Moldovan Gardens power point presentation "A pattern to success."

     My good friend Mike Holmes recently posted an old Moldovan Gardens power point presentation called, "A pattern to success" on Facebook.  I asked Mike if it would be alright if I posted some of these pictures on my blog, and he said of course.  I love how these slides show when using ones own lines you can create some really amazing results.  I am only going to show the progression up through Steve's introduction Piece of Sky.  I am currently using Piece of Sky, but I haven't bloomed any seedlings from it. I enjoy using Piece of Sky, because I like to think about all the years of Steve's hybridizing that went into that flower, and what an honor it is to be able to use it today.  Here is the presentation below:

                                          VERTICAL HORIZON (Steve Moldovan) X

                                           DIGITAL IMAGERY (Tony Slanec) =

                                           PIECE OF SKY (STEVE MOLDOVAN)
                                   S436-00: (Vertical Horizon X Digital Imagery)

This is my picture of Piece of Sky taken last year in my garden.  I will be exciting to see what I get from Piece of Sky in the future.  Hope you enjoyed this slide presentation.  Special thanks for Mike Holmes for sharing this with me.  Spring is here.  Looking forward to the beginning of another season.  Happy gardening to you all.

Deer problems in the daylily garden.

   

    Ever since I've lived in Northeast Ohio and grown daylilies, I've always had problems with the deer eating them.  They will come in and clear cut hundreds and hundreds of daylily buds at one time. (see image at top of page)  They will show up at night when I am asleep and unable to chase them away, or they will show up when I am at work.  They seem to remember where they feed and they will continue to come back unless you figure out how to repel them.  Now I've tried just about everything from using bars of Irish Spring soap, to placing human hair around the garden, and even trying predator urine, but none of these worked very well.  As I've found from researching this subject, you can't use just one thing.  You have to use a combination of products.  Below I will outline what has worked the best for me. 

Green Screen baggies.  (you usually get 20 baggies in a box, cost around $20)  You hang these baggies on stakes around your garden.  This was the first deer deterrent that I used that worked well.  They are good for the entire season and if you really want to protect a specific daylily, try putting a tomato cage over it and hanging baggies at different heights. 

Deer Scram deer repellent.  This is a granular repellent that you have to spread around the area that you want the deer to avoid.  You have to re apply after it rains.  I like to go over an area repeatedly until a barrier is created.  I don't find the smell offensive, but the deer can't stand it.  It is one of the best products I have used in repelling the deer.  (cost for a small container: $20)

Nite Guard Solar lights.  Since deer tend to feed at night, I found this product to be especially helpful.  It is a flashing red light that is charged up during the day by the sun.  The red light flashes at night.  You can place them on stakes around the entrances to your garden.  The deer are confused by the red light thinking that it is a predator and avoid that area.  I find that neighbors think it is a security system and hopefully it will repel burglars as well.  (cost for a single light: $25)

Scarecrow sprinklers.  This is a sprinkler that is connected to a hose.  It has a motion detector on it.  When the deer approach the area where they want to feed, the sprinkler is activated and scares the deer away.  I have not used this product yet, but hope to this season. Some of my friends that grow daylilies have reported that it works well for them.  (cost for product: around $50) 
Well, that just about sums up the products I use to combat the deer problem here.  I think last year I only lost 3 buds to the deer.  That's pretty good considering how fast the deer population is growing in Northeast Ohio.  There are other products that are good as well, but I find that these above have worked the best.  You can purchase most of these on Ebay, or by Googling the name.  Hope this helps you get some relief from the deer.
 

NUT GRASS......The dreaded grass you can't get rid of.

      Better known as Yellow Nut sedge.  Oh, it's a pain to get out.  I wanted to throw out my 2 cents on my experiences so far with nut grass.  In my backyard I have a really bad nut grass problem.  I asked some friends on Facebook what they suggest.  The best advice I got was once the nut grass is up if it before June 21st, spray it with Sedgehammer Herbicide.  If it is after June 21st, use Dismiss Herbicide.  For me when I decided to treat the nut grass it was after June 21st, so I chose Dismiss.  At the top of the page is what my backyard looked like before.  In the pictures below you can see how well Dismiss worked.  Now, I still have to wait until next year to see my results.  I am hopeful that it took out most of the nut grass, but we'll see.  I also posted pictures of both Sedgehammer and Dismiss below.  You can buy either one on Ebay.  DO NOT SPRAY EITHER CHEMICAL ON THE DAYLILY FOLIAGE.

This was after my first treatment of Dismiss.

You can see most of the nut grass started to yellow the first week.

This picture above was taken in October at the end of the season.  Hoping the nut grass does not come back.  We will see this coming May.

My Friend, Roy Woodhall

     Last month my friend, Roy Woodhall passed away.  I will miss Roy a great deal.  For the past 15 years I have known Roy Woodhall.  Visiting Steve and Roy in the months of July and August was always something I would look forward to.  After Steve's passing, Roy made sure that I got some of Steve's best daylilies to work with including Steve's namesake daylily, Gaudeamus, Piece of Sky, Mahdi, and many others.  Roy was famous for describing his daylily hybridizing as a blind squirrel finding a nut, but I think the thing that I will remember more than anything else about Roy was how unselfish he was.  If we can all be a little more like Roy Woodhall, the world would be a better place.  I will miss you my friend. 

 

Red tetraploid daylilies from the summer of 2014.

     I almost feel as if I should have been putting these pictures up around the holidays since the color red reminds me so much of that time of year.....and maybe that's why I love the color red in daylilies so much.  I looked over my introductions since I started introducing daylilies 4 or 5 years ago and every year I have had at least one red tetraploid daylily introduction. 
     When I think back over the years which reds I first fell in love with, I'd have to say the very first one that peaked my interest was Lusty Lealand hybridized by Virginia Peak, back in 1970.  I saw it at a local daylily garden called Rock Bottom Farms in Middlefield, Ohio back in 1999.   As I got more into hybridizing, some of Van Seller's reds really got my attention, including his daylilies, Bill Fall and Sound of Cannons.  I still grow both of these reds and enjoy them every season.  Since I lived close by to Curt Hanson, I got to see a variety of reds that he grew.  He had a nice assortment of David Kirchhoff's reds.  David was good friends with Curt, and every year he would come to visit I got a good chance to pick David's brain about his favorite reds.  Some earlier Kirchhoff reds that were my favorites included Kent's Favorite Two, Leonard Bernstein, Power Lipstick, and Betty Ford.  Fast forwarding to present tense, I would consider David's reds to be in a class all their own. I like to call David Kirchhoff the king of reds, but it wouldn't be fair to not consider David a great hybridizer of many different types of daylilies.  His newest reds are incredible.  My favorites are Barbara Mandrell, Cardinal Kisses, Fabulous Frieda, and Mary Baker.  In recent years I have found another hybridizer who has introduced some really cool reds in Dale Hensley.  Dale's Sips of Sin and Heartless are among some of my favorites.  Well, here's some pictures of those reds from this past season.  Pictured at the top of the page are David Kirchhoff's Cardinal Kisses and Larry Grace's Ultimate Sacrifice right below it.

Pictured above is Barbara Mandrell (David Kirchhoff)

Pictured above is Mary Baker (David Kirchhoff)

Pictured above is Sister Valerie (David Kirchhoff)

Pictured above is Italian Riviera (David Kirchoff)

Pictured above is Sips of Sin (Dale Hensley)

Pictured above is my introduction, K.J. MacRitchie.

Pictured above is my introduction, A.D. Lewis.

Pictured above is Heavenly United We Stand (Jamie Gossard)

Pictured above is Tavares Towering Inferno (Pete Harry)

Pictured above is a seedling my friend Bill Waldrop hybridized using my A.D. Lewis,
which is a very nice parent I might add.

One last sad note to end this post.  I found out my friend Roy Woodhall passed away this past weekend.  I will miss Roy a great deal.  He was a good friend to me over the years and I owe a lot to Roy and Steve Moldovan for all they taught me.  Rest in peace my friend.







 

Applique patterns.

     Happy holidays to all my daylily friends.  Hope you are enjoying your day today.  Here in Cleveland, Ohio we have temperatures near 40 degrees and no snow on the ground.  A green xmas if you will.....which I love!  Last winter was brutal, so this December has been a nice reprieve. 
     Let's move on to one of my favorite subjects.....applique patterned daylilies.  Purple daylilies have always been a favorite of mine to hybridize with.  Maybe that's because all of the hybridizers in my immediate area are some of the leaders in purple tetraploid breeding, including Steve Moldovan and Curt Hanson.  Back in the early 2000's I was growing Bill Munson's Voltaire and Curt Hanson let me have some pollen from a Jeff Salter daylily called Premier Surprise.  I was just crossing a purple with a purple, not considering the fact that both had applique throats.  The result was a seedling I affectionately called the "Star" seedling.  The throat had a star shaped applique throat, hence the garden name, Star.  I brought the first bloom over to Curt Hanson since I was so blown away by it's appearance.  He grabbed his camera and took a picture and featured it in his slide presentation when he showed his program in previous years
.  I really appreciated his support.  I later introduced it as Millennium Falcon in 2011.  You can see a picture of Millennium Falcon in my profile area.  I am currently completely sold out, but I know that both Rich Howard of Connecticut sells it as well as Luddy Lambertson.  My number one parent bar none, if you are breeding for applique patterned tet. seedlings.  Don't be fooled by it's short size.  While it is a front of the border daylily, all of it's seedlings are in the 27 to 30 inch range.  So, today I wanted to show you a couple of seedlings from Millennium Falcon and some other applique daylilies which I have come to enjoy.
     At the very top of the page is a collection of blooms from this past season.  The appliqued daylily is Everyday Butterfly from Clyde Grammon.  I just got Everyday Butterfly this season and am excited to use it in the coming years.  The other daylilies in the photograph include from left to right, Tavares Towering Inferno (Harry), Ay Papi (Harry), Tet. Cosmic Kaliedoscope, Expanding Galaxy (Smith), Dragonfly Tattoo (Trimmer).

The daylily pictured above is Han Solo (Lewis), which is out of a cross of Millennium Falcon and Catcher in the Eye (Kinnebrew).

Here is a photo of Lavender Echoes (Trimmer) and Han Solo (Lewis).  You can see how large Lavender Echoes is next to Han Solo.

Above is a photo of a Millennium Falcon seedling.  It is out of a cross involving Spacecoast Behaviour Pattern.

Pictured above is a seedling out of Millenium Falcon which has some sculpting.

Pictured above is another of my seedlings....this one out of Pat Stamile's Applique.

Pictured above is Jeff Salter's Quiet Riot.

Pictured above is Pat Stamile's Racing the Moon.

Pictured above is Dan Hansen's Fins to the Left, a very large flower that occasionally shows some teeth.

Pictured above is Bob Selman's Alien DNA, a very good parent.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this installment.  Have a wonderful holiday.  Hope to post more
in the new year, so stay tuned.  Merry Christmas to you all!

2015 Introductions are up!

      Well, looks like winter has come early in northeast Ohio, so since I have a little extra time on my hands this morning I thought I would post pictures of my newest introductions on my blog.  I am only introducing 4 daylilies this year.  I've been pairing back the amount of daylilies I grow from other hybridizers (no offense to any of them) so that I can grow more of my seedlings.  Here are my 4 introductions for this year.  Tavern on the Green is the only one that is currently sold out and is featured at the top of this page.  Tavern on the Green is a DIPLOID.  I don't introduce many diploids, but this flower is outstanding.  It is out of Jack Carpenter's Our Friend Sally and Lee Gates daylily Evelyn Gates.  I had it guested with Mark Sattelmeier in Florida and some noted hybridizers saw it and wanted it immediately.  Larry Grace was one who already has a plant and I'm hoping he's converted it.  I would love to see the tet. flowers that Tavern on the Green could produce.  I don't have any seedling pictures from Tavern on the Green at this point only because I sent it off to be guested the year it bloomed.  Hopefully next year I will see some first blooms.  To see all these introductions, log on to my website at www.47daylilies.com.

Pictured above is my first yellow introduction Obi Wan Kenobi.  Yellow is a difficult color for me to hybridize because it is one of my favorite colors in daylilies.  My friend Curt Hanson has hybridized many incredible yellows and it helps me decide what to keep and what to compost by seeing what he chooses to introduce.  Obi Wan Kenobi has that great green throat that really catches your attention.  It also has a lot of buds which extend the bloom season.  I don't have much to sell as it is very limited.

Pictured above is a daylily I named for our local Cleveland, Ohio weatherman Dick Goddard.  Dick has been doing the weather for 40 years now.  He has always been a very dependable forecaster and never one to over sensationalize his predictions.  The thing I like about the daylily Dick Goddard is on occasion it shows a pattern.  Most days it has a nice bluish eye on a light purple flower.  Easy to use setting pods without any work.  Very limited at this point as I have only one plant left.

















My last introduction for 2015 is Bellagio, pictured above.  I looked back over all the years I have introduced daylilies and every year I have introduced a red daylily.  I would have to say Bellagio is my best red tet. intro to date.  It has this fantastic red color.  Probably tied for best plant habit with my 2012 introduction, K.J. MacRitchie, and is a very easy pod setter once established.  I look forward to seeing more of it's offspring this coming year.  Another very limited daylily that I only have one plant left of.  Hope you enjoyed seeing more pictures of my introductions.  I hope to feature more pictures in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.