Hungry Heart

Howard 2018

Incense and Peppermints X Kaleidoscopic Intrigue
5.5"/26" M,Sev,Dip
3 way branching,18 buds
Budbuilder

Crimson with lighter complex eye surrounded by darker band, with pronounced mid ribs and lighter edge. Fertile both ways and a bud builder. Our first introduction from our Incense and Peppermints. Good patterned reds are rare and I am so pleased with this one! The slight color differences in the left images I attribute to being taken in sun and shade.

Sometime around 1970 I saw Bruce Springsteen in concert in New Haven. He actually was the opening act for Richie Havens, whose voice I always loved. I admit at the time I did not see much in
Bruce and the E-Street band. The only song I recall them playing was Spirits in The Night. He was sort of quiet and quite different from the Bruce you see today. Hungry Heart was on his fifth album, The River, and has a real catchy beat featuring some great piano work. The title is drawn from a line in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem "Ulysses": "For always roaming with a hungry heart".

$75/SF

Made In Connecticut

Howard 2018

Photon Torpedo X (Volcanic Eruption X Tet Marked By Lydia)
6"/35",ML,Dor,Tet
4 way branching,30 buds

Pale violet red unusual form cascade with large peach puff watermark bleeding into yellow green throat and green
heart. Fertile both ways. Nice branching and bud count. The cross for this one includes genetics from Curt
Hanson, Jamie Gossard, and Jack Temple. The watermark really sets it off.

Marked By Lydia is a Semi-evergreen spider from Jack Temple, and winner of multiple awards. The Tet conversion
has also given me our very cool Rorschach Test.

Can't wait to see the kids with Tet Rose Kennedy.

$45

The Crazy Plant Lady

Howard 2018

Webster's Aggie X BJ MacMillen
7.5",45",ML,Dor,Tet
5 way branching,34 buds

Medium violet-red unusual form crispate-cascade with large yellow-green throat. Good pollen, pods require persistence. Sib to last year's yellow UFo, A Convocation of Eagles.

Do you know anyone who spends every spare moment gardening, or attending club meetings, or planning her shopping trips so she happens to go by the local nursery? Perhaps she makes 5 times as many daylily seeds as she can plant or has a greenhouse--maybe even a golf cart for traversing her gardens, that takes up a bay in her garage while her kids' cars stay outside in the elements. Yes-she is The Crazy Plant Lady. Her neighbors gawk as she is out pulling weeds at 6 am in the middle of summer to avoid the mid-day heat. She moves plants around repeatedly to achieve a desired effect. Perhaps she drags friends to daylily conventions, and they willingly go because her enthusiasm is contagious, and it makes you feel special to be engulfed in her passion for plants. At first frost she is already planning next season's gardening activities and thinking of ways to better
track her ever-growing inventory of plants. She will ask nicely for cuttings or prolifs of anything she likes, and is equally generous in sharing. She will help out whatever club(s) she belongs to in various ways. If you have friends like this, perhaps you too are a crazy plant lady!

This intro is dedicated to all you crazy plant ladies who make life just a little better for the rest of us. Thank you!

Excellent plant habit--check out the branching in the image to the left.

$75

You’re Fired!

Howard 2018

(Bridgeton Hot Stuff X Orange Clown) X Firebird Suite
6"/38" ML, Dor, Tet
3-way branching-15 buds

Orange-red unusual form cascade. Fertile both ways. Nice bright color on a tall scape.

It has not been a good year for job security in high places. I find the term "You're Fired" interesting.

I found one reference on the web that says that the history behind saying, "you're fired," actually stems from olden times when the only way for a settlement to get rid of somebody (short of killing them) was to burn their house down.

Another reference says the likeliest origin is that it's a play on words, as "discharge" has two meanings, "to dismiss a person" and "to fire a projectile.

In any event, it's a phrase that has been used a lot recently in our nation’s capital. Is Rex next? You can memorialize these turbulent times for only....


$45/clump

Space Cowboy

Howard 2018

Joo Joo Eyeball X Barcode
5"/30" MRe,Sev,Tet
3 way branching,20 buds

Dusty Rose with medium violet red patterned eye and slight edge. Fertile both ways. Pattern will vary a bit. Our first introduction from our Joo Joo Eyeball, which was a cross of Tet Ben Lee X Slipped My Disco. On a good day the patterned sepals really pop.

There are some problems with today's patterns. A consistent look is one. Some people apparently don't see this as an issue. During a panel discussion at the National in Virginia in 2017 some prominent hybridizers noted that they like seeing the blooms look just a little different each day. I do not.

Here in the North, consistent patterns with hardiness and branching have been difficult for me to achieve. I have gotten some pretty patterns from crossing two Southern bred daylilies, but these seedlings have been mostly top branched. Perhaps in the South they would have better branching. The best results I have seen are from using Northern bred patterns as one of the parents. Space Cowboy and our Polar Vortex have given me some good keepers with consistent patterns and branching. Below are the first two seedlings I have bloomed from Space Cowboy. Both had good branching, and while it is not a large enough sample to give an accurate forecast, my hopes are high!

Space Cowboy was a song by The Steve Miller band. 2019 will mark 50 years since its release (Yikes!) If you are near my age and recall such phrases as Pompatus and Gangster of Love, well this one's for you.

$45/clump

Bridgegate

Howard 2018

Bob Olson X Interview With a Vampire
5"/28",M,Dor,Tet
3 way branching,20 buds

Crimson with gold and white toothy edge. Fertile both ways. This is the best we have seen from Emily Olson's Bob Olson, which I do not believe had a wide distribution. Named for a disturbing episode of political retribution in New Jersey, which resulted in some well-deserved jail time for the perpetrators. Some different genetics for your toothy program.

$35/clump

Fran Harding

Howard 2018

[(Forestlake Lacy Bloomers X Forestlake Ragamuffin) X (Forestlake Pikachu X New Direction)]
6.25"/34";ML,Dor,Tet
4 way branching,27 buds

Fran Harding is the hybridizer of Forestlake Ragamuffin, perhaps the most famous toothy daylily of all time. It is in the parentage of a remarkable 225 introductions as of Nov 2017. The below image of
Fran was taken in 1997 circa her 50th wedding anniversary.

Her namesake (with her permission of course) is a light yellow/cream blend with a green heart and very ruffled edge with teeth, horns and tendrils. It also has some sculpting going on. Fertile both ways. I
believe the plant came from seeds I purchased from Fran years ago, or it may have been from some seedlings she sent me to evaluate. I have never seen, nor grown, one of the parents, Forestlake Pikachu.

I was fortunate to be able to meet Fran's daughters Becky and Laura at the National in Virginia in 2017. They are lovely individuals. Fran's hybridizing was top notch in many areas! Fran passed away in March 2019. My interactions with her via e-mail a few years ago were some of the most memorable experiences daylilies have enabled me to have. Here is some info from her obituary:

"Frances Privette Harding was born in Raleigh, NC in 1926 & grew up in Chapel Hill, NC. She met my dad, John, at UNC Chapel Hill, where the US Navy sent him to Officer Training during WWII; he heard
her sing in church, followed her home &, according to Mom, never left. They married & moved in 1946 to Dayton, Ohio, where Dad’s family owned a printing company. They raised five kids in Ohio & moved
in 1973 with part of the printing business & loads of daylilies to Fredericksburg, VA. Mom died March 16, 2019, in Fredericksburg. She was 92 years old. Fran was preceded in death by her husband of 68
years, John Raymond Harding, Sr. and a son, Robert (Bob) Harding. She is survived by two sons, John Jr (Jack) & Steven Harding, and two daughters, Laura Harding & Rebecca (Harding) Hartigan, as well as three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Mom was a chemist (UNC ’45) until she had kids & was adventurous, curious & incredibly competitive; she was a killer athlete growing up (fast pitch & basketball) & played very competitive tennis into her 70’
s. She had a beautiful soprano voice and sang opera, folk music & show tunes throughout her day. She designed our house in Ohio & it was featured in the local paper. She was political & active in her
causes. Son Bob won a HUGE pumpkin in a contest & she made 58 pies from it. Mom did everything full out.

Likewise, when she became interested in daylilies she went all-in. She had a microscope on the kitchen counter, surrounded by flats of seedlings under grow lights waiting for spring. She loved getting her copy of the Robin & pored over everyone’s letters before writing her own addition. She dabbled in treating diploids with colchicine (not sure if she ever had any real success) and helped me treat wild violets with colchicine for my high school science project.

Mom had a wonderful relationship with her garden and reveled in her alone time there. She was observant, methodical, careful & let the plants & soil teach her. Going to the garden to see the day’s
blooms was her joy. Those blooms gave her the energy & drive to weed, dig, hack, drag… the chores of the garden. She was careful to require little assistance from us kids in order to guard that privacy, her respite in a busy noisy house. Except when she dug in the garden & invariably came across a big fat worm, the one critter she was afraid of. My sister & I removed many worms to the woods for her; she eventually got to where they didn’t bother her at all."

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Hungry Like The Wolf

Howard 2018

Wallingford Woolly Bully X Horny Devil
6"/32",ML,Sev,Tet
3 way branching,18 buds

Bisque blend with toothy gold edge. Fertile both ways. Another intro from our Wallingford Woolly Bully, and our second intro from Lee Pickles' Horny Devil. Upper right image was the maiden bloom. Color differences are due to pics in sun or shade.

Hungry Like The Wolf was a song by Duran Duran from 1982, supposedly inspired by Little Red Riding Hood:

In touch with the ground
I'm on the huntdown after you
Scent and a sound
I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf

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Runnin’ Down A Dream

Howard 2018

Unknown X Unknown
6.5"/36",La,Dor,Tet
5 way branching,33 buds

Lemon chiffon-gold blend with ruffled gold edge. Fertile both ways. Good plant habit in a sexy late season bloom. Named for one of my favorite Tom Petty songs. Sadly, Tom passed away on Oct.2, 2017.I loved the supergroup he was in ,The Traveling Wilburys, with George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan in the late 80's. The group actually happened by accident. Google it some time if you are interested.

The song Runnin' Down a Dream reminds me of hybridizing--going wherever your efforts lead:

"Yeah runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream"

$50

Shut The Front Door!

Gaskins-Howard 2018

Red Friday X Forestlake Ragamuffin
6"/30" MRe,Sev,Tet
3-way branching,22 buds

Saturated orchid-pink with gold teeth. Gaskins seedling A-130-2014 purchased on the lily auction, along with all rights. Thanks Mary! Fertile both ways. Very eye-catching. Many of today's toothy varieties are lacking in good color. I love the color of this one. It has teeth on all segments. Lower image is that of Mary Gaskins. The upper image was taken outside in my yard.

I really like this one. Sometimes when you see a seedling bloom for the first time you just stop and stare. This was one of those.

$45

Trophic Cascade

Howard 2018

Forestlake Tooth Fairy X Forestlake No Hangups
4.5"/35",ML,Dor,Tet
4 way branching,21 buds

Misty rose bi-tone with rose eye and gold toothy edge. I do not grow either of the parents--never have. This one was from seeds I purchased from Fran Harding a few years ago. Fertile both ways. The parents have been lost to cultivation, so this is a chance to get some unique toothy genetics into your program.

Trophic cascade (I love how the words just roll, off the tongue-lol) refers to the indirect control that an animal high on the food chain can have on the ecology of an area. For example, predators can reduce the population density of their direct prey or can hinder the behavior of their prey to such an extent that they improve the survival of other species that their prey suppressed. Trophic cascades can also have the opposite effect: The removal of the top predator from a food chain can raise the population of its prey, leading in turn to reductions of species at the next lower trophic level.

There is an example of this that has been studied in Yellowstone Park, where wolves were re-introduced in 1995 after being hunted to extinction in the 1920's. During those 70 years the elk population thrived without the presence of wolves and their numbers led to a drop in the levels of certain plants (aspens, willows, and grasses) they feed on. Re-introduction of the wolves reduced the elk population and increased the numbers of those plants. The increase in
willows helped beavers, and the increase in their numbers actually changed the course of rivers in Yellowstone--a true "cascade" effect. What happened is a little more complex than what I have outlined, but it is fascinating. Just google it or look here: http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/

$75