Thirty-Five Inches is TALL!

Hello Daylily Friends,

This past summer I grew a selected seedling in my "outside garden" where all seedlings experienced a very cold winter. In my humble opinion, this selected seedling should be a good tool to use to create new introductions. I have numbered this new seedling, 8-244. It is a cross using the following parents: [(Grace 578 Seedling x Tet. Connie Burton) x Tet. (Last Midnight x Peppermint Delight)]. Seedling 8-244 may have received its wide "sepals" from the Grace 578 Seedling. I would note that one of the parents of the 578 seedling was Tet. Siloam Ralph Henry. Seedling 8-244 also has attractive "ruffling" and perhaps was passed from Tet. Connie Burton.

As for the second part of the cross, I used a diploid that I received as a gift from my good friend Larry Grace. The cross Larry made was between Last Midnight and Peppermint Delight. I was able to achieve a partial conversion of Larry's diploid, and I used pollen from this conversion to complete the making of the new daylily.

Seedling 8-244 is thirty-five (35") tall. Now, there is tall, and then there is tall. I consider 8-244 to be tall. Also I should mention that I believe the height of 35" came from Last Midnight, and I believe that the red eye and red edge came from Peppermint Delight.

Surprisingly, 8-244 has 4 and 5 way branching. Usually branching like this is seen only in sunny Florida. Then there is a nice 6" flower and about 22 buds. So, 8-244 has many fine qualities. The beauty of the flower is shown in the top picture, and the size of the fans can be seen in the second picture. Indeed, I have three very large fans. In my assessment, the 6" flower is attractive because of the prominent eye and red edge, and because it looks as though it may be a parent for a double.

It is my hope to use 8-244 as a "building block" for taller introductions with branching and bud count, and to also produce flowers with attractive eyes and edges. I can hardly wait for April, 2009, so that I can get started.

Bill