I had a late seedling bloom unexpectedly this year. The seed was harvested in 2014 and unfortunately I wasn't a good record-keeper that year. Here is the seedling:



I know the pollen parent is Holly Hill Reward from the tag I found with the seeds (left in a jacket pocket for months with no indication of the pod parent).





So now I'm trying to figure out who is the mama. I apparently wrote all my crosses done down on paper that year and now I can't find it. What I do have is a list of all the dips I had blooming at the same time as HHR. It started blooming August 1 that year and in 2014 I had very few late daylilies so the list is short. Here are the possible cultivars in alphabetical order:
Becky Lynn



Double Sunset Glow



NOID



Watermelon Summer (unregistered)



Sorry about the pictures. They were just to document what was blooming that day so I could enter it in the computer later.

As a novice hybridizer (this is my sixth seedling to bloom) I'm stumped. I assumed the red eye from HHR would be dominant but obviously not. I'm not interested in registering daylilies so it's not imperative that I solve this mystery. But I wonder if people with more experience with seedlings would be able to figure it out. If so, could they explain how they figured it out?

I have more seedlings from this cross that might bloom next year so that might narrow the list further.

I would rule out Double Sunset Glow (expecting lighter coloured seedlings from a cross with it).

Of the remaining three I think it could be anyone of them.

The appearances of the other seedlings when they bloom may help. However, actually measurements might also help narrow the possibilities. Those would include scape heights of both parents in your growing conditions, bud counts of both parents, flower sizes, petal and sepal widths. Then the same measurements for each of the seedlings from the cross separately. Even with those it may not be possible to rule out any of the three.

This season has been so strange for me that I didn't bother taking any measurements. Lots of cultivars had stunted scapes and flower sizes were noticeably smaller on some. Hopefully next year will be more normal.

I also don't trust the stats for the seedling since it was transplanted a few months before blooming to a pot with 3 other siblings (they had formerly been in the ground). We also had a drought and I didn't water them on a regular basis.

As for ruling out Double Sunset Glow, I realize that the picture I posted isn't typical of how it looks in my garden. It usually looks more like this:





Lack of water and fertilizer leads to a lack of pigmentation in some of my cultivars. I'm wondering if the seedling will change color next year if I do a better job tending it.

My guess would be Becky Lynn based on what some of her registered children look like. That light colored mid-rib is pretty pronounced and seems to pass on to the children.
Becky Lynn's children:
http://garden.org/plants/paren...

@bxncbx- That is a lovely "orphan!" I like the shades in both pictures- and I think Becky is onto something! I like the pronounced rib and Becky Lynn goes on my list of wants now. If you ever decide to part with any of those HHR x Becky Lynn fans, let me know. If you tell me they're fragrant, I will drool.

@beckygardener- Good call! I'm so glad you mentioned Becky Lynn's propensity to pass on that mid-rib.
It's one of those features I like and will look to breed for.

I also think that Becky Lynn is a good possibility.

the raised midrib and also the veining in the tepals have me betting on Becky Lynn

edited to add that the throat looks to have picked up some of that green...

Here's a picture of the last bloom of the seedling. It has had plenty of water & some fertilizer so I guess this is the strongest the color will get.



I think I agree that Becky Lynn is most likely the mom. I probably will never know for sure but the color, veins & midribs all point that way.

I originally thought it was Double Sunset Glow because of it being a bitone. But I guess those can just pop up any time, who knew?

@ShakespearesGarden if you want the seedling I'll be happy to give it to you. I like it well enough but I am seriously short on space and if I don't love it, it has to go. I can't tell if it's fragrant because my allergies have been acting up. If you really want it send me a treemail and we can discuss the best time to ship it.

Just an update now that two more seedlings have bloomed! I don't think that they help make a determination as to parentage though but I thought I'd show them anyway. There is still another seedling that still hasn't bloomed (maybe next year?).

Seedling #10-looks exactly like the pollen parent but blooms earlier.




Seedling #11-another bitone! This is its first flower ever so the color may change a bit.

That bitone is an usual color combo... Very pretty!

Diana it's funny because I take all my pictures with my phone and upload them from there. But now I'm on a desktop and thought the thumbnail of the new seedling didn't look right so I enlarged it. Seeing stuff on a big screen helps. I just noticed it may have an eye! I didn't even notice that on my phone!

The color was a reddish brown this morning so I'm curious to see it this evening. The other bitone was more pink. I'm hoping it stays the darker color because I like it too!

Elena, it does look like it has an eye good call!
I hope you get your photo tonight- I'm curious to see it after the day too!

All day in full sun took its toll but here is a picture.



I hope the next flower opens on the weekend so I can see it fully open but before the hot weather fries it.

The fade is okay... It still draws the eye... It is still an interesting color and the eye shows well...

Good photo

I actually like the fade a lot!

Congrats on your seedlings!