Thanks Becky

Love that second and third seedling, Ed. But they are all so beautiful!

Glad to know that hybridizers like yourself are looking for good branching. Back when I thought all daylilies were the same except for the color, I bought daylilies for the bloom alone. Now that I know better I am thinking of getting rid of some that are so top branched they just can't open well sometimes.

I won 'Yellow Ducky' in an auction and the branching may not be the best (I'm no judge), but it sure is better that some of my others. You know I must have been impressed by it to actually take a picture

It's difficult to capture the bright cheery color, but here is a picture of the branching and bloom.

I like it too Vickie
I know some folks don't like yellow, but in my mind a good yellow can bring life to a garden spot like no other.

Ed, I agree with everything that you said. I'm so new at this that I'm still stuck on the pretty face part of it, but I know I need to get into the rest of it eventually. If I could get any to rebloom, that would be a huge plus for me, and anything that increases well is another big plus.

Ed: I was just going to compliment you on your hybrids alot of which have yellow tones to them. The subtle pink mid stripe on some of them is especially beautiful. You've always had some very nice ones...... As to a good yellow - well, I'm partial to yellow myself and am still looking for the perfect one...... I do like that Yellow Ducky Vicky. Good win on the auction.........Maryl

Ed, I forgot to mention your yellows with the pink in them. They are so pretty!

Okay, you can all start throwing rocks at me. I've never been a fan of yellow flowers! I have some, but they aren't my favorite. I do like yellow though, and like it on flowers that have another color with it, but all yellow has never really done much for me. Ed's yellows with the pink mixed in really make me drool!

Thanks Maryl & Natalie
That yellow with pink highlights "polychrome" originally came from using Brother Charles Reckamp hybrids.
The first time I saw that color blend was back in the early 90's when I bought Techny Peace from Klehm's nursery when he was still in Illinois.
It was the most beautiful daylily I ever saw at that time.
When I decided to hybridize myself thats the direction I went.
My goal now as I like to call it is Reckamp glow with an attitude

Thanks Maryl. I have begun to appreciate yellow more in the last couple of years, although when I first started flower gardening, I didn't like yellows, oranges, and whites. I now have all of them and am glad I do. The yellows and oranges add a nice balance to the purples and reds. White was my least favorite, but I wouldn't do without some white in my garden now.

Natalie, I completely understand your aversion to yellow, so I am definitely not going to throw a rock at you!! All I had were Stella de Oro's until about 10 years ago, so when I discovered daylilies came in other colors, yellow became my least favorite. But I have some yellows now, like Yellow Ducky, that I wouldn't want to give up.

Ed, I like your definition of your goal! No demure daylilies for you

Vickie - I totally agree with you. But I have found that a good glowing yellow can really "pop" in a garden.

And I have totally fallen in love with Oranges, after starting off collecting reds, then purples. Still not a fan of pastels, but I have a few.

And Ed, I love your goal definition! Beautiful babies by the way ~Jan

If you want to see the color yellow or purple jump out at you, just plant a few of each next to each other, the color just pops.

I was reading about daylily fragrance higher up on the thread.
While some do have some fragrance, most do not, and it does take a lot of fragrant daylilies to make an impression as to fragrance from my experience.
Some years back I planted a bunch of Oriental lilies on the outer edges of my largest seedling bed, the Orientals are highly fragrant and permeate throughout the area.
One of the highlights of the summer for me is hybridizing my daylilies in the heady fragrance of the Oriental lilies. I wouldn't know if any of the daylilies in the area are fragrant the fragrance is so powerful.
I'd like to say that it was my master plan of mine having the daylilies and Orientals bloom at the same time, but it was just plain ole luck. :~)

I wish more dls had a strong fragrance but that doesn't seem happen very often. I look for:

Pretty face
Strong Scapes and if it blooms in the foliage it is leaving here!
Rebloom
Increase
Balance in branching, bud count

Ed, yours are lovely.

I think my most fragrant dayliliy is Hyperion. It's super old, yellow, and plain as can be. I really love it because it's so simple, even thought it's yellow. I used it a few times to see if it passed along the scent to it's babies, and it did. I think the seedlings smelled even better than it does, but it's not something that you can smell from a distance. The seedlings were all nice, and not plain, so it's a good one to use for scent.

Vickie, I totally agree about orange and white, too! Orange is my least favorite color, probably because it's my sisters favorite. I'm trying to get more orange though, because it's good to use in hybridizing. White has grown on me, especially with daylilies. I really love white daylilies. But, other flowers that are white just don't do anything for me.

You know, maybe that is it - other non daylilies that are white don't impress me, reds and purples do. Maybe I should expand my daylily color palette to include those lighter colors.

That's all I need, an excuse to branch out even more with daylilies!! ~Jan

Jan! I bought my first white daylily, thinking I wouldn't like it, and I was pretty much hooked! I don't think that there are any pure white daylilies. The ones I have aren't a pure, bright white. But, they are white enough, and they are really pretty. I think I read somewhere that they are good to use for clearing up muddy colors, which is why I bought one to begin with. I wanted it, just in case. It is Great White. While it's somewhat white, it's also somewhat yellow. I also have Sunday Gloves, which again, is a bit white, and a bit yellow. Depends on the day. I think I have another one too, but can't remember which one.

My favorites are pink. LOVE pink daylilies! Light pink, dark pink, doesn't matter. If it has pink in it, I like it! I love purple flowers, but purple daylilies aren't my favorite. I'm really trying to buy things that I ordinarily wouldn't like, since I was getting way too many that looked alike, and they were almost all pink. Having a blast of color looks so much better, even when they are colors that I'm not crazy about. It's amazing how nicely they all seem to go together, and how much better the garden looks with lots of different colors mixed in.

Hi Becky

I'm truly enjoying reading your threads/posts!

I go for a pretty face, don't care how many buds it gets if it's not pretty
Plant habit would be next, I have some that tend to multiply in a straight line instead of a clump.
More and more I'm starting to like tall plants that can be at the back of the garden/bed and am wanting to acquire more late season cultivars so when everything else is done blooming there is still some color.

In regards to you question about fragrance, looked at the AHS database, there are 20,728 registered fragrant cultivars and 2,403 very fragrant registered cultivars. You might want to take a look-go under advanced search.

-Sandy

I must admit that I like a pretty face, too! I guess when you grow quite a few close together, the size of the clump or a small amount of fans aren't as noticeable. I had always thought I'd prefer only the larger blooms, but I have had some smaller blooms that really caught my eye, so size doesn't matter as much as I thought. (Though I do like the outrageously large ones!)

The one in my avatar only produced 3 blooms this first year. I hope it survives and comes back again next year. (Some do, some don't because of the lack of a cold winter here. Parentage is unknown.)

I do like them to have strong scapes that stand above the foliage. I love those that re-bloom or bloom for over a month.

Yellow is my least favorite daylily color .... only because ... it is about the only bloom color I ever see sold locally. But the yellow blooms with teeth and ruffles do change my mind. I have a few of those and I love them! And I can just imagine as Ed suggested, that purple and yellow blooming daylilies planted next to each other would definitely be a show-stopper! I bet that would look divine!

Fertile both ways would be the ultimate characteristic of any of my favorites!

Hi Becky, great question! I've been enjoying reading all the answers. I was like you too, picking from the colours and patterns in the catalogues. I didn't realise there were more things to look out for until I started noticing the major faults in ones I had planted. The biggest disappointment to me was when there were lots of promising buds but something spoiled them before they even opened, or they opened deformed or shrivelled or only part-way. I had this problem very much with one called Just Gorgeous, which I had originally chosen for the size of the blooms. They never lived up to their size either, the substance was just too poor. The other big dissapointment I had was short scapes that bloom within the foliage, that was on one called Caribbean Perfection Plus. I also didn't like when the buds were so crowded together that the new buds had trouble opening unless you broke off the dead flowers. I was disappointed in the actual colour of some compared to the photos I bought them from, they often seem to have more yellow in them them I expected, I think it's a cool weather thing.

As to what I really do like, I'd sooner have a lower bud count with a larger number of scapes than fewer scapes with more buds, so rapid increase into a large clump of fans makes a beautiful garden plant. So Many Stars and By Crikey! have been my best multipliers. Reblooming is very important, I love when they start flowering by mid spring and keep going through till frosts, Stella D'oro does this. And because I live in a cooler climate, I love the fully deciduous ones, the foliage looks nicer and greener when it is fresh and all new each spring. Plus if deciduous they are good combined with early spring bulbs. Taller scapes are much showier in the garden, so long as they don't fall over! It helps bring the blooms up closer to where you can see them, and they kind of float above the foliage and other garden plants nicely.

I love diamond dusting (like sparkly eyeshadow) and fragrance. Evelyn Kloeris has a beautiful fragrance in my garden at the moment. I like intense colours that stand out in the garden, obviously they have to be sun tolerant for this. I love blooms that are wide and full, and a little recurved but not too much. I have a soft spot for patterned eyes (chevron or star shaped) and cool tones as there are fewer daylily choices that will blend well with pinks and mauves in a cool border. Most pinks have a fair bit of yellow in them. Heavy substance and good frilly edges seem to go hand-in-hand, and make for a beautiful flower, and also tend to be wider and fuller with good form.

beckygardener said:Vickie - Thanks for the link to the fragrant list of daylilies. I have honestly never smelled a fragrant daylily bloom. So none of mine apparently have a scent. I will have to keep an eye out for a good deal on 'Spanish Fandango'. Would love to have a fragrant daylily such as what you describe that one to smell like. Thanks for the name!

Mike - I agree ... a good increase does make a daylily stand out among other daylilies. I have a few like that and just love them. Lots of blooms every year, too! I am finding out that some more northern daylilies do not do well here. They might grow and bloom for a year or so, but then they seem to disappear forever. (Probably didn't survive my climate.)

Frillylily- What is "diamond dusting"?

Diamond dusting as the above poster described, looks like a glittery eye shadow on the petals. Some dl have it all over the bloom, others have a glittery edging. Sometimes it can be very heavy and on some varieties more subtle. Like a fine powdery shimmer. very pretty! If you are lucky you can get it to show up in photos.

Oh gosh, I just love diamond dusting!! It makes me swoon! However, it's not something that is a must have for me. It's just an awesome bonus! On the very few seedlings that I had bloom before moving, 2 of them had really good diamond dusting on them. I was really happy to see it! The blooms themselves were so-so, but that added a very special touch.

I think maybe my Cherry Cheeks seedling could be considered as having diamond dusting?

I'm thinking maybe I should have posted this pic instead, as the "dusting" seems to show up even more!


Nantahala Mankiller has what I call a "liquid gold" edge....