Blue Breasted Bee Eater blooming today.

Blue Breasted Bee Eater blooming today.

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Beautiful bloom, Gerry!!!

Thank you, Becky.

Wow, Gerry. I just think it is awesome that you get blooms in December! Those are very pretty. I keep saying the name Blue Breasted Bee Eater over and over trying to make sense of it, but can't figure it out, lol! I wonder what inspired that name?

Vickie - Blue Breasted Bee Eater is an African bird. And a very colorful and beautiful one at that, just like the daylily that was probably named after it! https://images.search.yahoo.co...

Thanks, Becky! I am the google queen and never thought about googling the name

I know ... sounds like a made-up name doesn't it? Who knew that there was an actual bird by that name?!!

Ludlow Lamberston is an unashamed twitcher. That is why his cultivars are named after real birds, usually OS.

Gerry
I wonder what inside temps you keep. Also whether you use humidifiers. Maybe the dry air will give rust a hard time.

When I lived in Potsdam NY I grew a huge table full of plants in front of a large double glazed south facing window. We kept the house around 60 degrees. Our yearly fuel bill was the same as friend's bill for a month. In Spring and Fall we used oil heating, just enough to stop the pipes freezing. In winter we had a wood stove in the basement. I used to dry the washing down there. A few times I put (Australian towelling) diapers on the line, but freezing rain made it impossible to get them off. The ice sublimated off and they were so soft and fluffy.

Anyhow at Christmas I had flowering wonderful tuberous begonias, impatiens, and for a while a tomato plant. In those days I didn't know daylilies were so interesting.

We have different problems here. This morning I looked forward to seeing if I actually had 'Border Bride'. A wallaby or a possum had eaten the scape down to 6".

Good morning, Bron.

I have had plants in the house my entire life, and bringing plants in for the winter was a natural transition. I just had to work out the details to accommodate daylilies.

The house temperature ranges from night time 62° to daytime 68°. There is central humidifier which is great for my skin, and makes sleeping comfortable for me, and of course, the plants also benefit.

Presently I have over one hundred daylily seedlings under light, and near a sunny window in an extra bedroom. I have noticed that the seedlings germinate and grow better without a heating pad. However, tomato and pepper seeds and seedlings grow better with the heating pad.

Currently I have Mystic Image with a young scape which should bloom early January. Between now and March, hopefully, there will be many more scapes on many other plants.

I have also pollinated a few daylilies blooming in my livingroom. A few have been self pollinated, and I am most anxious to see what this will produce. Of course, it will be a long wait.

I am a sixty-five-year-old breast cancer survivor, and I hope to live another twenty-five years to watch my grandson grow and mature. Along the way, I will also watch my plants produce babies and grandbabies, and .... I have heard many gardeners say that they are too old to grow from seeds, or to grow hostas from tissue culture.

Take a chance and grow them. Inspire a young person to garden with you and see the fruits of your love for nature.

bron said:Gerry
I wonder what inside temps you keep. Also whether you use humidifiers. Maybe the dry air will give rust a hard time.

Even with a humidifier rust should have a hard time in a house because I don't think the humidity would be set high enough to cause a water film on the leaves that would enable spore germination (one would have to be careful with watering though, and not get any on the plant if there's a chance spores could be present). It is possible to have rust in a house if the plant was infected (not necessarily visibly) before it came indoors but without water on foliage for several hours at a time it should eventually die out in a house, given long enough.

Wonderful! I cannot grow plants inside because of the cats, and the poor lighting in the house, but it's something I'd like to do!

Gerry, you mention that some gardeners think they are too old to grow from seed. I will be 60 very soon and two years ago started my first daylily seeds. Hope to see them bloom next season. If I had thought I was too old then, I wouldn't have this wonderful surprise waiting for me!

This reminds me of the old Chinese proverb, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

What happened to the other 19 years? Guess those were not good years to plant? Just kidding of course .I am reminded of my father when topics like this come up. He was always planting trees, and I was always thinking about how long it would take them to grow. Guess which one of us had pecans and which one didn't years later.

Good story, Larry.

Gerry, BBBE is beautiful. I won a double fan on the lily auction a few weeks ago. Come on spring!

Early morning surprise.
Mystic Image's first bloom.
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Gosh, that would be a wonderful surprise! And it opened so perfectly too