Hello all,

I saw a comment a few weeks ago about daylily seedlings with "purple socks" (when the foliage at or near the base of the plants is tinged with purple) and how such seedlings sometimes/often grow to be superior specimens. I'm wondering if this is a common phenomenon and if there are science-based reasons (or other bases) for why this occurs.

Thanks very much!

Michelle

Michelle, I've had a few seedling with purple or reddish socks. I can't recall that they were outstandingly better than other seedlings that had green socks.

So I searched the forum and found this:
The thread "Purple leaves" in Daylilies forum
It has a few comments about the purple stems further down. But I have yet to see any comments on those being better quality plants. I will keep looking.
@admmad
@sooby

Seedfork said:So I searched the forum and found this:
The thread "Purple leaves" in Daylilies forum
It has a few comments about the purple stems further down. But I have yet to see any comments on those being better quality plants. I will keep looking.
admmad
sooby

Some daylilies show anthocyanin pigment giving a pinkish look to the leaf bases, Hemerocallis citrina is well known for this as mentioned in the other thread. I have never heard it said that it indicated better quality plants and can't think of any reason why it would. Perhaps the person who suggested this has a superior parent that just happens to have this trait and passes its superiority along as well as the pink socks giving an impression there's a connection?

Is the picture below what you mean by 'purple socks'? I got 'Heavenly Red Streaker' in 2016 and have not noticed any better quality. I don't have any pictures of my own at the moment since I am on lunch at work, but hope to find some later to show how HRS leans. Even with the red fans, I don't think I will keep HRS.

I think that is an excellent example of "Purple Socks".

Thanks Vickie.

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Treasure Room')
I wish I had a picture of the base of Treasure Room, but this is a daylily that constantly has reddish tint at the base of the leaves. Certainly not as dark as the cultivar above but definitely reddish.

Here is a current cross that I have growing in the basement right now that shows a reddish base.

Thanks everyone, and thanks Vickie for the great picture That might very well be what the poster meant by "purple socks."

But does anyone know any source saying that the "purple Sock" plants have superior traits?

I believe I saw the comment on @EdBurton 's Facebook. I'm away from my regular computer and don't have access to Facebook right now. Perhaps I'll find the post when I'm back at the regular computer and ask for more information.

It all depends on what, if anything, is the function of the pigment in the leaves the appears under certain conditions and in certain plants.
We might look at what researchers think is the function of pigment in autumn leaves of some plants, and of pigment in spring leaves of other plants and compare that with what we might think is similar in daylilies.
Then the question would be whether anyone has objective evidence that there are differences between daylilies with the pigmented leaves and those without pigment in their leaves under the same conditions. That would be quite difficult to show since there can be so many other differences between any two daylilies. The first step might be to find a cross that produced some seedlings with the pigment and some seedlings without the pigment and compare them. I would be surprised if anyone has done that. I would be even more surprised if they measured characteristics carefully to compare them.

MrsBinWY said:I believe I saw the comment on @EdBurton 's Facebook. I'm away from my regular computer and don't have access to Facebook right now. Perhaps I'll find the post when I'm back at the regular computer and ask for more information.

I have seen purple socks several times, I don't remember much about them or even it's a stable trait, I do know that it has nothing to do with better or stronger plants, that would of caught my attention right away

Thanks very much everyone In rereading the February 14 post, I realize it reflects the grower's personal experience. It'll give me something else to watch for, though

petruske said:https://garden.org/plants/view/18590/Daylily-Hemerocallis-Treasure-Room/
I wish I had a picture of the base of Treasure Room, but this is a daylily that constantly has reddish tint at the base of the leaves.

I just took a jaunt outside in the cold rain to do a spot check on any of my new growth that appears to have "purple socks".

Definitely YES on H. citrina and 'Lobo Lucy'. NO on any others, including 'Treasure Room'...at least this early in the game. It's also entirely possible I've mislabeled TR; there are 3 cultivars from my childhood home jammed into this one pot. Gotta remember to divvy those up...

H. citrina


Lobo Lucy


Treasure Room


Edit: just realized original posting was about seedlings. Don't have any of those, so can't report on them.

I was checking my seedlings out this weekend, and I have one pot with five seedlings in it (from one cross), and two have reddish socks and the other three are green. The ones with the red bases are much larger than the other three, but it isn't something that I have taken note of in the past.

touchofsky said:...I have one pot with five seedlings in it (from one cross), and two have reddish socks and the other three are green. The ones with the red bases are much larger than the other three...

Interesting. Scientifically that would nudge me into repeating the cross but producing more than 20 or 30 seedlings. Then of course measuring the seedlings and comparing the two groups.

However, the same sort of cross would then have to be repeated (plus others) to make certain that there was not something else associated with the difference between "green" and "red" that might have been carried along with the size differences from those two parents.

I would likely not do that, Maurice. It would mean concentrating too much of my time, effort and seedling bed space to pursue something like that!