Did you know that there's such a thing as a daylily bush? If you're in doubt then check out this picture of mine.

Okay, so I'm just having a little fun, but I enjoyed doing it. The branches used to be a beautiful Camelia bush. Camelias are an understory bush and after losing all the tall pine trees that had been giving it shade, it languished in full sun for about 10 years before giving it up last summer. I left the branches because they will add interest to the bed until I get around to doing something with it.

I think I wouldn't mind squirrels so much if they would just leave my daylilies alone. Every day I have to check my newly planted seedlings and replant any that have been dug up. They don't just disturb the seedling... they completely remove it from the ground, shake all the soil from the roots, and leave it lying on the ground. I have to replant at least one each day and I go through the same thing every year. They usually get bored with this once the seedlings get a little bigger - I can't wait!

My nemesis

On a much happier note, this is seedling 11-052. The 6" blooms have nice substance but the scapes are a little shorter than I prefer at 25". They blooms are still up out of the foliage so that's really not a flaw - just a personal preference.

Last night there was an absolutely HUGE rain event here in Houston. It started about 9:00 pm and there was heavy rain, thunder, and lightening for hours. My area reportedly received around 8" with some places in the area receiving over 11".

There was widespread flooding but fortunately, not at my house. The National Weather Service calculated that in just Harris county alone, about 162 billion gallons of water fell from the skies in around 8 hours. This morning the sun came out!

This is seedling 14-074, new last year. It hasn't impressed me with bud count yet but of course it hasn't had time to get established as I just transplanted it last fall. The bloom is a little different than others in my garden and I always like those that are different.

Hybridizing is great fun and you don't have to have a lot of land to do it. I hybridize on my city lot and it's plenty of space for someone who has a day job and keeps up with everything without paying someone to help.

My back yard is pretty much taken over by daylilies but my sensibilities have helped me keep the front yard landscaped (or somewhat so).

I've been asked if I ever take pictures of my entire garden. I normally don't think about it but this morning I did - and here's my back yard.

The day was greeted by another round of thunderstorms. I was awakened by a tornado warning from my cell phone. Fortunately no tornado here - just a quick half inch of rain.

Because I'm running out of time, I decided to try transplanting my seedlings today even with wet soil. Much to my surprise I didn't have any problems. The bed is raised and after amending the soil all these years it drained enough to work in after only about 4 hours. So I was finally able to finish transplanting my seedlings!

This is seedling 13-001. While I like red, I'm not a big fan of red selfs so I haven't used many in my hybridizing over the past 20 hears. Recently however I've been working with bold red eyes and have several seedling that are showing promise. This is one.

"Show day" started on a good note - no rain overnight to spoil the day's daylily blooms. The day got better when I walked the garden and found quite a few cultivars and seedlings that were 'strutting their stuff'. So I took a dozen of the best and entered them in the show. The day got better still when I found out that one of my seedlings (10-060 below) had the honor of being named 'Best Seedling'.

If you ever get a chance to enter a daylily show I highly recommend doing so. A couple of years ago we convinced a new member of our club to enter one of his daylilies. I can still remember his excitement when it received an award.

Tomorrow is my daylily club's flower show. It is always a high point of my year. Some show participants cut and groom their scapes the night before to save time the morning of the show. I might consider doing that this year if it looks like it might rain overnight. All entries must be submitted by 10:00 am so time is of the essence.

This is PEPPERMINT SPRING which always seems to put on a good show.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get my seedlings transplanted. It's been raining almost every afternoon and the ground has been too wet to plant. I did manage to get a little over a hundred transplanted last evening when I got home from work because it only rained a tiny bit. Today... we got 2" of rain in 30 minutes around noon. That puts us up about 10" for the year.

Of course, lots of rain makes for happy daylilies!

I have been able to take lots of pictures early in the morning before I leave for work. The quality of many of the pictures has suffered some because the blooms are not always fully open. But many have turned out ok.

This is seedling 13-096. The rain and cooler temperatures have made the color richer this year making a nice contrast to the bright gold edge.

I believe the garden reached peak bloom this weekend with all beds except the first year seedlings just covered in blooms. The first year seedlings always start blooming 7-10 days before the rest of the garden and they were at peak last weekend.

Something came up today so I didn't get any seedlings transplanted. This has just been one of those years where it's been hard to stick to a schedule.

This is seedling 12-078. It comes from a cross of (WHAT LOVE CAN DO x SWEET TRANQUILITY).

There was practically no rain today so I was able to complete preparation for transplanting my new seedlings. Tomorrow is supposed to have a better chance of rain but not until the afternoon. Hopefully I can get a fair number into their new home.

I almost discarded this seedling last fall. 12-084 had an occasional halfway decent bloom but most were terrible. This year has been different and I'm glad I kept it around for another year.

I believe the difference may be that after removing a couple of pine trees, the daylilies are no longer having to compete with the tree roots for the available water and nutrients. In fact, all the daylilies in the front beds are looking much better than the past few years.

It has been raining on and off since Sunday night. The daylilies are loving it... all except the blooms that is. With the heaviest rain coming in the overnight and early morning hours, taking pictures has pretty much come to a halt. I'm not complaining mind you as the affects of the drought of 2011 are permanently burned into my memory.

This is seedling 13-005. It's a cross between another seedling and New Paradigm. I have moved it twice since it first bloomed so it hasn't become established enough to get a good reading of bud count. It does multiply quite well however.

Happy Mother's Day!

Seedling 11-003 above was one that never really came into its own until I moved it into a 7-gal pot. The problem was that it was planted at what seemed to be a focal point for a mass of tree feeder roots. The roots would suck all the moisture out of the soil so quickly that 11-003 never performed very well. I dug it up once and removed all the tree roots. Of course that meant another year before it would become established enough to show me what it could do. Unfortunately, after another year the tree roots had come back and performance was down again. So last fall I potted it up.

It now seems quite happy in it's new home and next year I'll be able to see how it performs once established. I like the patterned eye color contrasted with the chartreuse throat.

The term "polymerous" refers to a daylily that has more than the usual 3 petals and sepals in a single layer. Doubles have more than 3 petals and sepals but they are stacked instead of being just a single layer.

Matthew Kaskel (above) bloomed today with one of the best 6x6 polymerous blooms I have ever seen so I just had to post a picture!

Matthew Kaskel will frequently put out at least one poly bloom each season once the plant is established but this is the first 6x6 ever for me.

There's so much going on right now that I barely have time to mark the new seedlings that I want to keep an eye on. Oh, and take lots of pictures of course (smile).

Here's another of last year's seedlings that turned out to have a pretty nice edge. The color is a little washed out because the picture was taken around 7:00 pm this evening after a warm sunny day. The bloom was a little limp but not bad for 7:00 pm.

Today the yard guy finally tilled up the new seedling bed! This weekend I'll be able to start transplanting my seedlings from the #38 trays that have been living in my driveway since last fall. I have never transplanted this late but the seedlings should be fine as long as I don't break up the root balls.

It didn't take long for the herd of squirrels that live in this neighborhood to discover the freshly tilled soil. When I got home from work there were three of the buggers digging away, probably planting acorns... (sigh).

Today's picture is Flamingo Wings which I registered last year. It almost seems like I logged the cross incorrectly as it really doesn't look much like either parent (Splendid Touch x J.T. Davis). But not having anything else that I could have confused it with when making the cross, I'll assume my records must be correct and this is just one of those that doesn't look like either parent. The petal color could have come from Splendid Touch.

Today was a nice laid back day where I didn't do much besides enjoy the garden. Bloom is increasing but the cool mornings are still causing them to take their time opening fully.

As the season progresses, I'm now starting to see some of the heavy edged seedlings make their appearance. This is seedling 15-041, new this year, that caught my eye this morning.

Today was truely a great day! I had my annual daylily yard sale and it was so much fun. Many of the regulars came but there were also quite a few newcomers.

The sale itself was a bit hectic (as usual) but the time I got to spend with those who waited around until after so we could visit was probably what I enjoyed the most. Daylily people are the best!

Seedling 14-009

Parentage: Daydream Spirit x Seedling 11-022

I have always liked yellows and cream colored daylilies especially if they have an interesting edge. Seedling 14-009 above has good color and an interesting edge. It looks as good at 6:00 pm as it does at 9:00 am in the morning, a trait I like in daylilies.

Also of interest is the fact that one of the parents of this seedling has a bright red eye and edge but it doesn't show up in this seedling. I have heard that yellow daylilies can carry a dormant eye gene. I wonder what might be the results of crossing 14-009 with another eyed seedling.