H. 'Dawn's Early Light'

An early November '08 acquisition, pictures will have to wait until '09, and I'm looking forward to seeing those bright yellow leaves begin to unfurl. Can't wait.

And the wait is over! It's May 1st '09 and you almost have to wear sunglasses to look at it, that's how bright it is! And the piecrusted edge is a wonderful bonus. The leaves apparently darken to chartreuse later in the season, but I'll keep it in full sun to see how long I can keep it this nice bright yellow.

We're now into early May, the 7th to put a fine point on it, and the second leaf is already showing signs of viridescense. It's in full sun, and I make sure it stays well hydrated, but if this 2nd leaf is anything to go by each consecutive leaf will probably be more and more green... oh well, it still has very nice pie-crusting to them.

By early July the leaves are beginning to show up more green and the earliest leaves, the ones shown above, have all dried up and have been removed. The experiment with keeping it in full sun in an effort to keep the leaves that bright yellow, would appear to have been less than successful and the plant has been moved to an area where it sees direct sun for a shorter time period.

It's interesting to note the piecrusting of the newer leaves is all but non-existant in this picture, hopefully that'll show up once the leaves grow a bit more.

Here we are, May 6th 2010, and with the much milder winter we had all perennials are much further ahead then they were this time last year. This plant has nicely grown, now has multiple shoots on it and again shows us that wonderful bright yellow.

2011 saw the plant with 5 shoots and it really was the first you you got a good idea of what a mature specimen would look like. It is shown here on the last day of May and all we see is yellow leaves, no signs of desication and no signs yet of the 2nd flush of leaves, which will come in much more green. Notice how the pie-crusting has become more prominant compared to last year. Interestingly enough that pie-crusting is almost non-existent on the 2nd flush of leaves, quite curious.

Yes, there were the inevitable 3 or 4 early leaves that withered and dried up, but it did fill out larger and even flowered this year with one scape. No pods developed, perhaps next year I'll resort to manual pollination. By late July the plant was divided, each in their own 2-gallon pot.