Whats It Worth

Peace of Mind is that we are seeking in our gardens? Not just me but All of us. I am a house painter and self employed and i feel very fortunate to be able to work in our garden as much as we do. It is very hard some days to go to work(painting) when the garden is in full bloom and have been out there hybridizing for several hours and have to switch gears and go to work. I do realize that it takes a lot of money to buy garden materials to make more seedling beds but is it worth all the sweat and aches that we go through to have a beautiful garden. You bet it is!!!

We had a goal when we left the mountain to be able to buy a new place with enough land that we could have about 4 acres in daylilies, much like The Lily Farm in Center, Tx.. If you have never been you owe it to yourself to go there, a place to pick and choose the plants you want to buy. I dream to have such a place as The Lily Farm that Jack and Josie built with a lot of work and sweat.

Heres the problem, i now have the genetics in my dips to expand our breeding program past even my wildest dreams. Seeds are not a problem just start putting the pollen on the pistil and there will be more seeds than i can count. So whats the problem? Letting Go is the problem and letting everyone into our little piece of paradise. Letting go of the Special Seedling like the one pictured above. Right now i have 4 pieces of this plant, look at all those buds and the branching on the scape. How many plants will i need to introduce it and how much will i set the price for? If i should keep for another year i will have around 20 fans to sell, will that be enough? Or will i get my heart broke and no one wants to buy it? These are the questions i have racing through my mind. Whats it worth? I can tell you the ride we have been on the past 15 years was worth every penny we have spent trying to get here and All the beautiful people we have met over the years is priceless. Piece of mind, Whats it Worth? Jim Elliott

Dip Seedling

I have had a few emails about the difference between Evergreens and Dormants. I explained as best i could on the last blog. Here are a couple more pictures to help those that are not sure what kind of daylilies they have. If you have colder temps than we do in central Arkansas then maybe your dormants havent broken ground yet. But this is why i started this blog is to be a Daylily Growing 101 to help those learn how to grow and breed this great flower. When i first started with lilies i had more questions than i got answers. So if you have a question please email me and we will find the answer. It also gives me a topic to write about. Pictures are great for a blog and they help tell the story. Myself i like reading so i try to explain in words along with pictures. I hope you will participate and email once in a while or everyday if you like. Spring is not far off so lets get ready for some good daylilies. Jim Elliott
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Dormants, Evergreens and Green Blloms

To say Spring is in the air is an under statement. We were a little above 70 degrees today. The day started off cloudy then about noon the sun came out. I have been debating about cleaning my beds out because i was scared the dormants would want to start growing and a late freeze would burn the folage. Too late for that as the dormants are already out from their winter hidy hole. You basically have 2 kinds of folage on your daylilies. Dormant or Evergreen. I will explain as best i can. When fall comes the dormants will be light sensitive and the folage will start to turn yellow and as the cold of a freeze or even a good frost will send the green all the way back into the roots. No folage will be exposed for the cold winter to hurt. As spring comes and the ground starts to warm the Dormants emerge and have a stiff folage almost looks like a type of cactus plant. After the plants start to grow and folage gets bigger they all loook alike. This time of year is when to best look at your seedlings and future introductions to see if they are Dormant or Evergreen.

Evergreen means just that, the folage trys to grow all winter and stay green. As winter sets in the folage will turn to mush and will be a blob of brown not resembling a dayliliy at all. But each little warmup will get the plant in the growing mood again. This is why evergreens do not over winter well in the northern states. Some do ok and are somewhat hardy with mulch around them and other evergreens are so tender they cant take the cold and will die.

Here is a picture of a dormant and an evergreen daylily in the same picture, it is not hard to tell which is which. Here in central Arkansas the ground is warming up and the plants are wanting to grow so now is when i can tell what kind of plants my daylilies are. I just love the way dormants look when they emerge in the spring.

I have posted 2 diploid seedlings we like very much. This line is where we have tried to extend the green in the throat on out onto the petals. This is a dark green and will not be hard to find where it stops on the petals out of the throat. I have seen some daylilies the grower said had green throats and i just didnt see it. I dont like recurves like this seedling shows but i do like the amount of green it has. The big flat seedling is what i like in my diploids. We now have dip seedlings with 3 inch sepals and over 4 inch petals. You can see in this picture this 7 inch flower has big sepals and petals.

I want to Thank those that have taken the time to email us here at Wooster Garden the past couple years and tell us you really like our flowers and what we are doing. In another month we will line out seedlings, that some have 12 fans and some have 6 fans to a clump. We are lining these plants out for future sales. I am not sure how many fans we will need to offer a plant for sale. Some increase well and some dont. Myself, i love the big selfs without any other color or eye in them and thank goodness some of you are that way also. But we will have different eyes and eye patterns on others, we really hope to be able to offer a daylily that the public would really want. From what i have seen in daylilies the past couple years the prettiest flowers and advances have been made with the diploids. Thanks for looking. Jim Elliott

Snow and More Snow

Diploid seedling.

I dont know how people in the northern states handle it. All the cold and Snow everywhere. It is 26 degrees and 8 inches of Snow on the ground and still snowing here in central Arkansas. One hundred miles north by the Missouri line they have 20 inches of snow on the ground. I feel like a time bomb on a countdown to spring. I have been on the Lily Auction several times, emailed Karen Pierce of Floyd Cove several times about plants. Read all the daylily blogs i could find and even emailed Lee Pickles about a plant. Will Spring ever get here?

I have been day dreaming all day, even my friend Pat Larsen sent me some pictures of his seeds sprouting in his green house. I want to play too but i am stuck in the house for now. Real soon i will begin to show pictures of our green house as it starts to come alive. The plants are in beds right now covered with snow and in the next week or so we will pull over the plastic and watch it come to life. I cant wait. I will be like the little character on the phone commercial that gets so excited seeing the new phone he faints. Well thats me when i see that first scape in the green house

I still have a few plants to add like Carpenters Kal. Jungle Cat and Tiger on the Mountain, both are big sized patterned eyed diploids and Stamiles diploid-Little Bloom Rider that has a nice blue eye on it. So be patient and keep checking our blog for the new early season that will continue till next fall. I cant wait. Jim Elliott

Karol Emmerichs Blog

http://springwoodgardens.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-powerpoint-of-2010-results.html Now here is the address, if you will click on this URL it will take you to her Blog and before i sent you to her web site. Please forgive me, i guess she had me day dreaming about all her beautiful lilies. Go and read what she says about her power point program and click on it. It may take 5 minutes to down load but worth the wait. Thanks for giving me a second chance. Jim Elliott

Springwood Gardens

Oh boy did i hit the mother load. I have Karol Emmerichs blog link listed on my blog and i saw where she had posted a few days ago. WOW. I am a fan for life after seeing her new power point program listed on her web site. http://springwoodgardens.com/ It will take a few minutes to load but Oh Boy, what a way to start with your morning coffee. I think i will move up North and get me some snow shoes. Wow is all i can say. Thanks Karol.
I know you arent supposed to show someone elses flowers cause my fans will leave me and start looking at Karols. Not political correct, heh im looking at it too. I cant wait for spring to come so i can get out and get my knees in the dirt, but for now i will Make myself look at hers. What a Great Day. What a Blessing. Jim Elliott

Snow Day

Here i am at home because we people of the South dont do well driving in snow. I need about a day and a half to finish painting a new house(interior) and we dont know what the roads will be like in a few hours so we stayed home today.

I was thinking i could share a few of my thoughts on daylilies and push back this feeling that spring is around the corner. Last week we had sunshine and 60 degrees today it is sleeting and snowing here in central Arkansas.

The seedling beds are covered with a blanket of snow and we have been down in the single digits so we can do dormants and evergreens. I would much rather have dormants. I love to see the dormants emerge and when they are about 4 to 6 inches high is my perfect plant.

Being observant in the garden is part of hybridizing. I took some FL. RagMuffin pollen and put it on a pink named Shores of Time and got this toothy pink seedling. Shores of Time is a 6 inch bubble gum pink with a big fluffy gold edge. Sometimes she has teeth on her gold edge. So i had to try this cross. As it gets hotter more teeth show up and why i didnt take a better picture i dont know.

This puple eyed diploid seedling has a different eye also. The midrib carries the purple eye out further and splits at the end of the burst. You will also notice this seedling has extra petaloid tissue on one of its petals. To me this would be an excellant candidate for breeding doubles with. It is wanting to double but dont have enough gene power to add more tissue. I love the eye pattern but hate the UF shape of the flower. I have always bred for bagel shaped flowers but as we go to the breeding for eye patterns we will have to follow the seedlings and see where they take us. For those that cant get out today it is a good time to catch up on reading The Bible. You will recieve a Blessing for it and if you take it to heart, The Bible will change your Life for the Better. It has Drama, Romance, Travel and oh yeah it is full of Love. Have you got one hour to make your life better, then go for it. Amen.