Happy Memorial Day!!!( Deer damage and crown rot!)

     Well, Happy Memorial Day to you all and a special thank you to all of you who have served in the military.  My Uncle Donald Campbell served under General Patton in World War 2 and I have always been very proud of that.  Uncle Don unfortunately passed away a year and a half ago, but I have fond memories of hearing his stories. 

     Back here in Northeast Ohio we seem to be in the middle of a pretty bad drought.  It hasn't rained here for about 3 weeks.  To add insult to injury the temperatures are in the 90's this weekend which is very unusual for Northeast Ohio.  We are usually in the 60's or 70's.  The ground has dried out and is cracked.  I've been doing my best to water the small yard I have.  As if that wasn't bad enough, I had a deer visit my garden and lucky for me it only hit a back area where I keep most of my older daylilies.  I have deer deterrents set up, but even those don't seem to stop the deer if they are determined to feed.  I use baggies from a company called Green Screen, and these plastic containers you mount on wire stakes which are suppose to work for the whole season.  I decided to add a third weapon to my arsenal.  I spread some Deer Scram granules around the daylilies that have thrown up scapes. (see picture of the deer damage at the top of the page.)

     The other thing I am beginning to see is crown rot.  Crown rot isn't usually that common and a fellow hybridizer said it is a weakness in certain daylilies.  There was one daylily, whose name I will not post, that got crown rot and died constantly.  I had two plants sent to me directly from the hybridizer and both died from crown rot.  This spring I have one daylily that is definitely showing signs of crown rot and just so happens to be a $200 daylily that I have coveted for some years now.  I bought it directly from the hybridizer, so I will email him if it dies completely.  If any of you have suggestions of what to do when a daylily is dieing from crown rot, I would love to hear your suggestions.  Most of my new spring daylilies are doing pretty well, but this early heat isn't helping.  I have featured a photo of the dieing daylily at the top of the page. 

      Also, I have had an early daylily bloom and I really love this daylily.  The name of the daylily is Dr. Marc C. Laroche from Jeff Corbett of California.  I posted a picture of it I took at Dan Trimmer's garden.  It has a nice eye, some sculpting, and from what I read in it's comments, it's a good parent for teeth.  I look forward to using it this year.  Well, hope you enjoyed my post.  Stay cool folks.

2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule!

     Well, it's been a weird season to say the least!  We had 80 degree temps in March. (nearly unheard of here in northeast Ohio.) An extremely dry April, and a warmer than average April and May.  Is this the new normal?  It's very strange.  Even stranger is the fact that the daylilies are starting to scape.  Usually this doesn't start here until June.  I have featured a photo at the very top of the page of a couple clumps starting to throw up scapes.  The photo right below it is of my front yard being watered.  I don't have an intricate sprinkling system....just a hose with an oscillating sprinkler attached to it.  For as small as my property is, it does the job.  In addittion to the daylilies scaping faster, they are growing faster.  Check out the photo at the top part of the bottom of the page.  The seedlings planted along the fence were just lined out there last fall.  To have that much increase in such a short amount of time is amazing for us here in Ohio.  I wouldn't be suprised to see some throw scapes.  Bloom in one year.....hey, this isn't Florida!  Finally at the very bottom is a photograph of the damage a raccoon did to one of my deer preventative baggies.  The baggies are made by a company called Green Screen.  They are pretty good at keeping deer away, but not 100%. They are filled with meat meal powder and the damn raccoons love to tear them down and eat up what's inside.  It's a tough battle to grow daylilies, but the rewards are worth it. 

      Finally I just wanted to mention that I spent some time over at Roy Woodhall's today with some other friends including Wayne Listkowski, Dan Robards, and John Hric.  Wayne, Dan, and John did the lion's share of weeding a main bed at the Moldovan gardens.  I showed up late, so I was of little help.  I think what I enjoyed the most was sitting around and talking about Moldovan daylilies with the group.  Dan Robards brought along a patterned seedling that was out of this world.  I wish I had a photograph of it, but I didn't bring my camera.  Sensational job Dan!  Maybe Dan will email me a few pics of his seedlings because I think he's gonna have some incredible introductions in the future!  Hope you all had a nice weekend!

New daylily seedling

     Well, the weather here in Ohio has been gradually getting better and it's been a real busy week juggling my two jobs and trying to weed the garden.  Anyway, I received an email from my friend Bill Waldrop with a photo of a daylily seedling out of my 2012 introduction A.D. Lewis.  A photo of A.D. Lewis is featured at the top of the page.  I know to most it just looks like another tall dark red daylily, but I assure you when you see it in person it does tend to catch your eye as you look across the garden.  Bill's photo of the seedling is featured at the bottom of the page.  I like how A.D. Lewis passed on it's dark red color to the seedling.  It will be exciting to see the daylily in person someday at Bill Waldrop's

place.  Nice work Bill!

Great garden shots

      Well, in all the time I have been going to look at daylilies I have seen some incredible gardens.  There is nothing quite like a daylily garden at peak bloom.  Instead of showing you individual daylilies this week from one hybridizer or another, I thought I would show you some nice garden shots I have taken over the years. Today's post may be a little short, because of all the daylilies I've had to plant lately, combined with a busy work schedule.  I'm about to turn 49 this month, and while I'm not exactly old.....some days my body just lacks the energy I might have had in my youth. 

       O.k., so at the very top is one of my favorite daylily gardens, Floyd Cove, now owned by Guy and Karen Pierce.  That photo was taken in 2010.  Right below it is a local AHS display garden called Rock Bottom Farms, located in Middlefield, Ohio.  At the bottom located at top is a picture I took in Steve Moldovan and Roy Woodhall's garden.  That photo was taken in 2009.  Below that photo is a nice garden shot of my friend, Curt Hanson's garden during peak bloom in 2010.  Hope you enjoyed the photos.