Hallson Gardens

Hey Dee Thanks for the great birthday wish. I was away for a bit and found a lot of new sprouts from the last planting when I got home. Bullseye has three different crosses that have opened and are way ahead of the others in growth. Seventh Heaven x Kabitan has sprouted. My blue seedling has two spr...

Steph & Buff Thanks for the kudos ... the harvesting has been a bit hectic but it's nearing the end. All the pods inside are harvested ... and all thats left to harvest outside are the late bloomers, Guac, and Fried Green Tomatos. While the kitchen hasn't been completely reclaimed it's at least free...

Hey Willowy Yup ... I was pleasantly suprised at how well the markings on bract leaves held up also but I'm not going to count on those markings as the primary cross ID next season. When I started out I didn't anticipate doing as many crosses as I ended up doing. It was on the spot training and expe...

Yup ... I guess I did. Been fighting a cold all week ... my voice sounds like Harvey Fierstein. But a promise is a promise .... cold or no cold. I've been slowly but surely getting the pods gathered and the seeds sorted. Every morning before leaving for work I've been harvesting a few scapes. If the...

At home for a few minutes .... afternoon hybridizing and a few minutes to check in here. Matt ... Thanks for taking time to let me know you're enjoying this thread. I too am enjoying the responses and emails. In my excitement over finding sprouts yesterday I was rushing to post and didn't want you t...

Talk about excited. I was harvesting seeds again tonite ... the kitchen is filled with vases of pods in sugar water and I'm running out of space to make a sandwich in there ... so I've been harvesting for a couple hours tonite. Harvesting seeds is hard on the neck muscles ... some of them are really...

Tonite I harvested pods ... lots of pods ... almost 300 of them. That should at least catch me up for a while. The kitchen table is covered with drying seeds piles. A lot of them are OP ... the first Sun Power with 4 scapes and 50+ pods ... Queen of the Seas with about two dozen pods ... also Tokuda...

I'm home and it's raining ... must be a Saturday. Yup ... college footabll is on TV ... it's Saturday. Between bouts of rain (& half times) I got outside to collect pollen and pods. It actually stopped raining for ten minutes ... enough time to do a few crosses. I found some old pollen from Sun Powe...

High Kicker and Red October had open flowers this morning. HK had two that are beautifully striped. The scape is so thin that the flowers weighed it over and the ants ate most of the pollen in the first flower. The higher flower had good pollen so it was used on most everything still in bloom. It's ...

John ... Your ears must have been ringing ... I got an email from another hybridizer saying ... Heed John advice ... Most of those pods have ripe seeds already! His advice was to not be caught in inclement weather trying to gather the seeds from pods that split all at once but rather to gather them ...

Last nite I got the first seeds from crosses that I had done ... the first of the hybridized seeds. They were on Whirlwind. Three pods ... crossed with Lachman, Montana Aureomarginata, & Kabitan. The first pod was just starting to split but all there were brown so I harvested them together. While Ka...

Hey Dee The Dancing Queen seedling looks really promising and I'm glad to hear that it has great substance. Ruffled edges and good subatance are qualities worth working with. Hope it had the great summer color of Kent's DQ. Are you planning crosses to get another flower? I happen to really like teh ...

Dee Glad to hear that you have some nice new scapes to continue on with. I'd love to see a pic of your Dancing Queen seedling when you can post one. I'm beginning to think that Red October may not flower until October. A pod on Fire Island. Finally. One guess who the pollen parent was ... YUP ... Ka...

Finally ... a Saturday without rain. It's overcast and much cooler than normal but at least it hasn't rained. This morning there was a good amount of fog and most everything was covered in dew ... which made it harder to keep the pollen and stamens dry while crossing. It also made marking the leaves...

Good going Denise You got pretty darn good results with Lakeside Elfin Fire seeds last year. Were these deliberate crosses or OP? I must confess to starting a few also. LOL ... it's hard not to. I was sitting at the kitchen table contemplating the first three to ripen ... and all of a sudden the urg...

A hard rain today so the only hybridizing was the early morning round. Found a couple new scapes today. The first one is on a baby High Kicker. While he's only about three inches tall and he still made a scape. This one is even smaller than Wogon Gold from early this summer. WG was completely hidden...

Hi Hostabuff So far most everything here is holding up extremely well. Loyalist is the worst for early melt and a few have some leaves that are yellowing (Sun Power & Frances Williams) but for the most part they're mostly all still in really good shape. Right after Labor Day last season most everyon...

It was cold this morning at 5AM ... maybe 50 degrees ... the heat in the house kicked on for the first time since May. I actually put on a sweatshirt to do the hybridizing. I really don't have to be up that early to do it because the flowers aren't even fully open yet but I'm an early riser. A few p...

It's another Saturday morning yet agian with rain. Since the heat broke in August there's not been a Saturday without rain. As a certain Hosta Guru would say ... Go figure. I hybridized anyway. The hybridizing wasn't too difficult but getting decent pics had a few drawbacks. Hopefully a few decent s...

Hi Dee Yup ... still going prertty strong here. Down to about 25-30 flowers a day (morning & evening crosses). Every time I think that the season may be winding down something happens to extend it a bit further. I'd be happy to have all the pods set and cured ... just waiting for them to ripen but e...