Viewing comments posted by RavenCroft

I have a question. How is Black Magic kale harvested? From the bottom or top? Thanks to anyone who can provide information or experiences.

Ahhhhhh.....Early Girl! My all time favorite (along with Husky Cherry). This is a good producer, & disease resistant. Love the taste. Excellent for slicing on sandwiches, in salads, & for the best tomato soup ever! A good all round staple in my garden. This is one I always grow.

I grew Cherokee Purple 2 years ago. Great fruit set, & very tasty, but very difficult to handle. The fruits are thin skinned, as are most heirlooms, & would split when picked. Although the taste & the look are great, I won't grow them again.

Hybridizer's notes: Mad Dogs And Englishmen is a screaming bright yellow self, that attracts the eye from across the garden or yard. The unique form can take on a variety of guises, from a horned devil, to a floppy eared cocker spaniel. The vibrant color holds, showing only the slightest of bleaching, most notably at the edges, in temps that hit the mid to upper 90's. Mad Dogs And Englishmen took its name from a line the 1931 song of that name, written by Noel Coward, with its ability to tolerate extreme sun. "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun." It has a very high garden presence, & blooms from the 1st week in July to the last week in August, in my zone 5 garden. Like its full sibling, Paper Lion, parentage is Sdlg. RAV 016 (Brave World x Unk) X Heavenly Curls.

Hgt: 36"
Bloom diameter: 6"
BR: 2 way, with terminal Y
BC: 22
Season: Mid-Late
Diploid
Diurnal
Dor
Form: UFO Crispate

Hybridizer's notes: RavenCroft Happy Go Lucky ((Mahieu Sdlg #99-114 x Augusto Bianco) X (Open Hearth x Pink Stripes)) is a rich fuchsia pink self over a bright yellow throat that extends that yellow color to the mid ribs. The form is an open crispate-cascade, with a lovely recurve about it, & is accented with gentle ruffles at the edge of both sepal & petals. Each bloom is a little different, with each day. This one radiates happiness across the garden, hence the name, with a strong garden presence, & is a good increaser. In colorfastness, it holds up very well to extreme heat & heavy rains. It is a grandchild (F2) out of Pink Stripes. Major pigment breaks are not present, tho you will see some slight breaks from time to time, indicating that the pigment break gene is present, but recessive. RavenCroft Happy Go Lucky possesses a superior plant habit, having laterals well spaced on the scape. It is currently being used to further that plant habit, & bring out the recessive pigment break gene into a more exotic form.

Hgt: 39"
Bloom: 6"
BR: 3 way with a terminal Y
BC: 40
Mid-Late
Diurnal
Dor
DIP

Hybridizer's notes: Paper Lion takes its name from the appearance of being so delicate, not unlike a fine handmade paper, when in fact its lion's mane of a cascading-spatulate form withstands intense summer temps with great strength. A lime green throat reaches out, over the pale yellow self, along the mid-rib. Paper Lion has a subtle, yet strong garden presence, & blooms from the 1st week in July to the last week of August in my zone 5 garden. Like its full sibling, Mad Dogs And Englishmen, the parentage is Sdlg. RAV 016 (Brave World x Unk) X Heavenly Curls.

Hgt: 34"
Bloom diameter: 5-6"
BR: terminal Y
BC: 16-18
Season: Mid-Late
Diploid
Diurnal
Dor
Form: UFO Cascade-Spatulate

Hybridizer's notes: Ira Penn is named to honor my online mentor, Ira Penn! Ira & I have never met in person. We met on the Lily Auction site, when I purchased a few daylilies from him about 6-7 years ago. We just hit it off & kept in touch. At the time he had moved, with his wife, Dee-Dee, to the state of Washington, after having lived in TN & the DC area. Although he was no longer hybridizing, he encouraged me to get out there & give it a try. He had kept a few of his select seedlings & showed me a few photos of them in one of his emails. One of them just jumped off the page. It had such a glow & countenance about it, & to my surprise, it showed up on my doorstep not long after! I garden named it PENNelope & I used it in my 1st fledgling programs. When I showed Ira the results, he admired this one (sdlg RAV 11-006) greatly, especially that bit of a darker picotee on the melon color self. When the stats were recorded & RAV 11-006 proved worthy of registration, I asked Ira if he would allow me to name it for him. The rest is history.

Ira Penn is a girly girl, round, ruffled bloom, in a gorgeous cantaloupe melon colored self, over a tinge of green deep in the throat. It holds well in the heat, although the cantaloupe coloring will lighten a little throughout the day, emphasizing even more the darker picotee edge.

Hgt: 23"
Bloom: 6"
BR: 2 way with a terminal Y
BC: 28
Mid-Late
Diurnal
Sev
TET

Hybridizer's notes: Lonesome Soldier is out of Ashwood Still Night X Unknown. If ever there was a plant for the hybridizer, Lonesome Soldier is that plant. It is a warm claret red recurved open form, having bronze undertones, with a subtle darker eye, over a green tinged yellow throat that extends out to the mid-rib, encased in a trace of a yellow picotee edge. This plant has fabulous habit & foliage, surpassing anything else I grow. Easy pod setter. Pollen fertile.

Hgt. 38"
Bloom 5"
BR- 3 way with terminal Y
BC- 30
Sev
Diural
Mid-Late

Hybridizer's notes: RavenCroft Girly Curls is a cheery & fun, lilac lavender self, with a lighter mid-rib & hint of a halo over a wide yellow throat, on a cascading/curling form. Scapes are very sturdy, carrying the blooms upright with ease. Color holds very well in heavy rain & extreme heat. RavenCroft Girly Curls is a full sib to RavenCroft Lavender Swallowtail.

Parentage: Mahieu Sdlg #99-114 (Garden named Max Mahieu) X Skinwalker

Hgt: 44"
Bloom diameter: 6-7"
BR: 2 way, with terminal Y
BC: 26
Season: Mid-Late
Diploid
Diurnal
Sev
Form: UFO Cascade

Hybridizer's notes: RavenCroft Lavender Swallowtail almost wants to free itself from the scape & take flight. It is a beautiful deep lilac lavender self, with a lighter mid-rib, over a wide yellow-green throat, on a heavily cascading/curling form. Scapes are quite sturdy, & branches are well spaced to accommodate the unique form. RavenCroft Lavender Swallowtail is a full sib to RavenCroft Girly Curls.


Parentage: Mahieu Sdlg #99-114 (Garden named Max Mahieu) X Skinwalker


Hgt: 45"
Bloom diameter: 7"
BR: 2 way, with terminal Y
BC: 22
Season: Mid-Late
Diploid
Diurnal
Sev
Form: UFO Cascade

Hybridizers notes: RavenCroft Blazing Heart is out of Pure & Simple X Moonlit Masquerade, & was one of the very 1st crosses I ever made. It is a very hot, molten orange self, with darker red-orange eye, over a deep yellow throat. It took the eye from MM, & the form of P&S, but where the orange came from?????? It was the only orange of about 20 from this cross that were peach, pink, or mauve. The vigor is astounding on this beauty. It is an incredible pod setter, with excellent pollen as well.

Hgt: 36"
Bloom size 5"
BR 3 way with terminal W
BC 30
Mid Season
Rebloom
Diurnal
TET

While many tout the bee attracting blooms of Borage, the leaves are tasty to humans, & wonderful in salads. They have a cucumber taste to them. I love the vivid blue color of the flowers, & I also love to see where it will pop up next. Borage is a free roamer here. :-)

There are several varieties of Bule. (pronounced boo-lay). Some are warty all over and some have warts in random patches or areas.

Speckled Swan loses its speckles over the winter, when it dries out.

The sepals on SSU rarely open well. They're predominately "boaters". & will keep the bloom from opening fully.

c. Mrs. N. Thompson, also known as c. Mrs. Nora Thompson.

Only once did this plant ever bloom as a single here.

This cultivar has thrown spots on half the clump since I got it several years ago. I cannot correlate the spotting with temperature. It seems to be something in the DNA. Not every scape produces blooms that do this, just like not every registered double produces a double bloom. Mother Nature never ceases to amaze! The next 4 photos in sequence are details of this phenomenon.

Jungle Beauty is incredibly fertile!

This cultivar is misspelled in the AHS database. It is incorrectly listed as Joy Noyland.