Curt Hanson's daylily, "Up on the roof."

     Having lived two doors down from Curt Hanson from 2000 till 2008, has enabled me to see his daylily hybridizing up close, and probably annoy the heck out of Curt when I would drop by quite frequently during the daylily season.  Curt is a good guy for putting up with me for all of these years.  I think I have learned a lot by just watching how Curt goes about his hybridizing.  One of the things that Curt emphasizes in his daylilies is that it must have good plant habit.  The Curt Hanson daylily I am featuring today, "Up on the roof," has stellar plant habit.  I'm sure you've heard of the expression, "that daylily is branched like an oak tree."

     Well, "Up on the roof," fits this description to a "T!"  Just take a look at the picture at the top of the page, taken in Curt's garden in the summer of 2010.  Introduced in 2007, "Up on the roof,"  is from the cross of "Women Seeking Men X Worlds Collide."  Curt lists the height at 53 inches.  When you visit Curt's Crintonic Gardens in Gates Mills, Ohio, the first daylily you notice as you walk through the gate is "Up on the roof." It sports 5 way candelabra branching and is easily fertile both ways.  I have included two photos taken in my garden.  I am excited to see what the offspring look like in the coming years.  Curt already has one introduction from "Up on the roof" called "Building the Colossus," introduced this past year.  You owe it to yourself to include this daylily in your collection.  I look forward to featuring more daylilies that performed well in my garden in the coming weeks.  I hope you enjoy seeing some color during the dull winter months.

Joel Thomas Polston's daylily garden

     The same weekend we visited Jamie Gossard's and Mike and Sandy Holmes, we also went down

 near Dayton, Ohio to visit Joel Thomas Polston's daylily garden.  It was a nice sunny day, and as you can see from the top picture, Joel has some beautiful Clydesdale horses.  My wife Kyle is pictured above getting acquainted with them.  Joel showed us his daylily collection and there were some really nice toothy daylilies just about everywhere.  I included two pictures of my favorite daylilies of the day.  The bottom left one is seedling 09-JTP-32T out of Red Ragamuffin, and the bottom right one is seedling 08-JTP-18-T, which is a seedling out of Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding.  Very nice daylilies.  Joel was very kind in showing us his daylilies and we enjoyed our visit.

Mike and Sandy Holmes daylily garden.

      Well, here we are in January and I wake up to temps in the single digits.  At least the sun is out today....something you don't see much of in Cleveland, Ohio in January.  Anyway, it only seemed fitting to share some pictures of Mike and Sandy Holmes daylily garden after just writing a piece about Jamie Gossard's garden since they are located so close together.  I believe both gardens will be on the garden tour for the big conference this summer.

       I believe the first time I met Mike and Sandy was at Steve Moldovan's place one summer.  Steve and Roy needed help getting a seedling bed dug, and I was wanting to help to gain some experience, while being able to help Steve do some work that was difficult for him.  Mike and Sandy were there that day, along with Bill Chambers, another friend of Steve and Roy's.  It was a difficult undertaking, but having everyone working together made it a little less taxing.  I remember the hardest thing was tearing up the rolls of black weed fabric that had been there for some time.  At the end of the day, Steve was nice enough to give me a plant of his great purple, Vatican City in exchange for my work.  I thought that was worth every ounce of effort.  Going forward in the years to come I would bump into Mike and Sandy at Moldovan's gardens and it was always nice to catch up with them about their hybridizing.  I finally had some time this summer to get down to the Columbus, Ohio area and after visiting Jamie Gossard's gardens, I proceeded over to Mike and Sandy's place.  Wow, what a cool location for a garden.  You can see from the top photograph how beautiful it is.  The daylilies you see in the front of the photograph are Banana Smoothie (very tall yellow), and Voracious Vixen. (lavender) I might also mention that you can also see daylilies hybridized by Kimberly McCutcheon there as well.  The daylilies I have photographed below are Sandy's introduction, Martha Lowry (top photograph) named for her mother, and the bottom photograph is a Mike Holmes toothy seedling.(bottom photograph) I don't have the information as to who the parents are for the Mike Holmes seedling, because I was taking a ton of photographs of so many nice seedlings in Mike's fields.  Perhaps Mike can give us the details in the comment section.  Mike and Sandy are a pleasure to talk to and some of the nicest people you will meet in the daylily world.  Make sure you stop to see their daylilies this summer if you get the chance. 

Jamie Gossard's garden.

     About a year ago in late July, Lebron James anounced to the world that he was taking his talents to South Beach.  Me, being a big Cleveland sports fan was crushed.  I asked my wife, Kyle if she would go down the next day to see Jamie Gossard's garden to which she agreed.  The following day it was pouring rain, and Kyle had a terrible migraine headache.  In spite of that, she went with me on the 2 and 1/2 hour drive down to Columbus, Ohio.  I love my wife dearly.  She has gone with me to a bunch of daylily gardens in rain and in sun.  Even had a brief encounter with a rat snake as she walked into one nursery in Florida.  Scared her half to death.  We laugh about it today.  Anyway, the first time we went to Jamie Gossards it was pouring rain non stop.  Jamie did his best to show me a few things, but it was just raining too hard.  We decided to try and go back down this year....and wouldn't you know it, it was raining again.  Lucky for me, it was a passing shower and by the time we got down there it had cleared up.  Jamie gave me full tour this time.  The toothy daylily I have pictured above is a really cool toothy daylily that Jamie calls "Sun 1," for now.  I was really impressed with the size of the teeth.  The photograph below is his introduction, "Heavenly Pink Fang."  I am really impressed with H.P.F.'s color.  Steve Moldovan was a big color guy and that was one thing we always saw eye to eye on.  H.P.F. has outstanding color and the teeth are very prominent.  The other thing I like about H.P.F. is it's consistency.  Every bloom looks good from the first to the last.  I believe Jamie said the big conference is in Columbus this year and anyone on the tour should really enjoy seeing Jamie's daylilies.  The thing I enjoyed the most about visiting Jamie's garden is he has such a wide range of daylilies.  From some of the best toothy daylilies, to some spectacular UFO's, and some really cool patterned daylilies.  If you are visiting Ohio, don't miss out on your chance to see Jamie's place.

Kinnebrew's daylily garden visit

  Another one of my favorite visits when I go down to Florida, is to visit John Kinnebrew's daylily garden. I have been very impressed with some of the new toothy stuff I saw in the seedling beds.  Let me say that John Jr. has always been very generous with showing me his introductions and seedlings and is always happy to share information about his daylilies.  The two daylilies I want to feature are from his seedlings.  The top photograph is a seedling out of Jamie Gossard's Heman.  The bottom seedling is from a cross of Spacecoast Behavior Pattern X Regal Fantasy.  Regal Fantasy is a Jeff Salter daylily.  I have to say I was very impressed by the size of the toothy Heman seedling.  You can see John Jr.'s hand behind it as a way to gauge how big the bloom is.  Always an enjoyable visit to Kinnebrews daylilies.

Some cool Lambertson daylilies.

     It's a nice sunny day here in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.  All the snow has melted and you can see the grass, which is very unusual for January weather.  Heck, I'll take it.  I wanted to post a couple of Luddy Lambertson daylilies I photographed this past summer at his place.  The top photograph is a seedling.  I do not know the parentage, but I sure loved the teeth.  The bottom photograph I think is his new intro, Blue-breasted Bee eater.  I sure love Luddy's blue eyed program.  Great job Luddy!!!

2012 is here!!!

  

Well, my daylily friends, 2012 is here.  Where I live, we are in a lake effect snow area and over the past couple of days 7 inches of fresh snow has fallen here.  Temps are in the low 20's, single digits if you factor in the wind chill effect.  It's January in Cleveland, Ohio, not my favorite time of the year, but it is the beginning of a new year.  Anyway, one of my hopes with my blog is to show you daylilies that I see as I travel across the country each year.  I thought I would start out the year by featuring photographs of two seedlings I saw at Guy Pierce's garden taken this past June.  The top photograph is seedling 96-821T838.  It was definitely one of my favorites that day.  I do not know what the parents are, but I can tell you I will be excited to buy it when Guy introduces it.  The bottom photograph is seedling 819.  The parents of the bottom photograph are Bass Gibson X Eight Miles High.  What incredible teeth on both daylilies!  Great job Guy!  In the coming weeks and months I will feature more pictures of daylilies from around the country, and those that bloomed in my garden this past summer.  I hope you enjoy them and happy new year to you all!