Todaylily

First daylilies this year were the Stellas, like these I snapped at the Chatham University campus in Pittsburgh.
 Next were Allentown, PA hybridized Earlybird Sunshine
 and Earlybird Orangeade (both by Megan Skinner).
 Next was Stella's Sparky, 99Chrichton 22ERe3.75 Sev Dip.
 Not a daylily, but has anybody else had a glad bloom in May?
This is a "perennial" gladiola, which does not have to be dug up even here in Pittsburgh (a cold Z6, almost 5). 

 I only had a dozen daylilies blooming today, and NO TETS!  But Pink Stripes rebloomed, and STILL has ONE bud left.  So all the below got pollinated with it.
 Showtime now would be nothing special in July, but in August it's a keeper.
 Fat Man does have a nice full form.
 Charon the Ferryman (Bachman 03) is my most prolific today, with 5 blooms.
 Fox Ears has always been one of my favorite late Dips.
 Cool Cassie (Harwood) is one of Betty's less well knowns, but it's big and blooming, along with her Last Reward; I'll get a photo of it next post.
 Sunset Returns is smallish and doesn't bloom as long as Stella and Happy Returns, but its color is SO much nicer!
Final photo is Rosy Returns, one of the best rebloomers of Apps' series.  Also blooming today was Autumn Minaret, unremarkable orange flowers but tall and late.

Labels: Pink Stripes late daylilies

 First stippled daylily of 2011 is Royal Speckles, a 2006 Kelly Mitchell Tet, 26EMRe6 registered with 4 branches, 25 buds.  Just got it this spring, from Kelly herself, who is further North than here in Pittsburgh.  So why is an EM blooming so early?  Only 3 other tets blooming today, but they're getting dabbed with this.
 My first non-yellow / non-orange was Burgundy Twister, registered as an extra early 36EERe9.75 by Pat Stamile 2003.  Tet, blooming again today, so it gets Royally Speckled.
 This is a seedling that was blooming in Philly yesterday, so I brought it back for further evaluation.  When I find my seedling database, I'll probably discover it's a self-pollinated carbon copy of its pod parent, which happens a lot to me.  In Philadelphia the mornings are so humid I didn't have viable dry pollen until midmorning.  Last year (my 2nd year of pollen dabbing) I started saving dry pollen for the next morning, but I haven't started putting chastity belts on my girls (yet), as I've heard some do.
 Also new this year, Princess of Wales, gets pollinated today too.
 And my final pollen repository for today, Long Stocking.  If I had any more tets blooming today, I probably wouldn't try to speckle this, but it 's registered at 46" tall (shorter here in the north).
 Dip blooming first time today, Coral Taco (Ned roberts 04) 30MRe10 with a 7.50 spider ratio.  Again, why is a Midseason daylily blooming mid-June?  It's new last fall, but I got it from Mary Ann Pruden in PA.
 Mike Huben's Early and Often is doing its thing.  Dip 26ERe4. 
Finally, Stella's Sparky has been blooming since Saturday.  Chrichton 99, Dip 20ERe3.75 

Labels: stipple stippled daylily daylilies

 June 5 was actually second open for Black Eyed Stella in Philadelphia- I wasn't there for the first.  I didn't move this because I have no use for it in hybridizing, and every clump moved has a real cost in time and other resources to move and re-establish.  So the next owner of the Philly house gets this one.  Stella was blooming elsewhere in the neighborhood, but I gave away all mine and my Happy Returns long ago.
 First Pittsburgh bloomer was Earlybird Orangeade (Megan Skinner 2006) and second will be her Earlybird Sunshine, a yellow registered in 2001.  I believe both descend from an oldie Esperanza.  Megan and Ron hybridize on a small city lot in Allentown, PA, so they sell through Manatawny Creek near Olney, PA http://www.manatawnycreekfarm.com
Finally got the main hosta bed mulched. This is from the screened porch.  Now I have to weed and mulch 700 daylilies.  This weekend I'll be redistributing (evening out) the 300 remaining daylilies in Philly and mulching those beds.  Mucho mulching: my brain is turning to mulch.

Labels: first daylilies 2011

 Almost the final load of hostas being moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh- next weekend will be the final check of Philly inventory; still debating whether Krossa Regal and a couple others are worth moving.
 The "lowlands" hosta bed at Pittsburgh is in prime deer path, so it's completely covered with chicken wire.  Not pretty but absolutely necessary until the Philly house sells and we can afford a full-lot deer fence in Pittsburgh.
 The "back porch" garden is protected by the daylily garden's temporary deer fence- Melanie hates the temp fence's look, but I hate the look of deer-devoured plants more.
 The hostas dug Memorial Day are going here, in the third temp-fence protected area under Spruce trees I "limbed up." 
 Overview of the daylily garden at Pittsburgh- almost 700 clumps crammed around the pool, still not mulched.  But I bought another roll of weed fabric today, and hope to get it and mulch down in the next week or so.  Yesterday was over 90 degrees, so the weeds are growing like weeds.

Labels: hosta Pittsburgh fence

 Sagae on the right is an "early riser", as is montana "Aureomarginata", which I haven't moved from Philadelphia yet.  It's almost fully leaved out when the hosta on the left is just breaking ground.  I kept the potsw above podophyllum "Kaleidoscope" top left to cover things in case of frost- we aren't to frost free date for another week or more.
 Green Splash is another fave up fairly early.  Smallish, nice gloss.
 High Society has my favorite pattern- bluish outer margin, cream center, with an intermediate chartreuse "bleeding" between the two that is a little different on every leaf.
 June needs strong light in early spring to give max contrast between margin and center.  This one's in a wire cloth cage to protect from deer until I can get a deer fence in.
 First Frost is in another temp deer cage- this is a $1.00 wire wastebasket from Dollar General.
Sea Fire is from Mildred Seaver- beautiful spring color, but it's "viridescent"- it greens up as the season progresses.  Most hostas that emerge very light do this, or they wouldn't have enough chlorophyll to grow.   Mildred Seaver died just this year at 98 and her son Charlie is carrying on the family tradition in Delaware.

Labels: Hosta

The April 19 posting on Nikki Schmith's Michigan blog has some good shots of Daylily Rust she took in her own garden last fall. 
http://www.agirlandhergarden.com/  is a blog you should follow for her photos of favorite daylilies and related daylily info.  Nikki is a garden show judge and has an eye for distinctive daylilies- a subject she's written about in the national publication of the American Hemerocallis Society.

 The forsythia is past peak in Pittsburgh; tomorrow I take the snow blade off the John Deere and put the mower deck back on.   I've got 35 thousand square feet of lawn to mow- that's straw over new grass toward the right.  Had 3 dead trees removed and tree service ripped up the area pretty good.
 Two pics of my re-reblooming Zygo (?) cactus- one below shows how it's just blooming on one side.  The other side rebloomed about a month ago, and when I turned it 180 degrees to enjoy those blooms, buds formed on this side.

Labels: daylily blog Schmith rust