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!

Greenhouse fun

Now this was my kind of fun.

About three weeks ago me and my husband loaded up the back of his truck with horse manure and added it to my compost. We also turned the compost which was way overdue and fertilized my flower beds. My husband has been a real trooper and seems to somewhat enjoy some of my gardening adventures. I guess he figures if you can't beat them, join them.

Then last weekend we focused on spring cleanup and the removal of many large branches from our backyard. Followed by a day of nursery visits and fertilizing the the front and back lawn. We also threw down some lime pellets in hopes that our lawn will perk up and quit being brown.

This holiday weekend was my favorite! Time to put up a portable greenhouse. I have added some pictures of this. Although I wish I could have gotten some snapshots of my husband and the three guys from the nursery tackling it. It was the last one at the nursery and was set up. Thank goodness it was much easier to asemble once it was home.

Today we did a few home depot trips and came up with a cheap way to make shelving in the greenhouse. Cinder blocks and 2x8's seemed to do the trick.

Big plans... I plan to start quite a few veggies in here. This should give me a little bit of a head start on my garden. My daylily seedlings will make their way out here as well. This will get them out of my dining room.

For now I have some potted up primrose, irises and some mint that may enjoy the warmer and more humid air. Also a temperature station to see how warm this thing stays overnight. I've been watching it like a hawk and the greenhouse temperature high was 69 degrees today.

A good day for greenhouses...

Today was dreary so I set off to the planting fields. I just thought I would share some of my favorite pictures from today.

Spring has officially sprung

This is the part of spring I look forward to most!!!

Some of my daffodils began blooming this week ,despite

the cold weather. Such troopers.

My helleborus is also in bloom.

Best of 2008

Best of 2008 Garden Pictures Slideshow

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my garden in 2008.

Enjoy!

Daylily seedling update...

I now have 13 out of 15 minis!

Oh what changes a week brings...

Outside all the daylilies that were showing signs of growth are now mush. They sat under a foot of snow that was dumped here last weekend. But the 60 degree weather this weekend has melted all the snow and although the daylily growth is mush look what I found.

I have been busy indoors with starting some daylily seeds. Below, is a "mini" cross I made over the summer. I harvested the seeds in Aug. and Sept. and put them in the fridge for several weeks. I use small bead containers for storing the seeds in the fridge.

I took the seeds out on February 16th, soaked them in water for an hour and then planted them in the presoaked seed starting soil.

Look how much they have grown since my last post!

Last year when I started daylilies, I used seed starting trays. This year I used small plastic storage containers with lids and miracle grow seed starting soil. I bought all the supplies at Home Depot and spend less than 10$. So far 12 out of 15 seeds have started to grow in the mini cross. A much higher success rate from last years crosses. The seedlings have a heat source below, natural light from the window and artificial light above and on the sides of the containers. The only thing I will change is that I used card stock to divide the storage container into sections. This was not a good idea. Card stock grows mold easily and gets really mushy. I will need to find better dividers for next year.

Below is a picture of my growing setup. The other two bins have dill, chives, tomatoes and peppers. I just started those today.

The Bright Side of Winter

Snow is pretty on evergreens and makes my gargoyle look like a smurf. .

Purple Gem Rhododendron

This evergreen turns a beautiful color in the fall and stays just as beautiful through the winter months. In the spring this plant has wonderful purple blooms.

Just one of many clumps of Daffodils popping up.

Crocuses are starting to come up also.

I noticed in the winter I can get quite a bit done indoors...Even if it's just indoor gardening. :)

Helleborus (indoors)

Passiflora Incarnata "May Pop"

This pasaflora is winter hardy in my NY planting zone but I decided to give it one more winter indoors to play it safe. It also came in from the garden with some Irish clovers. Perfect for St. Patty's Day.


Hibiscus bud (indoors)

Key Lime Tree (indoors)

Even though this tree is tiny, it already gave me a lime this winter. It will go outdoors as soon as there is no sign of frost. Which here is probably the end of April beginning of May.

There is always seed starting to do in February and March. Below are seven daylily seedings that I planted about two weeks ago already popping up. How exciting! This was my first mini cross.