CONVERTING THE ONE RING

About five years ago I went to the Mid-Winter Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, and Elizabeth Salter was one of the Speakers.  During her Program she showed her diploid, THE ONE RING.  I was impressed with this flower for several reasons.  The first reason is that its a "reverse bi-tone."  The second reason is that there are "circular rings" in the eye.  The third reason is that I've never seen such a convention of attributes in either a diploid or a tetraploid.  So, I decided that I had to have the daylily.  I then called my friend, Mike Holmes up in Ohio, and told Mike about the flower.  I told Mike that I was going to drive to Elizabeth's home in Gainesville, Florida, and purchase it from her.  But Mike said that our friend Larry Grace was growing it in his Greenhouse, and that I should check with Larry if I wanted a fan.

Indeed, Larry did offer a fan and he drove from his home near Dothan, Alabama, and we met at our favorite Restaurant near Columbus, Georgia.  We had a wonderful Breakfast together, and I knew the task ahead in trying to convert THE ONE RING would be an arduous process.  I took the one fan and grew it for two years, and then in August, 2018, I started the conversion process.

I can't see as well as I could a few years back, and so I had to "guess" about how close I was cutting the daylily to be near the "growing tip."  At first I treated five daylilies, and they looked good, and one looked particularly good.  I kept the plants alive, and the one that I thought could have been converted, I just continued to help it applying water and fertilizer.  As the other four plants grew up to a larger size, I just "dried them again," and then treated them again with the chemical "Colchicine."  Indeed, I just continued this process and now I hope that I will have several conversions of THE ONE RING.  I'm showing a picture of my most recent conversion attempt.

Anyway, I started considering the "attributes" of the plant that I thought was converted.  From the very start, I noticed that it had very, very stiff foliage.  Then, when the scape began to grow I had to be very careful not to split the scapes by giving them too much water.  And I then noticed that the scapes themselves were very, very stiff.  As the buds began to form I then saw that they each "bulged," particularly at the base of the buds.  All are very good signs that a conversion effort has been successful.

Then, on Sunday morning, March 29, 2020, two buds bloomed.  I was so excited that I couldn't contain myself.  Our daughter Kelley was here as well as our granddaughter Lily.  And our Church was giving a livestream of a Service.  Of course we can't attend Church, but listening to Pastor Julie Boone was so encouraging.  It was about Lazarus from John's Gospel.  After "virtual Church," I went out and again checked the bloom.  There was another indication of a successful conversion.  The ends of the sepals were very stiff, and the flower was not as attractive as I've been used to seeing when the diploid would bloom.  However, notwithstanding all of the signs of a successful conversion that I saw, I knew that the only sure way to know for certain if conversion happened, was to check the pollen by using my microscope.

So I took an "anther" from one of the flowers and brought it to the house.  I then looked at the pollen using my microscope and I could see that the pollen measured to be a "fifteen" on the scale that I use.  Once I saw the pollen measurement of fifteen I knew for certain that the plant was converted.  The next question is whether the converted plant will set a pod.  To test this possibility I used pollen from Seedling 5-708 which is a cross between MSGT LANE and UNDEFINABLE.  I'll know within a few days if the cross takes.

Although I've worked on this conversion effort over the last five years, looking back it seems like that is a long time, but in actuality, it is a short time.  It just seems long considering that this year I will be 75.  So, I must begin trying to make new seedlings using TET. THE ONE RING.

And I will begin posting more often on my Blog about results in the garden since this Coronavirus has us isolated at home.   I hope that Diana can cut my hair soon since I haven't been able to go to the Barber Shop.

Bill Waldrop
Kennesaw Mountain Daylily Gardens