This is a most anticipated year for our introductions. There are only four but the quality is off the charts great. Leading the list is that one that everyone seems to want, MEMORIAL TO STEVE. The bud count along with a variety of other exemplary characteristics makes this one that should go far in hybridization use as well as in popularity in the garden. The diploid, PIGMENT OF IMAGINATION, brings an entirely new dimension to daylilies. Here is a plant whose blossoms change color as the day progresses. This is usually not a desired quality but when the color that is revealed as the flower changes coloration is turquoise we will make exceptions. FIRST CRUSH is a tet intro that brings a sophistication of flower form to the north. It is heads and shoulders ahead of any eyed edged cultivar we have seen in the north. With three rounds of bloom frequently appearing FIRST CRUSH is outstanding. The garden impact of UP AGAINST THE SUN is breathtaking. The color of the blooms is much like the paragon, PRIMAL SCREAM, but the height, floriferousness, fertility and rebloom set it into a class all by itself. 

The weather brought disappointments with two very untimely freezes and a persistent drought. However the new blossoms that we did see speak of a lot of real excitement in the coming year. Despite the fact that the drought kept the second and third year seedling beds from blooming, the first year bed containing one of the smallest crops in recent memory gave us almost 50 selections for numbering, about normal. This was despite the fact that we were selecting from about 4,000 seedlings flowering under severe drought conditions. Our observation is that if they can look that good under adverse conditions of that extreme, they are going to be simply spectacular when they are another year more mature and growing with a reasonable compliment of water.  

One of the most exciting new seedlings was a purple out of out RED HAT DIVA. RED HAT DIVA had been crossed to a purple seedling. The result, T07-21, gave us something we have wanted for some time. That is a purple flower that is larger and more ruffled which we can incorporate into out MARY LIGHTFINE/MARY'S BABY. T07-21 gave us that with room to spare. The first blossom was 8 1/4". The petals had wide looping ruffles. The scape was well branched and carried an excellent load of buds which were well placed. The first bloom came when the plant was already stressed from the drought and still measured over eight inches. There had been essentially zero rain from early April until late June. That bed had received one round of watering at that point. After the first bloom the size gradually settled down to very respectable 6 1/2" to 7". Whether that is an expression of the drought stress or of a characteristic of the seedling we will find out later. Needless to say we used T07-21 as much as we could to cross into the MARY LIGHTFINE line. The combination of the color clarity and white edge of the ML line with the size and ruffle of this wonderful new seedling may help to take us into new territory in the purple. We think it is the breakthrough in our lines that we have awaited. 

Another high point of the bloom season was the appearance of another seedling, T07-41. This is one of the few seedlings we have bloomed to date out of MEMORIAL TO STEVE. This seedling was in one of the second year beds which we were not able to water at all in the course of the summer as we are on a limited supply. Ignoring the lack of water this seedling sent up two excellent scapes on a rather small plant. The vast majority of all the other plants in that bed of some 5,000 seedlings either did not bloom at all or sent up scapes with little to no branching and few buds. Many of the plants that sent up anything at all aborted the buds as the season progressed. T07-41 stood out in that bed in manner that could not have been more gratifying. In a cross of about 15, two of the sibs of T07-41 also looked good. We have come to the conclusion that MEMORIAL TO STEVE is going to be a VERY worthy parent in our program in the coming years. WE made a lot of seeds in 2006 from MTS, perhaps 3,000. This last summer we exceeded that greatly. I would estimate that there are well in excess of 5,000 seedlings happily growing in the greenhouse as I write this. The are generally the largest and most vigorous seedlings too. 

MEMORIAL TO STEVE gave us a several pleasant surprises in the course of the summer. We had had a dozen or so plants of MTS in the greenhouse for use in hybridization. In May we harvested numerous pods from them and lined them out in the sales bed in preparation for distribution in the spring of '08. With a modicum of water they settled in exceedingly well. By late August these plants were larger, greener and more vigorous than any of the plants around them. The neighbors had been planted in August of the previous summer. In early September these fans started to put up scapes. We did not expect this since they were covered with pods right before they were lined out in June. While the scapes did not carry the 50-70 buds that we see on established plants they did show bud counts in the range of 25 to 35. It may necessary to point out that this was the very first time that any of MEMORIAL TO STEVE had been planted in good soil. Before this season all of the stock of MTS was found in the infamous "clay soup bed", a bed with soil so bad that I will abandon it when the current plants are moved out. Previous to their being in the clay soup bed the clump of MTS was in its original spot in one of the seedling beds. As anyone who has visited here can attest, the soil in my seedling beds is nothing to brag about. 

We continue our philosophy here that seedlings will be grown and selected only under the most rigorous of conditions. Our soil is the native southeastern Ohio clay. By the third year of bloom in most of the beds we are being invaded by the infamous "poverty grass". This is a plant that only thrives in the poorest of soils. It is common to abandoned fields all over this part of the state. Crop farming in southeastern Ohio has been largely abandoned due to the poor soil except in the relatively richer bottom lands. We are located at the very top of a ridge. The fertility of our soils long ago washed down the steep slopes and into the Hocking River to flow down the Ohio and pollute the Gulf of Mexico. When we bought the farm in 1972 the same areas where we now grow the daylilies had been planted in corn for a number of years running. There were gullies on some of the slopes that were almost to my waist. Our beds are all planted on the contour now and the erosion is minimal. 

I would like to add a word or two about a characteristic that is becoming more and more significant in our minds. Daylily lovers in the north have gone too long without much rebloom. Reblooming daylilies are a given in the south. In fact I would suspect that an introduction out of Florida that did not rebloom would have very little acceptance anywhere. But there is wonderful ability in some northern plants that needs to be found in a larger number of our introductions. That ability is what many are now calling instant rebloom. This is rebloom that comes on before the first scape has finished blooming. It can even come on as the first scape is only beginning. The result of instant rebloom in the garden is that the impact of a given clump is greatly enhanced. I would say that the impact is more than doubled. The crossover time during which the first set of scapes are showing off and the second set is putting on a show is spectacular. During that period a clump can appear to be little more than blossoms. That appearance can be breathtaking. 

We have a small number of introductions which show instant rebloom well. NO BLUE OXFORDS comes to mind immediately. Many of you are aware of how each fan puts up a scape and before the first can really get going a second appears to enhance the show. We have several others that do that almost as well such as BELLE OF ASHWOOD, FOREVER IN LOVE and CLARITY OF VISION. Other breeders have a few such performers in their lines but instant rebloom is still a rarity. I would like to think that 10 years from now an introduction coming out of Ohio will be expected to meet the requirement of instant rebloom just as a Florida introduction would be expected to meet the criteria of rebloom under southern conditions.              

Richard Norris