Jeff and Elizabeth Salter's daylily garden

       I think the first time I met Jeff and Liz was over at Curt Hanson's daylily garden in July of 2000.  All of the big hybridizers in the area spoke very highly of Jeff and Elizabeth's daylily program. Steve Moldovan, Roy Woodhall, and Curt Hanson all grew a lot of the Salter introductions.  In the late 90's and beginning of 2000's the Salters were some of the first hybridizers to have a lot of gold edged daylilies introduced.  I'll never forget how excited I was to get the daylily Ed Brown and how easy it was to use.  The first time I got to go to Rollingwood gardens was in May of 2001.  It was incredible.  There were so many daylilies that were so far ahead of what everyone was introducing at the time.  I also have fond memories of sitting around over at Curt's place and listening to Jeff and Curt argue over who hybridized the great daylily, Ida's Magic over at Bill Munson's garden years ago.  As I understand it, Bill would let them go out and hybridize when they would visit and perhaps one of the many hybridizers that were allowed to cross made the cross that brought about Ida's Magic.  Who knows, but it was fun listening to the stories of how nice Wimberlyway gardens were and how incredible it was back in the day.  I never got to see it myself regrettably.   

     Fast forward to present tense, the Salters now live in Gainseville and have their gardens there now.  I guess the neighbors didn't like all the tour busses coming up the street back at the old house and it was part of the reason they decided to move north.  You would think the neighbors would have appreciated all the beautiful flowers, but it wasn't to be.  I try to see Jeff and Liz's daylilies about every other year.  In my eyes they are still some of the best hybridizers out there.  It's hard to point to one hybridizer and say he or she is the best, but the Salter's have my utmost respect. 

     On to the pictured daylilies.  At the very top, the toothy daylily featured is their new introduction, Chorus of Angels.  The photo just below it is their recent introduction, Emerald Dream.  What a nice green edge on Emerald Dream.  At the bottom of the page featured at the top is their recent introduction, Arabian Veil.  Right below that is Approach to Dramatics, and at the very bottom is their 2010 introduction, Small Town Hero.  If you are near Gainseville you have to see Jeff and Liz's stuff.  It is some of the very best.

    

Larry Grace's daylilies

      How can one not be a fan of Larry Grace's daylilies?  With his amazing introduction J.T. Davis, which won the stout medal, to countless other daylilies that were introduced through Frank Smith that Larry hybridized.  When one thinks of cutting edge daylilies, you think of Larry Grace's daylilies.  After Larry sold his program to Frank Smith, he still had the hybridizing bug and I'm sure the whole daylily world was happy to see Larry getting back into creating daylilies and introducing them again in 2009 for us to appreciate.  I believe it was in the spring of 2009 that Larry introduced his fabulous daylily, Angel's gather round, which I have a photograph taken in my garden posted at the very top of this page.  I bought Angel's gather round the year it came out and was not disappointed.  It was everything Larry wrote about in his description and more.  Green edged daylilies are one of my favorites to try and hybridize, and if you are trying to hybridize green edges, I strongly urge you to include Angels gather round in your selections.  I had never seen Larry's daylilies in person and in June of 2010 I was fortunate enough to go out to Larry's house and see his newest stuff.  I was blown away.  So many cool daylilies.  It was nice to see his current intros at the time and pictured right below Angels gather round at the top, is his 2010 intro Surrounded by love, which is out of Angels gather round.  Larry was very kind in showing me some of his newest seedlings and at the bottom of the page I have included several photographs of what you may see in the future.  I hope to be able to go visit Larry Grace down in Alabama again in the future.  It is no suprise almost his entire 2012 collection is almost completely sold out.  Hope you enjoyed these daylilies.

Dan and Jane Trimmer's daylily garden

      Of all the daylily hybridizers I've come in contact over the past 8 years down in Florida, Dan and Jane Trimmer have been some of the nicest folks I've had the pleasure of knowing.  Back when I placed my first order with the Trimmers, I would change my mind a lot before the order was dug.  I think the first year I called Dan and changed my order several times.  Dan was always very patient and made sure I got exactly what I wanted.  Over the years Dan has always been very helpful pointing me in the right direction with what fertilizers to use, showing me what works for him with his hybridizing, and even sitting down with me and talking to me a week after he had heart surgery.  That was very kind.  Some folks would have said come back some other time, but Dan could tell I was very eager to learn about daylilies. 

      I've really enjoyed the Trimmer's daylilies and wanted to include some pictures of some of my favorites today.  At the very top of the page is a row of Dan's 2011 intro, Sun Giant, a really cool patterned daylily.

  Right below it is Jane Trimmer's 2009 intro, Firebird Suite, which is a nice size bright, glowing orange/red daylily. At the bottom/top of the page is one of my favorite Dan Trimmer introductions from 2010, Calamity Jane. I set a lot of pods using Calamity Jane this past year.  At the very bottom is a photograph of Dan's patterned seedling out of Tet. Texas Kaleidiscope, which is featured inside in 2012 catalog.  When visiting Florida, you have to stop by and see the Trimmer's daylilies, perhaps the nicest folks in the daylily world.

Some notable Paul K. Lewis seedlings from this past year.

     Well, I decided to update my blog on Saturday this weekend since Sunday is a holiday.  I will be featuring 4 daylily seedlings of mine that I feel were standouts this past year. 

     The first one shown all the way at the top is a daylily I hope to call Luanne Tarro, after a good friend of mine who helped me immensely in a support group after the loss of my first wife.  The cross for Luanne Tarro is Wonder of it all X Keys to the Kingdom.  It was one of my two best seedlings last year.  A real show stopper in the garden.

     The second seedling which is the bottom photograph at the top of the page is a diploid.  It is a Rose Kennedy seedling.  In all the gardens I saw last year you could pick out all the Rose Kennedy seedlings.  Rose really stamps her look on all her seedlings.  I hope to introduce this seedling next year.  It will probably be limited.  By the way, I mostly breed tetraploids but I like to dabble with the dips.  I think every daylily garden should have it's share of both tetraploids and diploids. 

      Featured below at the top is seedling number 3.  Some years ago I asked Luddy Lambertson what daylilies were his best parents and at the time he suggested Awesome Artist.  It's no suprise it was one of two parents responsible for breeding this cool blue eyed daylily.  The cross is Awesome Artist X Linda Beck.

     Last but not least is a daylily out of Vertical Horizon.  My friend Dan Robards wanted to see this uniquely patterned seedling.  The cross is Vertical Horizon X Mrs. John Cooper.  As cool as the pattern is in the picture, I find that it doesn't show up every day.  It is heat dependent it seems.  I will reitterate what I have said in the past about patterns....it is still early in the evolution of patterns in daylilies.  I only have a single fan of this daylily, but hope to continue using it and hope to introduce it a couple of years.  

     That's it for this installment.  Here in Ohio we went from extremely warm conditions back to colder temps. We have had frost the past two nights.  Some daylilies look bad, where as others seem to be unaffected.  My friend Curt Hanson told me, "don't worry, daylilies are very tough perennials."

     He's right.  That's what we love about them.

Bill Waldrop's daylily garden.

     After reading my good friend Bill Waldrop's blog this past week and seeing a picture of his introduction, Kennesaw Mountain Hayride, I thought I would write about Bill's daylilies and how much I've come to enjoy his blog. 

      I believe Bill Waldrop introduced Kennesaw Mountain Hayride in 2008.  I seem to remember seeing an auction on the Lily auction for a plant of Kennesaw Mountain Hayride in the beginning of that year.  I was really blown away by the photograph, so I was fortunate enough to buy a plant of Kennesaw Mountain Hayride.  That June it bloomed for the first time and it was every bit as pretty as the photograph, so I spread it's pollen all over the garden.  I'm just beginning to see some seedlings bloom from Kennesaw Mountain Hayride, and I hope I have more photos to post this coming year.  As a result of looking at Bill's website, I found that he wrote a daylily blog and began following that.  That next winter Bill was showing through his blog how to treat a diploid with colchicine and convert it to be a tetraploid.  Now I have to say, prior to seeing Bill explain this on his blog, every hybridizer I approached asking to teach me how to convert diploids seemed to blow me off, or try to explain the process all at once without showing me.  It was as if they didn't want me to learn how it was done.  Perhaps.  I thought it was pretty cool that Bill Waldrop was sharing this information with everyone on his blog, going step by step how it's done.  Even showing his results and sometimes disappointments when a conversion didn't work.  That following June 2009, I had the good fortune to go out and meet Bill and Diana Waldrop with my wife Kyle.  What a lovely garden Bill and Diana have and what gracious hosts they both were.  Bill showed me the greenhouse and the photographs at the bottom of the page are of his future introduction, Marlee Jane,(which is out of Kennesaw Mountain Hayride) and his 2010 introduction, Irish Halo. The photographs at the top of the page were taken with Bill in his garden.  Following Bill's blog it has also been neat to not only see his new seedlings as they bloom, but I like that Bill shares pictures from his everyday life. I get a kick out of seeing what Sammy the cat brings back and leaves on the deck, and I'll never forget the snake that got into the greenhouse segment.  Anyway, if I lived somewhere in Georgia I would probably stop by and visit more often, but being up here in Ohio, reading Bill's blog is the next best thing.  If you are anywhere near Marietta, Georgia, especially during peak bloom, make sure you get a chance to see Bill's daylilies.  They are definitely some of the most cutting edge daylilies out there.  If you would like to visit Bill's website the address is http://www.kennesawmountaindaylilygardens.com/.  Hope you enjoyed this weeks entry.