My Flowers are Blooming

 Many of my daylilies are coming out. Worth a look.

Daylilies

 If you wanty to track the dayliles see Telmarc Gardens.

Chinese Day Lily

A bit of a misnomer but this is the daylily H citrina, a night blooming flower from China. It is highly fragrant and I have used them over the years as crosses for hybrids. I also sent them back to China upon request since many of their plants had excess colchicine in the petals. The petals are used in such things as hot and sour soup, and are a major Chinese export. I have managed to get these plants to naturalize in New Hampshire which is regionally where they would be in China.

More Daylilies

Daylily Dynamics

Daylilies in Bloom

Yes these are daylilies, a one day wonder.

Fulvablastoma Multiforme

The plant H fulva has a subspecies which is a triploid and is sterile. It is the common orange daylily and as one looks around each year this time and see them everywhere in the world one should remember that they are all the same plant! Yes, the one very same plant since they propagate only vegetatively.

Now they seem to attack weak hybrids. Let me explain.

Here is the root structure of what was at one time an attractive fertile hybrid. It is not totally invaded by H fulva, which managed to kill off the hybrid, I suspect it took 2 years to do that, and then sent out its runners to an adjacent hybrid.

These are some runners left behind. Even a little piece of this is capable of total regeneration. It is like glioblastoma multiforme or an ovarian cancer. Just one cell spreads out everywhere.

Now washing the roots one see the pathognomonic orange colored root and runner structures. One can see the attack on the former plant. The H fulvas seem to focus on certain hybrids. I have lost about a dozen so far to this attack. Species seem to be immune at least as of now.

Here is a closer look and the poor old hybrid, just gone! How did it die? Starved or consumed. It the plant a herbivore? That could be a first.

Its behavior seems directed and its method of attack seem quite effective.

Here is an array of the above plant after it has been separated.

There are some interesting questions here. I now know the what and how, I am still trying to figure out the why!

Specifically:

1. Why do the H fulvas target existing hybrids. The runners are almost directed to clusters of a hybrid which they then attach to, devour, and spread from there.

2. Is it a chemical attractant or random. My analysis seems to indicate it is targeted. I have now seen it on three dozen hybrids. However there are some on which there is nothing.

3. How can it be prevented? Good question since I believe just one H fulva cell, yes one cell, is enough to regenerate.

Interesting problem.

July Days

I have a few thousands of these in bloom and each day I have to record what has bloomed and then proceed to select several dozen possible crosses. To select a cross one looks for a good paternal pollen contributor and then wanders about thinking of the maternal recipient. One considers the possible offspring but like humans there is always a great deal of luck.

Thus across a wide field one wanders thinking of great parents for great offspring knowing that at best it would be two years hence and most likely four years before one sees anything.

Hybridizing requires patience and commitment. It is real genes in action, not that lab stuff with little mice but nature at its wildest.

Then there is always the battle with nature. The triploid H fulvas are like cancerous tumors, targeting weaker hybrids, surrounding them, killing off their nutrients and taking over. One must be vigilant, seeing them and then performing surgery. First the removal from the ground, then identification of the malignant cells, carefully separating them from the hybrid and destroying them, and then setting them aside for growth till the fall. In many ways it is akin to being a cancer surgeon, knowing what to cut and what to keep and then bringing the patient back.

Nature is the same everywhere, just in different forms.

The Joy of Working in the Summer

There are some who take the summer as a season for rest and relaxation. For me, the past 30 years has meant getting up at 5 AM and walking the fields seeing what is new and then deciding what to cross. The above was a pleasant surprise, a cross from 2010 which I knew had some potential but not quite this much.

It is a 48" tall plant with 4 to 6 branches and 6 buds per branch with 6" flowers. It manages to just shout out from the Garden that it is there. It seems to be a strong grower and I found a chipmunk climbing the scapes this AM.

Thus for those Academics who seek solace in the summer there are those of us who see it as the most productive season, albeit blocking ourselves from the sun to keep the skin from too much damage.

It looks like we are beginning to see Summer, yet about two weeks later than usual.

A Summer Feat: The Bloom and Rebloom

Thought his may be of interest. It is a daylily in bloom and another bloom.