... uh oh, the questions are starting to pile up in my cranium again ... newbie madness!

If I see parentage listed as:

((Able x Baker) x sdlg) x (sdlg x Charlie)

Does it mean:

Pod parent is: an unregistered/unnoted seedling resulting from a cross of 1) an unregistered seedling of Able x Baker (thus no single name), with 2) another unregistered seedling from unknown parentage. "(Able x Baker" x sdlg)."

Pollen parent is: an unregistered/unnoted seedling that came from a cross of Charlie with another seedling of unknown parentage (sldg x Charlie)?

Just wanting to clarify :} i do luvs pedigrees ....

The way I read it, Tina, is that Able was crossed with Baker then the resulting plant was crossed with an unregistered (or unknown) seedling. The plant resulting from that cross was then bred to a plant from the cross of an unregistered seedling with Charlie.

I often research daylily parents back to great-great-grandfathers/grandmothers. Every time I find a seedling I grit my teeth because that is an unknown. I'm on the beach down here in Central FL and my plants have to be evergreens. That's why I get frustrated with unknowns. My favorite, of course, is the famous: seedling x seedling.

Oh, well. Hope this helps!!

Arlene, you put a great big smile on my face, thanks! (me too: researching way back, working toward evergreens, and 'oh no' when i see many "sdlgs").

Your reading helps to reduce the amount of confusion i experience .. since we can take "sdlg" as kind of unknowable (in terms of its impact in a pedigree), i think i will now just concentrate it down generally to known parentage in the lines.

I feel sooo much better ... and the intrigue and surprise will come from any deviation in the plant or its future offspring. Coolioes!

I really am not crazy about the idea of registering plants as seedling x seedling or unknown x unknown and have never done so. But, I have a super plant that I just registered that is an unknown x unknown. The tag faded, I was using industrial strength marker and it still faded. I now use paint pens. All I can say is that hybridizers try and use the very best material when hybridizing. I certainly have an idea what the cross is but because I can't say l00%, unfortunately it had to be an unknown x unknown. This one is quite possibly When Spirits Unite x Ed Brown.

REMEMBERING MISS MARTHA

With Arlene on how to read the parentage.

However, one hybridizer used to put the pollen patent first. I think nearly everyone puts the pod parent first.

very helpful, all!!! and, by the way, can you get paint pens locally or just online? i hate my own fading-fast 'permanent' markers

I have gotten them at craft stores like Michael's or an art supply store.

Pod parent should be listed first.

You can get the paint markers at Walmart in the craft section as well.

thanks!

I use my label machine to make seedling labels--all four of them this yr. Those "permanent" Sharpie pens aren't permanent.

do you use ones that sort of 'emboss' the tape (punch the letters up) or one that just prints on flat tape? i'm going to save up for one next year (hopefully) but will use the painter's pen until then :}

The ones that most people I know use is the flat tape. I have the Brothers label makers that I can connect to my computer to make it easier to do a lot of labels at one time or you can use it without the computer. It wasn't too expensive, I think $70, but they have good ones for less as well.
I only use it on my named cultivars because I have way too many seedlings, that may be tossed in one season, to make it for those.

I do the same.. Only on the named Cultivars.

I do use my Brother labeler for the named daylilies but use paint pens for seedlings.

I have a portable Brother P-Touch labelmaker that I got from Image Supply, and I really love it because I can just walk around making labels! Then I put them on those Eon markers and they do not fade in sunlight! And I remember that last year I saw they had a reconditioned labelmaker just like mine for something like $29 -- a real bargain!