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Sunday, July 13, 2014

Hybridizing Daylilies, Vegetables July 13, 2014

Welcome to my Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post, to see What's Blooming Now at gardens around the world join others at May Dreams Gardens hosted by Carol.   In addition to flowers featured today there are also some roses left, Crocosmia 'Lucifer', annuals Petunia, Browallia, Ageratum, Marigold, 3 Clematis, Daphne 'Lawrence Crocker' surprising me with a second bloom, Daphne 'Summer Ice' with very long bloom season, Rozanne and other hardy geraniums.  Today I am also linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma Wiseman

Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally

The lovely Hydrangea Endless Summer, which I hope will fill the void left by freezing out of all my blue Hydrangea macrophyllas.

A velvety red daylily-

A dramatic eye zone, Daring Deception-

I was gone on the 15th swimming in a pond with my grandkids and teaching their music lessons, and went out today and found lots of new or unseen flowers so am adding some, Malva alcea fastigiata, which comes up and takes care of itself every year-

Coreopsis 'Sunburst', just blooming after being started last Nov. 25 under lights-

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' which looks great in other people's yards but gets too tall and flops for me-

And now featuring some daylilies I hybridized and grew from seed, back in my wild and crazy daylily days.  At one point I had 380 varieties- discards from a couple of collectors, some from my daylily club sales, and some from internet companies and trades.  These were mostly $5 and below type daylilies, meaning older but some great daylilies, as I couldn't afford the expensive ones, new and snazzy.    At the time I had beds I could get weeded, in nice rows all on maps so I knew what they were.   Then I was gone for the month of June for the births of my 2 grandsons, many weeds set seed, and it's been all downhill from there, textbook chaos and entrophy.  But that is why I like the productivity of growing vegetables, I can control the chaos more in annual crops where I can pretty much clear the ground and get a clean start every year.

I labeled the pollinated blooms with the name of the pollen parent, and started the seeds by planting them in pots that I kept in a refrigerator or cold garage until they sprouted, since chilling helps daylily seeds germinate.   One entire bed is all seedlings I grew, mostly from Erin Farmer as one parent, a clown of a daylily with white midribs, and narrow petals, many of the flowers have this characteristic-



The whole bed-

An unusual round form, a bicolor, perhaps my favorite of the group-

In a clump-

Another unusual seedling, a gold spider-

Meanwhile Beauty plums are getting ripe, a predictably heavy crop this year after lots of winter snow.  Beauty is a very soft plum but lovely cooked, I make beef gelatin with stevia for sweetener and a little almond extract-

First peas of the season, planted a little late, Sugar Snap Sprint, with an edible pod, hence the name, I don't see the point in shelling peas when I can eat the whole thing; I also planted Super Sugar Snap which gets taller but the rabbits found them and nibbled them down so it will take them a while to recover and make peas-

One of my rows of squash, this year I'm growing Cocozelle, Striped Zucchini, Crookneck, mixed Scallops, and Delicata, the cucumbers are on the right growing up a trellis, on the left are overwintered kale plants going to seed-

First award for earliest fruit set goes to Cocozelle-

Pretty plant, the abundant green is sheep sorrel, I spared it since it is edible but it knows no bounds-

Winner of largest plant award, usually my first to bear, Crookneck, with wonderful buttery flavor-

Winner of widest plant, Striped Zucchini, wait until you see how big the fruit gets-

And winner of cutest plant, isn't it adorable, I haven't grown it before but I fell in love with the fruits last fall, Delicata, which is getting ready to vine out-

I've been enamoured of the small Sweat bees with metallic green head and thorax since I first discovered them this spring, I was surprised to see them pollinating squash blossoms- 

And I was even more surprised to find myself in a swarm of them because I had discovered a number of their underground nesting mounds, here's one taking off from the hole in the dirt, the ones returning to the nest are golden with pollen on their hind legs-

Here an assortment of pole beans, and runner beans with the red flowers, I saw hummingbirds visiting them today- they actually think I grow them just for them, imagine!   I was surprised to see the hummer visiting my Alliums, Elephant Garlic, too.   Bush beans and some cole family plants are in the front-

Insuk's Wang Kong, above, a wonderful runner bean from Korea, named after the gracious Korean woman who brought it over, it sets better in heat than most runner beans-

I searched my seed sources for gynecious and parthenocarpic cucumbers last fall, and bought a few, they have the advantage of mostly female flowers or flowers that set fruit without being pollinated, so the yield is higher than plants that require pollination and have a lot of male flowers.  Diva is earliest-

And also Dasher-

I run soaker hoses down the rows, and mulch with composted grass clippings to retain the water better and keep down the weeds.   Other cucumbers I'm growing are Cool Breeze, Eureka, Tanja, and new to me, a melon with a cucumber parent, Gold Bar, I usually can't grow melons because they need too much heat, so I thought I would see if they could set fruit, the plants are rather wimpy so far.

Well, I hope you can make some room for some edible plants in your garden, Hannah

                                                      or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.



52 comments:

  1. A marvelous series of photos, and beautiful flowers. I am also always impressed with home grown vegetables. Thank you for sharing with Today's Flowers and happy week to you.

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    1. Thanks, Denise, it's great that you host flowers, I like to photograph them. The vegetables are near and dear to my heart, I can't wait for the beans and Crookneck squash.

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  2. What lovely colors in your lilies! The veggies have a wonderful start. I bet they will be delicious!

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    1. Thanks, Betty, so far so good. Last year I left the gate open on one bed and a deer got in and ate all my squash plants, about the size of these.

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  3. What an amazing group of hybrids! And those vegetables are yummy looking.

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    1. Thanks, Janice, I'm happy with the variety, and I like the colors a lot. I'm looking forward to the vegetables getting ripe soon.

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    1. Thanks, Mama Zen, I didn't photograph my poor stumps of beans left by the rabbit in another bed, but this bed is doing great!

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  6. A wonderful variety of plants in your garden. A great balance of beauty in the flowers and beauty in the vegie crop. So love the markings and colours of your flowers.

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    1. Thanks, Gemma, the daylilies look a lot like the parent, but the rounded form that still has the white midrib was a surprise. The squash plants I find very lovely, I'm really hoping for good things from the Delicata I haven't grown before.

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  7. Very nice flowers and plants, kind of hungry now though

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    1. So funny, I'm glad my vegetables have appetite appeal, Bruce!

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  8. Wow, I had no idea you could do that with day lilies, I have a deep golden yellow one, not huge, that flowers almost all year round, Super vegetables, lots of work behind those magnificent veges and their photos, and the varieties!!! Cheers on all that success, Jean.

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    1. Thanks, Jean, a daylily that flowers a long time would be worth breeding. Vegetable gardening is my main thing, I've tried a lot of varieties to find some that do well for me. What gets me is the fight with the voles, moles, rabbits, and deer for everything I grow. I hate to lose after all that work.

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  9. Very nice, GREAT photos. Thank You for sharing.

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  10. Thanks Felicia, I'm glad the Hydrangea is blue since that is my favorite color for them. I'm really looking forward to the vegetables getting ripe, I'm having a lot of trouble with a rabbit eating my bean plants in a couple of beds.

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  11. Hannah so much going on...I adore the daylilies you hybridized...they are lovely. I have often thought this would be fun to do. And my your garden is lush and full of so much growing....I was slow to plant beans and squash due to my surgery so I won't see a harvest until late July or even August...it all looks yummy.

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    1. Thanks, Donna, I hope you are recovering well. I have techniques to get a faster harvest, I start squash, cukes, peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes under lights. I actually start tomatoes as early as late January but got a later start this year and on the cukes too. Then I have tunnels that allow me to plant out before the normal dates, so I get fruit before the normal times here.

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  12. The day lilies are lovely. I left mine behind in my last garden, so your post makes me miss them!

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    1. Thanks, Jayne, I love the show but it's not long enough for me here. There is an extra early one called the Lemon Lily that is very fragrant that I would miss the most.

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  13. Lovely photos. Your garden looks great. I've noticed those pretty green bees this year for the first time too - and they seem to prefer yellow flowers.

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    1. Yes, I mainly see them in yellow flowers, which is sad because I am trying to reduce the hundreds of dandelion type flowers in my yard. I'm always wanting to see Flickers, a woodpecker that eats insects in or on the ground instead of trees, but panicked yesterday when I saw one finally, but on the other side of the bed from where I saw all the little Sweat bee holes, now I'm afraid the Flicker will go after them!

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  14. Hello Hannah,

    What a super garden you have! I love blue hydrangeas since my father grew them when I was a young girl (many, many years ago!).

    Isn’t it fun finding blues to share? Thanks for playing today.

    Happy Blue Monday!

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  15. Beautiful shots. I miss my veggie garden. Thanks for sharing yours.
    We're tryin' to beat the heat here in Texas. I linked a cool Blue!
    Have a great week,
    Sherry

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    1. I grew up in Houston without air conditioning so I know all about the heat. I hope you can have a vegetable garden again.

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  16. Great flowers and fruits, a beautiful garden.

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    1. Thanks, Christian, someday I'll have to show the downside of my garden.... maybe.

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  17. Great shots of the flowers and vegetable garden.

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  18. Beautiful garden and shots! So lovely. I would love to have a garden. So cold so late this year than blasted heat. No middle ground. Hopefully next season. Enjoy your week!

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    1. Thanks, Anne, the weather has been erratic, I hope next year will be more normal.

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  19. Beautiful photos, wonderful colors in the flowers, cucumbers rich!

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    1. Thanks, Leovi, I'm hoping the cucumbers will be ripe soon. I picked the two squash yesterday since all the other female flowers were falling off because they were there. I usually expect Cocozelle to get really big but they didn't seem to want to get bigger.

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  20. Nice daylilies! It's funny, your garden is ahead of mine in pretty much every aspect, except that my peas are almost finished while yours are just getting started. We got everything else in late.

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  21. Thanks, Evan, I got my peas in late, and other things I can plant a little early because I grow them under tunnels, ironic!

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  22. oh how beautiful! your vegetables look mighty fine along with all the flowers. thanks for sharing the love up-close with I heart macro:-)

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    1. Thanks, Laura, I enjoy the flowers but I live for the wonderful vegetables. Thanks for hosting!

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  23. Very impressive flowers, veggies, and fruit! Wow, sounds like you were into Daylilies big-time! I know where to go when I have Daylily questions. ;-) Happy harvesting and enjoying!

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    1. Thanks, I had one ditch lily type at my house when I moved in but it was huge and browned out in late summer so I dug it up and dumped it in the weed area in the fall. The next year I expected it would be dead but was growing on top of the ground, so I decided to check out the local daylily club. It was the advent of daylily rust that kind of ended my fascination, though. Plus the reality of the shortness of the daylily season here. And running out of room to plant more. But they keep on with their show every year.

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  24. What a nice collection of hybrid flowers and vegetables! I'm learning something here. Thanks too for visiting my site, your nice comments and the name "barberry". I didn't know the name of that flower, now I do, thanks to you.

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    1. Thanks, Charlene, I enjoyed your flowers, I'm glad I helped. I'm excited to be in vegetable blooming season, It's fun and yummy to see what develops.

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  25. Happy bloom day...The japanese maple on the header really caught my eye...

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  26. I love the day lilies, they're all gorgeous. We grew some veggies and potatoes when I was little. Now I only have a few flowers under my kitchen window.

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    1. Thanks, Gunilla. I'm enjoying the summer vegetables but also about to plant some more cool season fall and winter vegetables, some of which can live through the winter here and make early spring greens.

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  27. It's hard to concentrate on anything else once grandkids enter the picture. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to infect them with the gardening bug.

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    1. I help them plant their vegetable garden every year, the kids really enjoy working in the garden and also picking the vegetables. They like to come here and pick fruit, too. It's lots of fun.

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  28. Oh I love those day lilies! I am wanting flowers to grow in my yard so much! But no budget to buy anything! we have had hot and cold weather all in one week so our weeds are hearty! Ugh! Loved seeing all your beautiful garden eye candy! Have a beautiful weekend.

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    1. Thanks, Anne, I'm on a rather tight budget myself so I mostly buy seeds and grow them under lights, then there are some great sales locally like the Master Gardener's sale on Mother's Day and the local county home and idea fair in April. Sometimes garage sales can be be great places to find plant bargains as well.

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  29. I'm so impressed with all your lilies you've grown from seed--they look great! This is something I haven't tried; every couple of years I I splurge and go to a local daylily farm for a couple new ones. But the prettiest ones are often the passalongs I've been given by family and friends. You asked about my coneflowers--all the volunteers are the common variety, Echinacea purpurea. The newer hybrids aren't as hardy and usually don't self-seed.

    What an array of vegetables you have! I have a small veggie plot, but I did pick the first green beans and squash last night. I love it when we can eat vegetables fresh from the garden.

    Thanks for stopping by and visiting; I love your part of the country!

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  30. I have never tried hybridizing myself - the results of your efforts are quite lovely. Also love the blooms on that runner bean.

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