Thanks Becky! I need a few more memorial plants anyway, so I'll keep trying! I had a FFE on another seedling this morning that may be good enough to put two of my departed dog's names on it. I'll have to see how it looks next year, but it's in the running!

'Wild Cherry Round Up' is supposedly good for getting rounder form. I wouldn't grow it myself, let alone use it for hybridizing; both of its parents are rust buckets, and any daylily I ever grew that had it in its background, ended up being rusty. I now do ancestry checks on (most) daylilies that I am considering for purchase, and if that plant is in the background, I won't buy the daylily.

If you don't care about rust, though...

I've never had rust on Wild Cherry Round Up, or any other daylily, so rust has never been an issue for me. I haven't grown daylilies in a warmer zone though, so I never give it any thought. I'd worry though, about buying something with a rust bucket in it's ancestry if it was a problem for me. It was a bonus plant, and wasn't something I was looking to buy, but it's a nice daylily. Good to know that it is supposed to be good for getting a rounder form.

I took a look at all of my daylilies that were blooming the last two days, and made a note of the ones that have diamond dusting. I put in an edit in the database for each of them, and I'll keep checking to make sure I get all of them added that I have. I was shocked that I have so many with diamond dusting!

I hope everyone else will do the same! It takes a little time, but it is totally worth it! I found it much easier to type up a list from my notes, alphabetize it, then go through my plants list.

A lot of daylilies have some degree of diamond dusting; the ones that really stand out, though, are absolutely coated with it.

I was looking at four of my seedlings yesterday (not hybrizing for diamond dusting but for hopefully polymerous daylilies), and at least 3 of the 4 had light diamond dusting. (The 4th appeared to have it in the yellow throat, not so much on red surface.) But all of those were lightly diamond dusted... you had to look at the blooms closely. What I would like to see are daylilies that are just dripping with the bling, so to speak... massive diamond dusting on the tepals, and then having a sparkly gilt edge to finish it off.

Here is one of the seedlings, image taken around 12:33 pm (after I had saved the pollen). If you click on the thumbnail and look at the 12 o'clock petal, you can clearly see the diamond dusting, and a hint of a gilt edge, as well as the diamond dusting on the adjacent seedling. (This is the maiden bloom season on this seedling. Sadly, it looks like it has a lot of faults, but I will probably keep it to work with...)

Oooh! That is so pretty!!! I see lots of sparkles there, which is a great bonus! I'm fascinated with poly blooms, and it's nice that you are breeding just for those. I get an occasional one, and they are always my favorite bloom.

I noticed that almost none of my red or darker blooms had any diamond dusting, which I expected. Some of them were shiny though. Not dusted, but gleaming? I can't really explain it! I had to do a double take on a couple of them, to make sure I wasn't seeing some diamonds. I just find it crazy that I had some that were covered in glitter, and I had never noticed! Maybe because it wasn't showing up until this year? Many of my plants are newer purchases, so I'm assuming that is why I hadn't noticed before.

Here are the ones that I noted that had a lot of diamond dusting. Others did too, but I was getting hot out there, and I failed to mark those down. I'll try to take better notes on the ones that are really glowing with it!

Bama Music
Ed Brown
Lacy Lucy
Lady Arabella
Larry Grace
Plum Eyed Delight
Spanish Glow
Victorian Lace
Wild Cherry Roundup
Wonder Of It All

One of the most heavily diamond-dusted here is one of my seedlings:

Wow Judy

Wow! I don't think I have ever seen diamond dust show up so well in a picture!!!

That amount of diamond dusting is pretty and impressive!

Thanks, y'all. 'Sparkles' is its garden name.

Perfect name

Pretty impressive!

As others have suggested, I would definitely find a medium red with diamon dusting to cross it with so that you don't have to do so much work to try and get the color back. Here is one person's blog with a suggestion:
http://blog.powellgardens.org/...
"One of my favorite “reds” is ‘Scarlet Tanager’ with “diamond dust” making the flowers sparkle."

Here's a red-red that supposedly has diamond dusting:
http://www.perennialnursery.co...



In my garden, I have reds and purples that are shimmery, weather cooperating, of course. Off the top of my head, I might recommend the following:

Spider Man:



Evening Enchantment



Fear Not



Dominic (this is much darker than the picture makes it look and it will almost undoubtedly darken the color of all of the babies it produces with your daylily...I'm *guessing* that it will throw only medium-red genes only a small percentage of the time. I'm not an expert in daylily genetics, but from what I *do* know about genetics, I'm guessing there are quite a few genes on daylilies that influence color, and Dominic likely has plenty of whatever triggers darker color...and that dark-color-gene is likely co-dominant; so the likelihood of it throwing only medium-dark red or lighter is likely very low. I hope that makes sense.)

Judy, that seedling is amazing! I have reds and purples, but most have no diamond dust at all. Like DND, I have ones that are shimmery, but that's totally different. Looks good though! Still, not what I'm looking for.

I'm really hoping to find something in my garden to use on it, instead of buying something new. I do appreciate all of the suggestions though! It lets me know that there are lots of other possibilities out there, which I may need eventually, if things don't work out with what I've got. I know that my seedling looks kind of red in the picture, but I wouldn't call it red in person. I'm worried that red would darken it, but I know that can happen if I add something lighter to it. Maybe a dark coral or peach would be better. It has coral or peach tones to it, mixed with something along the lines of watermelon, but not exactly that, either, since watermelon is a shade of red. I can't put a name on it!

I'd be careful there wrt trying corals and peaches... you might bring in some genes for mud. I forget who/what is presumed to be the culprit - Iirc it is something associated with the genes for melon, which can show up in yellows, and therefore maybe some peaches. I don't know about coral.

Speaking of coral, 'Coral Majority' has a great color, but at 4.5" it's just barely a large (per AHS rules) flowered daylily and is somewhat plain apart from the glowing, hard-to-capture color. Mine is in shade, so I don't know if it has diamond dusting or not; the ATP database makes no mention of it, though.

Good to know about mud! I don't like mud, at least not as a color for blooms! Love playing in the stuff though!

I might try Spanish Glow with it, just to see what happens.

Polymerous said:I'd be careful there wrt trying corals and peaches... you might bring in some genes for mud. I forget who/what is presumed to be the culprit - Iirc it is something associated with the genes for melon, which can show up in yellows, and therefore maybe some peaches. I don't know about coral.

I've always understood that a true melon acts as a clarifier.

Natalie said:Judy, that seedling is amazing! I have reds and purples, but most have no diamond dust at all. Like DND, I have ones that are shimmery, but that's totally different. Looks good though! Still, not what I'm looking for.

No problem, 'cause it's not going anywhere.

I 'm sorry...I misunderstood your post. You were asking about possible mates, and I misread it, thinking you were asking to see photos of daylilies in a garden setting with diamond dusting. I need to remember to put my glasses on. Sorry..

I hope you are able to locate something that will compliment your seedling.

Judy, no problem at all! I LOVE seeing bloom pictures, and hearing about what everyone else is growing, especially seedlings! It gives me great ideas of what to look for, if I can't find the right plant in my own garden.

What I meant by "not what I'm looking for", was shimmery. That isn't the same as diamond dusting. I like it, but it's not the same. However, it will be another thing to try for if I can't get good diamond dusting on the seedling. Maybe shimmery is easier? I have no idea! Many of my darker daylilies are shimmery to some extent. Some more than others. It wasn't where I was headed with the seedling, but that's okay! It may be where I end up with it!

More than anything, I'd love to know if diamond dusting in a seedling is something that gets better over time. Last year there was none. This year there is a tiny bit, but you really have to look for it. Will next year possibly be better? That's what I'd love to know. This is my first year with decent seedlings, and all previous seedlings I've made are no longer living as far as I know. They were all left behind when we moved, and I'm pretty sure that they are all dead, though we still own the house that they were left behind at. So, I consider myself totally new at this - again!