Notes
Located here are notes that I have taken on my plants. I just write down things like fertility and anything else that comes to mind, so really it's a place for me to think outloud.
6/9/02
Many seedlings blooming! You can find the latest pics in the seedlings section. Still a few more due to bloom. Starting to do a few crosses. So far, I've had minimal luck. The heat my be playing a part in this, or the plant I'm working with is pod difficult. My thoughts are it's a combo of both. Still plenty of blooms to work with!
5/21/02
More seedlings blooming. Today we have GSFTP-04 and CQS-12. GSFTP-04 is a sibling to GSFTP-03 that bloomed a few days ago. So interesting to see how one sibling can be so different from the other. Still too early to get accurate info on the plants. Info will be updated throughout the bloom season. Looks as if 1 or 2 more new ones will bloom in the morning. Can't wait to see what they have to offer!
5/19/02
First seedling bloom! GSFTP-03 bloomed for the first time today. It has some features that really surprised me like being bitone in color and having so much diamond dusting. I'll be watching it to see what it does over the next few weeks. Many others will be blooming soon! Stay tuned
5/11/02
Scapes everywhere! Many seedlings are starting to send up scapes. It wont be long now! I'm figuring that around the end of this month, the garden will be full of seedling blooms. I'm ready for my watermark eyed plants to bloom so I can continue breeding work with them. I've got some great ideas for this years crosses! Keep an eye on the site as new pics will start showing up as soon as the plants bloom!
3/29/02
Spring is here! However it has been a strange one so far. We had a few late freezes which is not common in this area. The daylilies are up and fully growing. Some are up about 15 inches. Some may even attempt to send up a scape. I hope so! New seedlings have been brought out of the greenhouse to harden off. They will be planted into the garden by the end of next week. Bloom season creeps closer and closer...
2/27/02
Waiting on spring. Thats the main thing to do right now. It looked as if spring was going to make an early arrival this year, but winter has decided to hang on. Hard freezes and cold days will set some of the plants back. However, I don't think it will be that big of a deal. They will recover quickly. I will start to order new parent plants here pretty soon. Just trying to get the funds together to order them. I have a lot of crosses in mind this spring, and I can't wait to get started!
1/5/02
Well another year in the books. I hope everyone had a great christmas and new years. Heres to a great 2002! The best part about the new year is that it's that much closer to bloom season! Seedlings are doing well in the greenhouse, there ready to get out in the garden. The year old seedlings out in the garden are doing well and facing the winter quite nicely. We had a night of sub 20 temps and it didn't seem to phase them at all. Looks like we got a good group of evergreens/semi-evergreens! This spring we'll find out how well they are bloom wise. I will now be able to post GOOD pictures of the seedlings the day they bloom since I now have a digital camera. It takes good quality pictures and I cant wait to use it on the new daylilies!
11/26/01
Winter is finally deciding to show up. It was in the 70's today, but tomorrow and the next day will be in the 30's for highs and a chance of sleet, snow and ice. Thats Texas weather for you. 70 one day, 30 the next. This will be the first hard frost of the year. There were a few light frosts earlier but it had no effect on the daylilies. Seedlings I started this past August are safe and warm in the greenhouse and are growing well. If I would have known that winter would have been this late in coming, I would have planted those seedlings in the garden. Still plotting what I want to do next spring when the plants come back into bloom. Spring needs to get here faster.
10/28/01
New stuff to talk about today. Main thing is the new project line. Project: Halo has been removed and replaced with Project: Watermark Eye. Also some of my seedlings descriptions have been changed. I talked with Jeff Pryor on the E-mail robin and he gave me a new, BETTER way to describe my seedlings with the "halos": Watermark Eye. This will be used from now on to describe my seedlings that have this trait. (Example of a watermark eye can be found here.) Not much else to report. First frost is on it's way, and I'm already longing for spring. Guess if there's one good thing about winter, it gives you time to think about what you want to work with next spring.
10/12/01
Long time no update. Not a lot of activity out in the garden this time of year. Plants are looking great but no reblooms. Main focus now is on the seedlings. About 140 of them anywhere from 2 to 6 inches in height. They will spend the winter in the greenhouse to develop a good root system. I could have placed them in the garden this fall, but I like to wait and give them a better start in spring. Plus I'd rather not chance it. With my luck I would put them out now and a very hard freeze would wipe them out. Spring is a much safer gamble! Here it is october and I'm already wanting it to be may again. I've learned a new way to produce more of my plants that I REALLY want to try. It deals with the flower scape and BAP paste. The goal is proliferations. I've seen how quickly proliferations can root and start growing. Seems to be a great way to increase your population of a favorite plant! I will be testing this out next spring, unless by a stroke of luck a plant tries to bloom this fall. Being a month away from our first average frost, I don't see this happening. The seedlings I planted this spring are doing very well. I'm expecting some, if not most of them to bloom this UPCOMING spring. Nothing like walking out into your garden and seeing a daylily bloom that no one has EVER seen before. Not much compares to the feeling. Well that'll do it for this edition of notes. Hopefully it wont be another 2 months before I update again!
8/20/01
Well it's been a month, I owe you guys an update. All the seed pods have been harvested and I'm now starting to get into the planting of seeds. I'll be planting seeds for a few weeks. Just depends when the seeds 3 weeks of chilling is up. I've harvested a total of 229 seeds from 23 different crosses. The cross that has the most seeds is Catherine Woodbery X Brionna Mason with a total of 55 seeds from 8+ pods. Brionna Mason (I'm nowhere near a good photographer) is the parent of 78 seeds in all counting the other crosses it's been used in. I used it allot due to it's "now you see it, now you don't" bluish/grayish halo in hopes it will amplify or atleast pass on to it's offspring. If it somehow turns into a band, that would be fine but I'd rather it be halo. I like to focus on halos more. Brionna Mason is a very unique plant. (much like the person it's named after =] ) It's color and shape will sometimes "shift" from bloom to bloom. It's usually the color that will vary from flower to flower. Sometimes it's color is a medium wine red, other times it will be a very light pink/wine red. It can also go to bitone colored and the halo will often come and go. On some blooms it's very noticeable, other blooms it's not. It's not registered as having a halo due to this. Definitely one of my favorites again much like the person!
7/20/01
Seed pods are doing very well. May have a few starting to turn ripe soon. I think I may have one doing that now. Going to keep an eye on it. Not much new to report since I'm in the waiting stage now. I did however get another daylily, Wine Delight. It's the other parent of my GSWD cross. It bloomed the other day and I crossed it with Mayan, however it did not stick. It may bloom again, but I'm not sure. Also got a few new beds built for all the new seedlings. They are almost fully complete. Just gotta add a few things to the soil and it will be ready to rock for next spring.
7/5/01
Well well well, look at all the seed pods. I now have 34+ pods out there. Gonna have lots and lots of new seedlings next spring. In the process of building new beds for all of them. Catherine Woodbery has put on many seed pods, which surprised me. At first nothin was sticking, then just about everything stuck. Only Catherine Woodbery and Joan Senior are still blooming and they are almost done. Maybe another week or 2 before they finish. My focus is going towards the seeds now.
6/27/01
When stressed for seed pods, turn to Carey Quinn and Joan Senior. These 2 plants have done better than any other in terms of setting seed pods. Carey Quinn has 8 pods on it, and maybe a 9th if the cross I did today sets, and Joan Senior has 3 so far with more coming. 13 seed pods total with hopefully more on the way. I'll list what they are in the proposed crosses section. I'm really looking forward to a few of the crosses. Main one I wanna see is the Carey Quinn X Mayan. Should be interesting as Carey Quinn is a spider variant and Mayan is a hose in hose double. Can't wait to see the results!
6/21/01
Well lots of crosses still failing. But on the upside, I am getting a few more seed pods. I think I'm around the area of 5 now. All but 1 of the pods are on Carey Quinn. The other pod is on Mae Graham. Carey Quinn seems to be a very good pod parent. It has dropped some pods, but it is by far the best at setting anything at all. Brionna Mason is blooming VERY well. It's starting to get more of a bluish/lavenderish halo and that is VERY good. Seedling GSWD-01 is blooming again today. I used it in some of my crosses because it has a very nice halo. Don't look to have anymore new seedlings bloom this year. Only 1 has yet to bloom, but it may surprise me so we shall wait and see. Next year should be a good year for new seedlings. That is if they keep growing like they are now.
6/18/01
Whats going on with daylilies not wanting to set or keep seed pods this year? Yet ANOTHER pod is going to drop. Carey Quinn X Dorothy Simmons looks to be on it's way out. I'm HOPING I'll get 1 or 2 seeds from it. It's been out there the longest so maybe it wont leave me empty handed. It's becoming quite a frustrating year. On the up side, I had a new seedling bloom this morning! GSWD-01 looks almost EXACTLY like GSWD-06 except it is a bitone. Petals are a dark wine red, sepals are cream with dark wine red on the outer parts. It has a nice throat that goes from yellow to a bright green. Also has a nice lavenderish halo. It only stands at 14 inches, one of the shorter of the group but thats ok, and plus this is it's first year blooming. It does have nice diamond dusting, as most of it's siblings do also. I'll be keeping an eye on this one. Lots and lots of crosses made the past 2 days. I did around 10 yesterday and 10 today. Hopefully some will stick as I'm using the pollen Binion let me take out of his garden. I've got some nice pollen and hope I'm rewarded with seeds later on.
6/17/01
Well dang, yet another seed pod has dropped. Pewter Duchess X Springtime Dreams was doing well, then it aborted the pod. Well on the upside, another pod has set. Carey Quinn X seedling GSWD-06 has set a pod. Should be interesting offspring with that one as long as it ripens. Brionna Mason is blooming well. Looks like it will open up 2 flowers for tomorrow. This plant is doing very well. Also a new seedling will be blooming for the first time tomorrow! All I can tell is that it's going to be a darker colored flower. This will probably be the last new seedling to bloom this year. I did some new crosses today. Yesterday Binion Amerson was kind enough to let me raid his display garden for pollen off some of the plants I liked and freeze it for further use. I used 6 of the 10 pollen samples today for crosses. More will be used tomorrow. I hope they stick. Is anyone else having trouble getting seed pods to set? I've done about 30 crosses and only have 3 seed pods to show for it. NOT and good statistic. I've heard that other hybridizers are having a tough time this year too. Maybe it's just a bad year for them. Drop me an e-mail if your having the same difficulty. (E-mail listed here.)
6/15/01
Gotta love thunderstorms. Had a nice line of them move through last night and thanks to that, allot of my crosses got eliminated. I came back this morning with 7 tags of crosses that got cut short because of the storm. Ohh well, I made 8 new ones this morning to make up for it. Brionna Mason is making a good show so far. It bloomed for the first time yesterday and it's looking better than ever. It's bud count has exploded since last year, and it's color is more clear and distinct. It'll be open again tomorrow. Still have one more new seedling to bloom this year. It should be open here in a week or so. The little year old seedlings out in the seedling bed are doing VERY well. I'm expecting to see blooms on them next spring. GSWD-11 has been FANTASTIC this year. Today it had 4 blooms open on it at once. Not too shabby for a 2 year old seedling. It will most likely be registered.
6/12/01
New seedling open today! Seedling GSWD-09 has bloomed for the first time. It stands at 17 inches, has a 4 inch flower, is a cream colored self with a yellow/green throat and a light fragrance. Looks almost identical to seedling GSWD-11, but GSWD-11 has a much greater bud count. I will have pictures updated as soon as I can. I finished the roll this morning, but the camera doesn't seem to want to give the film up. So it has been sent off to see if they can coax the camera into giving up the film. I hope so because I have pics of plants on there that have stopped blooming. Everyone pray the film will be OK! New cross was done today too. This cross was of seedling GSWD-06 X Fairy Tale Pink. I decided to do this to see how pod fertile GSWD-06 is. I used GSWD-06 as a pollen parent allot the past few days, so I figured I would try the reverse. Hope all of it's crosses take, that plant has allot to offer.
6/11/01
More seed pod update goodness. Well it looks as if 1 of the ones I thought was going to stick, didn't. Seedling GSWD-03 X Carey Quinn did not stick. I'm starting to believe that seedling GSWD-03 is pod difficult or even pod sterile. So here is an updated list of what is sticking: Pewter Duchess X Springtime Dreams, Carey Quinn X Dorothy Simmons, and Sweet Red X Carey Quinn. More crosses were made today. These are: Holy Matrimony X seedling GSWD-06, Mae Graham X seedling GSWD-06, Gentle Shepherd X Holy Matrimony, and Fairy Tale Pink X Holy Matrimony. Still waiting to see if the cross of Carey Quinn X seedling GSWD-06 stuck. It's still too early to tell on this one.
6/8/01
Seed pod update. As I suspected, the "Sweet Red" X "Pewter Duchess" cross didn't stick. I am now convinced that "Pewter Duchess" is pollen sterile. Also, the "Springtime Dreams" X "Pewter Duchess" crosses didn't stick, BUT the reverse cross of it, "Pewter Duchess" X "Springtime Dreams" DID stick. "Pewter Duchess" is pollen sterile, but seems to be pod fertile. I'll settle for this. So heres the updated list of what looks likes is going to stay: Pewter Duchess X Springtime Dreams, Carey Quinn X Dorothy Simmons, seedling GSWD-03 X Carey Quinn, and Sweet Red X Carey Quinn.
6/7/01
Seed pods, sweet glorious seed pods. It looks as if some crosses have stuck FINALLY. It's still a little early to be 100% positive, but on some plants the flower has fallen off, or almost has and a little pod still remains. This looks much better than everything falling off. A pollen cross of "Pewter Duchess" to "Sweet Red" may have actually stuck. Still early to call this one. "Pewter Duchess" seems to be very unforgiving in the pollen department. However, It does look as if "Pewter Duchess" is going to make a seed pod. It was crossed with "Springtime Dreams" and looks as if it's going to set seeds. I hope so. I crossed "Springtime Dreams" with "Pewter Duchess" but I'm almost positive it's a dud. Heres a run down of what I THINK will keep the pods: Pewter Duchess X Springtime Dreams, Carey Quinn X Dorothy Simmons, seedling GSWD-03 X Carey Quinn, Sweet Red X Carey Quinn, Sweet Red X Pewter Duchess (this one is still up in the air. I'll be very surprised if it sets.). I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on this matter.
6/6/01
Wow what a nice surprise in the garden this morning. GSWD-06 was much more spectacular than I ever expected. It looks allot like Sweet Red except it has a halo instead of a band and the flower it's self is a little darker. Very intense color. Pretty much a red wine color. It's hard to explain it in words, a picture of it will be posted as soon as the film is developed. I believe it is now my new favorite. 2 more seedlings are due to bloom, so we'll wait and see. Gentle Shepherd bloomed today too, but all I had blooming were it's offspring and 1 other non related plant that it was crossed with last year. The result of that cross is in the garden growing as first year seedlings. Fairy Tale Pink will start it's blooming tomorrow. I may cross it with some of my seedlings. I'm just playing crosses by ear now. It's good to make proposed crosses, but we all know it usually never works out like we plan =]. Still waiting for results of the crosses I did yesterday. Some look promising, others it's too early to tell. I hope some stuck because as of right now I have ZERO seed pods forming. Not a number I'm shooting for.
I think I'm going to make my "signature" halos. I think they make the flower look 10 times better than without. I'll still tinker with the blue line, but I think I'm going to put more effort into my halo line. Dark colored flowers with halos is what I like. Lavender/bluish halos would look even better. We'll see what happens. Not a good year for the blue project due to the plants getting established. I already have several plants with halos ready to rock and roll. And besides, I need to test out the seedlings fertility. Nothing new in the garden tomorrow. GSWD-07 will be open again. It's such a pretty flower, but it's REALLY low bud count (it's only going to bloom 4 times) and slow dividing habits hold it down. It's doubtful it will ever be registered. GSWD-09 and GSWD-01 are due up in the following week or so. Star beam is also going to be blooming in a week or so. It's not going to bloom great due to the fact that I divided it up this spring. Maybe it will make a strong showing in fall?
6/5/01
Is seedling GSWD-03 pod sterile or very pod difficult? It was pollinated by "Pewter Duchess" 3 times (2 frozen pollen and 1 fresh pollen cross), none stuck. Watching cross by "Carey Quinn". Maybe "Pewter Duchess" is pollen sterile? Also pollinated "Pewter Duchess" with seedling GSWD-03. Looks to be a false pregnancy. This has now been confirmed. Seedling GSWD-03 could also be pollen sterile, or "Pewter Duchess" could be pod sterile/pod difficult. "Pewter Duchess" has it's last bloom today so I may have to wait to see if it blooms again this fall to determine this.
Did allot of crosses today. Some were unplanned. Had 3 of my registered plants bloom today so I crossed them to give them a crash course in breeding. Heres the crosses that were done today: Springtime Dreams X Pewter Duchess and Pewter Duchess X Springtime Dreams, Sweet Red X Pewter Duchess, Dorothy Simmons X Carey Quinn and Carey Quinn X Dorothy Simmons. Main reason is test out the fertility of certain plants.