Seedforks estimates are probably more accurate.

In my daylily bed at that time, I had a smaller number of daylilies. Some of the individual daylily plants had several pods that were produced on one plant. Most of the others had none. Which is why I think not all daylilies produce nectar. The Roses in Snow seedling plant produced several pods from open-pollination that year. It was my first year growing daylilies (from seeds). I bet RIS produces nectar and the color attracted hummingbirds! (I did see a hummer at the blooms on two occasions that Spring!)

Edited to add: The other pods came from a solid red daylily seedling of unknown parentage. If I remember correctly, I got approx. 18-20 seeds my first year of growing daylilies and they were all open-pollination.

I edited the above post!

That might explain why my second year of growing daylilies from the seeds of those open-pollinated pods, were mostly red blooms and why I have so many red blooming daylilies that are older seedlings. I never thought about that until now. I DO have a lot of red blooming older seedlings. And a lot that look like RIS! LOL! There you go! Would be interesting to know what color blooms produce the most open-pollinated pods.

Indeed, if your hummers were attracted to the red flowers, it sounds as though they must have had some success at their work. I've read that hummingbirds are attracted to red, whether there is nectar to be found or not, in their quest for a carbohydrate-rich source of energy.

Funny thing, I have hummers but at this time of year I see more in the willow and oak trees than on the flowers.

Do you have a hummingbird feeder hanging somewhere?

Hummers also spend most of their time perching instead of hovering over flowers and feeders. It burns less of their high octane energy! LOL!

I have had feeders out for the past several years but never put any out this year, the regular feeders for birds were attracting to many squirrels and snakes were being attracted to the birds. The hummingbird feeders were attracting tons of yellow jackets, so this year I never put them out, but even when I had feeders the hummingbirds loved the oaks and willows. I decided just to plant more flowers and not fool with the feeders. I never seemed to attract but a few hummers to the feeder, my neighbor would have a dozen around her feeder at once, I don't think I ever had more that three or four at one time, maybe they were out working the flowers and trees?

The hummers are probably perching in the trees for protection and to watch over their territory if they are not migrating through. They are pretty efficient and quick when drinking nectar from plant blooms. They are hard to catch sightings of at the flowers unless you are sitting out there waiting for them. At feeders, mine perch on the feeder perches and drinking for a while. But at flowers, they are quick.

The trick with sugar water feeders is to keep the water changed every two days in the summer so that it is always fresh. If mold develops in the sugar water, the birds won't come back to that feeder. Some folks use a higher sugar content like 3:1 (3 water to 1 white sugar (table sugar)). Yellow jackets and bees are a real problem with some types of feeders. Maybe your neighbor was whooing them away from your feeder by doing those things. I think your decision not to offer a feeder was smart ... if you don't have the time to mess with a feeder, plants are always much easier and better for these little birds!

chalyse said:I've also seen extremely short styles in a few doubles, hidden down so far in the extra petals that it would be hard to dab, and not necessarily looking as though there were an opening for the pollen to enter. @sooby do you have any info to share about such occurrences?

No, I don't have any info, I was just curious about what was actually present, for example was the ovary present and was there some evidence of a style at all. I've heard that sometimes ants may damage the base of the style, maybe even severing it - just wondering if the appearance was of an aberration or critter damage. Presumably with the former the style/ovary would be closed, but a damaged one might still show that the style is hollow.

No, unfortunately, there was no style to speak of. I think that particular bloom was just missing it for some reason. I was out there looking at it before the flower even opened up completely, so I don't think anything severed if off the bloom or it would have still been laying inside the tulip-like bloom as it was opening. Just a freak thing, I guess. The bloom today was normal and I tried my hand at pollinating this last bloom. We'll see if the saved pollen from a few days ago is any good....

Cool. The couple I've seen were also just very stunted, pointy-ended, and looked like no openings. But, now I know to go ahead and check when I find it, since I can't pollinate anyway. Having seen a photo of an ovary cross-section, I checked it out myself when a bloom got knocked off accidentally and presented me with a first-hand chance to learn in my own garden. It seemed like I could see the rows of nascent seeds just waiting for fertilization, and it instantly gave a three dimensional sense of what the inner workings are like. Sharp knife, down the middle, the two sides opened to reveal some wonders.

Ah, called seed cells ... a nice set of pics on AHS.

http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...