid colors and great scapes. I am just learning about patterns but you must have patience breeding for them. When life gets you down, Look Up, God is waiting for you. Being Saved is your choice just like being Lost is free choice. He will open that door if you Open Your Heart to Him. He can change the worst of men, thank God he changed me. Jim Elliott

Friday, June 8, 2012

I Need More Tags

Good Morning, this is what i am greeted with every time i open the GH-Shadehouse door. This is the left side and the tet side of the shade house.We have over 800 tags hanging in there with both sides counted. Mark Carpenter told me i just like to work. I think the most pods i have on one scape is 9 seed pods. As for pollen parents i started using Violet Becomes You, then went to Big Red Wagon, then Scarlet Angel,Lady Margret Rose and finished with Lady Duck. I almost forgot about Janet and Bill in the middle. Of course i did use a few selected seedlings pollen. Early bloom and cool temperatures in May really helped set a lot of seed. No scary blooms were used just big blooms with nice scapes. Trying to get more performance in the tets and not just a pretty face. This second picture is a selected dip that i really like D4010 Woodland Radiance X Linda Agin. As you can see she is very fertile. I think every bloom will set a pod if i put the pollen on it. Big scape, 40 plus buds, scaped about 30 inches, lots of lateral branches. Her fault is she doesnt have long enough lateral branches so that blooms have lots of room to open flat. So i use flowers that have space between blooms and long laterals. I did use my red seedling (Mop Handles)quite a bit so as to keep a big scape and have red flowers. Also D4010 has really thick substance in the bloom. This mulberry eyed dip seedling D4412. Tall scape about 34 inches flower is a big 6 inches even at end of bloom cycle. Color is tough to describe, orangey peach base color with a redish purple eye. Big eye. Thats what i like and its pollen parent of Super Fancy Face will add the genetics for patterns as we breed later on down the line. The bud count is not as high as we like but i have lots of pod parents that can give the plant habit to the seedlings. Also the eye pattern is not round but squared off like SFF. This blue eyed dip seedling is D2512, whats not to like. I dont remember the cross but i know it is down from Lavender Blue Baby. Its hard to eliminate the mauve base color and keep the bluish eye color. I want to see it on creams and pinks and yellows. It may not be genetically possible for this range of color but i am trying. Seems this seedling has been blooming forever. Every day it seems to be open. That means lots of buds or lots of scapes. It seems it has several scapes and plants and is ready for division this fall as we dig up selected seedlings. As the temperatures climb here in central Arkansas they also bring on the bloom farther north even all the way up into Canada. The excitement we had a month ago is now reaching the northern states borders. So much to be thankful for in this great country we live in. Even in the bad times we still have it good. In the good times it is easy to Praise God for what he has done for us. But what about when things dont go like we want are we still Giving Thanks to God. In the Book of Job when Job was in the middle of a lot of crisis that the devil brought on him, Jobs wife said for Job to go ahead and curse God and die. But Job told her and his supposedly friends that we still need to Praise God even in the bad times not just for the good times. As we go through life if we will keep this thought in our hearts and minds God will Bless Us For It. I dont know who but God put this message on my mind for someone to hear cause someone out there is hurting today. Dont look down, Look Up and Praise God. Jim Elliott

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Good Morning to All, we survived the Memorial Weekend. Dry is the word here in central Arkansas. Seems we havent had rain here in 2 months, but today and tomorrow we have a great chance for rain and cooler temps. This fis picture is D7210 diploid. I had to save this one. The colores compliment each other so well. The red picotee goes completely around the petals. 6 inch flower and have it also in the shade house trying to keep the soft yellow and add a pattern to the red eye.
This is a tet seedling numbered T1210. the cross is Palace Garden Beauty X Doyle Pierce, it is a 5 inch flower and normally would not keep a pony size flower but it has good scape, good substance and lots of bluish slate color in eye and edge. I have been taking the pollen to all bluish eyed flowers in shade house. It is an early bloomer unlike Doyle Pierce which starts to bloom 2 weeks later when other plants are finishing up.
This is a dip seedling from Texas Kalidescope breeding. 5 inch flower but a beautiful pattern that tends to break as the temps go up. It has good height and scape for a Tx. Kal. kid. The problem with a lot of seedlings from Tx Kal is the week scape. Even though we bred it to big thick scapes, than thin scape of TK is dominant. It is sad to see a beutiful flower and have a weak scape. You know when you put seed pods on it it will fall over.
This is a very nice red dip seedling out of Russell Southall, i truely love RS as it has heighth in the scape and fairly heavy scape and good pollen, plus the follage is big. Big plants are great to have in the garden because that is what you see 9 months of the year. what makes this 6 inch red so special is the white midribs are gone and a nice red color is there. A lot of RS kids do have the white midribs and sometimes it looks great and other times it takes away from the flower. This bloom is a little twisted because it is on the end of bloom cycle. That is this is one of the last blooms on that scape. We also havent pampered the seedlings this year with watering. Just before they started blooming they were watered and none since.So this bloom hasnt seen water in over 3 weeks and looks pretty good. This is a 6 inch bloom even though it hasnt been watered. Even our selected seedlings havent been watered so we can get rid of soft plants that need help to perform. Some of these are sending up rebloom scapes with it being so dry and i like that trait. Imagine if they had water what would do. I want to introduce plants that perform when others dont. We have over 800 paper tags hanging on scapes in the shade house. It has become a job now to go out there and hybridize each day. Like Lee Pickles says there needs to be a cutoff date!! But what do you do when some are finishing up blooming and a brand new plant is going to open tomorrow? So now we are hybridizing just the special blooms and winding it down. I am hearing thunder so i must run,yea!!When life gets you down,Look Up. If you need a change in your life, go to Church and he will help you change for the better life. What has man gained when he has lost his soul. Jim Elliott

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Good Morning, it has been a long week. I have been painting outside buildings all week and i am ready for a day off. But before i would go to work we had to hybridize and look at seedling bloom and that took a couple hours out of each day. I will show you a few plants we are using in the greenhouse. This is Don Ellers-Lady Duck. It has a patterned eye and it is very ruffled to say the least. It is a mid bloomer, meaning a lot of the plants are halfway thru their bloom cycle when she started. But i put her pollen on about 40 plus blooms the day she opened.
Wonder Of It All by Bob Carr. Whats not to like!! Very perfect everyday. The same perfect form every morning. At 5 inches it is smaller than i like so i have been putting larger flowers pollen on it. I have been using a lot of red and purple pollen on it. I am anxiuos to see the babies from these crosses!!
This is Lame Duck by Don Eller. Really large bloom about 7 inches and ruffles are at least one inch wide. The color is hard to capture but kindof a muted lavender with a darker inside edge and a chartruce yellow edge on the outside. Really different. If you like the triangluar form then Lame Duck is for you too!!
Dip Seedling out of d0108. Like its parent it has a big eye and nice edge going completely around the petals. More grape purple in eye color that i really like. I did select this seedling but didnt write the numeber down. We have about 800 tags hanging on crosses in the greenhouse and it is beginning to be a job. I am thinking Lee Pickles is a smart man for putting a stop date on his hybridizing. For the past few days we have been doing a little over 100 crosses each day. The Hummers have been comming into the greenhouse looking for nectar among the flowers. They are a nice surprise. Have a safe Memorial Weekend and dont over do it, drink lots of water and pray for the needy. Jim Elliott

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Careful With That Pollen

Good Morning to All, as they say i have came in from the hay field!!! That means i have been working hard to hybridize better daylilies. Almost forgot about our blog, i have been so blessed with so many blooms to work with. We have taken some pictures but the past week the temps have been about 50 each morning and flowers were not pretty. A few were fully open but the pollen was slow to open. This is a picture of our dip d1012. It is a Texas Kal kid. I have been waiting on a purple seedling with the rings to bloom and finally have one. Purple not mauve. It has 5 laterals and i havent even counted the buds. It is fertile both ways. I have been using it in the green house or shade house now, i have been putting it on Jack Carpenters patterned eyed plants. It is hard to get the plant habit and flower to go with it in the same plant. But d1012 has what we have been looking for.
This Janet and Bill-Nichole Harry Devito 2012 intro. This is one of those WOW flowers. Nichole was able to let me have it for the greenhouse last fall and i am so proud she did. I just wanted to pull up a chair and look at it all day. A little larger than 6 inches, flat as a flitter and big edge. Look how wide the sepals are. this is a Happy Happy kid named for Nicholes granparents. Do you see the pollen gone? Thanks Nichole!!
This is a bud of Janet and Bill. Really neat bud. I have never seen fins or teeth on the outside of buds before but Nichole has this trait on several of her intros. Just really different.
This is Fire Down Below-Ted Petit intro. This plant has been out a while and is about $10 a double fan according to Eurecka. Intense blood red and has the best tet scape in the shade house. I have never seen this flower water spot and we have had it for a long time. same form every day, whats not to like!! Careful with that pollen means just that, if you dont really want a seed pod on that cross dont put that pollen on it. Last year under 50% shade cloth we set a lot of seed pods in temps that were at 100 each day. This year the temps are high 70s and low 80s and under the shade cloth over the plastic roof we are getting a ton of seed pods and the problem is half the plants in there havent bloomed yet. Seems the bloom cycle is out of whack and the mid bloomers will start next week. The fingers on my right hand are sore from holding so much pollen, just kidding. But it is getting good around here. Drink lots of water and stay cool this summer. Are you going to church sunday? Maybe you too will recieve his Blessing as we have. Look Up When Things Are Getting You Down. Jim Elliott

Thursday, May 10, 2012

More Red Dips

Good Evening, its much cooler this week than last week. The past 2 mornings it has been right at 50 degrees at 7am. The blooms dont like it at all. They are about a third of the way open even by 8am. D7209 my red dip seedling opened yesterday and today. Once opened it was flat both days and i like that. 3 laterals and terminal Y at top about 30 plus buds. This picture was taken at 7pm tonight and still looks good for such a cool start. 6 inch red whats not to like. This is a Russell Southall kid also it is dormant just like d2310 in our last post. Now i have pollen from 2 good red dips and the bloom season is just starting.
This soft pink bi-tone is just that. Someone sent me this plant by mistake. 2 years ago i bought some small Grace Stamile blue eyed plants from different people and recieved this plant. Definitely not a blue eyed small flower. Have you seen this flower before or maybe know what the name is. I dont know if its dip or tet but i put red dip pollen on it this am. This cooler weather has messed up my seedling bloom and slowed it also. Maybe in a few days the blooms can get back to normal whatever that is anymore. More named varieties are blooming in the greenhouse each day and seed pods are forming as now we can see the pods. Have a great day tomorrow and drink lots of water. As soon as the weather warms back up i will show some named blooms. Jim Elliott

Monday, May 7, 2012

Go Faster Please

Last saturday we put the shade cloth on the greenhouse to cool it down some. We also took down the plastic on the south wall. I cut a big vent hole in the top front to help get out the heat. This morning at 530 am we had a storm blow through with about 30mph winds. Sure glad i didnt have the north side plastic down yet.
Well she did open up and on time to use the pollen. This is d2310 (mop handle Scape)it is a dip and wonderful scape with several laterals and high bud count. Sorry i didnt measure to see how high scape was but flower is 5 1/2 inches and a red with a water mark looks good to me. I used the pollen this morning on some 7 inch dips with big scapes in the greenhouse. I think my other red seedling d7210 will bloom tommorrow so we will be crossing red to red now.
This is d2910 a nice purple dip seedling of 6 inch range maybe a little bigger. It has 4 laterals and 38 buds i think. A little more fuller that d1010 purple seedling on last post. It looks like it needs some red pollen what do you think. There are some nice purple dips out there but very few red dips. i am working with 3 nice red dips so more babies are on the way. While everyone else is chasing the patterns (me too) i will be working on my reds and purples.
Here is another selected dip seedling we are using in the greenhouse, d0410 garden name Big Boy Leroy. Big scape lots of buds and a little over 7 inches. Just a very imposing flower. d0410 makes 6 inch flowers look small. I think the cross was Tiaquana Treasure x Cosmic Kalidescope. One of those crosses that even though we didnt get the Kalidescope eye we got a lot of plant habit and a big thick flower that will blend right into what we are breeding for. The excitement is building as we pollenated about 10 flowers today. We also had a big purple dip seedling bloom with a white broken eye pattern but i didnt show it cause the wind tore off a sepal. It has 6 laterals on it. Have a great day tommorrow and stay cool. Jim Elliott

Friday, May 4, 2012

H.Lady Margret Rose-B.Holley

Good evening to all, I am posting tonight on someone elses flower, Bonnie Holley of Gold Coast Daylilies. I have bought plants before from Stan and Bonnie, even talked on the phone to Bonnie a few times. I bought this plant LMR from Bonnie last fall and i didnt know at that time it had a love potion with it. Maybe it was in the pollen when it bloomed but when this plant bloomed this week it made me Weak. This plant has had 2 blooms this week and i am on cloud nine. Lets see, it is 7 inches and i measured it several ways and still came up 7 inches. 4 inch petals, wide blunt sepals and a gold edge like i have never seen so much Chicken Fat before. The gold edge is 1 1/2 inches in places lots of ruffles. I have seen 2 blooms and have not seen it hang up or tear. Bonnie sent me several fans more like a clump and scapes are all over these plants. I dont think my heart can stand it. I was praying that something good would bloom so as bloom started i would have some good pollen to work with. I think God outdid himself this time. Thank You!! This picture does not do justice to this plant. If you buy it you will understand. I have seen lots of blooms in the past 18 or so years and this one is in the top 5 in my book. Nope Gold Coast didnt ask me to help sell their plants, they dont need my help and dont know about my blog most likely. It is a lot easier to tear someone down in this world we live in so when i get a chance i like to lift them up. Im sure we all get tired of people gripping about the plants they get. I even had someone get onto me because i sent too many bonus plants and they had to plant them. Go Figure. So for the Josh Jacques and Stan-Bonnie Holleys in this world,Keep Doing An Excellant Job. Tomorrow Lift someone up and not Push them Down. I approve this message. Jim Elliott

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Here We Go

Here we go the daylilies have started to bloom. This is a selected future dip seedling d1010. Burgandy purple, 32 buds with 3 laterals and a w at top of scape, 7 inches. There were 2 blooms open this morning and yes i did save the pollen. Not as good as we are breeding for but lots of plant habit to use as a pod parent also. When my chaulky white eyed seedlings begin to bloom d1010 will get that pollen. They have it on tets so why cant we have chaulky eyes on purple dips?
Here is a full picture of d1010. There are only 3 fans and 2 scapes. You can see the branching on d1010. Click on this picture to enlarge it. I think i will start using some bap-10 on this plant to increase it. I will start using the bap-10 and take pictures and write the dates so we can see how long it takes to get babies. Would yall be interested in seeing how to use bap-10?
Here is a picture of d2310 (mop handle scape) showing all those buds that are developing. I the last blog i showed how big the scape were in diameter now we can look at the scape from the top and see all those buds, I can see 3 laterals on the scape. In a few more days we will take another picture to see further development of this huge scape. The scape is a foot over the folage now. Its getting hotter so drink lots of water and stay as cool as you can.Thanks for looking. Jim Elliott