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[SG] Daylilly Cross Pollination

Well Joe,

Looks like I 'gotta' try to answer this one, since I hybridize
daylilies!

Breeding daylilies is not that hard.  You take the fluffy pollen off
one flower and put it on the sticky part of the thingy that sticks
out the longest on another (never itself)!  Not all crosses take- for
instance I can cross a hundred times and maybe only get 30 takes! or
maybe all will take.  Dips will not cross with tets, and vice versa,
it is true, but if you try  crossing some and it takes, then you know
that the ploidy was the same.  If you have older varieties they are
usually diploid.  Tets were started in about the 60's and got well
known with MARY TODD.  I will give you a quick idea of how to guess
at ploidy, but I could list many exceptions to the rule!

Dips are usually thinner petaled in texture, and Tets thicker in
substance.  The scape (the stem) is usually thicker in Tets.  But
most nursery men will not be able to tell you by looking at the
flowers.  Daylilies are registered with the American Hemerocallis
Society and listed as to their ploidy. We study as we buy in order to
get the best gene pool to forward many aspects of daylilies. And new
gene pools (plants can be very expensive)  There are now, I think
about 40,000 named cultivars.  We do not need another pretty flower,
but more of them on a scape,  flowers that open early in the morning,
good foliage, repeat bloomers in the north, long season of bloom,
deep colors that do not melt in the sun, etc.  Those are some of the
things that we breed for these days.

Yes, it is easy, that is why so many enjoy hybridizing them.  Zone 7
does not tell me too much, but I gather that you live in the northern
half of the US?  Here it takes 3 years for the seed to bloom.  After
the seed pods have turned brown, collect them, take out the shiny
black seeds and refrigerate (if dormant daylilies- northern ones -
please allow me to simplify) for 6 weeks.  Plant inside under lights
in Feb and line out in the spring, and somtimes they will bloom in
two years.  Big time hybridizers save very few keepers out of the
thousands that are planted.  The rest are composted as not being
unique, bettering the plant etc.

Do the bees do it?  Not usually, but moths do- at the nitetime when
the flowers are just starting to open. I can usually see yellow on
the stigma if the moth did it!  and discard that seed pod (a self
crossing does not bring out good characteristics usually)
Go ahead and try it- you might get dogs, or you might get some pretty
flowers all completely unique! And you can never duplicate the mom
plant by seeds.  They only reproduce themselves by cloning! BTW, we
do not know potential characteristics- dominant genes, etc, so the
game is iffy!  LOL!

Have fun.  And if you want to learn more, the AHS costs $18 to join,
with journals four times a year and local clubs that usually hold
meetings monthly.  We also have our own robin, but only for AHS
members.  We learn and share a lot through the listserve.

BTW, I own over 700 cultivars now and this year probably will harvest
2000 seeds!  I have several of my own hybrids that I am evaluating
and increasing for introduction.  My newest goal is tall variants of
deep rich colors to be utilized as great garden plants.

Can't wait to see my new babies in the year 2001!

Bobbie Brooks in Gloucester MA
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