Daylily sex in suburbia—a sight I never thought I’d see

Posted Apr 23, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Apr 23, 2009 at 07:50 PM

Earlier this week I met Carol Robinson. She’s friendly, funny and a total daylily freak.

She lives in a nice Brandon subdivision, where her front, side and back yards are full of blooming daylilies. She was going to tell me all about them for a story for Sunday’s Tribune, but I got her off track when I asked about the white tags hanging on so many of those sturdy little scapes. Each tag bears a cryptic notation in black marker.

“That’s the pollen I put on it,” she said.

Were they smeared with pollen? I thought it better not to tell her I’d already put my hands all over a few of them. Curiousity begs touch.

But no, that’s not where the pollen goes. Carol is hybridizing daylilies, cross-pollinating them to see if she can come up with a fantastuc new cultivar. And it all starts with a little sex. Preferably in the morning.

It was still morning, and I had to see that! So I asked.

She looked over her blooms till she spotted one with a loaded anther. Its name? Mister Lucky. Seriously.

She plucked the anther and took it over to Flaming Tongues (brazenly flaunting her her bloom right there on Estatewood Drive). Flaming’s pistil was standing right up, primed to receive. Carol gently tapped the pollen onto the pistil, and there it was. The dirty deed done dirt cheap. And, yes, on the street.

“The liquid rises in the pistil and when it gets up to the top, hopefully it picks up some of the pollen and brings it down to the ovaries,” Carol explained.

Like procreation for any species, that’s just the beginning of the work. Carol tags the pollen recipient with shorthand identifying the pollen parent. (Hence the little white tags.) She’ll watch for Flaming Tongues to develop a seed pod and when she collects the seeds, she’ll label them and stick them in the ‘fridge till she’s ready to get ‘em growing.

It takes three or four years of working a hybrid before you know you’ve got a good one, she says.

“You want a lot of buds and beautiful flowers, but you’ve gotta look at the whole plant. You don’t want a wimpy-skimpy plant.”

It sounds like WAY too much work. Until you see the result.

This is one of Carol’s crosses, and seeing it bloom, she says, is the joy of daylily sex in suburbia.

---

There’s A Surprise Inside Every Package

Posted Apr 18, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Apr 19, 2009 at 10:24 AM

Remember the baby pomegranate on the plant I grew from a supermarket pom?

Donna from Suburban Sanctum noted how unusual it was that a pomegranate should grow straight up in the air like that. What would happen when (if) it got to be a Big Boy pom?

Good question Donna.

The answer is, that won’t happen. At least not anytime soon. Because my litttle pom is really

a flower!

That was Saturday. It has opened up a bit more. Here’s the view today.

Now the big question is: Does a flower become a pomegranate?

---

They should just call them squirrel feeders

Posted Apr 17, 2009 by Kim Franke-Folstad

Updated Apr 17, 2009 at 03:01 PM

I gave up a while ago on getting a single nectarine from our one-tree harvest.

At first it was frustrating to watch the squirrels blatantly pluck the fruit and scamper off, but then it became kind of fun to watch them nibble away. That’s nature. A gardener has to roll with it.

And yet.

The battle for our bird feeders continues.

It’s one thing for the squirrels to take the food out of my mouth; it’s quite another when they bogart the bird seed.

While I gaze lovingly at the flowers in my garden, my husband watches for birds. And it’s been a great week for that, with all kinds of songbirds migrating through the area. We filled all five feeders and sat down for a concert.

The show, though, was — as always — all squirrel. We don’t have any oak trees in our backyard, but the yards on either side are lined with them. Which is great, except those oaks serve as barracks to battalions of squirrels running recon missions into our garden. If the coast is clear, they come foraging. And they will come back until all of the bird seed is gone.

I’ve seen them hang upside down from the top of one feeder and eat as though we’d plated a meal just for them. I’ve seen them climb the most squirrel-proof feeders we can find. If it’s slippery, they scale it. If it’s wobbly, they hang on and keep eating, like a kid with cotton candy on a carnival ride.

We tried cayenne pepper, and it worked for a while. Now, conditioned to the heat, they seem to prefer their blend extra-spicy. I even tried some organic squirrel-proofing spray — a mix that includes rosemary, mint and cinnamon oils. I spritzed it around the newest feeder, the tree it hangs from and the ground underneath.

The smell wasn’t bad, but it was strong. The next day, the squirrels were feasting as though we’d put out potpourri to improve the ambiance. They don’t even run anymore when we walk up — they just stare.

And through it all our dogs yawn.

I’m going to try the spray again this week and hope. But if you know of a better method — something that doesn’t cost too much, please — send it to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), with Save Our Seed in the subject line.

---

Gonna Take A Sentimental Journey

Posted Apr 17, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Apr 17, 2009 at 03:19 PM

If I were the type person who got misty-eyed at Publix commercials, I might brush away a tear or two looking at all the beauty I enjoy thanks to the kindness of others. It’s all looking pretty cheerful this week, thanks to the hallelujah rain, so it’s a good time for portraits.

Friend Bonnie Dyson potted up some of the pink salvia running wild in her Brandon yard when I moaned about how hard it was to find at retailers. In return, I brought her one of my potted angel’s trumpet cuttings, which she promptly killed.

The angel’s trumpets, meanwhile, were a gift from Janice Vogt in Seminole Heights. I know I’ve showed off this one before, but my gosh, can you see why I’m proud? I just hope he’ll grow into his blooms, which I thought were yellow but are actually more like peach sherbet.

When I told Kim a couple weeks ago that I was looking for a “noodly” plant to go in the metal Chinese take-out container my daughter made in welding class (don’t ask), she promptly handed over her firesticks. “Will this work?” she asked. Perfectly! And how very nice of her. (She was having a very good day—I left her house with the plant, her rolling cooler and a bottle of wine.)

Janna Begole loaded me up with Jacob’s ladder cuttings at Greenfest, with strict admonishments not to give up on them - “They may take awhile but they’ll root.” I think Tuesday’s rain was just the jump-start they needed. This one has sprouted leaf!

Ditto for the black-eyed Susan vine from Susan Gillespie. It’s already climbing the trellis and I just planted it last weekend!

The white pentas are from Mary and Ernest Seder, the mother and son who put vases of roses out for passersby at their Highlands Avenue home. I visited recently to check the newest (stunning) crop, and before I could finish admiring the white pentas in the garden, I had a pot in my backseat. (Ernest had dug some up to make room for more roses and had them in pots to await new homes.)

It was Carole Shepherd of Plant City, though, who taught me to fish—so to speak. I have never had luck growing pentas from cuttings, and Carole gave me a lesson. It took, as did these ready-to-bloom crimson pentas from cuttings. My first!

Just one more!

A couple years ago, my sister Peggy stumbled on a nursery sale and brought me what our family calls “a sussy”—a surprise for no reason but to be nice. I’d never had a desert rose, and I’ll never be without one again. I love it.

When I think about it, I realize many of my plants were gifts; some from people who’ve since passed away. All that kindness and caring adds another dimension to a garden. Who can ever feel lonely surrounded by so many friends and family? 

---

The Frugal Gardener (Another One!)

Posted Apr 14, 2009 by Loren Omoto

Updated Apr 14, 2009 at 11:54 PM

Back in January, I introduced you to Carole Shepherd, the Plant City woman whose traffic-stopping garden has been grown almost entirely from cuttings, seeds, and $1 bargains at her favorite produce stand. (Click here for pictures.)  She has crimson pentas from cuttings her son brought home more than 20 years ago! (By the way, she taught me a few things about penta cuttings, and I now have some beautiful ones awaiting transplant come rainy season.)

When Carole’s daughter, Sally Bielen, was planning her wedding, she went to Mom for help. Smart girl.

“I, of course, jumped in my car and headed to Forbes Road produce where I bought white & green decorative kale, pansies, fuschia impatiens, and petunias. I found square 6” box planters in white for a just a few dollars each, filled them with soil, and put 4 different plants in each one. I fertilized them every other week and as her wedding day approached they became showstoppers,” Carole writes.

These are begonias. And check out the kale!

Pansies, one of my favs, are a great choice for ensuring happy faces at every table.

“Everyone who attended the wedding commented on the flowers and after all was said and done, each arrangement cost around $5 to create,” Carole writes. “What a savings for a bride to be! We gave the guests an arrangement to take home as a favor and reminder of the special day.”

Now, that’s what I call a frugal gardener!

 

---