I can't believe that I've been gardening for over 50 years and am just now becoming excited about daylilies. One of the reasons is because of my new daylily form thread above. The other is that I found a daylily seedling in my garden about four years ago and decided to let it grow to see what it might look like. I was rewarded with this:



It is diploid, vigorous, hardy, three-branched, with a bud count of 26. It's form has a crispate tendency, and the sepals have a white picotee edge. It will appear in the AHS daylily database in 2014. I'd like to begin a hybridizing program to give it a more defined crispate form, produce a larger flower, and carry the picotee through to the petals as well.

The problem is, I don't know where to start. Can anyone recommend a hybridizer who is known as a good mentor for newbies? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome Larry

I would treemail Michele @tink3472

Hi Larry, welcome!

I don't know a lot of daylily hybridizers, but those I do know are wonderful people, who I'm sure would be more than willing to help you. Jim Murphy and/or Margo Reed - Woodhengegardens.com, who specialize in diploid unusual forms, Jamie Gossard - Daylilynet.com, who has been breeding tall UF tets for years, but also does dips. The other three I know work with mostly tets - Paul Owen - Slightlydifferentnursery.com, and Curt Hanson - Crintonic.com, or exclusively tets - Karol Emmerich - Springwoodgardens.com

Good luck with your new adventure!

Lisa

Larry!! There is a great group of daylily addicts.... errr friends - here at ATP.

A couple of things - have you joined AHS? www.daylilies.org It is relatively inexpensive, and I am pretty sure if you join now, it will pay for your registration for the rest of this year and next. There are a lot of local daylily societies that offer a lot of good information.

Also, we have quite a few hybridizers here at ATP. Some of them just pop in occasionally, others are here more frequently - especially in the fall and winter. Plus there are a lot of older threads in this forum with a lot of really good information in them.

Of course, it doesn't take long for us chatters to get off topic Our moderators try to keep that stuff to the OT thread we have here, but sometimes we overwhelm them with information.

And have you checked out the LA (lily auction)? Oh my - now THAT is like a drug to an addict but it is also an easy way to purchase daylily seeds of crosses you might like to try, but don't want to purchase the parents to. I have gotten some pretty daylilies from the seeds I have bought there www.daylily.com

Again, welcome! ~Jan

Hi Larry - I recognize you from around ATP, and I think from Cubits too - I replied to your "form" thread.... but welcome here to the daylily forum! It's funny how after years of gardening, you can become interested in a plant. I know you are an accomplished gardener! I am glad you finally became interested in "America's Favorite Perennial" ...

I enlarged your photo and I must say that I don't know that I have ever seen a white edge on the sepals like your seedling has. Edges, either dark or light, on sepals are usually only there if they are on the petals too. You have a good eye to notice that, and to recognize that it was different.

Did your seedling just come up on it's own? In all my years in daylilies, almost 30 now, I don't think I have ever had that happen, although they say it happens with the plant Stella d Oro. I thought I had a mystery seed come up in between the aisles once. I let it grow, and it bloomed in just 2 years. Was a LOVELY color with watermark. I was so excited. Until I went to Curt Hanson's the next summer and then recognized it there as One More Heartache - which had been planted nearby. I must have broken enough of a root and crown off when digging it to sell, then smushed it into the ground accidentally with my foot or something, so that it took root and grew. We still laugh about that.

I usually recommend a new person visit a display garden or two near them before they start really buying many daylilies. Talk to the owners, find out what plants to really well. Get an idea what types of plants are available, and see the colors in person. Here is a link to an article I wrote for last year's daylily week, telling about display gardens, and how to find one near you.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/d...

Hi Larry .

I agree that you should consider joining the AHS you are part of region 1 take a look at the regional information for display gardens and societies. http://www.daylilies.org/AHSre... There are some hybridizers in Iowa that may be able to mentor you. Your local society would be the place to start looking for information.

Thanks to you all for that very warm welcome! Thanks as well for all the references.

Yes, I joined AHS before I submitted 'Picotee Pumpkin' for registration.

And the LA...Oh my!!! Found that about three weeks ago. Ended up with three lovely cultivars and bid waaay higher than I intended to. A move that I found very helpful is to google the DL I'm interested in and compare prices on other websites. In some cases the same number of fans could be purchased elsewhere for a lower price (including postage).

Juli, the seedling appeared in an area where other DLs were growing, but not next to one. The first year it bloomed, I kind of harumpfed because it appeared to be just another orange daylily. I was about to compost it when I took a closer look. Am I ever glad I did! Thanks for suggesting that I visit display gardens. I'll be off to read your article when I finish here. I did visit the fields of two Iowa hybridizers in late spring, but that was before I hit on the idea of attempting to hybridize on my own, so I missed an opportunity to ask lots of questions. Of course, I can and will contact them to chat about their hybridizing experiences. In the meantime, I do want to contact a well-known authority on hybridizing and appreciate all the references in this thread. One of the things I discovered early on is not to go strictly by the photographs of a seller when purchasing a DL sight unseen. I always google the image of any online DL I'm thinking of purchasing. The variation in color and even form can be considerable. Then there is the issue of hardiness. I think your suggestion about seeing the DL in person is a wise one.

Betty, thanks to you as well for recommending that I go local.

Larry forgot to tell you about Charlotte's Daylily Diary which has websites of many gardens that sell daylilies plus hybridizers websites and AHS websites. This should keep you well informed and busy for a long time.
http://daylilydiary.com/

Larry, another good place to check pictures is here on ATP, in the database. It's really amazing how different each flower can look, depending on where the plant is living. Sure, cameras are all different too, as for how they pick up color, but it's a really good place to check.

Even when posting photos - I have learned to check the ATP plant database to verify that I have a flower correctly identified. I discovered this spring when posting iris pictures that a had 3 or 4 that were misidentified when I purchased them - I think that entire group came from several years of plant sales & gift plants. Not that I minded, they were not expensive ones or free, so it was not even worth getting hold of the seller - and I loved all of the blooms no matter what their name was ~Jan

Yes, Charlotte's pages are a great resource - I keep a link to her pages on the upper right of our Daylily Forum Home page for quick reference, along with a link to the AHS, and the AHS dictionary.

Thanks for your additional comments, Betty Natalie, Jan, and Juli. I've been checking the ATP daylily database regularly, not only for the photos, but for the hardiness info as well. The AHS dictionary has been my teacher for several weeks now.