YOUR REACTIONS ARE SHOWING PART I

I once read a book that stated "YOUR REACTIONS ARE SHOWING" and that statement has stuck with me for a very long time.I have found out way too many times that I cannot always plan my reactions. And when it comes to dayliliy hybridizing I don't need to plan my reactions. I am free to react, assess and dream on to the next part of this journey in the plant kingdom.

 In this blog of two parts, I will be sharing about the struggles my seeds have had to go through to come to fruition along with the struggles we human beings have on our journey to fruition, becoming ALL that God intended us to become. So this first part will show you the story of, and the results of the seeds we planted back in 2010 and their first blooms this past summer, 2011. It is ironic to me that I, without knowing it, would be doing a blog at this time, exactly about the seedlings out in the field pictured on the face of this Blog. That photo was taken July 21, 2011, and one year, two and one-half months later some were in bloom and it is those that I will be telling you about showing pictures of! If you look closely at the photo, you will see a small triangle of green in the lower right hand corner where the last of the 2010 seeds were planted and the scapes are just coming, then  there are two more somewhat "flowery" rows behind and then a heavier grouping of flowers beyond that(those were blooming in 2009).

Back on May 4th, 2010, seed planting season became VERY HECTIC. 

We were 

OPENING UP NEW BEDS

TRANSPLANTING AND DIVIDING CLUMPS and

WEEDING and MULCHING as much as possible. 

The fact that the seeds hadn't yet been planted didn't help the frenzy I felt.

So the big day came, the DAY TO PLANT THE SEEDS.
All those precious possibilities,
           just sitting there over the winter in the vegetable crisper were now going to escape the "dungeon'!

So my worker/friend  Shirley and I proceeded to plant two and one-half beds of eighty foot rows for a grand total of 200 feet of seeds planted in rows eight inches apart and seeds 2-4 inches apart, depending on the amounts in the cross. By June 30th we were finished planting(well actually I still had more seeds to plant holding out in refrigerator "dungeon", but blooms were starting  all across the field and I rationalized myself into saying the other seeds could wait until next year or later this year.
One of my important duties shouting to me was the THISTLE and the myriads of other plants crying out for attention. Thus, the 200 feet of seeds just planted got totally forgotten/forsaken -or at least ignored,

              to my demise

                 my shame

          and my extreme disappointment,

                   BECAUSE

THEY COULD NOT BE SEEN BY THE NAKED EYE!

When I brushed aside the now foot high grasses there were those precious babies-7" high max, most 3-5" high, struggling for their very lives among all their adversaries.

HERE THEY WERE,

lovingly planted

given "hand-hauled" water (from rain barrels 30 feet away) to their planting troughs, 

and leaf-mulched when originally planted, 1/2" thick so that they would have enough moisture to germinate.

STRUGGLING TO LIVE!

They should have had a head-start over all the horrid invaders, but they did not. Summer 2010 happened to be the record year for rain, and the weeds were in ALL THEIR GLORY! So, yes, the seedlings "made it to the top", they found their sunshine, only to be overcome by a FOREST OF WEEDS literally!!!

Well, necessity made me stop the weeding of the other area and go back and focus on those seedlings. That 200 feet x 4 1/2 feet of weeding process was slow and labor intensive, not wanting to pull out any of the babies or markers, but well worth it. By the time the two and one half beds were cleared those aweful  weeds were head high, without exaggeration.

You can imagine my SHOCK then, while perusing the first of the beds restored, I found a short 8 or 9" scape coming!

 I WAS ELATED!

ONLY GOD....

HE KNEW...

HE REWARDED!

What more can I say

                                thirteen WEEKS later, at 11" tall

                                amongst all the weeds and giants in that little seedling's life

                                THE FIRST BLOOM CAME!

Not only that, another scape was coming on the small plant next to it, "planning" to bloom a week later...

                                                                AND THEN

                                                 because I was so enthralled,

                                                                  so focused on those two plants, 

                                                                 imagine my SURPRISE to see.....

                                 A THIRD PLANT (of the same cross) have a tiny, minute scape coming!!!

                                          It all happened because of a bid on the Lily Auction......

Out of nine, Lily Auction bonus seeds, five were viable and out of that, 3 germinated and three bloomed!

We have an Awesome God...

If you like, you can see how I named them after my three Granddaughters on my website:

www.gardenglory.net  just click on the SEEDLINGS ALBUM
 and up will come a page called THREE SISTERS SAGA and click on there.

Below you will see Three Sisters Lily on her 13 weeks old first day of bloom!

There are a few more pics on the website page that I mentioned.

So, as you see I was able to rejoice and realize that even though those seedlings had to go through some 

very tough times, they were victors.

Romans 5: 3+ tells us to REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS

why is it that we usually can rejoice "after the fact"and then we can get the right perspective??!!

Before I get to the "rest of the story"((Thank you Paul Harvey!))

I want to share with you some of the other beauties from that came out of that 900 square feet of planting.

But, I would be remiss if I  didn't mention my two neighbors, Stacy and Tim who heard about my plight and

 came out to do some massive weeding during that time so that I could have time to enjoy breeding and 

focus on seeing the new blooms that I had never seen before. My other neighbor Heidi, who had been

 working with me earlier when I saw those first three "preemies" was also a big part of this summer gardening project.

When all was said and done, some markers were mislaid and even dug out with the weeds (thank God I had 

a hand written map). I am pretty sure their were some seedlings lost with all those weeds, but the fact remains-

I am BLESSED

WITH 

HARD WORKING FRIENDS

AWESOME BEAUTY

and the seedlings were 

BLESSED WITH LIFE 

TO BLOOM

TO BE

ALL

THEY WERE INTENDED TO BE

MYSTERIOUSLY WRAPPED UP IN THOSE

TINY

SHINY

BLACK PEARLS.

So, here are some of the

  SURVIVORS & THRIVERS

  

AS  you can see-LITERALLY-
                                                  MY REACTIONS ARE SHOWING

                                                         right here on this screen!

                                                Aren't they amazing after all they have gone through??!

In Part II I  plan on sharing some more, since I only got through the "C's" this time

                                                                                                                          stay tuned......