I hope it grows for you Mike. Actually I think I paid $50 for it. Not as bad as paying $l00.

Michele's Frog Eyes is a beaut!!!

Michele - First, I want to sincerely THANK YOU for taking the time to answer all my questions so far. Wow! What a wonderful grower and hybridizer you are! I really, really appreciate all your insight and shared experiences. And your photos are worth a 1,000 words each! I have a lot of admiration for you and what you do! I also appreciate very much what Fred has shared as well! Thank you for so much detailed info. You have really educated me better than I could even imagine!!!!

I know you are likely very busy, but I have a question/comment about your response post previous:
"I would imagine the reason they don't sell their seed is because then everyone else would have some of the same things they do. Remember that you may get all different looking blooms and then you may have them all look just a like so If they sold their seed before they planted/bloomed them then someone else (or a lot of someone else's depending on how many they sold) may get something very similar to what they have and then there would really be no point in them hybridizing for themselves and trying to get something "new"."

That does make perfect sense for the most part! I don't know any parent details of my currently growing outdoor daylily hybrid plants. This Fall, I received seeds from Mike and Sandi sent me some more as well. Not to mention a few LA seed purchases. I have planted at least 4 seeds of each hybrid and I am planning to keep track of them.

I always thought that each seed was unique. But how unique ... I don't know. Since I haven't kept track of any of my hybrids ... ever. I was assuming the seeds would produce significantly different blooms. The reason I say that is that I have been growing ALL the seeds from all my crosses for at least 3 years now. I have not seen any blooms that look exactly alike. In fact, just looking at the blooms on the different plants ... I couldn't even guess which ones are related. From that observation, I just naturally assumed that the individual seeds are more likely to produce DIFFERENT blooms from the same parent pod/pollen plants than to produce similar blooms. But since I have not kept information on each hybrid No Name plant, I really don't know for sure.

You have been hybridizing plants for much longer than me. What do you typically see from your own crossed hybrids? Do they resemble each other or are they often somewhat different?

beckygardener said:

You have been hybridizing plants for much longer than me. What do you typically see from your own crossed hybrids? Do they resemble each other or are they often somewhat different?

I actually have only been hybridizing for 3 years so I really don't have that much experience

Anyway, the seeds are all unique in the fact that they are not exactly like the parent, however, you could plant 100 seeds from the same cross and get everyone looking different than each other but on the other hand you could get 100 that look just about the same as each other and as the parent. I have had bunches that look almost similar with only slight differences and looks like the parents and then there are the ones that none look the same and you wouldn't even know they came from the parents. I've had none eyed seedlings come out of two eyed parents and I've gotten more pink and purple seedlings out of two orange parents than I thought I would. You really just have no idea sometimes what will come out of them.
I would think more often than not you will get something different since you have so many generations of different plants going on.

Michele - Your answer about some looking quite different is what I am actually seeing with my hybrids. I honestly can't tell who is related to who in my daylily garden beds. You may be right about the reason due to the constant breeding with other cultivars to get the current culivars and hence unusual hybrid children from those. I wonder how many generation we'd have to go back to see what the possibilities could be?

I hope Fred will reply to my newest question from his own experience. He's been hybridizing for several years, right?

Anyone else care to share your hybridizing experience????

beckygardener said:
I hope Fred will reply to my newest question from his own experience. He's been hybridizing for several years, right?

Yes Fred had been doing it a long time. I'm sure he'll answer once they get back and get rested

Hope they won a BUNCH!

Thanks for the Birthday wish's, had a great time and we both won enough to pay for the trip.

A few daylily parents are very dominant, if you have any experience working with these you can usually (not 100%) tell which seedlings are theirs just by looking at the blooms. Jeff Salter registered Wisest of Wizards several years ago and most every person that every spread pollen back then used this flower, here almost every bloom resembled WOW. Most Bill Munson daylilies would carry that watermark to most daylilies you put it on. The Munson watermark can still be seen in many modern daylilies today because all the big guys used his daylilies. I still grow a few Munson's, I think this is----
EMPERORS DRAGON 1988

Another flower that I currently grow that is very dominant because of the green throat.
EMERALD STARBURST Doorakain 2004

SEEDLINGS



Sibs from ESB.

Even though the blooms could look similar to the parents, if the seedlings have more buds, better branching, taller scapes, or better plant habit you could have an introduction, the bloom is only one part of the over all plant.

Fred, we are happy that you and Kathleen were able to cover the expense of the trip, and make it back home safely. Love the seedlings.

Good to know about Emerald Starburst. I made tons of crosses with it this past summer.

Like all of those, Fred. Happy you broke even!

Love Lavender Butterfly x Emerald Starburst

Lovely seedlings, I am a sucker for a bright green throat.

Mike is your avatar a single peony?

Mike's avatar looks like it may be some type of poppy to me.

Fred - Glad to hear your trip was paid for from your winnings! Yay! Best kinda trip!

I really love your hybrids from both the Munson watermark and also the green throats in the hybrids from Emerald Starburst. Beautiful!

Some seeds I am growing right now are a cross of Emerald Starburst and Cradle of Bethlehem. I am really curious to see what those seeds produce! I also hope to use the future hybrid blooms for pod or pollen parents in the future!

What about the rest of your hybrids ... do they often surprise you as to which bloom characteristics show up in the children? Do plants sometimes show traits of their genetics from several generations before? Since so many are crosses of crosses of crosses of crosses ... I've always wonder if unexpected traits can show up and if so, is it often or rare?

Anytime your messing with daylilies you will get surprise's when they go back to there grandparents and pull something forward. Most seedlings are working with five generations on each side so in order to find out what your working with you have to do a lot of research, which I do not do. I hardly ever know what I will hybridize until I walk outside that morning and see what's blooming. It's a rare event for me to plan a cross for tomorrow.
Here are two purple eyed and edged seedlings that produced a dark eye and edge, the dark color has to be in the background somewhere.

This is a cross that I expected to get a few teeth, I had eighteen seedlings and all had lots of teeth. I moved all eighteen to the hybridizing area to give them more room to grow, surly one will the teeth and great plant habit.

The next two photos are sibs and look totally different.


These next two should have been posted earlier because it shows how fast a bloom can change, this happened from first bloom to second bloom. In the first bloom I had four distinct colors, in the second bloom the following day I had lost two colors.

Love reading through this thread and am learning a lot. Thank you to all the contributors of information. I have seeds in the fridge that I gathered last fall. Not sure if they will do anything, but will see what happens next spring.

Michele, your granddaughter is a cutie and it is obvious in her smile that she is proud of her seedlings.

Fred, Happy Belated Birthday! I am glad your trip was a nice one. Emerald Starburst is certainly unique. I used to work with a guy who wanted a solid green daylily and I told him I didn't know of any, but that one comes close. Good luck with your teeth seedlings.

Becky, I love all your questions and while you are learning as I am, your contribution to the question parts of this thread is just as important as the answers. You remind me of an incident where my grandson kept asking "why?" That is a compliment for sure, because the person who asks the questions helps all of us learn. And your enthusiasm and thirst for learning really comes through in your posts. It is infectious!

Fred - Oh!!! Those photos are awesome! (I am a visual person!)

That is really interesting photos of the siblings of the cross:
"Coffee To Go" Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Coffee to Go')
X
"Wild Dreams" Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Wild Dreams')

So different what came out of the child seedlings!!! Both children are beautiful! There is NO etched eye gene from WD in either of those child blooms at this time. Could an etched eye develop over 3 bloom seasons? Or are they considered stable for the most part?

Coach's Braided Angel x Doctor Stump hybrid children are stunning!!! I looked closely at each of the child photos and it is amazing to me that you got so many gorgeous blooming plants with teeth! The colors in those blooms are just as amazing! To my eyes, it looks like you got some beautiful keepers! The amount of teeth and ruffle is also very interesting. How can you not love them all?

"Coach's Braided Angel" Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Coach's Braided Angel')
X
"Doctor Stump" http://daylilytrader.com/river...

And the children of this cross ...

"Smooth Talker" x "Seedling 153" is a very fascinating comparison of siblings!

"Smooth Talker" Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Smooth Talker')

On that photo collage, you wrote, "It is rare to be able to know the parents of a daylily just by looking at the bloom." That confirms what I have found to be true of the 200+ hybrids I've grown in my own garden. I can not tell for sure on any of them. And so many look so different, that I have to wonder where some of them came from. Did a bird drop a seed or two in my yard? Not likely!!! Some of mine apparently are picking up recessive genes from the grandparents or great-grandparents.

This is the reason I love doing daylily crosses by my own hand. I also cross with whatever is in bloom here. No pre-determined crossing. It's all about what is blooming on a particular day. (Though I have been reading the thread on storing pollen for future use.)

So fascinating!!!!

Another question .... if a dormant is crossed with an evergreen daylily ... will the resulting children most likely be evergreen or semi-evergreen? Or does the dormant gene prove to be dominate?

I have not been a very good record keeper of my hybrids from day one, but moving forward, I sure plan to be! Some more of my many questions could be answered in my own garden if only I had kept better records and kept the plants labeled! I don't have any parent names for any of mine currently growing outside. But the newest, recently sprouted seedlings did come with parentage names. So this would be a good time to start keeping track of those. (Which I have inputted them into the Plant Step program with lots of information.)

This is a hobby for me. Something I really enjoy doing! I've done cross-pollinating with other types of plants, too. But the daylily species is proving to be by far the most interesting of all! Again, thanks to my enabler, Sandi! If she hadn't sent me some seeds several years ago, I would still probably be thinking that yellow daylilies is all I could grow here.

Vickie - Thank you. I was hoping I wasn't boring and annoying everyone else with my questions about hybridizing and growing No ID daylilies. I am one of those weird people that have a thing for creating hybrids. The process and the results truly fascinate me. I guess I missed my calling in life ... I should have been a botanist or horticulturist. It sure keeps me busy as a hobby though! And I give a huge to those that have the patience, time, and resources as well as all the incredibly hard work that goes into actually selling their hybrids! I only grow the plants for me. Not interested at this time of selling anything. Though I do hope I can perhaps share some of my future seeds with some of the generous folks here who have shared their own hybrid seeds with me. Those are the folks that I really owe as my enablers! (It would be my privilege to return their kindness and generosity!)

Fred, I LOVELOVELOVELOVE the first Coffee To Go seedling. Oh, my, it is gorgeous.

Becky, the bad news is that both EMERALD STARBURST and CRADLE OF BETHLEHEM are dormants. It is quite unlikely that you will get an evergreen kid out of two dormant parents.

I know the dormants are lovely! I used to grow them in Marietta, GA. But down here, Evergreens rule in my garden and I expect they rule in yours too.