Date: July 4, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Lilium:Appropriately showing its first bloom of the season today is our Lilium 'Fourth of July'.

Date: June 24, 2024 Submitted by: Francois Verhaert, Spain - Email: francois.verhaert@gmail.com
Daylilies, Sdlg & Tree: Here we're already some 2 1/2 weeks past peak bloom but the vast majority of my plants rebloom. I kept going back to Bill Maryott's 'EMBLAZON'. Due to the September 2019 floods, I lost 85 percent of my plants and most of my name tags. I was only too happy to see Angelo Brunetti's 'WORTHY OF DISTINCTION' again. I love the colour and the plant is extremely toothed. But THE stars this year come from Italy's Stefano Peroni. 'NORIA' is a distinct combination of colours that Stefano named after his mother. But ... I am most fond of his 'HYPNOTIC TANGO'. It has been a long time since I have seen such a striking and very beautiful new variety. Moreover, it always opens flawlessly Another nice surprise was a seedling of mine that is flowering like crazy. I garden named it BLA BLA BLA; this is the most heard exclamation here in Spain. Finally people who pass by sometimes ring at the door to ask me; what is the name of the tree with the fierce red flowers? It's a Delonix regia but they also call it the flame tree or flamboyant and it is indeed a sight to behold. (Francois Website is: http://www.eurocallis.com)

Date: June 17, 2024 Submitted by: Kate Patrick, Tennessee - Email: kateskatz70@gmail.com
Summer: It's been a busy season with lots of rain until this past 2 weeks. Now it's dryer and hot as hades... our "feels like" temperature was 103 yesterday! I've attached a few photos.

Date: May 30, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Daylily:Blooming today, 'Marla Corts' was the first daylily I registered, I named it for the Samford University First Lady when I worked there. 'Marla Corts', (Aucoin, 2000) height 24 inches (61 cm), bloom 6 inches (15 cm), season E, Rebloom, Evergreen, Tetraploid, 22 buds, 3 branches. Pink with dark raspberry eye and gold trimmed edge above yellow to green throat. (Edge Ahead × Senegal). The pod parent, Matthew Kaskel's 'Senegal' was the first daylily that we paid more than $35 dollars for. It was $125 back in the mid 1990s and we still enjoy it. He gave us the pollen parent, 'Edge Ahead', as a bonus plant. They are also pictured.

Date: May 29, 2024 Submitted by: Francois Verhaert, Spain - Email: francois.verhaert@gmail.com
Daylily: I'm sending you a few more pictures for the Garden Photographs Section. My roses are almost past peak but they will start flowering again in a month at most. Daylilywise I'm very fond of 'HYPNOTIC TANGO' - bred in Italy by my good friend Stefano Peroni (of 'Deep Impact'). I have a few dotted and striped cultivars but where I live 'JP'S ACINONYX' bred in Germany by Katrin and Jens Frohreich easily outperforms similar cultivars. It multiplies fast, flourishes over a long period of time and is a willing parent. Darline Wilkinson's 'GREYWOODS DOTTIE DO LITTLE' is a small, heavily flowering gem. Too bad it is a DIP as I don't have many DIPS left to cross with. 'ALBIZZIA' (the pink silk tree - mine is dark pink) is laden with flowers and will keep flowering for at least another 3 months. The whole region here is now full of flowering Jacaranda trees. Mine is not too far from my Albizzia and the contrast between the two is beautiful. Every year I find something here that I did not know before and that amazes me. This year I bumped into a Sesbania punicea (or the red Mimosa tree). The (now) small plant is covered in pastel scarlet flowers and it is incredibly beautiful and special. (Francois Website is: http://www.eurocallis.com)

Date: May 27, 2024 Submitted by: Ginny Pearce, Michigan - Email: floragin@gmail.com
Seedling: I had a very exciting day yesterday! A seedling scape that came up super early this spring bloomed yesterday. I suspect it is a rebloom scape from last fall that didn't quite mature but yet this plant has also sent up a second scape so maybe it is indeed an extra early variety. This is the earliest I have ever seen a daylily bloom in my zone 5b garden - quite amazing. 7" heavy substance flower and red, red, red like I like them. Love that little white ruffled edge and turns out it is nicely fragrant too. Ginny's webpage is http://www.gardenpathperennials.com

Date: May 27, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Daylily:Sending photo of another Daylily picture, one of my favorite spiders, 'Spiderman'. We don't grow many spiders, but this one is a knockout. Spider Man (Durio, 1982) height 24 inches (61 cm), season EM, Rebloom, Dormant, Tetraploid, Bright red self with chartreuse throat. (Douglas Dale x Howard Goodson). Awards: AM 1998; HM 1993

Date: May 27, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Daylily: Yesterday we had first bloom on Tim's lovely 'Raspberry and Orange Sherbet' (Fehr, 2020). Height 34 inches (86 cm), bloom 5.5 inches (13 cm), season EM, Semi-Evergreen, Tetraploid, 16 buds, 3 branches. Peach orange with a raspberry red eye above a lime green throat rimmed with orange just inside the eye...(sdlg x sdlg) . He should be proud of such a fine cultivar. Best wishes that you make it a great Memorial Day.

Date: May 19, 2024 Submitted by: Francois Verhaert, Spain - Email: francois.verhaert@gmail.com
Daylily: The daylily season started here 10 days ago. Below is a picture of 'FACEPAINT'. In my humble opinion this one still rivals favourably with many of the newest introductions. It flowers profusely, colours are very clean and the flowers all open totally flat. From what I hear from other people in Europe it performs equally well for them too. Congrats to Pat Stamile. (Francois Website is: http://www.eurocallis.com)

Date: May 7, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Daylily: Tim's post reminded me that I had sent him hundreds of seeds after he lost his pods to a hail storm. Lots of the crosses were with SOF and others with Tet. Dragons Eye. Today we have FFO on Kissed by Magic, one of Soul of Fire's progeny. It is a parent to Michael Bouman's 'Honey do List'. The weather here has been nice, but a little hot (in the 80s in the afternoon). Tomorrow is supposed to be a very humid 90-something. Clear, dry weather for the weekend portends to be in the 70s. Here are a couple of photographs of 'Kissed by Magic' of FFO today, with one showing some of its many buds. Also, the description from the Daylily database.. 'Kissed by Magic' (Aucoin, 2005) - height 25 inches (64 cm), bloom 5 inches (13 cm), season E, Rebloom, Evergreen, Tetraploid, 17 buds, 2 branches, Persimmon with purple eye and purple gold edge above green to yellow throat. (('Way Over Yonder' × 'Capture the Magic') × 'Soul of Fire')

Date: May 6, 2024 Submitted by: Paul Aucoin, Alabama - Email: pgaucoin@samford.edu
Daylily: FFO on My H. 'Soul of Fire' registered in 2003 from a cross of 'Fooled Me' x 'Awesome Blossom' that was made a few years earlier. It was a parent of five other registered crosses.

Date: May 5, 2024 Submitted by: Pat Rasmussen, Nebraska - Email: marr45ad@gmail.com
Spring: Blooms yesterday, plus my new puppy Romeo. We got 7 inches of rain 10 days ago, and several inches since then. Everything looks green. Iris are budding but no blooms yet.