For those of you that hybridize, which parents have yielded the most keeper seedlings for you?

My 2023 intro Bubblegum Queen has been one of my best parents ever. It's a reluctant pod parent, but the pollen is magical. Here are some of the seedlings from her marked as keepers:

Judy's Jewel X Bubblegum Queen #1 - This one had 18 buds and 7.5 inch flower in a dud year here.


Judy's Jewel X Bubblegum Queen 2 - 7.5 inch bloom with 16 buds on maiden bloom


(Symphony of Praise X Henry Lorraine) X Bubblegum Queen - Monster sized 9 inch bloom on 32 inch scapes with 18 buds, rebloom, and rapid increase.


American Doll X Bubblegum Queen


Pink Aloha X Bubblegum Queen - 7-inch bloom, rebloom and fast increase


Jurassic Pink X Bubblegum Queen - 7 inch bloom on 29 inch scapes, fast increase


Pink Lemonade Party x Bubblegum Queen


(Natalie Antoinette X Symphony of Praise) X Bubblegum Queen

Great seeing all the BQ kids.
Love the color on the American Doll seedling

Crosses with White Tooth as a pod parent have produced a variety of interesting kids that I'm keeping. They are all tremendous rebloomers.

White Tooth X Skater #3


White Tooth X Skater #4 - Fast increaser with bud counts in the mid teens


White Tooth X Skater #5 - Fast increaser


White Tooth X Unknown 2L


White Tooth X Unknown 2M


White Tooth X Unknown 2R


White Tooth X Unknown 3R


White Tooth X Skater #2

Sexy Samantha by Dan Hansen throws kids with really ornate edges in a variety of colors.

These first three are out of Sexy Samantha X Bubblegum Queen:






The next three are out of Pink Extraordinaire X Sexy Samantha






Coco's Curiosity X Sexy Samantha


Sexy Samantha X Spacecoast Night Vision

Wow! Gorgeous!

Very nice seedlings Debra

Gorgeous seedlings, Debra! I particularly love seedlings of Pink Extraordinaire X Sexy Samantha. Thank you for starting this thread. Hope others will chime in their best parents for keeper seedlings. I can't wait to use Bubblegum Queen pollen this year when it blooms.

Hazelcrestmikeb said: Very nice seedlings Debra

Gorgeous sdlgs Debra and a great topic to get those of us hybridizing thinking about crosses for this year.

Judy's Jewel X Bubblegum Queen 2, love the form, color and edge! I think this is my favorite of all the sdlgs you posted. You're getting some nice big blooms with good budcounts too.
Fabulous White Tooth kids! The second one is so pretty. I finally found White Tooth last year and made a few choice crosses. Seeds are planted we'll see if I'm as lucky as you've been.
The Sexy Samantha kids are awesome! The third one with the white edge,

Thanks for the comments, folks!

Char - I'll be looking forward to seeing what you get from White Tooth!

Love the seedlings, and congrats on your success with those parents, Debra.

My "operation" isn't big enough to use the same plant over and over like that. I have to think things out before summer and plan which crosses I'm going to make that year based on what color I want to work on, or what kind of eye, or if I want to focus on Very Lates. I won't live long enough to, say, circle back to Victoria Josephine five or ten times, no matter how badly I want to when I see it blooming.

Tim - My operation is not large, and you plant much longer crosses than I do. I generally only plant 3-4 seeds from a cross.

When I get some time over the weeekend, I'll try to post some of my longer crosses that are in the spirit of the thread.

Yeah, I normally plant 5 seeds or less from a cross, unless I really like it. I did a cross a few years back with Ginny Pearce's Keepsake Rosie that was extremely successful, and I planted 15 from those crosses. But that's not the norm.

This year, I'm planting 12 from a cross with Gayle Story's Good Clean Thoughts, and another 12 from a VL cross. Mostly I'm in the 2-5 seed range, too.

Mighty impressive seedlings Debra. Great worked on
Your hybridizing.

I am a little bit like Judy Davisson and use White Eyes Pink Dragon quite a bit. Those seedlings are generally really large, and I like that. I have a good many that are similar to some she has released.

I got Spacecoast Lemon Whiskers three years ago because I have a weakness for yellows. Started seeing seedlings from it last year that were awesome, but I have seedlings from a lot of different plants. For yellows, I have Butter Cream. Some years it is very skimpy with pods, but last year it rewarded me with a bunch of pods.

I do have Pink Extraordinaire and have used it for two years. I like it that those plants are big and vigorous! I have quite a few from Floyd Cove. This year I think I am going to experiment with fragrance. I had gotten Lean Green Fragrance Machine and wanting to cross it with Assigned For Size in the worst way.

I seem to change up my goals from one year to another because I can't seem to focus on any one thing, but the larger flowers seem to be the thing that drags me back to earth. Those seedlings from White Eyes Pink Dragon will often throw big watermarks, so I guess that is another area that I really like. This year I am trying a few smalls because Valerie always posts some photos of her amazing seedlings. This year, I also want to do some doubles, and also working with some diploids. Can't wait to start working with Ron Reimer's Chimera Delight!

seedling from Spc Lemon Whiskers next to an average size seedling-

Debra I was looking up White Tooth and saw that it was one of the parents to Wild Wolf.

Darryl - I've never had much luck hybridizing with White Eyes Pink Dragon. It's too hot when it blooms here and won't set seed. I have used its pollen to cross it with some Davissons, but those seeds have always rotted on me. I'm glad it works well in your program!

Mike - Yes, Gossard has three of intros with White Tooth in the parentage.

Derryl - Thanks for sharing some of your super parents. SC Lemon Whiskers looks to be yielding large flowers for you. I've been trying SC Irish Illumination with some newer yellows, hoping to get a yellow with SCII's wonderful bud counts.

My problem with White Eyes Pink Dragon is as you said, it seems to bloom a bit later than those early evergreen plants, but it does set pods well here. I will often keep many of my new arrivals potted and will bring them indoors to the air conditioning when it is really hot so that I can use pollen from WEPD when they rebloom late. I actually have some pollen in the freezer, and now have two scapes coming on Ruby Rose, so I'm hoping they don't get frozen in the greenhouse.

Spc Lemon Whiskers is candelabra branched with fantastic bud counts, plus it also reblooms even when it is loaded in pods. The scapes are a bit weak when more than one flower is open- especially if it is raining. They are also quite tall, which doesn't help, but I love it, and it is really hardy here. I have been saving a bunch of seedlings with tree-trunk scapes to cross with it.

Last year I used Master Chief in quite a lot of crosses because I am wanting more reds, and then I also used Grape Umbrella a lot with WEPD and other seedlings that came from it because I am wanting more of the green throats. I have to say that I am more impressed with Galactic Glow with the much deeper green and loaded it with pods two years in a row. I had a higher number that didn't take, but I can't wait to see them. Normally I would have seedlings up in January, but none are up yet so far this year.

I have a plant called Hugh two that is a hard dormant with very husky tall scapes and very large flowers that I have been using for several years, especially for crosses where others don't produce pods. It is not a fancy flower and has no ruffles, but I will use it with some that have too many ruffles, and it seems to be a perfect mix. Rather than having fancy flowers, I am moving more toward good garden plants that produce huge scapes. I have seedlings just now coming up that have an inch or more in diameter. I am slowly eliminating the ones with small frail plants, which was the issue I had with the white teeth plants. I just want them more robust....

Debra, I love love love all your gorgeous seedlings! And I particularly love those from BUBBLEGUM QUEEN. My plant hasn't bloomed for me yet, but I have high hopes for this spring. I think pinks and pink/green combos are my absolute favorite daylilies, and BUBBLEGUM QUEEN really looks delicious! I simply cannot wait to try some crosses with it, probably as a pollen parent this year. Thanks so much again for sending me that plant.