2009 Seedlings in Bloom!

Hello Daylily Friends,

I have been working through the hardest part of being a "hybridizer." That is, staying out in the 90-plus degree heat, with no rain, completely changing the garden. This simply has to be done or else next year there will not be much of a show. I have to dig out the old plants and discard them, separate the plants that are being kept, and then get them replanted. May I again say that, indeed, this is "hard work." I am pleased to say, that notwithstanding the difficulty of the work, I am making significant progress. The point that I would like to concentrate on today, however, is not the hard work in July, but instead, on some of the blooms that I have now from the crosses that I made last summer.

One of the really interesting new blooms is a lavender with a "significantly" carved face. I have found that Lavenders are hard to isolate in color, and even harder to have them be attractive. This new Lavender seedling caught my eye because the Lavender color is quite noticeable, but more importantly, it caught my eye because of the unique carving in the face. There are so many different dayliles being sold in our Society that it is sometimes hard to identify one that is not only different, but that is also very attractive. I would also say that this daylily has bloomed several times, and that each bloom looks basically the same as the picture that I am showing. Of course, I have not made any measurements because the plant has only been growing for 11 months. I intend to watch this daylily, and hopefully there will be more to report.

You may recall that TET. ORANGE VELVET is one of the daylilies that I converted last year. I made quite a few new seedlings using this conversion, and I have seen many of the new blooms. They are tall, and very attractive. I have not posted any pictures because there are so many new daylilies, and I haven't decided what is good and what is perhaps not as good. The picture that I'm showing is not meant to indicate that the daylily is significantly better than others that I have seen, but the gold color was just more than I could ignore. So, I took my trustworthy A1000IS Canon camera, and took the picture. Don't you agree that the bold orange color is very nice? The cross is as follows: (Orange Blossom Trail x Tet. Orange Velvet).

I have enjoyed working with TET. STAR CHILD which is a daylily that my good friend Larry Grace converted. Several times I have thought that I made good progress with it, but my friends would tell me that the flower looked "washed out." To me, the flower looked good, but I defer to the good judgment of my friends. I have noticed that TET. STAR CHILD is pod fertile. So, I took pollen from my LYDIA'S REGAL ROBE and put it on TET. STAR CHILD. I have now just seen what I think is a very fine cross. I do not believe that I have a washed out appearance on the flower. Instead, I think the color is sharp, and the scape is tall. Next spring I should see this beauty at its best! I hope that you like my new seedling.

The last flower that I will show has a very interesting cross which is as follows: [(J. T. Davis x Tet. Emerald Splendor) x (Grace 578 Seedling x Judy Furquhar)]. I like the new daylily because it has kept the lime/yellow color from TET. EMERALD SPLENDOR which I converted. I also like it because it is just flat. Flat. Just flat. I know that practically all of the plants used as parents are of reasonable height, so I am looking forward to seeing what this beauty does as she continues to mature. You wouldn't think that I could get so many seedlings to bloom since they were all planted last August and September. However, they have grown well and have bloomed, notwithstanding our very cold winter.

More news as it happens.

Bill