I've been having a blast watching some new seedlings bloom. With some added sun, a good amount of rain and plenty of heat, my backyard garden has really taken off this year.

I justed wanted to share some pictures of this years seedling blooms.

JK14

JK12

JK6

JK5

JK19

JK8

Flower Show

In the pouring rain I found the perfect place to go, an indoor flower show. It's held every year and every year it surprises me. Here are a few pictures of the indoor dream gardens Hicks nursery creates.

Pictures from the LIDS Daylily Show 2009

I just thought I would share some pictures of the LIDS daylily show that was held on June 12th 2009. Despite the pouring rain from the night before the daylilies looked amazing.

CREATURE OF THE NIGHT

An entry from Paul Limmer's garden - MAGIC OF OZ

A sea of daylily entries. Beautiful!



Mass arrangements - Garden of Giverny . The entry on the left by Pat Sayers won the Tricolor Rosette. Stunning!

Modern Design - Japanese Bridge

Some new seeds...

Or Seedlings...
To enlarge the pictures, just click on them.


Here is a good comparison of Tall and Mini. JK3 is on the left and JK7 is on the right. They have different parents.
JK7 looking better than it's first bloom. The color got darker which I was hoping for but it just doesn't want to open all the way.

JK15 recurves a lot and seems to have a triangle shape. Overall I think this one is my favorite. It bloomed just a few days later than one of its parents, FAIRYTALE PINK.

JK3 has such small fans and scapes but the flower is not as tiny. It kind of got a inbetween color of it's parents LITTLE BEE and JANICE BROWN.

I've been having a blast watching and waiting for my other seedlings to open. You know the saying, "A watched pot never boils". So I stopped watching until last night. To my surprise three of my seedlings were about to burst. One I had already seen but the other two are a first.

I woke up a 5:30 AM and couldn't fall back to sleep because I knew I had seedlings blooming. So the girls (chickens) got out a little early and I took the dogs outside with me to take a look.

I would love to hear feedback. Send me a comment and tell me what you think.

Now I know why they say it's like Christmas morning...

This morning I saw my very first seedling bloom. It actually started opening last night and I could only see the purple on the end. I had to control myself not to peel the petals back to take a peek. I fought the urge and waited to look at it in the morning.

This is seedling JK7 (NIGHT BEACON X LAVENDER STARDUST). Not so bad for my first try.
It sent up scapes and bloomed earlier than both parents. It's hard to tell in the picture but it has a diamond dusting which makes it sparkle in the sun. It also has a pale blue/purple toned eye above the yellow/green throat. The picture does not do it justice. I hope I get to see it open all the way before I leave for work.

Oh my, how they have grown...

It's been a while since I have blogged but baby chickens can really keep you busy.

I figured I would post some pictures of how much everything has grown. The plants above are my daylily seedlings. Below is a mix of things that came out of my spring house. The very tall plants in the back are my pear tomatoes that I started from seed and the front left are baby bear sunflowers grown from seed.









Here are the same chicks I posted pictures of in May. Oh my have they grown! Here are a few of them exploring their new run. They will be outside for good in just a week.

Spring Chicks!

So we decided to get some chicks. We don't do things small around here. So, we went ahead and ended up raising sixteen, yes sixteen, baby chicks. So far its a blast and they may have replaced the TV. The first night, there were 4 adults sitting in chairs and 3 dogs watching these adorable babies for hours. Now before you think I am too nuts. Half will be moving to my sisters house when they are full grown.

Just a few days after we got them, a few got brave and tried to perch. Look below.

A great perk to chickens, besides them being so cute. They are all egg layers and their manure will be a great organic fertilizer for my garden. I may not need to travel to horse farms to shovel manure into my husbands truck anymore. Yay!