I love daylilies. I love the variety of colors, heights, sizes, edges, eyes, patterns, and shapes. My favorites are big ruffled full forms with round petals and well-behaved sepals. I love unusual forms and spiders also. Eyes have to be either dramatic or patterned. And edges - whether colored, ruffled, toothy or fringed . . . Love edges.
I also like that it's so darn easy to make new hybrids. Well, it is easy but to be worthwhile, extensive records must be kept . . .
The first few years I bought seeds. I didn't have established mothers with the desired characteristics. In 2004, 664 seeds were started and 569 germinated and were planted outside. 7 were lost that first winter. Last fall I dug up and composted all but 36 plants, which will be moved in the spring. These made the "cut" for further evaluation. In 2005, I cut back to buy just shy of 480, planting 404. There were several beauties which bloomed last year. Last year there was a disastrous event - aphids infested the seedlings in May, just before they were scheduled to go outside. I watered one morning and they were fine. Two days later I was walking by and stopped dead - my babies were inundated and of course I didn't have anything on hand. By the time I started spraying insecticidal soap, it was too late. I planted the poor almost lifeless things anyway and still lost probably 2/3 of them. I will know in the spring.
So this year I'm going to do things differently. I'm going to try direct sowing into the ground this spring. Wish me luck!
Now I have good established moms and have more seeds than I have space . . . and still bought 18 crosses . . . it's a sickness, I tell you.
I don't coddle my seedlings. I do mulch but more to keep weeding to a minimum than to protect seedlings. Like most hybridizers, I'm looking at the complete plant, not just the pretty bloom. I have one tiny one with a wonderful knarly edge, the best edge I've seen on a little one, but the bloom won't open fully. I'll use that as a bridge plant, hoping it will pass the edge to its kids.
My supervisor lets me use vacation time creatively. I take every morning off the second, third, and fourth weeks of July, our peak bloom time. I get the pollen first thing in the morning and bring it inside to dry, then go back outside to take pictures of EMOs (early morning openers). I string a notebook and pencil around my neck to record my pictures and take field notes. My camera allows a voice recording while taking a pic but that just didn't work well for me. By the time the picture taking session is over, the pollen is dry and I can start dabbing. The garden is just outside the back door so it's convenient to do it one dad at a time. I have different colored wires assigned to different dads and when I brush the pollen onto a pistil, I twist a wire behind the bud and move on. Nothing more distracting than having white tags blowing around when you view a garden. And I find it clumsy to write the pollen parent on the tags anyway. This way works well for me.
When the dabbing is done, it's time to go back out to the seedling patch and take pictures of those not fully open earlier. Then it's usually time to shower and head for the office.
I am a pod squeezer. There I admit it. I keep close watch on ripening pods so I can collect the seed before the pod bursts and the seed falls to the ground and is lost. I take a bunch of small envelopes out to the garden and write the pod parent on the outside, then put pods and wires in the envelope (when, of course, the wires - the pollen parent - are the same). Later, I remove the seeds and leave the envelopes open so they can dry a few days. I identify the pollen parent, write it and the number of seeds on the outside, seal it, and put in the fridge for the winter.
It's a lot of work but so much fun to rush out to the seedling patch and be the first person in the world to view a particular flower. Maybe someday I'll create something worthwhile of registration and distribution. If you are still with me, and interested, some of my babies are on this photo album: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I
2 comments:
Hi, I live off Lake Huron in Oscoda. Are you going to be selling any of your daylillies as you are moving them (please, please, please)??? My husband and I have started our own little daylilly farm on approx 2 acres. We don't have any named species yet, and we haven't hybridized anything, we are still very new to this wonderful hobby!
Hi, I too am a "novice" hybridizer (sp). I have lived everywhere from the midwest to the south and now reside in the Northeast. I am a 60+ gardener and am getting so excited as Spring arrives after our very difficult winter. Like beckysamotis I am wondering if you are going to be selling some of your seeds??
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