I am harvesting some seed pods now and noticing a few trends regarding which pod/pollen parents were the most fertile in terms of setting pods and number of seeds per pod.

Canadian Border Patrol and Topgun's Verna Jean were by far my most fertile about setting pods. I am using these seeds to practice different germination and seedling growing techniques this winter. Canadian Border Patrol seemed to have more seeds per pod than any of my other plants regardless of the pollen parent.

Of my nicer cultivars, Mackenzie's Magic, Awesome Artist and Moments Rich In Blessing have been pretty good pod setters. On the opposite end, The Flower Formerly Known as Griff, Peacock Candy, Lilac Queen, and Shamrock Shore would not set pods for me at all this year (or they set and then aborted). God Save the Queen only set one pod crossed with itself (I was trying to follow the suggestion to use that to get the plant going...it didn't seem to work) but I got 11 fat, healthy seeds form it. Lurch, Eye Catching, and Sacred Ibis set a few pods each but they were pretty finicky.

As pollen parents, God Save the Queen did pretty well and pods fertilized with it averaged around 9 seeds. Peacock Candy wasn't too great as a pollen parent and pods fertilized with it averaged around 5 seeds. Moments Rick in Blessing and Rincon Del Mar have been really great as pollen parents at setting pods but I haven't harvested pods set by them yet as they are my later bloomers here.

How about everyone else? What trends have you noticed?

'Insider Trading' (which is in part shade) did very well at pod setting this year (the first that I have hybridized with it).

'Sun Silk', on the other hand, refused to set a single pod. I only tried to set pods on it with pollen from 'Cheddar Ruffles', so who knows if another pollen parent might have worked...

It's too soon for me to tell. I only just collected my first good pods yesterday and of the two, one was a bee pod. But you are right in that some cultivars are very easy to set pods on and others really make you work for every pod. But don't give up on the hard ones! I couldn't get any pods last year on Gold Helmet , Francis of Assisi or Smoky Mountain Autumn but they all have set at least one pod this year.

Lavender Reflections and President Ronald Reagan were my best pod setters in tetraploids this year. As far as diploids, I would have to say that Trahlyta and Brushed By Bluebirds are my best pod setters.

Hello everyone!
Rose F. Kennedy, best pod parent ever in my garden:




I've been using RFK in my program for two years and not a single attempt has failed. The pods all look like the ones in this photo.

RFK, always draws my attention, one day it will be in my garden.

I have been very impressed by RFK babies I have seen on this forum. @LarryR is your RFK a diploid? There is a tet version of RFK isn't there?

Amber, it's the original diploid. I've shied away from the tet because of the expense, but also because converted tets can be unstable and revert. If I were ever to think about buying an expensive convert, I would insist on a pollen test, to be done on the fan(s) in question before purchase.

Most of mine have been pretty successful at setting pods if I dabbed the pollen early enough or had a ploidy available to cross a bloom with. I had no luck with chilled pollen in the refrigerator or freezer. Not a lot of blooms this year because I don't yet have clumps.

My best ever seed pod setter was a seedling that was loaded with pods last year. This year it hardly bloomed at all. So I have a question....

Do lots of pods on a particular daylily set a plant back from creating scapes/blooms the following year?

Becky, I am interested to know about that too - whether having too many pods set back the plant's ability to bloom the following year. Hopefully someone will answer this question.

beckygardener said:
Do lots of pods on a particular daylily set a plant back from creating scapes/blooms the following year?

Great question! I believe someone said on a thread recently that having lots of seed pods might reduce the plants rebloom capacity since the plant is putting its energy into growing seeds rather than new scapes...but they didn't mention anything about the following year...

beckygardener said:Do lots of pods on a particular daylily set a plant back from creating scapes/blooms the following year?

Becky, I had that experience with Emerald Starburst. I loaded it with pods last year. It was spectacular. It had five scapes and loads of buds on each. This year it totally fizzled. Two scapes and very few buds, with most blooms misshapen and scraggly-looking. I fully expect RFK to be a bust next year, since, as you saw, I loaded it with pods. I did so because everything I wanted to cross with it was blooming when RFK was.

Larry - Thank you for sharing your experience. I have a hard time NOT pollinating blooms. If there are two different cultivar blooms of the same ploidy, then I have this obsession to cross them. It's hard to look away and not do so for me personally. And it drives me crazy to have a bloom and nothing to pollinate it with. I don't like self-pollinating a bloom. Most of the seedlings I get when doing that are often inferior plants.

I had this crazy idea in my head that if I pollinated every flower then I would always know the parentage of whatever seedlings came and I wouldn't end up with a bee pod...because I would have to plant those seeds and then be left wondering what the pollen parent was!

beckygardener said:I don't like self-pollinating a bloom. Most of the seedlings I get when doing that are often inferior plants.

I've had the same experience, Becky. I did get one exciting bloom with a great pattern, only to have that pattern completely disappear the following year.

I have had Rig Red Wagon in my garden for two years and it has been the best pollen parent each year. This seems to agree strongly with the data I have found for it as a pollen parent in the database where, of its 29 registered offspring 26 are with it as a pollen parent. Some of last year's seedlings are pretty exciting even as first years blooms.
As far as pod parents, I think that Diana's Pink Gown set the most pods with Crowning Light coming in a close second.
If you want to go into the poorest performers, its really hard to say regarding pollen parents as I don't really keep tract of crosses that do not take. However, I will say that it has been difficult to set pods on Miss Scarlet and Bella Note both this year and last year. Home of the Free set one or two pods this year, but did better last year, so perhaps it was recovering from the better year in 2015.
Here are pictures of a few of the first year blooming seedlings using Big Red Wagon as the pollen parent:


Willie Markus X Big Red Wagon - - - - - - Alan Lane Agin X Big Red Wagon


Alan Lane Agin X Big Red Wagon - - - - - Jasmine Rossi X Big Red Wagon

My best pod setters were:

Dips: Wild One, Galaxy Explosion, Jedi Brenda Spann, and Beautiful Edgings.
Tets: Betty Warren Woods and Red Volunteer.

There may have been others, but if they bloomed later in the bloom season, the heat got to them.

Successful pollen parents were multiple cultivars of either ploidy.

And I had a number of seedlings that I crossed this season which produced seed pods (and seeds). As well as viable pollen parents used to produce seeds.

My best pollen this year is Sharyn Lianne. Seems like almost everything took except for a few difficult daylilies that won't set pods. I couldn't get Sharyn Lianne pollen or pollen of any other daylilies to cross with Wonder of It All, Francis of Assissi, Fringe Blessings, Watusi Warrior, Bill Norris, and Techny Peach Spider. This group of daylilies are the worst pod setters for me.

Karen, I'm not familiar with Techny Peach Spider. Who is the hybridizer?

Karen may have either meant Techny Spider or Techny Peach Lace. Neither are great pod setters for me either.