I want to share with everyone something that might be of interest.

Every year, I get prolifs on some of my daylilies. Some cultivars just seem prone to produce prolifs during the season and it is a great way to increase that cultivar or to share them with others!

Natalie (a member here) was kind enough this Fall to share some fans with me of 3 of her cultivars. She also had some prolifs of a cultivar that I was very interested in. So she agreed to cut them off the scape and try to root them.

These are photos that Natalie sent me in a tree-mail on Sept. 29, 2016. These are HER photos, not mine, but I am copying them to this thread. These are Green Arrow prolifs on the mother plant:




She proceeded to cut the prolifs off and put them in water. She lives in North Idaho, so the temps were already starting to cool down where she lives.

By Oct. 23, 2016, she was getting concerned that they just were not rooting at all. She sent me photos and they did indeed look like they might not make roots in time to survive. The leaves were turning brown and we were not sure whether to try to salvage them.
These are HER photos:


In this photo, one of the prolifs did produce a long root. The rest just seemed to have nubs.:


I thought about it and decided that since she was sending me some fans of 3 other cultivars, she should send these prolifs too. Here is what I told her to do when sending them to me:

"This is what you should do with the prolifs. Put a damp paper towel (just damp, not wringing wet) inside a gallon size ziploc bag, add the prolifs into that bag, and seal (zip) it closed completely. Send them to me just like that. I have a feeling they will be just fine and might even sprout some roots while transporting in the mail. It may be the cooler weather which is why they are refusing to co-operate for you. By now, I would have had some really nice roots if I was starting them here in Florida. My temps are still quite warm. If they don't make it when I get them, then at least you tried."

Natalie sent them out on Oct. 25, 2016. I received the plants on Oct. 27, 2016. Everything arrived in good shape. I immediately planted the big fans, of the other cultivars that she sent me, in a raised bed and then set to work pulling off all the dead leaves on the prolifs. I felt that the dead leaves would protect the prolifs during transporting to me. Natalie had sent me quite a few prolifs of Green Arrow with the thought that hopefully one of them would make it.

So I peeled off all the old, dead leaves, re-cut the scapes, placed them in various cups with Spring water, and set them on my south window sill (with a sheer curtain in front of the cups to prevent scorching through the glass window). I keep the water level barely touching the lower part of the prolifs and changed the water regularly. I only use Spring water with nothing added to it.

By Nov. 5, 2016 most all the prolifs had begun to grow roots:
These are the photos I took (which I had sent Natalie). I did not use a flash, so the photos are a bit blurry, but hopefully you can see all the roots that the prolifs had started producing!





This past weekend, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016, I divided and planted the prolifs into 2 pots and today they went out into a semi-shady area to begin their growth outside:



It's amazing that they all survived, made roots, grew new leaves, and are now outside growing happily!

Daylilies are tough. Even the prolifs! I have grown prolifs of some of my plants and they do well once the roots grow and the plants get established. It's a great way to increase your collection or to share with others! Don't toss those prolif scapes, grow them!

Unfortunately, when copying photos, the photos are created much smaller. Here is the same photo of Green Arrow prolifs happily growing in pots. A bit larger for you to better see. There is water drops all over the leaves as I watered them once I placed them outside.:



Natalie - THANK YOU for sharing those prolifs with me!

Oh! I just remembered I had a better, more current photo of the prolifs taken right before I planted them in the pots. This photo is larger and not blurry, so you can really see the roots on these babies:



There are 2 clumps of prolifs shown with their massive roots seen on the far left. I could not separate the clumps, so just left them all together. They each produced a pretty impressive root system bunched up like that.

WOW!!! I'm AMAZED!!! I'm not going to be at all surprised if these bloom next year, since a couple of the prolifs bloomed this year while they were still attached to the parent plant! That was so crazy to me that they were capable of doing that. It wasn't the scape that they were growing on that bloomed. It looked like a totally different scape that grew out of the prolifs. I could be wrong about all of that, and maybe it isn't possible for them to bloom, but it sure looked that way to me.

I'm so happy that I sent them to you! Otherwise they would be dead!

Natalie - I, too, am amazed that they all survived and are now growing in pots. I love seeing prolifs on any of my daylilies. It's like bonus baby plants! I definitely want to cross it with the seedling I have that has red blooms and produced those crazy looking prolifs, too. I am curious to see what a cross of those 2 will produce.

beckygardener said:...... I definitely want to cross it with the seedling I have that has red blooms and produced those crazy looking prolifs, too. I am curious to see what a cross of those 2 will produce.

The prolifs are from 'Green Arrow', correct? Nearly all the immediate ancestors listed are red. Only one grandparent 'Easy Ned' is not red. Didn't go back further than that. 'Green Arrow' has had prolifs on the scapes in every year I've grown it. I had a seedling bloom this year with 'GA' as a parent that also had a prolif. I suspect it's genetically programmed to produce prolifs, but at this point in time I guess it would only be anecdotal.

Donald, these prolifs were from Green Arrow. Becky has a seedling that grows a crazy amount of prolifs too, so we're looking forward to seeing what a cross between the two does! Not sure what kind of bloom it is going to have, but hopefully it is good!

Nice job on the prolifs, when cutting prolifs the small nubs or roots should be in the water, the scape was cut too long in the beginning.

Natalie is correct. I am wanting to cross Green Arrow with ZZZ36 (Galaxy Explosion x Lily Munster). It's the seedling I referenced in this thread: The thread "Odd growth" in Daylilies forum

Fred - You may be accurate in assuming that the prolifs were not close enough to the water when Natalie tried to root them. That may have been my fault as I may have told her to keep the water level too low for the prolifs to root properly. To me, it is always tricky because you don't want to cover the crown with water which could rot the prolif. I have to eyeball the water level constantly when replacing the water to prevent the water level from being over the crowns.

Green Arrow: Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Green Arrow')

I'm going to go ahead and blame it on Becky. I did what I was instructed to do, and stuck to it! Or I totally messed up, but I'll still blame it on Becky.

This was my first time ever trying to root them, so I was totally clueless and I must have drove Becky crazy with all the questions! Next time, I won't be as worried as I was this time. I wasn't even sure that the nubs were the start of roots! Now I know!

Becky!

when I put prolifs in a glass of water, the level is usually above the place where the prolif connects to the scape...

Is that too high?
The prolifs don't seem to mind, they almost always make roots without a problem


Mayo

I just cut the scape off below the prolif before the scape begins to turn brown, and plant them without trying to root them in water.
I will often just push them into the soil at the base of the parent plant so I don't need to get a pot and mark a tag. For some reason
first year seedlings will produce prolifs much better than in following years. Some plants like Joan Senior will have many every
year, where others never produce a prolif.

Well done, Ladies! Those are some awesome prolifs.

I also root with the joint of the prolif just under the water level.

Deryll said:I just cut the scape off below the prolif before the scape begins to turn brown, and plant them without trying to root them in water.

For me Roswitha produces many, many prolifs.
Next year I'm ging to try planting them without rooting them in water first

Would be great if that works, because than my (5!) cats won't get a chance to run of with it


Mayo

I had a decent success rate this year planting proliferations in pots and in the garden. Some seemed to die almost immediately, some lingered a while and the majority rooted and thrived. I just don't seem to be able to tend anything that is inside or in a jar of water, I just forget them. I don't know why but it always seems the NOID prolifs do way better than the named cultivars!

Sounds like many of you have had great success with prolifs, too!

I usually keep the water just below/touching the bottom of the prolif. If some of you actually have the water level over the bottom of the prolif, then perhaps that is a better idea. I always worry about rotting the crown of the prolif. if water covers it.

As long as I remember to change the water often (typically every other day), I always get roots to grow. And once the roots are strong, I plant them in pots and have very good success growing them to maturity. I have not had any of my prolifs bloom yet, though. Probably this coming year I will see blooms on some of them.

I kept the water just below the prolif, and like Becky, I changed the water every other day, slicing off a bit of the scape at that time. The nubs just never grew down to the water other than the one really long root, and again, like Becky, I was afraid to raise the water level to where the nubs were. I sure didn't want any crown rot! Thankfully it all turned out great once they got to Becky's. She had the magic touch!

I had only grown one in the dirt prior to this. I assume it survived, but I'm not positive. I know it was there for a long time, and then I finally forgot to keep checking it. I just cut it off the plant and stuck it in the ground, so this was all new stuff for me!

Very impressive!! Congrats ladies!!!
Becky, reading anout your advice to ship prolifs I remembered that many people root rose cuttings like that. The method works well, it seems.

The prolifs I cut the past summer all survived except for one (the one I was caring the most about). The biggest is in my friend's garden I have to ask her how's going.