Where do I start? Maybe with died-and-gone-to-daylily-heaven? I spent Saturday with my friend Roger walking one of his seedling fields. This particular field had between 8,000 and 10,000 daylily seedlings. (And yes, you read those numbers correctly.) It was nothing short of amazing! In addition to his magnificent home garden, Roger also keeps two large seedling fields, each in a different location, on extra acreage that friends let him plant on. They, of course, get the added benefit of a beautiful landscape full of flowers.
Roger is an American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) certified daylily garden judge. When he hybridizes, he aims for specific outcomes when making a cross. He keeps in mind parent genetics, bloom color, pattern, size, and substance, branching, bud count, foliage, scape strength, and many other specifics that determine what a good cross may be. Green eyes are one of his favorite bloom traits that he often hybridizes for.
Our main task was to methodically go through the garden and choose the seedlings that we thought showed the most promise. We also tagged some 'put in the compost pile' seedlings. He appreciates other people's opinions, because with 10,000 seedlings it's very easy to overlook a plant or two. And as daylily aficionados, we all like and value something different.
It was a daunting task at first, but for each seedling that caught my eye, I asked myself, 'Does this plant have the wow factor for the characteristics I value?' Everything I loved got tied with pink vinyl tape that had my initials on it. And believe me, there was no shortage of pink tape being used. Here are photos of *just a few* of the seedlings I loved. I stand by all of my choices and I would totally bring any one of these babies home to grow in a heartbeat.
We also did a little bit of pollen-dabbing with some bloom pollen from my garden. It was fun determining which plants to make the crosses with. If only the units on genetics and plant biology were this much fun in school I would have paid more attention.
Roger is an American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) certified daylily garden judge. When he hybridizes, he aims for specific outcomes when making a cross. He keeps in mind parent genetics, bloom color, pattern, size, and substance, branching, bud count, foliage, scape strength, and many other specifics that determine what a good cross may be. Green eyes are one of his favorite bloom traits that he often hybridizes for.
Our main task was to methodically go through the garden and choose the seedlings that we thought showed the most promise. We also tagged some 'put in the compost pile' seedlings. He appreciates other people's opinions, because with 10,000 seedlings it's very easy to overlook a plant or two. And as daylily aficionados, we all like and value something different.
It was a daunting task at first, but for each seedling that caught my eye, I asked myself, 'Does this plant have the wow factor for the characteristics I value?' Everything I loved got tied with pink vinyl tape that had my initials on it. And believe me, there was no shortage of pink tape being used. Here are photos of *just a few* of the seedlings I loved. I stand by all of my choices and I would totally bring any one of these babies home to grow in a heartbeat.
We also did a little bit of pollen-dabbing with some bloom pollen from my garden. It was fun determining which plants to make the crosses with. If only the units on genetics and plant biology were this much fun in school I would have paid more attention.
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