With the warmer than normal spring and the extremely dry conditions it seems like the bugs are really bad this year and the bloom is ahead of schedule by one to two weeks. The plant habit seems to be all screwed up, with bud counts and branching nothing like it usually is. Getting back to the bugs...it seems that some daylilies are really badly affected, having buds falling off even before maturing, where as others are unaffected. My good friend and mentor Steve Moldovan used to say we should never spray daylilies for insects, because we want to see how the daylily performs in everyday conditions. I've focused my hybridizing on using the daylilies that seem to be doing the best under these stressfull conditions. That is the other frustrating aspect of this years daylily season, there are fewer pods setting. I think the daylilies are so stressed out that they can't handle the additional stress of being crossed on. Some daylilies that I would consider pod studs aren't setting on at all. This is very strange. I have been doing a fairly good job of watering too. I am afraid to see what my water bill will be in a month or so. Anyway let's get on to some pictures.
I was having some problems with birds landing on scapes and flowers messing up pollen, so pictured at the very top you can see I have a bobbing head plastic owl on a stake. I think it scared the birds away for a day, but now they fly right over it. I'm thinking it was a mistake anyway as the birds are trying to control the insect population, which is out of control this year.
The picture right below it is Dan Hansen's Robin Lee, which has been an amazing daylily in my garden. Incredible scapes, huge flowers, and it seems unaffected by all the stress. The picture at the bottom of the page is Pat Stamile's Awesome Prism, which in my eyes is the best of the Tet. Malachite stuff.
The picture at the middle bottom is Frank Smith's Dale Hensley, which has been my favorite red tet. this year and last year. The picture at the very bottom is a diploid seedling of mine I affectionately call Tavern on the Green, due to it's nice green throat. (unintroduced at this point.) Well, that's the latest. It's been frustrating this year. Too hot and too dry.
