Thursday, March 01, 2007

UP - DATE

The lovely purple quilled seedling below recently won a seedling contest for the Favorite Open Form on the LA Chatter's! I was very surprised to have a maiden bloomer beat out some very stiff competition! Also humbled and honored!

I've been busy building a web site to feature my seedlings so I haven't been here at all since last bloom season. Here's a link to the "almost finished" site:
BECCA'S DAYLILIES I do hope you will visit and feel free to contact me with any comments and do sign the Guest Book!

Looks to be a very busy spring for me as I finally get the potted breeding plants in the ground and several hundred seedlings, bot carried over in pots from last year and new seedlings started under the lights this winter. Plus I have several hundred more seeds yet to be planted, both my own crosses and crosses made by others and shared with me. Some of them will be most interesting to see bloom in a couple of years.

There aren't very many crosses due to maiden this season, only about 17 (50 or so seedlings) plus a few more that refused to bloom last season. Most of these are Tet full form seedlings with only a few SPUFs. It should be somewhat impressive to see the entire bed in bloom though.

I was able to move all but three keepers from the back bed to the big bed last summer and they will hopefully bloom this year and show improvement, especially since they were give considerably more room.

I will have to re-pot a good number of seedlings into larger pots where they will have to grow until they bloom. Most of these with be from the primary miniature crosses I made last season and perhaps a few odd numbered crosses. There were several seeds that sprouted before I was able to put the seeds in the fridge after harvest and those were planted in a huge pot last summer. Germination could have been better, but those that did grow, did very well and stay green until December. I did move them into the cold frame in late October, early November. Time will tell if they wintered over.

I started a major re-do on the front display beds last summer and will have to finish that this spring as well. The mound bed is almost there, but the surrounding beds still need a lot of work with some plants coming out, some being moved and a few new ones added. The Siberian Iris seedlings all need to be lifted and divided, not a chore I am looking forward to as they have gotten to be massive clumps!

I was able to make 2 successful crosses on my LA Lilies and was able to plant the seeds last fall. It will be very interesting to watch these grow and bloom for the first time. I had also left a few pods on some of the Asiatic Lilies and scattered them in random pots here and there. Hosta seeds collected from a neighbor's variegated plant, hardy hibiscus, clematis and seeds couple of different flower trees were also sown last fall. It will be very interesting and exciting seeing which ones come up this spring and which ones will need another winter. Fortunately I DID tag all the pots so I won't inadvertently dump anything that needs to sit around. Don't ask me where I think I'm going to grow out all these seedlings because I haven't figured that part out yet! Most will be pot grown, but that still requires space somewhere!

I hope to get pictures of some of these beds to post sometime during the growing season, until then, Happy Gardening!

Rebecca