Gnashing of Teeth - the gift that keeps on giving

In several previous posts, I've included pictures of Gnashing of Teeth offspring. Last night I finally got around to updating my master file for seedlings I numbered last summer and found even more - it's the gift that just keeps on giving:-) See below - 63808, 63208, 47209, 62309, 61109, 55009, 51209.

Gnashing of Teeth/Heartbeat of Heaven great grandkids

40807 (above) is a 7" beauty that is breeding large lavender-eyed kids with triangular form. It's still in the testing process. (The verdict so far: super parent for hardy kids; hardy itself and gorgeous, but still watching whether height and budcount will make it a good garden plant).

It's a great grandkid out of Gnashing of Teeth and Heartbeat of Heaven.

Its pod parent is 4106 (below), which has just about everything in it: Light of the World, Way of Life, parent of Eyes on the Prize (twice), Fortune's Dearest, Tet LBB (twice), Lake Effect, Pirate Lady, Uppermost Edge, Wolf Eyes, Regal Majesty, Clothed in Glory, Heartbeat of Heaven, Storm Shelter and Jane Trimmer.

The pollen parent of 40807 is 8305 (below), which is out of Gnashing of Teeth and 21303 (the 2 smaller pictures below 8305). 21303 includes Regal

Majesty, Clothed in Glory, Heartbeat of Heaven, parent of Eyes on the Prize, Fortune's Dearest, tet LBB and Lake Effect.

The following five pictures are offspring of 40807. In order: 33909 (out of 13107 x 40807), 59109 (out of 13107 x 40807), 40909 (out of 47607 x 40807), 57609 (out of 13207 x 40807), and 22908 (out of Creation Rejoices x 40807). Information on and pictures of 13107, 13207 and 47607 can be found elsewhere on the blog by using the search function.

GNASHING OF TEETH offspring

I've previously posted on the blog a number of pictures of offspring from GNASHING OF TEETH - 12510, 6410, 31810, 33910, 42110. (You can find them by going to the search box on the upper right of the page). It is also the parent of MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, which was introduced in 2010. Several others are posted below and are proving to be very hardy: 11808, 22305 (will be a 2012 intro), 13207 (includes ENTWINED IN THE VINE), 38310 (out of 13207), 40807, 44108 (out of 13207), 42608 (out of 13207), 57109, 61809.

GNASHING OF TEETH

GNASHING OF TEETH (see the 5 pictures below) will likely be my only 2011 intro for the reasons stated in an earlier post. It is an outstanding hybridizing plant if you're looking to add teeth to almost any color (most will be white to ivory). The first picture is a typical good day outside and is an accurate color. The second picture is also accurate, although it is usually not that dark or that purple. The third picture is its maiden bloom in the greenhouse. The fourth is the reason it is being recommended only to hybridizers - it spots way too much to meet my standards of an outstanding garden flower. The last picture is of its outdoor scapes this year. See the bottom for a complete description. There will be more pictures of it on the website when I get that updated. See coming posts for pictures of its offsppring.

GNASHING OF TEETH TET 35502 {[(Lifting Me Higher x Fortune's Dearest) x (Forbidden Desires x Tet LBB)] x [(Fortune's Dearest x Lifting Me Higher) x Doyle Pierce]}, 29" (24" in rough winters or until established in zone 4, and on rebloom), M (to late-mid), Ev, fr, reliable MN instant rebloom, 6-1/2" (up to 7"), 3-way branching with 18 buds (2-way with 12 buds at Springwood in years 1 and 2 after planting, higher thereafter and with more snow cover), good opener. Grape cranberry with pale lavender eye and edge plus pale ivory to white teeth; yellow to green throat. Amazing parent for large, very sharky, introduction quality kids in all color ranges and forms (see MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST and future intro 22305, and there will be many more once testing periods are completed). Slower increaser (one fan will only go to two the next year). Sharky even when temps are in the high 60's to mid 70's, but will lose them all in the 50's. Not the best garden plant at Springwood due to frequent spotting from heavy dew, but it doesn't pass that on to most of its kids. Tested at Linda Agin's in Alabama and evaluated by her as outstanding as both a garden and hybridizing plant. Flawless in greenhouse settings. Super rust resistance. I won't be able to ship this year until late May/early June, since it emerges very, very late in the spring - it seems to know not to come out of the ground until all danger of frost is past - please don't worry and go digging around looking for it. Also, the fans may look small and somewhat tentative as they emerge for you in 2012, but they will be large once the season gets going. Fertile both ways - easy pollen and average to above average pod fertility (hits in GH 50-70% of the time)............$250SF

Why the name? Obviously because of its huge teeth, but also because of the mis-steps on its way to introduction - from my putting it in a dumb location for its first northern test, to all of the southern test plants inadvertently being thrown away, to the spotting.

Desire of Nations kids (continued)

These are Desire of Nations kids that were planted outside in June for testing. The first three are from 2010 (11410, 23110, and 38110) and the last two were ones I held over from 2009 for hybridizing (21709, 29609). 38110 also includes 35502, Kingdom Without End, 29504, and Entwined in the Vine.

More Desire of Nations kids

DESIRE OF NATIONS has turned out to be one of my very best breeders of hardy, well-branched and budded seedlings in the looks that I like. These five are a few that I saw for the first time this summer: 48010, 56509, 56409, 59409, 41509.

End of the season/empty greenhouse

Hard to believe it's been 2 months since I last posted. Bloom came so fast during the summer that it was hard to organize my thoughts and pictures. I like the posts on the blog to be helpful, and there was just no time to make sense of it all. Have just updated my powerpoint for club visits this fall, and have everything organized by theme and parent, so will have lots to share during coming months:-) When I pull the powerpoint together, I always learn all sorts of helpful things about which parents are the most powerful and how they breed, and this year was no exception. It's tempting to show everything on the blog all at once, but winter is long and it will be fun to re-live the season.

Have moved back to the city and won't be returning to Springwood until May, when I'll plant seeds from crosses made in April and May 2010 and ship spring orders. The seeds are always planted by now, but when I got rust (for the first time) this year, I decided to let the winter kill it off rather than fight what is clearly a losing battle with sprays, since all they do is mask what's going on inside the plant and never kill it off. The thought of spraying 26 times a year for the rest of my life (plus almost as frequent spraying for insects) made it an easy choice. (My apologies to those of you who got rust from plants I sent - I will do my very best to see that it doesn't happen again!) So the greenhouse is now completely empty - the first time since it was built.

I will really miss hybridizing in the spring, but after going flat out with the daylilies for 15 years, a short break will be good for me. It's a blessing in many ways: in addition to the rest, I'll have all winter to select just the right seeds to plant (rather than doing it all in one frantic week in late July), to figure out the best plants to bring back into the greenhouse for breeding, and to spend time working out all the details of a remodel and addition to the house at Springwood (where we hope to be able to live year-round some time in the future). I'll also have almost a year's break from worrying about the greenhouse heaters working properly in sub-zero temps, and what poison I have to use next on whatever insect is then chewing on the plants. It will also be a good opportunity to learn about shipping from the outside. I've been really spoiled by being able to ship from the greenhouse in any kind of weather, but have also learned that many of the dormants do much better outside, so in the future will have plants to ship from both inside and out.

Will have very few intros for 2011 - maybe only one - but will have lots of beauties in 2012 (including many very strong parents) when I have the number of fans I'd like to have.

Flower pictures coming soon:-)

Pod city

Stripping the greenhouse and sending the plants outside for testing means I have to cut a lot of scapes before the pods mature. This is what I had about 3 weeks ago. I just put them in about 2 inches of water and let them mature. It gets kind of stinky but I dare not touch the pods for fear of losing the tags, so I just keep adding water as it evaporates. No germination problem at all doing it this way. This season have collected about 2000-2200 pods for me and will plant in the spring. It's nice to be able to make them in a controlled environment in the greenhouse in the spring - I can adjust the temps and keep the rain off and they're all close together - this summer has been so hot and the plants spread out all over the place outside, that it would have been difficult to make and collect seeds.

Something completely different

Busy collecting seeds, lining out and making seedling evaluations. Imagine my astonishment when I saw this yesterday among the seedlings. Petaloid tissue growing out of the top of the anthers - oh, my. Happened on 2 different anthers on two different flowers of the same plant. Out of Light of the World breeding, which itself often has extra tissue or doubling as do many of its kids.

Running a marathon

Breeding daylilies is very satisfying, but also exhausting work. We started transplanting 4500 seedlings from the greenhouse on June 8. Lots of rainy days and torrid temps since then to slow us down plus spending time lining out plants for next year's regional and the upcoming national but about 3900 are now outside. In the middle of the process there are days when it feels like there is no end in sight, but I can see it now:-) Have also collected nearly 2000 seed pods and anticipate 3000 in total.

Greenhouse seedlings continue to bloom while we're emptying it out. These are 42710, 44310, 45010, 45410, 45810, 46410, and 46610.