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Bee 'n Garden Blog

Location, Location, Location or It May Be Your Fault

11/13/2024

 
So ... what did I learn this year? I learned that it's all about Location, Location, Location. And that for some daylilies (DLs), being in a raised bed in all day sun is anathema.  

Take 'Mary Ethel Anderson' that I bought about 6 years ago at a fire sale. For five of those six years, she never had more than 10 leaves, never bloomed, never increased. But she never died, either! She was a parent of 20 other registered cultivars according to The Database. Several people had given me rave reviews about their 'Mary Ethel Anderson'. So 2 autumns ago, I decided to plop her into a small space between the house and huge clumps of ever-increasing 'Mage's Memories' and 'All American Chief'. Maybe Mage and Chief would encourage Mary to grow up and to enjoy her 5 hours of sun and expand her roots into amended clay. 

'Mary Ethel Anderson' stopped me in my tracks in May 2024! She was sending up scapes where no scape had gone before! Bless her heart! Not only that, she rebloomed from late July to mid-September! (Pardon my exclamation points, I know I'm not supposed to use them so much but ...) In other words, she excelled ... finally!  
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May 2024
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September 2024
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AHS/ADS Photo
Notice the buds on her scape in the first image, the slight picotee edge, and the red eye that's so intense it's difficult to notice the green throat. What's especially unique about this beauty is it's a strong miniature in the right place but a weakling weed in the wrong place. She's an ugly duckling that turned into a gorgeous little swan with a 2.5" bloom.
Mary Ethel Anderson (Salter-E.H., 1995)
height 18 inches (46 cm), bloom 2.5 inches (6 cm), season MLa, Rebloom, Semi-Evergreen, Diploid,  Cream with red eye above green throat. Awards: AM 2002; HM 1999; DFM 2000; FS 1997
In all fairness to Mary Ethel, her grower should've understood that raised bed environment sooner. Raised beds can never be watered enough. And summer weather in northwest metro Atlanta can typically stay in the 90's for weeks and drought-like months are becoming the norm. 
 
Oh! Get this! Six weeks ago, I moved 'Baby Jessie' next to 'Mary Ethel Anderson' because Jessie has been a non-performer for me for 4 years. Guess the parentage of 'Baby Jessie'. Go on, guess! Yep! Mary Ethel is the pod parent! I swear I did NOT know that until 90 seconds ago when I looked up Jessie in The AHS/ADS Database.
Baby Jessie (Eller-N., 2005) - height 18 inches (46 cm), bloom 2.75 inches (7 cm), season M, Rebloom, Semi-Evergreen, Diploid, 15 buds, 2 branches, Double 80%,  Cream with cherry red eye above red throat. (You Angel You × Mary Ethel Anderson)

By the way, when I was gifted 'Mayor of Munchkinland', I was told to keep it out of all-day sun. The Mayor is three feet from Mary and Jessie and thriving.

Mayor of Munchkinland (Herrington-T., 2010) - height 24 inches (61 cm), bloom 2.9 inches (7 cm), season EM, Rebloom, Dormant, Diploid, Fragrant, 50 buds, 7 branches,  Canary yellow, red eye above a green throat. (Impish Eyes × Everybody Loves Earnest) Awards: Stout 2021; AM 2019; HM 2016; JC 2010; DFM 2015; DCS 2017; FS 2015

Q: What do they all have in common?  A: All three are Diploid Miniatures and need kindly treatment. For a great tutorial regarding Diploids vs Tetraploids, I'm going to refer you to this Cottage-in-the-Meadows website ... as I've gone on long enough. 
https://cottageinthemeadow.plantfans.com/BlogPosts/THE_DIFFERENCE_BETWEEN_DIPLOIDS_AND_TETRAPOIDS


​Well, one last word - if you have an underperformer, it may be your fault.
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'H. Baby Jessie' on the left

'H. Mayor of Munchkinland on the right
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A Year of Firsts

8/11/2023

 
The 1st First is that my one and only registered daylily, 'H. Witch's Honey,' first appeared in commerce in 2023! Compare it to it's mother, 'H. Witch's Thimble' and you'll see the family resemblance. Both are miniatures with wine colored eyes and both have blooms that stand well above the foliage. What's truly striking about 'H. Witch's Honey' is how its striking mango color catches the gardener's attention immediately.  The next intro is likely to be another mini that towers 3 feet above the foliage!
PS - I am NOT charging much for my intros. They were free to me as I was doing what I love!

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Witch's Honey (Buehner, 2022)
height 28 inches (71 cm), bloom 2.8 inches (7 cm), season M, Rebloom, Dormant, Diploid, 9 buds, 3 branches,  Golden orange with wine eye above yellow throat, predominant midribs, and lightly ruffled edges.. (Witch's Thimble × unknown)

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Witch's Thimble (Hudson, 1981)
height 14 inches (36 cm), bloom 2.25 inches (6 cm), season M, Semi-Evergreen, Diploid,  White ivory with black purple eyezone and green throat. (Elf Witch × Dragons Eye)Awards: HM 1990; DFM 1992

 
The 2nd First is that I attended my first American Daylily Society Convention since the one in Valdosta in 2010. (Our club hosted "The Place to Be Seen in 2015" convention in Atlanta but I was too busy to realize I was attending the convention so I'm not counting it.) The auctions, awards, comaraderie, etc. were amazing but for me one garden in particular grabbed my attention, Eden's Edge. The owner greeted us and I paraphrase what she said, "This isn't a daylily garden. It's a garden with daylilies."
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Daylilies, daisies and coneflowers
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Daylilies, verbena and flamingo
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Monarda (bee balm) and daylilies
The 3rd First is that this year I sold my daylilies out of a tiny and crowded 10x10 foot booth at our Master Gardeners' Expo in May. You know what made it tiny and crowded? The number of people interested in buying daylilies, asking what are they and how do you take care of them amazed me. I gave away many years worth of The Daylily Journal one at a time to customers. I was too busy to notice but my husband said that the bored vendors in the 20x20 foot well-decorated booth across the aisle from us just stared in amazement! Yes, we came close to selling out on Friday, dug and washed more Friday night and absolutely sold out early on Saturday! I didn't even have time to buy anything myself except three tomato seedlings! Darn! Success is hard!
My 4th First is selling on Facebook online auctions. I am unsure whether I'm shooting myself in the foot or not by telling you this. Essentially, I'm sending you to another venue to buy your daylilies. But at this stage of my latest career, why not help all daylily people buy and sell and trade and give away the plants that we love. 
And my final First is that the weather first hit 100 the week of August 19th this year. Yep, I know many of you had more weeks of hotter temps than we did. And I'm grateful my gardens aren't where yours are.
Signing off now. I have plants to ship and an on-line auction to anticipate that starts September 11th. Check it out! Quickly though - it ends on Sept 17th!                                                  https://www.facebook.com/groups/209701109227595
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Seize the Day-lily!

3/17/2023

 
So every once in awhile, I make myself useful and contribute a short article to The Georgia Daylily​ aka the ADS Region 5 'Newsletter'.  Thank you to Editor Claude Carpenter for laying out the verbiage and images so perfectly. 
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New Additions to 2023 Website

1/5/2023

 
A picture is worth a thousand words." Indeed! The images below show Daylilies  ADDED IN 2022 to the RitaBees website. Click any image to go the   ADDED IN 2022   webpage for AHS/ADS info and pricing.
Stay Safe and Enjoy! 
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Adventures in Oz
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Arms Reaching Out
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Blue Pools
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Blue Waves
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Faye Leggett
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Four-play
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Jammin's Halo Heart
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Jared Timothy Bell
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Little Blue Eyed Jewel
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Mouse Eyes
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Oz's Cowardly Lion
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Rosabelle Van Valkenburgh
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Royal Cypher
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School Bus Dreams
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Tet Malachite Prism
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Ultimate Illusion
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Vorlon Oddity
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White Eyes Pink Dragon
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Yuletide Magic
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Unknown Heirloom (Gift from Elise)

'Rita Sue' meet 'Rita'. 'Rita' meet 'Rita Sue'.

5/28/2022

 
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'Rita Sue' (Smith-HR, 2006) Photo by Rita Sue Buehner
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'Rita' (Russell, 1949) Photo by Rita Sue Adkins

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'Painted Lady' (Russell, 1942) Stout Silver Medal - 1950
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Hugh Russell - hybridizer
So ... this story is less about daylilies than about who you meet because of daylilies. My name is Rita Sue. A few weeks ago, a Rita Sue from Kentucky phoned me to ask about a 'Rita Sue' daylily listed on the Rita Bees website.  After talking about lots of things, we ended up with an interstate trade deal better than any you'd read about in the Wall Street Journal. In exchange for 'Rita Sue' and a few others, she'd send me 'Rita' and a few others. Coincidence #1 and #2 - we're both named Rita Sue and both are from the rolling hills of Kentucky.  

Coincidence #3 is that when I was making a label for 'Rita' I found it was registered by Russell in 1949, my birth year. (Hold onto that hybridizer named Russell - that's Coincidence #5.)

​#4 is that last week I answered a phone call, again not knowing who it was. I RARELY DO THAT! Angie S. was calling about daylilies and we too talked about a lot of things including her uncle, Hugh Russell, a hybridizer from the mid-20th century. He owned 30 acres of daylilies and in 1950 received the second Stout Silver Medal ever awarded for 'Painted Lady'. (Everyone knows the Stout Silver Medal is THE highest award in daylily-dom.) Here comes Coincidence #5 - Hugh Russell was the hybridizer of 'Rita'!  
Long story not-so-short, I am so pleased that I wasn't too busy to answer the phone those two days or I would've missed many of these opportunities to know interesting people ... through daylilies.
Moral #1:  Stop and smell the daylilies!

Oh! That may be my next blog ... fragrant daylilies. Fast forward. I don't know enough to justify an entire blog devoted to fragrant daylilies. So I'll add it here. Some are very fragrant. A customer recently bought out my entire stock of 'Magic Amethyst' because she once walked by a large bed of it and was so struck by its fragrance that she promised herself she'd build her own garden of just 'Magic Amethyst'.  My regret is ... I don't have any to build MY own bed of it. Sigh. (I'll keep an eye out for it.)
Moral #2:  Keep better inventory!
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Magic Amethyst
Magic Amethyst (Stamile, 1996) - height 27 inches (69 cm), bloom 5.5 inches (14 cm), season EM, Rebloom, Dormant, Tetraploid, Very Fragrant,  Amethyst lavender blend with green throat. (Druid's Chant × Big Blue) Awards: HM 2002; JC 1997

Where Do Daylilies Come From? Not the Cabbage Patch, Silly!

4/5/2022

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Where do daylilies (DLs) come from?  One place is ... generous clump sales! These below were acquired from a Respected Seller who's making room for ... actually I don't know what Respected Seller is making room for. But I was sure interested in investing in what Respected Seller was divesting! It's work for me  prepping new beds and coaxing the fans to quit holding hands ... well, feet actually ... AKA 'separating clumps'. But work well worth it!  Below are AHS/ADS database photos of Rita Bees' nine most newly acquired daylilies. I promise to replace these photos with my own soon as a few are showing scapes this early May weekend.
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'Rocky's Eye' (Herrington-H, 1992)
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'Oz's Cowardly Lion' (Herrington-K, 2009)
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'Red Icicles' (Herrington-K, 2006)
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'Malachite Prism' (Doorakian, 1999)
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'Faye Leggett' (McGough, 2016)
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'Vorlon Oddity' (Reeder, 2019)
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'Arms Reaching Out' (Eller-N, 2004)
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'Yuletide Magic' (Carpenter-J, 2009)
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'Blue Waves' (Shooter, 2008)

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'Rita Sue' (Smith-FR, 2006)
Stay tuned to the next blog installment where I'll tell you about 'Rita Sue' (Smith-FR, 2006) and 'Rita' (Russell, 1949). 
SPOILER ALERT: This is a story of two wonderfully interesting ladies, Rita Sue and Angie, that I met by phone. And an interesting series of coincidences. 
Rita (Russell, 1949) 
height 36 inches (91 cm), season M, Diploid,  ORM1: Orange red medium self.
NOTE: I cannot find a photo of 'H. Rita' so I have NO idea what she looks like.

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New Daylilies Available for Spring Delivery

1/7/2022

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Take a look at a few daylilies that are new to the Rita Bees Gardens & Apiary website or have been put back on the website after they increased ('Tim Herrington', 'All American Chief', 'Smile-n-dales', 'Brookwood Hiawatha'). If you click on each image, you'll be directed to AHS/ADS info on that cultivar.  If you hover the cursor over each image, it's cultivar name will appear.
You are welcome to browse all of Rita Bees offerings to your heart's content on these cold winter days - just as you would a printed catalog. As I'm typing at 11:00 AM EST, the temp is 27 deg F. Our gardens are mulched, our bees are tucked in tight with plenty to eat and we're waiting for 50 deg days to take our brand new ebike on the Silver Comet Trail. (Now that's a re-learning curve for a short chubby elderly lady gardener who craves new activity! I'm through with jigsaw puzzles until next Dec. ;-)

Blessings for You and Yours in 2022. Stay safe and well.
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Expanded the Gardens, again, in 2021

11/6/2021

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Everytime I think I can't find one more spot for daylilies, I 'rearrange' shrubs and voila! A new bed is available. 
  • 8 Barberry bushes - gone! New daylily garden around my mailbox.
  • 2 Lorapetalums (Lorapetali?) - gone! New daylily garden under my bedroom windows.
  • 1 fifteen year old weeping Juniper - sadly gone! New daylily garden around the corner of the garage.
  • 6 foot existing circular daylily garden - gone! Expanded it to a 18 foot oval. 
  • 18 foot existing circular companion plants garden - companion plants gone, daylilies only!
  • 40 foot existing row of in-ground and raised beds - untouched!
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Why did I need that much more space? Because ... I ... went ... overboard at two clump sales in July and September! It's true ... I swore no more daylilies after June 2021 but these clump were irresistable. My regret is I didn't buy more.  

​What did I purchase? Will post that in the next blog, promise.

​Spoiler: they were too beautiful to pass up and they are neither mini/smalls nor heirlooms.  While those are my favs, that's not what the clump sales were about.
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Original circular daylily bed
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8 thorny barberry bushes - gone!
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1 weeping juniper - sadly gone!
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2 gorgeous lorapetalums - gone!
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Expansion - circular to oval
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Existing raised beds - a treasure!
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Existing in-ground beds
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Where's the Reblooms?

9/4/2021

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Seriously? It's September already? Yes, it is! But where are my daylily reblooms? Only 'Fruitful Endeavor' (Grovenstein-L.&E., 2006), 'Double Glamour' (Brown-B., 1970) and 'Pandora's Box' (Talbott, 1980) out of almost 200 cultivars are reblooming consistently. Last year, the gardens were colorful all summer and into early October. Anecdotally, not scientifically, I can say it's either the weather or ... if the rebloom was fantastic last year, it won't be the next year or ... Mother Nature knew we needed cheer in 2020's COVID atmosphere. I'd like to believe it's Mother Nature but it's very like the weather.
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'Fruitful Endeavor'
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'Double Glamour'
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'Pandora's Box'
2020 was hot with many consecutive days of above 90 degrees and when that happens, even in northern Georgia, it's often many consecutive days above 95. And I had to water a LOT last year. This year, many days were overcast if not downright rainy. I only watered 3 times this year ... in June, not July and August. And the foliage is beautiful!

But foliage is not what makes you stop and stare - it's the blooms! Where are they? Closer inspection shows the rebloom is coming now because we're getting more sun (?) despite Hurricane Ida remnants which swung through here. September color in the garden will be good. Patience is needed. Deep breath.

By the way, the apiary we helped establish at Smith-Gilbert Gardens flourished this year and produced its first crop of honey which will be used for fund raising purposes. A problem I foresee is ... the apiary is on track to double its hives next year and where will we put them? We have all winter to think about that!


One last thing: the Cobb County Daylily Society now has an established daylily bed at Smith-Gilbert Gardens containing about 70 cultivars. Check it out at SGG DL Slideshow
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CCDS at work in 2018
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CCDS's Garden at SGG in 2020
Remember: September is a great time to divide and replant your older daylily clumps and to buy and plant new cultivars. Start by visiting Rita Bees.
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Oh, My Gourd, the Weather's Warming!

4/25/2021

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​Fingers crossed but I think the last cold snap here in Kennesaw Georgia has come and gone. A front moved through last night and the wonderful drenching it brought has knocked the pollen from the air ... at least temporarily.  Azaleas and dogwoods are done ... sigh. But star jasmine smells beautiful, wild geranium is photogenic and the newest daylily additions wintered really well-the slide show shows what's been recently added to the Rita Bees website.  Others were added last fall so check it out, pls. 
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Star Jasmine blooming now!
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'H. Lava Flow' scape forming
Oh! I'd be remiss to not tell you that Rita's Bees are prolific this Spring especially the Binnie1 hive. The Heidi hive is doing OK but her progeny, the hive named Yodel, is going gangbusters! 3 other splits are queenright - that's the most I can ask of them. ('Queenright' for a split means a new mated queen is laying and the workers are producing wax and drawing comb. Oh, My Gourd! I shouldn't have started talking bee-talk. It's nearly impossible for me to stop! But I will.
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Have a Safe and Productive Spring!   2021 is here!
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