Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

This is a Western tale, the tale of "Coffin Rock," where bad things were turned to good from high noon to sundown.  There was no gunplay, or none I'll fess up to.

It all began a week ago, when I resolved to finish my season of digging in the daylily beds that would become Kathy's seedling area next season.  As I cleared out my own seedlings, I also tossed aside five- to twenty-pound pieces of "historic" highway rubble from the construction of Hwy 94 years ago.  The previous owner had called in for "fill" to correct the lowest part of the back yard.  He forgot to say "clean fill," so what was delivered became the curse and bane of the next owners' gardening hopes.

Along about five feet down the line of plants I was digging out, my spade struck something harder than a chunk of asphalt.  An hour's digging around the obstruction revealed a rough chunk of concrete the size of a coffin.

Named 'er Coffin Rock.  Here she is this morning just as Steve and Tim, our "resident contractors" arrived.

They knew what they would be up against, so in addition to Steve's tractor, they brought a jack hammer.  Here's Tim reducing coffin rock to a couple of pieces.

Each piece was too heavy to heft out, so the backhoe came into play.

Then Steve set about gouging out more stones and rubble, some the size of baby elephants.

He was relieved when I told him he only had to clear the area to a depth of 12 inches, because the rubble field went way, way deeper than that.  You can see the pile of "artifacts" from the Hidden Lake Rubble Museum on the left side of the picture.

I suggested that if they found any skeletal remains in the concrete, they treat them discretely, using the lake as a reference area.

Things got a bit less bulky, and Steve switched to the front-end gouger or whatever you call it.

Work proceeded at a brisk pace.  There was not much moisture in the top twelve inches of the dirt.

I was relieved that they were able to get this ground in shape.  Hand-spading would have taken time I don't have at this point in the cooling season.

As Tim rough-smoothed the dirt, Steve went up for bucketloads of leaf compost sitting in a great pile in our driveway.

I don't know how many wheelbarrow trips this area would have required, but I think it took six visits of the tractor.

I could smell the "tobacconist shop" aroma of the hot compost up on the deck.

Things timed out pretty well.  Just past sundown, about 4:45, Steve dropped the last bucket load and the two men tapped the metal edging back into place and left for the day.

The layer of mulch is one to three inches deep.  It will be good earthworm food.  In the spring I'll till it into a strip of ground where Kathy will plant her seedling crop from this year's hybridizing.  Good night, Garden bed.  Good night, Coffin Rock.  I hope I never see the likes of you again.

Emergence

This time a year ago we had already been tree- and shrub-shopping for a month and had begun to realize our plan for restoring a three-dimensional look to the landscape here.  We had removed a lot of overgrown, ill-placed, or trash trees in our first year on this sloping, pie-shaped lot.  The arrival of three fringe trees, three river birches, two dura-birches, three Japanese maples, two ninebarks, three magnolia trees, a black gum tree, a witch hazel tree, three blue spruce bushes, lilacs, hydrangeas, potentillas, a fathergill and a tiger eye sumac all provided joy that quickly mixed with anxiety.

Heat and drought settled in and threatened to kill the water-loving birches.  In mid-July we bought "tree gator" water collars for all the trees and shrubs and brought them back to life within two weeks.  But in October, as a result of constructing a new landing at the front door, we had to dig out and re-pot the tiger eye sumac and hope for the best.  Here is what "best" looks like!

A week of warm days have triggered the emergence of new growth, and I can now plant this tree with confidence.

You might notice a scape forming on the potted daylily to the northeast of the tiger eye sumac.  That is ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN, a new introduction from Karol Emmerich's greenhouse in Minnesota.  Karol did me the favor of sending that plant in March, knowing I wanted the pollen for liberal use in the garden this season.  Had I waited for delivery in late April, I'm fairly sure that Karol would have had to cut the scape to fit the plant into the box.

She had called this daylily one of her best ever.  I remember the pleasure several years ago of buying her "best ever," HEARTBEAT OF HEAVEN.  It cost a bundle, as "best ever" does, and I have never regretted having that beautiful creation in my garden.

I might as well show the other pots in that line.

These arrived last week, and I was not about to plant any of them because we can still have a frost until mid-April.  Dan Trimmer's WAVES OF JOY, another "best ever" plant, is in that line with a scape that will give me pollen in another week or two.  I will let these prize plants bloom in the pots and then plant them in the garden.

All of these arrived from Florida.  I had a large garbage can of recycled Pro Mix BX and just about ran out of it to pot these plants.

More huge boxes arrived this week, and I decided to hold them for planting in buckets of water.  I'm going to put those into the garden starting Monday or Tuesday.  Meanwhile, dozens more will trickle in.

Back near the brick wall you might notice another scape.  Guy Pierce (Floyd Cove Nursery) took pains to preserve that scape on his "best ever" introduction, BLUE WRANGLER.  Chances are, the plant will sustain the scape after planting and there will be a second scape later in the season.

I got my "line-out" beds cleared of weeds last week, applied Preen to fight new weeds, and watered in the Preen.  Then we had a good rain.  The plants and trees have been superbly watered by Mother Nature this year!

This is a line of plants that shows the beauty of dormant foliage as it rises in the spring.  The plants are a seedling of mine from (Tarta x America's Most Wanted) X Michael Miller.

I'm going to collapse this line of plants into a single clump in my keeper bed for use in breeding.  The line-out bed is for possible "futures," and this one didn't make the cut for reasons of floral color.

What color is this?  I call it "oatmeal," though it is some kind of melon blend with scant value in a garden.  However, the plant structure is excellent, and it is the parent of my clearest rose pink seedling, shown below.

I want to make a lot of new crosses on my oatmeal seedling to discover whether it is truly a "doll-maker."

Here's another vigorous dormant plant, a seedling from my VINCERO! X Whatley's DELIBERATE PACE.

My friend, Mary Baker bought this seedling--the entire row of it--to use in the campus landscaping of North Dakota State University.  She plans to register it as BISON VICTORY, and she's letting me keep one plant.  Most of the divisions in this line are increasing just like this.

I have a powerful liking for the appearance of dormant foliage when it emerges in the spring.  My eye goes immediately to these plants because they are ready to provide beauty at the start of the growing season.  Here's a beautiful example of a daylily that makes a great clump, Bart Beck's DUSTY BLUE.

I've never met Bart Beck, but I bought DUSTY BLUE on the Lily Auction several years ago and have been quite impressed with the stature and beauty of the plant when in bloom.  The plant habit is outstanding and the flowers are perfection.  Except....they haven't set pods for me.  No matter; I can use the pollen and get the same results.

Here is the mixed look of an Evergreen daylily emerging in early spring, Jack Carpenter's PATSY CARPENTER.

The older fan that grew foliage last season and into the winter is just behind the plant label.  You can see how the new growth is trying to throw off the "boiled lettuce" look of the leaves that were killed by winter freezing.  The unblemished fan to the left is new growth.  It emerged after the freezing and so is undamaged.

A few days ago our new daffodil collection began to bloom.  I'm glad I got a few pictures because the heavy weather night before last pushed them all down into the mud!  This is Dave Niswonger's beautiful EARLY TO RISE.

In a week or two our small peony collection will come into bloom.  The earliest we grow is named HAWAIIAN CORAL, and it looks fully leafed out today.

We grow one tree peony, which my friend Oscie Whatley ordered for me in 2005 a couple of months before he passed away.  It's named RENKAKU (Flight of Cranes).  Oscie grew that one to perfection and he knew I admired it above all others.  The plant Oscie gave me did not survive the move from University City, so I replaced it last fall from a peony farm in Centre County, Pennsylvania, near my alma mater, Penn State.

There are some new varieties on the market now called Itoh peonies.  They are the result of crossing tree ponies with standard peonies.  They have strong stems and large flowers.  I bought two Itoh peonies at nurseries last spring and watered like crazy during the drought.

This variety is named YUMI (Beauty).  Some shoots are emerging from the ground, just like a standard peony, but some are also emerging from the bottom of last year's stems.  It is a thrill to see these plants renewing themselves.

Although we have more daylilies than any other plant, it's the "other" plants that keep us active as "gardeners."  We enjoy learning about the special needs of Siberian and Japanese Irises, of peonies, butterfly bushes, baptisias, hardy geraniums, hostas, and chrysanthemums.  We grow these plants for the beauty of their forms, their leaves, the butterflies and hummingbirds they attract, their fragrance, and their personalities in the garden.  

Cutting Edge Daylilies From Pleasant Valley Gardens

For years and years I have seen the name "Polston" on gorgeous daylilies in tour gardens here in Missouri, and in Kansas and Oklahoma -- "Region 11" of the American Hemerocallis Society.  I learned that Tom Polston was one of the noteworthy breeders of daylilies in Ohio, but until last week I didn't know that he and Doug Sterling also breed Cyldesdale horses.

This is the only Tom Polston daylily I grow currently, DRAGON EMPRESS, photographed in my own garden this year on June 24.  It's a fine example of one of his major breeding goals, which is to put the voluptuous form the deep-south breeders are known for onto hardy northern plants.

Tom is probably better-known these days for his daylilies with toothy edges.  I think the dragon sculpture near his seedling beds is meant to affirm that.

We saw his garden a week ago Thursday as part of an extra day of touring at the National Convention of AHS - the American Hemerocallis Society.  All the official tour gardens were in the vicinity of Columbus, where the convention took place.  The bonus day of touring took us southwest to the Dayton area.

I wonder if the metal daylily sculpture at the top of this blog was inspired by this seedling:

There were a lot of seedlings like this.  Tom had stuck blue flags in the soil next to the ones he will dig out and save for further evaluation.    I became absorbed in trying to follow his thinking as I compared the flagged ones with the unflagged.

I surmised that he is outcrossing his lines with the best toothy daylilies by other breeders.  Here is Jamie Gossard's HEAVENLY BOMB SHELL.

This is Karol Emmerich's GNASHING OF TEETH:

Here is LARRY'S OBSESSION by Ted Petit:

The seedling below was prominently displayed "under number:" 12-JTP-111T.  I'm guessing JTP is Joel Thomas Polston and that the letter T at the end designates Tetraploid genetics as opposed to Diploid, terms that only hybridizers need know about.  The fact that one daylily may have four sets of chromosomes (tetraploid) rather than two has nothing to do with whether you'd enjoy the look of the plant in your garden.

I stopped several times to look at seedlings without flags that seemed to have clearer color than more toothy seedlings with flags.  A wild guess makes me think this is from a cross involving something of Karol Emmerich's, many of which have amazing frosty edges.  I imagine this wasn't flagged for several reasons: (1) it looks like somebody else's work; (2) it doesn't have the dramatic edge the flagged ones exhibit; and/or (3) it's low-growing.

The flagged keeper below has that "southern belle" look on a northern-hardy plant.  I love the powdered salmon bisque pink color, the sculpting coming out of the lemon creme throat, and the bubbly ruffled edge.  

With thousands of daylilies calling for attention, a guy can go on optic overload fast, so after my inspection of the new keepers, I savored the landscaping around the other side of the 1848 house.

This side of the house is about beauty.  Shade is welcome on this side, and so is flowing water.  As you approach the addition to the house, you notice features of the private life (the public life is on the other side where sun in full strength feeds the daylilies).  Here in the private area is a small Japanese feature such as I'd like to put in my own back yard.  Here it is placed in perfect balance with everything else.

Up close to the addition is a really nice sculpture and water feature situated with outstanding variety and harmony.  The gentleness of this garden adds dimension to our sense of the hybridizer who is pursuing an interest in the big, bold, and jagged.

I probably spent more time in this tranquil zone than out in the blaze of color and the riot of teeth, or maybe I didn't.  I fed my mind on the sunny side and my soul here in the shade.  We all probably wished for more time at Pleasant Valley Gardens.  As it was, I never went to look at the Clydesdales close up!

As Tom bid us goodbye, I wished I'd stopped taking so many pictures and gone up to tell him how much I enjoy DRAGON EMPRESS.  There will be more of his daylilies in my garden next year.

America Discovers Columbus

About Bob Faulkner there is much to say, and I will make a beginning with this post.  This is one of Bob's daylily seedlings.  There will be a lot more of these seedling pictures as I get into my story.

The national daylily convention took place in Columbus, Ohio last week.  What better theme for the big event than "Discovering Columbus?"  Actually, it's more a title than a theme, as the key experience of a daylily convention is discovering people you may have known only through email or not at all.  There is plenty of opportunity for that, as conventions are built around two days of bus tours of mostly household gardens.

The owners of these gardens have spent many years working on their landscaping and garden designs to promote the utmost enjoyment and interest for the visitors, not to mention themselves!

There are so many outstanding daylily breeders in Ohio that an extra day of touring was added for anyone who wanted to arrive a day early.  Kathy and I jumped on that opportunity.  We drove to Columbus last Wednesday with our good friend, Seajay Mock, and arrived around four in the afternoon.  A little later we took our GPS and found our way to the "German Village" area of Columbus and to Schmidt's Sausage Haus and Restaurant.  The evening was gentle when we got there, the wait for a table wasn't too bad, and the Haus was bustling with munching and gulping and dessert oggling.

The point of this post is Bob Faulkner, so I will dispense with a description of the mile-high plates of food I saw leaving the buffet line.  In a sausage haus, how can you avoid sampling them all?

Thursday morning, heavy-laden, we boarded the bus for a long drive to the Dayton area.  Bob's place is on a narrow and shady country road.  A person driving that road for the first time would probably not miss Bob's property because there is a sudden and dramatic change in the view as you come upon a lush roadside garden backed by a fancy black iron fence.  A stranger to this scene might imagine some kind of artist lives here, and the bold would stop to inquire.

There's what you see from the road.  The garden does not shout "daylilies!"  It says in all simplicy, "I do it my way."  In gold lettering within the big iron circle, you can read, if you stop, "Little York Farm, Est. 1834."  To the right side of this view is another iron gate and probably the best deer fence you've ever seen.

The lettering over this gate says "Time began in a garden."  The strange thing to the left of the gate is a metal sculpture of a daylily.  Several of these were convention raffle prizes.

You can't see the daylily breeding area from here.  Daylily breeding is not a pretty sight.  The rows of black plastic weed fabric are lined with unique plants fighting for their short-term life in a nail-biting draught, hoping Bob will favor them with several years of "further evaluation" and possible registration and sale down the line.  What you see as you enter the zone of Bob's life is a beautifully designed tranquility garden featuring a collection of distinctive rocks with companion plants.

Then you walk back into Bob's breeding zone.  The crazy weather this year brought on a bloom season two or three weeks earlier than average.  Bob's daylilies were well past their peak bloom, and yet I saw scores of seedlings testifying to Bob's interest in patterns on the floral face.  I was especially drawn to this one for the huge lavender eye on a clean cream face that curves down and out again as if dancing the Limbo.

This, too, drew my complete attention. The petals curve inward in a suggestion of modesty and shyness, but the complex pattern within suggests that the modesty is concealing a spectacle of colors.  The soul of this one is decidedly "mysterioso."

This next one is outspoken and brash and probably should run for President the next go-round, if only for a week or so.  This is like a belted song on the Broadway stages, and no microphone is necessary, thank you.

You can imagine the summer days of Bob-the-Artist as he weighs the best of these and looks for the excellent plant structure beneath these dazzling and seductive faces.  His garden is chock full of distinct faces.  His cup runneth over.

You've got to have a sense of humor when the weather conspires to punish your garden just before a tour.  We all chuckled at the sign on this fence.

This was one of my favorite stops of the whole convention, and it had the fewest flowers in bloom.  Maybe it's because I was started out like all those seedlings, in a country town where my grandparents got their fresh eggs from the chicken coop.

Sooner or later on a bus tour, the captain blows the whistle and it's time to say goodbye.  So little time....so many faces.