Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Welcome to That Northern guy with a greenhouse blog!

First Post... Let me introduce myself... My name is Peter Donato,  I am married to my lovely wife Shayna, better referred to as Shanny.  To give you a little background of how and why we got here... In February of 2015 we bought our first house together. Besides the fact that the house was a full gut job, and that I had 5 weeks to complete it is another story.  The outside of this house was landscaped in evergreens and dripping with complete boringness.

 Our House, Summer of 2014.



After our crazy remodel, and moving in in early april of 2015... I turned my eyes to the Ugly exterior... I had known about a small daylily farm nearby.. They opened on May 1st.. and we were there!  We took home about 25 daylilies, and as the season progressed, we added more perennials and such.... Very lowkey. 


As time went on, for some reason, as a anniversary gift I told my wife to pick two daylilies and that I would make a cross, plant the seeds and register the plant as a anniversary gift... And then something broke in my head.. I found the lily auction.. and It was all downhill from there. 

To keep a very long story short, I had 25 daylilies on 07/19/15, as of this writing 11/1/16... We have 950+ registered cultivars, and 1500 1 year seedlings. I will try my best to illustrate the choices in parent stock, share my photos, and of course as much information about the greenhouse. 

Our House as of today



5 comments:

  1. I like your writing style. Flows nice and easy. I see you are working really hard. Ah for that romance period with daylilies. I'm past that part and onto the hard core stage. Which is fun too I guess.

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    1. Thank you so much Di. My writing style is a bit unorthodox, but its just me, I'm not much of a writer.

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  2. Hello Peter, Remember me? My comment to you is that I think you could spare yourself much money, work and wasted effort by getting a mentor. There are so many really great breeders in PA. Look on the AHS region site for the list. Talk with them and they will guide you on the proper path.

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    1. Hi, What Is your name, I remember the comment but not your name.

      I fully agree with you, but I didnt buy 950 to breed with, I also enjoy them. I Have about 300-350 plants that I consider to be hybridizing plants.. and even so, I could never plant all that seed if I used them all anyway.

      As time goes on, I will surely buy less and less, But I will still buy others plants and intros because If we all stopped buying plants.. there would be no hybridizers! As much as I enjoy the plants, I also get a great joy from supporting others carry out their dreams, and aspirations also. I have a few hybridizers that I consider to be mentor like, but at the same time, I am very strong willed and love forging my own path.

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  3. I like your story. I moved in april of this year digging up 400 daylilys that i had bought mostly from canadians over the past two years. Ok im an addict. My interest in hybridizing lays in stripes and the wierd and wonderful as well as finding the biggest robust reds to grow in my climate.

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