I know that there is NO WAY to prove for sure (except through the expensive process of DNA) to find out what genetics a hybrid seedling might have if the label was lost or the parents were unknown.

My labeling system was ruined a few years ago when I first started growing seedlings, so I do not know who most of my earlier seedling's parents were. A small few I can figure out by looking at them. But most are questionable and will likely never have the parentage known.

One of my favorite earlier seedlings has unknown parentage.... BUT ... all the blooms have stippling. So I am going to take a leap of faith and guess that one of the parents is Stippled Statement. The gardener that I got this seed from had Stippled Statement and did use it in her hybridizing efforts. I did get "Stippled Statement x unknown" seeds from her as well.

So, I have 2 questions:

1) Does this look like a child of Stippled Statement? I have been assuming all along that it was. What other 2009 or older cultivars display stippling?
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Stippled Statement')

BUT ... SS does not have a high bud count. This one does. It had the most blooms of any of my seedlings this past Spring. It started blooming the middle of April and continued to have blooms through the end of June. (I did not write down when the last bud bloomed but I may have posted that info here in a thread somewhere.) It initially had 3 scapes in the clump for a total of 24 buds. Which may not seem like that much, but it started sending up new scapes for rebloom before the first set of buds were finished blooming at the end of May. So it had good extended AND rebloom for me this year. Blooms averaged around 6". It also did show some rust, but for the most part seemed to have a rust resistant rating of approx. 2.5 (I am guessing here on the actual rating number). Scapes were short - between 15- 19" tall. It also multiplies quite well. The number of fans more than doubled from the year before. I had 4 and now have at least 9.

When I look at the blooms, they do show a "tooth" a times, but mostly ruffles. It's bloom qualities remind me of photos I've seen of Alexa Kathryn. Sandi sent me some seed crosses that had AK as a parent also. So she used that cultivar for hybridizing, as well.

2) What do you think? Could Alexa Kathryn be the other parent of this seedling?
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Alexa Kathryn')

I found an empty bag with "Stippled Statement x ??" written on it. I just don't know for sure if this IS a SS child or not, but am assuming that it is since I did get some SS seeds (and I do not know of any other stippled cultivars). And what possibility is there that the other parent might be Alexa Kathryn?

Here is my seedling:



It set pods like crazy:



More blooms:





Early bloom:



Would love to hear other hybridizer's and gardener's opinions! Thank you.

I just HAD to do a pedigree chart using Stippled Statement as the pod parent and Alex Kathryn as the pollen parent:




It looks more like Alexa Kathryn than Stippled Statement to me. The only thing that looks like Stippled Statement on this seedling bloom is the stippling.

I have absolutely no knowledge about this, so I can only give you my humble opinion
But, looking at your chart, I would say that: YES this is the cross you think it is !

(LOVE the chart, by the way I think I'm going to give myself that software for Christmas )


Mayo

Thanks for your opinion, Mayo!

Much like Mayo, I can only give an opinion based on my experience, and I have none concerning Stippled Statement. I use to grow Arrayed In Splendor (Bell, 2002) which was an edged pink that was stippled even though that was not mentioned in the registration description, so I know there were other stippled daylilies available. It is impossible to know how many other stippled ones might be out there in which the registration never mentioned that feature. However, if your friend did not grow any other stippled flowers and that is where the majority of your seeds from that time period came from, a deduction to the one she did grow is certainly logical.
Concerning Alexa Kathryn, I did grow that one for several years. I didn't have much luck with it although it was often referred to as a "hybridizer's flower" because the blooms often did not fully open and/or all of the petals never flattened out. With that said, your third and fifth pictures look so much like many of the blooms I had on AK in terms of petals that never got to the shape/form that they show in your fourth photo that I could see a very strongly possibility that AK was a parent.

LarryW - Thank you for taking the time to give your opinion on my seedling. What I noticed about the blooms .... it opened better the warmer it was. And many of the photos were taken very early in the morning (before I had to leave for work), so it had not had the time to open fully when I took the photos. I kept thinking it looked a lot like AK and then when I did the pedigree chart, it REALLY looks like AK. So I think this seedling is most likely "Stippled Statement x Alexa Kathryn". Stippled Statement would be the pod parent because that is what was on one of the empty baggies. The pollen parent was unknown on the baggie. It might have been bee pollinated or it may have lost it's tag before the seeds were collected by Sandi.

I love this plant. It bloomed constantly for about 2 months. I also collected a lot of seeds from it and used it's pollen, too. So it is quite fertile both ways. I can't wait to grow out some of the seeds from this seedling to see what I get. I was crossing it with everything that was blooming during those 2 months because it produced at least 1 bloom a day to use.

Mayo - I love the Scrapbook Factory Deluxe version 5 program. I use it for everything and was thrilled to find a family tree/pedigree chart to use for my hybridizing (which was included in the program). The only down side is that it is NOT sold as a downloadable program. They mail you the boxed program, so it takes time to receive it. But it is a LOT of fun to use!!!
http://www.novadevelopment.com...

beckygardener said:The only down side is that it is NOT sold as a downloadable program. They mail you the boxed program, so it takes time to receive it

Really???
That's a bummer.. my laptop doesn't have a cd-drive


Mayo

I know. In this day and age, you'd think they would offer a downloadable version from their website.

Well, don't dismay .... there are CD/DVD external drives that you can hook up to a computer via USB.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dv...

I use my CD/DVD internal drive all the time for making backup CDs of my photos. I also have an external hard drive to do a system backup. I have a lot of things that I can hook up to my computer.

Becky,
I think I have purchased maybe one or two seedlings. At the time didn't think to get the parentage. I like having registered named Daylilies. Call me weird. The pictures are beautiful and the plant habit is great.

Liz - I would imagine that most people typically prefer registered daylilies vs. seedlings. For many daylilies ... if they are registered, it's because they possess enough good qualities that the hybridizer felt the seedling was worth naming and registering. Which means the buyer gets a quality daylily for their garden. Whereas seedlings are hit and mostly miss.

I like crossing and growing seedlings because the genetics fascinate me and because I am always hopeful that I will get something nice enough to name and register. And I like to see a bloom that is unique to any, anywhere else in the world.

Here is another hybrid that I got from Sandi. I grew several seedlings from the same cross. This cross is Roses in Snow x Mama's Cherry Pie: