Sometimes the work involved with daylily hybridizing can be demanding. I still have some seedlings that need to be lined out. It's really late in the season and this should have been done weeks ago. Why didn't I get them lined out? I ran out of space. So, I scratched my head....looked around, and figured the backyard was going to get a makeover. For many years I have kept my oldies, but goodies back there. They were daylilies that I fell in love with in the beginning of my hybridizing, and while they brought a smile to my face each bloom season, I no longer used them to cross with. My friend Curt Hanson has said to me many times, "if I'm not using a daylily to hybridize with, then why am I holding on to it?" Makes a lot of sense. If you are a hybridizer, space is usually at a premium, and I decided it was time to let go of these daylilies. I'm sure I will see them again in others gardens, but at the same time it was sort of bittersweet. It was as if I was saying goodbye to some old friends. For me daylilies give me that certain lift when it's bloom season that's hard to put into words. I've had some difficult times in my life and the one constant throughout my 13 years of daylily hybridizing is that there is something special about working with this incredible plant. Truly a passion for me and it has been a huge blessing in my life. That said, let me share a few pictures from today's work. At the very top of the page is a picture of the backyard area I dug to make room for more seedlings. The picture at the bottom of the page is a bunch of blooms of Blue Rhino. I know Blue Rhino would look much better, but I just had to show the picture because of the scape. Nice branching. It's been very cold and rainy lately and the blooms that are out there right now don't look normal. I'm sure Blue Rhino will look awesome next year. At the very bottom of the page is our side door garden, planted with a lot of mums. You know it's the end of the season when you are taking pictures of the mums in bloom. That's it for this week. Hope everyone is well.
