How much is that daylily in the garden ?

Where is Harold Hill when you really need him ?  Just how big and shiny do you want that trombone ?  Or how sparkly and petite that penny whistle ?   Harold would have know what to say at this moment.   Without ever having sold a daylily he would know how to jump from sousaphones to daylilies.

Anyway its time to make that transition from trombones and penny whistles to daylilies.

Let’s just say you have choices all the way from Harold’s “trouble” to traditional.  From large to small and short to tall.   Shapes from stars to undefinablely twisted and dancing and on to ruffled spheres.  Toothy sharky monsters that can help you with your bite.  And colorful rainbows that escaped from a kaleidoscope factory.  The latest models are a bit pricey.   However there are plenty of last year’s choices to be had and they look just as pretty and amazing.

And actually if you are going shopping don’t look in the garden.  No one garden can hold them all.  Look in the window – the internet window.   You will have more choices than a kid in a candy shop.

Lawn beware.  There might be a new gardener and daylily collector sneaking up on you.  You are about to loose a turf battle !

Now as Harold often said ( to himself ) my work is done… gotta go (time to run.)

Ahhhemmm

Excuse me.   Is that a ponderous pulchritudinous pachyderm in your garden?  ( Now if that doesn’t dislocate your auditory nerve nothing will )   What ever are you talking about?  That.  That flower over there !   Oh that.  Why didn’t you say so.

That is just a Pigment of (your) Imagination !  Come back later and it will perplex you again.  What ?  Well if you come back later you will wonder where the flower you were looking at has gone.  Because it will have changed.

It is not often that you find a flower that changes color before the florist can get his hands on it.  Yet Pigment of Imagination does just that.   Over the course of the day it becomes for lack of a better term a fading violet.   No it is not shy.  And it does not just loose its purple.  Pigment of Imagination reveals different layers of color as it changes.  So at this point you are wondering where is this flower ?

No it is not magic, or any chemical additive.  This daylily changes its color as the day goes on.   So believe your eyes.  It is not a figment of your imagination, it is indeed Pigment of Imagination.

Thanks to Richard Norris of Ashwood Gardens for the use of these images.  And even more for creating this beautiful daylily.

 

 

 

Basic color charts meet daylilies

This is what happens from diddling with daylilies.  The laws of the universe are stretched if not out right violated.   Purple plus purple does not usually turn out to be cream colored surprise.  Except with daylilies.

This is a cream colored seedling.  Its parents are Blue Lustre and another purple colored seedling.   Some surprises are not a disappointment.  This is one of them.

diploid seedling

 

 

Some where into the garden

Toto stay on the path believe me now this could be more dangerous than the swamps of Mordor.

Some where lurking and peeking and so far not booing hides a beautiful seedling.  At least it was when last seen !  If you have ever raised seedlings and moved a ‘keeper’ well you just might be familiar with this plight.  Things can slip away on you.  Things that you don’t want to loose, kind of like that silly ring! Enough of that now. We don’t have time for that story.  We are talking about something way more important, a seedling of incalculable importance.  When I stand next to it I become invisible ….hmmmm now that has a familiar, stop that!

Anyway if you move more than a plant or two sometimes you are not exactly sure where they landed. Not like the scarecrow, more like guess if the missing plant is behind door number 1 or number 2. Perhaps this coming summer it will show its pretty face again.

Sally Sue – who are you ?

It is not quite midnight, only 7 PM here in Cleveland.  One more post for the year.  And then to start all over next year.

So just who is Sally Sue ?  How about a purple daylily with a big green throat and not much of an eye zone.  She is from a cross between Starman’s Quest and  Emerald Starburst.  Her flower is 7.5 inches across carried on a 48 inch scape.

The height and the flower size come from Starman’s Quest.  The big green throat from Emerald Starburst.  Together they bring an interesting new flower to the garden.  One that will no doubt have lots of interesting children.   Stay tuned Sally Sue’s seeds will be planted this coming spring.  So while I am excited about 2012 tonight, somewhere in July of 2013 there should be even more excitement in the garden.

Thank you Sally Sue.  And thank you Kim !

Happy New Year.   And a great gardening year to us all.

11-0727-A and Thanksgiving

No it is not the code for Jean Valjean it is a number assigned to a daylily seedling.  It remains debatable the severity of that particular crime.  Try not to blame the daylily.

There are many daylilies in my garden.  Perhaps even more than there are weeds.  When one catches my attention it is usually flagged and given some sort of identification.  Nothing that would allow it to cross a border ( now there is some fodder for puns ) yet enough for me to stumble back and find it again.   And perhaps, just perhaps, rescue it from total chaos.

So 11-0727-A is a daylily that was first noted on July 27, 2011.  No doubt there was a second daylily noted and its suffix would be -B.   Perhaps some day it too will make the big time, or at least this blog.  For now it is the moment of 11-0727-A.

It is a beauty to be enjoyed.  To be held closely at times.  Yet not so closely, so it is free to be shared and enjoyed with others.

This next one has a number too.  And like Jean Valjean it has temporarily outwitted my pursuit.  It stands anonymous here at least.  There is a piece of paper and some scribbling and a flag with more scribbling that some day may pull this beauty from the brink of obsurity.  For today it will have to stand on its own, just like Jean Valjean  AKA 24601.  It can gladly shed its number.

So for these two and all of the other blessings of 2011, both with in the borders of the garden and in the larger aspects of our life let us give thanks.

What do you name a daylily ?

There is a daylily growing in the garden.  It cannot be ignored.  It stands there and it draws your attention.  It glows.  It lights up.  It might even have a red glare.

So what does one do ?   Is there a name that might be put to this daylily.  One that will truely do it justice ?

She Who Must Be Obeyed

 

Sometimes you decide to let someone else do the naming, sometimes ………

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I posted a picture of a Purple and White seedling.   Today you will get to see the parents.  One is a mostly solid purple flower with a darker purple eye.  The other is a lavender bloom with a yellow eye zone.   We will leave the mischievous bees and mother nature out of this formula for the moment.  Just think purple plus lavender…

First is Smoke Scream

pod parent of yesterday’s seedling

 

And this is Cerulean Star

pollen parent

They are both very nice in their own right.   And if you look below to yesterday’s post you can see the results of bringing the two together.

 

Rain rain again

It could be its a good thing.   All that rain.  I wish it would let up just a little.  Since the rain is keeping me out of the garden I might just as well take a look back at the bounty from this summer.

daylily seedling

Looking at this seedling – a cross of Smoke Scream and Cerulean Star I guess the rain is not all bad.

I am not back from the garden… quite yet

It gets dark earlier now.  So I do have to come in from the garden earlier now.

Though I doubt that will affect my ability to post more often.  The blooms are mostly gone and the seed pods are starting to ripen and burst open.  How many of those little black jewels will get away and fall to the garden on their own ?

That is part of the surprise.  A total blooming surprise that only the garden can answer…..

another small blooming wonder