We Make New Plants: The Daylily Edition

Last year we got interested in daylily hybridizing.  Daylily plants do not come true from seed, so they are mostly propagated by division.  What we are doing is putting the pollen from one daylily onto a different daylilies stamen.  There's a little more to it that this (diploid vs. tetraploid, daytime temperatures, etc) but at it's core, this what hybridizing it.  If the cross takes the plants forms a seed pod, like the one in this picture.

Every cross doesn't take and even the ones that do sometimes stop growing.  But some make it all the way.  As the ripen they start to turn brown and crack open.  When they have cracked it's time to harvest the seeds.  We let them dry out for a few days on the kitchen counter and then bag them and store them in the fridge for a few weeks.

This is where we are at right now.  We have planted some of the earlier crosses, but still have some more in the fridge waiting their turn.  Tonight we saw the first few sprouts poking out of the soil.  I was honestly concerned that it would be really hard to get crosses to take, so I went with a little bit more of a shotgun approach this year than was probably useful.  It's really easy to get carried away with whatever is blooming and loosing site of any goals you have set.

Overall we are into large flowers, REALLY tall flowers, and bright colors.  I personally also like miniatures and have a few orders waiting to be shipped this fall that will add some minis to the collection.  Even with my rather random approach, I think I still made some great crosses.  I'll have to wait at least a year to see their blooms and even longer than that to really evaluate the vigor and habit of each plant.  Here are a few bellow.

This first cross this 'Velvet Eyes' with 'Velvet Ribbons'.    This was honestly not a very well thought out cross.  'Velvet Eyes' has 30" scapes with small 4.25" flowers.  I love it's color and it has great vigor, lots of scapes and reblooms in our garden.  'Velvet Ribbons' is a 44" tall and has an 11" flower.  I LOVE black daylilies and spider forms, so this is definitely a favorite of mine.  Both of these plants proved to be really good parent plants, assuming they make pretty, tall, and interesting babies.

This 'Sweet Seneca Butterflies' 'The Tingler' cross was something I had planned last summer.  'Sweet Seneca Butterflies has a 2-1/2" flower and a 18" scape, though it's flowers tend to be a little larger in our garden.   'The Tingler' has a 47" scape and 9" flower.  We purchased both on a trip to New York for a family wedding.  'Sweet Seneca Butterflies' came from Grace Gardens in Penn Yan, NY and was hybridized by Kathy Rood.  'The Tingler' was purchased at Cottage Gardens.  For whatever reason I have always wanted to cross the two.  One is a miniature and the other is a large unusual formed flower.  Now sure what will happen, but hopefully something interesting.

The final cross I'm going to talk about today was one between 'Euro-mazing' (another favorite of mine) and 'Velvet Ribbons'.  Euro-mazing was hybridized in 2003 and had no registered child plants.  Chances are there's a reason for that, probably one I'll see when these seeds germinate and bloom (assuming they do).  It has a 29" scape and 9" unusual form flower. Hopefully 'Velvet Ribbons'  will bring it's even taller and larger size to the party and I'll get some dark black/purples with unusual form.

Hybridizing, like a lot of horticulture, is a little science, a little art, and a lot of patients.  Hopefully these won't take too long to get to bloom size plants.  I hope you enjoyed my rambling about of new gardening obsession.