Season winds down, but I still have rebloom!

     I'm still planning on writing more about the late season winners, but I have had enough rebloom that I figured you'd rather see some pics of that.  Let me start out by saying that it's still been hot and dry here in Ohio.  We've had a total of 27 ninety plus temperature days this season.  The record is 34.  That's a record I would prefer to leave unbroken.  I'm a northern boy and love the milder temps.  I've been gathering a lot of seed lately.  Seed pods are cracking left and right.  Still down from last year in terms of the amount of seeds made. I've been lining out a few seedlings in my best seedling bed.  The reason I call it my best bed is because the seedlings mature very fast in that bed.  I see bloom in exactly one year, which is almost unheard of here in Ohio.  I try and put my best stuff there.  Anyway, here's the rundown on the photos.  The very top photo is of Rose Sensation from Pat Stamile, looking down my driveway at my best seedling bed.  I mix in some named daylilies in that bed now and then because of space constraints.  The second picture down is my seedling Pathway to Paradise X Best Edge, which I showed last week.  It's planted in front of a couple of seedlings just lined out.  At the top of the bottom of the page is Dale Hensley from Frank Smith.  What a beautiful red it is.  At the very bottom of the page you will see one of my favorite daylilies, Spectral Elegance, which is shot in a vase.  I had to bring the bloom inside for my wife to enjoy as well.  Spectral Elegance is a Pat Stamile daylily.  It is on rebloom right now and every flower is incredible.  Hope you enjoy the blooms folks!

The bloom season continues.

       Well, it ain't over yet.  In fact I have some seedlings planted along the fence and some are throwing their first scapes which is kinda cool this late in the season.  I was going to write about more of the late season bloomers, but I think I'll save that for next week and feature some more of the new stuff in bloom around here.  At the top of the page you can see I have dug out a large portion of the seedlings in the front yard.  You will also notice we have our house up for sale.  It's kinda tricky trying to sell a house with a yard full of daylilies out front.  If I had my druthers, I'd rather have them all transplanted somewhere else, and have grass there, but my wife and I have found that we can't buy another house until we sell this one first.  Anyway, the picture below it is of all the scapes I pulled and put on a tarp.  That is always a back breaking job, but the front yard looks better without the dead scapes sticking up.  At the top of the bottom of the page is a seedling of mine from the cross of Pathway to paradise X Best Edge.  Nice thick gold edge that opened well.  The middle picture at the bottom of the page is Rose Sensation a nice flower from Pat Stamile, and the picture at the very bottom is Carpenter's Summer Snowball.  It's still hot and dry here in Ohio.  Hoping for some rain and cooler temps.  Have a nice week folks.

Some of my favorite late season daylilies.

     Was out digging the reject seedlings again today.  I've been lucky two weekends in a row having temps in the 60's and 70's with overcast conditions.  I'm starting to make a little headway.  Anyway on to one of my favorite subjects....the late season of daylily bloom.  We always refer to peak bloom in the daylily world as the time when most all of our daylilies are in bloom.  It is a wonderful time, no doubt, but when we would get past that season, there used to be a month of just looking at our seed pods and dried up scapes...not anymore.  I feel very fortunate to be located so close to Curt Hanson and have had the luxury of seeing his daylilies at all times of the year.  Those of you who don't know Curt probably aren't aware of what wonderful late season daylilies he's hybridized in recent years, but I am here to open your eyes to some of his best tonight.  At the very top of the page is The Dream Society.  This is a welcome color addittion to the late season which is dominated by yellows and golds.  The Dream Society is this wonderful shade of blue purple.  Right below it is his pink daylily Long Live Love.  I don't have a photograph handy, but let me tell you this daylily in branched like an oak tree.  Both daylilies are pollen and pod fertile and I would consider them to be in the "very late" season category.  At the top of the bottom of the page is a clump shot of Curt's Afterglow of Love, which has been stealing the show out at the front of my property.  And below that is an old favorite called Sandra Elizabeth, hybridized by Don Stevens back in 1983.  I hope to feature a few more lates in my next installment.  Thanks for checking in.

Time to dig the reject seedlings and some late season bloom.

       Well, thank goodness for a very timely cool down complete with a good dousing of rain.  It just so happened that I had to start digging my reject seedlings.....of which there are plenty to dig.  The temps dipped down into the 60's and 70's and it was over cast.  Ideal temps for digging for long stretches of time.  It is hard labor, no getting around that.  I've heard of some hybidizers roto tilling their rejects.  I get that this might be a simpler way to get it taken care of, but I'm still only 49 and I've seen my old neighbor Curt Hanson, who I believe is in his 60's, digging a seedling field larger than mine in 90 degree temperatures.  Watching how hard Curt works inspires me to work harder.   So today I got a large portion of the front yard dug.  You can see in the picture at the very top of the page, the beginnings of my digging.  The picture right below it is of some pods I set on Dan Hansen's Robin Lee.  It's extremely fertile.  If you get a chance to get Robin Lee, don't pass it up.  It's a very impressive rose red daylily. 

      The late season has begun in my garden.  Most of my daylilies are bloomed out, so it is nice to see the lates doing their thing.  I decided to post one of the nicer lates.  In the middle of the page is Curt Hanson's Sky Captain.  Lovely TALL pink tet. with a nice long bloom season.  On the lower right I had to post a seedling of mine.  The cross is Linda Agin's Bitten Agin X James Townsend's Silver Shark.  I bought the seeds for this seedling on auction and am surprised to see such a unique flower bloom from the cross.  I believe this seedling is blooming out of season because it is a one year old seedling.  On the lower left is Pat Stamile's Crowning Fire.  Wow, what a great red!  It is on it's re bloom scape right now.  I hope to do a more in depth write up about the late season daylilies, because I've left a few of the good ones out, not on purpose of course.  Happy gardening.

23 days of 90 degree or above temps this summer.

     My southern friends might say 23 days of 90 degree temperatures is a normal summer for them, but here in Ohio we only average 9 days of 90 degree temperatures each summer.  23 is ridiculous.  The record, which was back in 1988 is 34 days.  I remember that summer.  It was my second year of my landscaping business and I'm surprised I didn't give up on it for good.  I guess I like being outside too much....so let's move on to more positive stuff, such as daylilies.  I had the good fortune to stop over my friend, Curt Hanson's daylily garden this past week and got a lot of great pictures of some of his daylilies.  At the very top of the page is Curt's new intro, Van Gogh's Ear.  Great sculpted daylily!  Right below it is a really cool new toothy daylily of Curt's called Celestial Virgins.  Love the color. Photographed in my garden at the bottom of the page, at the top is Stamile's intro Picotee Prism, one of my favorite of the prism introductions.  Below it is this massive golden yellow daylily that is a seedling of Judy Davisson's.  She sold it to me on the lily auction and is considering introducing it.  I think she should.  It is a nice addition to the late season and the blooms are massive measuring about 8 or 9 inches +!  You can see how big it is compared to the 6" bloom of Late Round, which is to the left.  Hope you folks are staying cool!

The season is winding down.....early.

     Well, usually my daylily season begins to come to a close in late August, but this year all the plants are about a month ahead of schedule.  We finally got some rain on back to back days and the temps are cooling down a little to the 80's.  I'm starting to run out of cross tags anyway.  So, rather than type out a long installment, I'd rather show some pics of some cool daylilies.  At the very top of the page is a picture of Jamie Gossard's Big Bird's Friend.  Lovely golden yellow color.  Right below it is a cool introduction from Steve Todd called Jedi Tom, just introduced this year.  At the bottom (top) of the page is Linda Agin's Here Lies Butch, which is a really nice eyed variety.  Right below it is a seedling of mine from the cross of Casper's Revenge X Mary Lena. Nice toothy daylily.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The drought takes it's toll.

      We did finally get some rain recently, but with the hot temperatures it still doesn't look like anything is recovering that fast.  We really need it to cool down at least into the low 80's and have it stay that way for a while.  Heck if it got into the 70's, I'd be doing an Irish jig.  When I go out to tag after I've made my crosses I find that if it's full sun, I'm covered with sweat by the time I'm halfway done.  Last year it rained too much, but I made a ton of seed.  This year I think I've made the same number of crosses, but my sets are down by about 66%.  I will probably have a small amount of seed to plant this fall.  Anyway, I wanted to show some pictures of how the drought has affected us here in Northeast Ohio.  At the very top is a picture of my friend Curt Hanson's pond.  Usually the water level is easily up by those big rocks you see in the picture.  I've never seen the water level that low.  The picture below it is of some of my daylilies planted near a crabapple tree.  You can see how the foliage is just spent.  At the very bottom (top) of the page is a picture of John Rice's Katherine Marin, a daylily he named after his sister.  Below it is a very nice yellow called Pleated Skirt, from Oscie Whatley.  That's it for this week.  Let's hope for the best.