Sunday, August 31, 2008

Welcome Globe readers and others!

Today the Boston Globe newspaper had a very good article about me and my hybridizing. It's at:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/house/articles/2008/08/31/a_budding_obsession_with_daylilies/?page=full

I generally don't sell daylilies except to daylily hybridizers and members of the NEDS and PDS daylily clubs. If you're interested in viewing or buying daylilies, let me point you to a list of local sources that I keep:
Favorite Links to Information, Nurseries, and Growers.

If you'd like to meet me or get into daylilies, the best thing to do would be to attend one of the New England Daylily Society (NEDS) meetings. The next meeting is October 4. I also highly recommend the Patriot Daylily Society (PDS), but I don't attend those meetings as frequently. Their next meeting is also October 4, but normally the meetings don't conflict.

Monday, August 11, 2008

MH0378V





44 EM 3.5, Red Self, Dor Dip
Siloam Plum Tree * Red Spire

FUTURE INTRODUCTION. This one has it all, except sunfastness. On harsh days, the petals curl and slick, but they don't melt and they do return to perfection as soon as the heat is past. This brilliant fire engine red was a joy this summer, and produced quite a show on its 5 or 6 scapes with 6 way branching and 40 buds. I'd also marked this one in the spring for excellent foliage and increase. It is somewhat rhyzomatious: when I dig it this fall, I'll see just how much. Every bloom was pollinated, and it's carrying quite a load of pods, but none of the tall scapes have fallen or even leaned towards the sun! Rarely it shows some spotting from thrips, but it is quite rain fast.

MH0380Z



46 M 3.5, Purple Self, Dor Dip
Sobek 93.36 * Purple Sphere

This photo, with the sun shining through, is a little flattering: the actual color is a bit flatter with a very even velvety finish.  Branching an budcount are great, but the remarkable thing is how waxy and thrip resistant this one is.  I was watching the pale yellow thrips scurry all over the blooms all summer, but never saw any of the typical thrips damage: blotched petals, pimpled or distorted buds.  The buds are whitish and purple, with a waxy appearance, and the bracts on the scape also seem to resist desiccation and damage.  I'm crossing this one into my Red Spire derived lines and also with a number of others with white buds such as Forsyth White Buds and Central Park West.  The flowers open consistently perfectly.  This one has a rounder, more ruffled form than the Red Spire kids, and should improve them.  The scapes don't fall except when heavily loaded with pods.

MH0377C



44 M 3.5, Red Self, Dor Dip
(City Of Sin * Pardon Me) * Red Spire

This sib to MH0377A is a bright, velvety cherry red. Branching and budcount are extraordinary (at least 30 buds and 5 branches), as is its sunfastness (though not quite as sunfast as its sib.) I pollinated every bloom this year because this one has proven to be the most vigorous and rhyzomatious of the Red Spire kids to date. Red Spire itself increases slowly and doesn't do all that well in my poor conditions, but MH0377C greatly outperforms it. This fall it will be distributed to test gardens for increase.