I have never been a daylily person and don't know much about them. I purchased a couple newer ones last year that bloomed this year and now of course I need more.

One of mine was diamond dusted, or gold dusted, I don't know the difference, but I was just amazed.

Can anyone tell me about this? Is it a trait the breeders breed for? What are your favorite cultivars with this trait? How long has it been around? Any pics?

Thanks all!

Hi Polly, glad to see you here on the daylily forum

I am not sure about what diamond dusting really is except that it just makes the flower just glow. Especially when the light hits it. A very pretty effect. Hopefully some people with more knowledge than I will chime in about this.

Here is the AHS's description of diamond dusted.
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...

By the way, here is the whole list of daylily terms:
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...

Thanks Rita!

Thank you, Sue. Wow that god dusting really shows.

Can someone please recommend some cutivars for me where the dusting is very apparent? I like eyes and chicken fat daylilies, so if it's combined with that, all the better.

The daylily where I really noticed diamond dusting (or more probably gold dusting) is BASS GIBSON. The first picture captures a tiny bit of dusting on the upper petal if you enlarge the photo, and the second photo just shows the toothy flower. But it was very noticeable to me, whereas I really don't notice it on most daylilies.

Thanks! That's a really pretty one. I will make a list.

Oh oh. Polly, you are going to be in sticker shock if the first daylily on your wish list is BASS GIBSON It is not a new intro but has held its price high much more than is normal for a daylily years after the intro dates. I just saw it on the Lily Auction last week for over $100.00. Not for a clump either.

I have it but don't seem to remember the diamond dusting. Maybe because I always notice all the teeth it shows I started off with one fan, now I have three. I hate to say how much I paid as it was a bloody fortune

Nothing about daylilies gives me sticker shock anymore, Rita. Thank heaven's irises have not gone that high. My daughter and I like the same things, normally, and split cost, so it's not 'quite' as bad.

When I got into iris I was really surprised at how reasonable the prices for new new intros were. I was used to daylilies and the iris prices were downright cheap in compairison. Of course there are plenty of not quite so new daylilies that come with reasonable price tags. Even really cheepo ones. Don't mean they are inferior. Only that they are older, been around and the price is way down. Same as the iris.

Diamond dusting is pretty common, have had several older flowers with this trait. Lillian's Jinger Bred has a gold edge that glitters sometimes, it really looks like gold. Some of the flowers in the AHS data base are registered as diamond dusted.

I seem to remember many of Brother Charles as having this trait.

If you shop around you can get a larger plant for the same price you might pay for a single fan on the Lily Auction. I got a beautiful triple fan of BASS GIBSON from Floyd Cove this spring for less than I've seen listed as a minimum bid for a single fan on the LA.

Polly, I have been "in" daylilies for about 25 years, and diamond dusting is one of the things that first caught my eye. I don't think I would say it is common, in that 50% of daylilies have it... Not nearly that many, but it is common enough that when I see it, I don't think "oh, WOW, diamond dusting!" I think it happens more frequently on yellows and polychromes maybe on some lavenders and pale pinks... For some reason I can't think of ever seeing it on a dark, saturated color. On those colors, you can have a high, satin sheen, such as BELA LUGOSI has.

Brother Charles Recamp did early work with polychrome colors and also teeth. Now that I think of it, he was the hybridizer, (I think) of Angel's Smile, which I believe is in the background of Bass Gibson. For a less expensive try at it, maybe look for Techny Peach Lace, Techny Spider .... Recamp or Recamp-Khlem or maybe it is Khlem-Recamp. I think he did most of his work with early tets. I used to grow a small dip of his called LITTLE RAINBOW. I loved that little thing. I should try to find it again. Lovely thick waxy distinctive polychrome.

There is a book called something like Masters of the Victory Garden. Has a great article on Brother Charles in it.

This is an older cultivar that has the most gold dust that I have seen on any of my daylilies. It looked really beautiful in the sun.



By Myself, Peck, 1971

Wow, love that gold dusting!

Hey Polly, this thread make the "Today In the Forums" feature on the home page! I scrolled down to find it, gotta do that more often!

Thank you Juli, I appreciate the explanations!

That is gorgeous, Margaret!

Thank you Polly.

Diamond dusting is refraction of light through and on sugar crystals. If you taste daylily flowers you will find a lot of the yellows taste sweet. Perhaps there is a correlation.
Dick

Thank you, Dick.