Winter's first snow

     Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!  I spent Thanksgiving at my wife's families house and boy did they put out a spread.  I also have been busy with the last leaf clean ups this past week, and of course my favorite thing to do in late fall......plant daylily seeds.  Usually I'm planting seeds in 30 to 40 degree temps, with winds gusting so hard it sometimes has blown the seeds right out of my hands.  It's always a last minute rush here because our climate changes so fast in November that sometimes you don't get all your seeds planted in time.  I still have some seeds left to plant, but I was very fortunate this past week.  Temps were in the 50's, it was sunny, and there was no wind.  Almost too nice to believe.  Then of course this weekend everything went back to normal.  It was a lake effect snow event, but fortunately the snowfall was very light. Check out the pictures above and below.  You can see how many crosses I got planted this week.  You'll also notice some of the tags have labels, and some are just written on with permanent marker.  The tags that have labels are recycled tags that I could salvage from seedlings that didn't make the cut.  The ones with marker are brand new and I can get more seeds planted with the brand new tags, but unfortunately it is getting more costly to buy tags these days.  It will be interesting to see how many germinate next spring.

Next week I hope to post some daylily pictures of my 2013 introductions.  I will be introducing 5 daylilies. I have been busy writing the descriptions and emailing the pictures being used.  Hope you all are having a nice weekend.       

Still working on planting seeds

     Well my friends,...unfortunately last Sunday I had to work at my part time job and I was pretty tired when I came home, so I did not get to write an entry in my blog.  I am still trying to bring my landscaping season to a close, working part time delivering pizzas, and hoping to get my seeds either in the ground and in some containers.  I took a lot of pictures around the yard today so let me share what is going on. Let's start with the very top picture, which is of containers in my garage.  I find that the crosses that are the most important to me do the best started in these containers.  I use a combination of potting soil, some cow manure, and some pebbles at the bottom.  Daylily seeds don't like wet feet, in fact it will kill them.  I've seen some of my friends start ALL their seeds in seed trays, and that may be what's best for their set ups.  I find that with the containers I can get more fertilizer directly into the roots and seedlings grow faster since they are being watered almost daily during the peak of summer.  The photo right below it is of all the seedlings I lined out in the backyard where I shoveled 4 yards of fresh top soil.  They seem to be doing well.  At the bottom of the page you can see a photo of my front yard.  We've probably had about 4 to 5 frosts and the daylilies are starting to lean over some.  The middle picture is of Jack Carpenter's Fire on the Mountain, which appears to be going completely dormant.  The bottom picture is the main area where I plant my seeds.  I try and pick an area that is well drained, that gets sunlight all day, and is easy to access.  This area was perfect.  Believe me, I've had several bad attempts in previous years of locating areas for seeds.  One year I had planted all my seeds out by a barn with no drainage and I swear none of my seeds germinated.  Lesson learned.  Anyway, hope you folks are enjoying the good weather and have a happy Thanksgiving!

My visit to Moldovan gardens this summer.

     I stopped out to visit Roy Woodhall this past July.  I got to see some of Steve's last seedlings in bloom, which were truly amazing.  Steve made these crosses in July of 2006, the year he passed away.  Roy and a good friend, Wayne L. found a nice spot in the backyard and lined out Steve's last crosses. I saw the blooms last year and was really blown away, and they even looked better this year.  All I have written down are seedling numbers at this point, but I thought I would post what I considered the 4 best blooms.  The one at the very top is out of Digital Imagery, I'm pretty sure.  The toothy one at the bottom is either out of Buzz Saw or See me, feel me, touch me. (the toothy one was my personal favorite.) I hope you enjoy these blooms and hopefully we will see these introduced in the years to come.  Steve and Roy's daylilies continue to amaze me.   By the way, we got hammered with rain everyday last week.  Cleveland lost some power, but it was nothing compared to what happened along the east coast.  Thoughts and prayers go to those folks.