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Hi to all of my friends and acquaintances who find themselves reading this out of curiosity or enjoyment or somewhere in-between!
I welcome you to this page and hope it may have some significance in your life.
Life without significance (or meaning) is a difficult road to travel.
Throughout this blog I will be showing some SIGNIFICANT first and even third year seedlings that I am hoping will "make the cut" as "keepers"-or as one other daylily hybridizer terms it so well, "selects". Much better term I think! Thanks Lanny Morry!
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| VANITY OF VANITIES 2013 intro (formerly "Northern Darla") |
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| 2007 crowded among her peers |
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| 2009 still crowded, ready for transplant to her new home |
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| 2010 taken with a better camera but not as intense of a pink as picture shows |
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| Above is 'Northern Darla's' lovely pink progeny out of (CRITICAL MASS X BEAR CLAWS((A VIVID INTENSE RED)...really surprised by the pink The rest are out of 'Northern Darla' x WHITE BASE, giving quite a range of colors from an extremely ruffled blue-pink to a bright cherry red with some "claws" and a darker halo/eye. And the last one is a pretty hot pink with a lighter cream watermark, sporting an ivory cream ruffly edge.  |
I will find it interesting to watch, wait and see if any of these will make SIGNIFICANT changes in the next two years and, by good fortune and a lot of hard, but meaningful work, enter into the Daylily World of commerce.
As you can see, SEARCHING FOR SIGNIFICANCE is real when it comes to daylilies. While I have only shown color and form, the selection process entails a whole lot more. One of the most important factors is that they must have VIGOR along with a good (if not great) budcount and good wide branching so that the blooms don't lay on each other.
The title for this blog came about as a thought that came to me while I was in my AM Bible study in my special corner with lots of books surrounding the area.The other morning I was reading from one of the Apostle Paul's Epistles and he mentioned a certain city where Paul had spent time.
I just love to visualize where he is talking about so I have at my disposal, just an arm length's away, a Bible Land Atlas and a 'not-so-new' world Atlas. So I tried to locate that city on the map.It always amazes me when I think of where all the people of the world have spread to; looking for a better place, another place to land.
When I looked at the map of Asia, which includes everything from Israel to the Philippines, Russia,Mongolia, China and many many more countries, too numerous to mention here, I "zoomed in" closer to check out the topography and found it incomprehensible to understand why ANYONE would ever settle some of those places! What would make them navigate to those "impossible to reach" places. Yes, it's rugged beauty-BUT RUGGED!!! For instance, to think that anyone would ever desire to create a village in an area like Nepal, a mountain range of 5,000-16,00 ft is beyond my imagination!
What's their motivation?
Is it a search for SIGNIFICANCE? It certainly could be.
It seems that what we observe of HUMAN NATURE verifies that thought.
If only we all knew....
If only we could see...
REALLY SEE
that,
The only giver of TRUE SIGNIFICANCE comes from our CREATOR !
WE TOIL AND STRUGGLE,
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE,
TRYING TO MAKE A MARK IN THIS WORLD...
WHEN ACTUALLY...
THE 'MARK' HAS ALREADY BEEN SET....
SET AT BIRTH....
NO...
SET AT CONCEPTION...BY GOD HIMSELF!
PSALMS 139:13 and on states it so very well....
"For You did form my inward parts;
You did
knit me together in my Mother's womb .....
Wonderful are Your works
That my inner self knows right well.
(now this is where it gets really good, beautiful and awesome)
MY FRAME WAS NOT HIDDEN FROM YOU
WHEN I WAS BEING FORMED IN SECRET
AND
INTRICATELY
AND
CURIOUSLY WROUGHT (AS IF EMBROIDERED WITH VARIOUS COLORS)
IN THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH.
(A REGION OF DARKNESS AND MYSTERY)"
verse 11 goes on to say:
"YOUR EYES SAW MY UNFORMED SUBSTANCE,
AND IN YOUR BOOK
ALL THE DAYS (OF MY LIFE)
WERE WRITTEN
BEFORE THEY EVER TOOK SHAPE.
WHEN AS YET THERE WERE NONE.
I don't think I ever fully understood the meaning of these words until I got into hybridizing daylilies.
Within EVERY SEED THAT IS CREATED there is a mystery.
Oh, I can go ahead and have a plan (a 'program' in daylily lingo),
BUT
because of the multitude of genetic possibilities that come into play,
I really don't have as much to say about the results as I would like.
HOWEVER,
I DO HAVE
MUCH HOPE!!
We are just like those seeds,
BUT
WITH
HUMAN NATURE
INSTEAD OF
PLANT NATURES.
Human Nature has PERSONALITIES
Human Nature has PECULIARITIES that cannot be explained.
Human Nature has OUTWARD APPEARANCES (much like the daylilies)
and
INWARD,
HEARTFELT FEELINGS...
that may or may not come to the surface-
UNLIKE THE DAYLILIES
WHICH
WITHIN THREE YEARS TIME,
will show what their "inward natures" are:
VIGOROUS versus WEAK & FRAIL (I call the vigorous ones "bullies")
showing whether they are prone to stress,
or can "easily" weather the storm.
If they don't "make the cut" because of either an UGLY BLOOM (color or shape)
or because of lack of vigor, they are (regretfully) discarded.
BUT THEY DON'T FEEL A THING!!
Not so with people...
PEOPLE, NO MATTER HOW UGLY,
OR
HOW BEAUTIFUL....
KNOW
WHEN THEY ARE DISCARDED
OR
IGNORED
OR
REJECTED
OR
IDOLIZED,
ACCEPTED,
OR
TOLERATED.
PEOPLE KNOW....
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW...
IS THAT,
WHEN WE HAVE BEEN REJECTED
GOD,
OUR FATHER
HAS NEVER REJECTED US
HE SAYS
"I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU"
HE IS THE CREATOR OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US
A
DEPENDABLE CREATOR OF OUR SIGNIFICANCE!
He had a PLAN for us at CONCEPTION-
A DESIGN,
AN INTRICATE PATTERN,
WHICH INCLUDED
EVERYTHING
FROM
OUR FEATURES
OUR STYLE
OUR ATTRIBUTES
OUR STRENGTHS
OUR WEAKNESSES...
EVERYTHING WE EVER NEEDED
TO BECOME MORE LIKE HIM-
MORE SIGNIFICANT IN HIS EYES
THAN IN ANY OTHERS'
EVER!
"ALL" WE NEED TO DO IS
QUIT SEARCHING FOR SIGNIFICANCE
IT'S ALREADY THERE!!!!
IF ONLY WE COULD REALLY GRASP THAT TRUTH,
AND QUIT QUESTIONING GOD'S CREATION OF US
AND
DRAW NEAR TO HIM,
GO ON WITH HIM IN OUR LIFE'S JOURNEY;
WHAT THAT ACTUALLY MEANS IS TO
USE WHAT HE GAVE US TO WORK WITH,
AND
WITH HIS HELP
OUR STRENGTHS BECOME GREATER
AND
OUR WEAKNESSES
BECOME LESS AND LESS!!
The last week or so, I have been out in the Daylily field, counting the scapes(the stems that hold the flowers), looking at the marker which names the cross that I used to create the plant, noting the parents, marking marking them down in my notebook, and with that information, my mind and imagination gets 'carried away' at the numerous awesome possibilities.
Ever wondering if that scape holds the possibility for a future award winner...maybe even the Stout medal-highest in the Daylily world.
ACTUALLY...
I guess I have to confess I don't ever go 'that' far in searching for SIGNIFICANCE for my daylilies....
BUT..
JUST MAYBE AN INTRODUCTION WORTHY PLANT!
That would be SIGNIFICANCE enough!!
Isn't it interesting that after an introduction is achieved, it isn't enough??!! I (we) always want
MORE.....
THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOD AND MAN...
MAN CAN NEVER ACHIEVE
NEVER MAKE,
CREATE,
OR BE
ANYTHING THAT IS SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH.
BUT THAT IS
BECAUSE
GOD IS THE ONLY
TRUE
SIGNIFICANT
BEING
IN THE WHOLE WORLD...
AND ALWAYS WAS....
AND ALWAYS IS....
AND ALWAYS WILL BE.
WHEN WE FULLY AND/OR FINALLY REALIZE THAT TRUTH, AND
QUIT CHAFING AT GOD...
ASKING HIM...
WHY DID YOU MAKE ME THIS WAY?
WHY ARE "THEY" RICH AND I'M NOT?
WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME AND NOT SOMEONE ELSE?
WHEN ARE YOU EVER GOING TO........?
and further more declaring :
"IF I WERE GOD, I WOULDN'T ......"
THAT SORT OF CHAFING IS BASICALLY JUDGING GOD, WHICH ONLY TAKES YOU
FURTHER AWAY FROM GOD INSTEAD OF DRAWING CLOSER TO HIM.
We are given a verse that gives answers to our questions: Isaiah 55:8
"MY WAYS ARE NOT YOUR WAYS "
The Amplified Bible states it this way:
"FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS,
NEITHER ARE MY WAYS YOUR WAYS, SAYS THE LORD"
then verse 9 expands on it saying
"FOR AS HIGH AS THE HEAVENS ARE HIGHER THAN THE EARTH,
SO ARE MY WAYS HIGHER THAN YOUR WAYS,
MY THOUGHTS THAN YOUR THOUGHTS."
Those verses really put everything in perspective;
IN ORDER TO SEE
OUR TRUE SIGNIFICANCE
WE NEED
TO RECOGNIZE,
TO ACKNOWLEDGE,
AND
TO RESPECT
THE TRULY SIGNIFICANT ONE
WHO
CREATED US.
HE, WHO LOVES HIS CREATION,
WHO HAS A PLAN FOR US
GOOD PLANS
WHETHER THEY SEEM SO AT THE TIME OR NOT!
Which reminds me of what many hybridizers have said: "don't judge a daylily by its first of second year bloom; it NEEDS TIME to mature, maybe up to 3 or 4 years until it is in a full clump size to show what its all about.
Oh Lord may we 'MATURE TO CLUMP SIZE' and be pleasing in your sight!!
Unfortunately. for 'we humans' it takes more than 3-4 years to become 'CLUMP SIZED'
IT MAY TAKE A LIFETIME!!!
Because so many of you are my Daylily friends, I will finish up with some more of my
SIGNIFICANT daylily seedlings from 2011(too early to see any new ones...maybe in another week
or two if we can get some rain!!!
These are from my own breeding with my own seedlings....
every one of these seedlings have SIGNIFICANCE for me, even though it is doubtful they would
ever achieve the highest award in 'Daylilydom'..but just to be able to see one or a few of them to be
SIGNIFICANT enough to 'make the mark' for Introduction would be wonderful!
TIME WILL TELL!!
2014 ADDENDUM:
The first daylily I mentioned above, 'Northern Darla' was registered and named Vanity of Vanities,
introduced in 2013 and has been a joy to hybridize with since she is an excellent parent, passing on
many of her good traits to her offspring, not being too vain to keep it to herself!
If you care to see more about her and others that I have introduced, please go over to:
www.gardenglory.net
