At least I have an excuse for bad budcounts ... we've had 2 hurricanes within 8 months of each other. The daylilies are in shock!! After the last storm, I dug all my plants (at different times), added new soil and fertilizers and replanted. Some of the plants took off and had great bloom seasons with outstanding branching and budcount, and others just sort of ambled along and did the minimum. Why? I don't know. They all got the same treatment that was meant as an apology for what they had gone through. For some, it worked. For others, not so much.

I can't even imagine what that would be like.

I haven't notice bud count or branching but I will note that when I go picture taking this morning. My scapes actually look taller than usual this summer. We did have a very wet spring.

Today I was out measuring scapes, counting branching and bloom scars.

I am blown away so far, at how many cultivars have just 2-way branching. Never paid attention to it much in the past. Were they always like that? Guess I'll find out in years to come.

I did pay attention to last years branching in my seedling bed. Have not recorded them this year yet but this spring I noticed a lack of branching there in the seedling bed, which caused me to start this thread.

A few of my DL's are actually taller than registered but only; a few have okay branching (according to registration).

Here are some examples of what I recorded today. NOTE: These are all planted in the same area so as far as sun and soil goes they are on an equal playing field so to speak.

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Autumn Wood')
Registered: Scape 24" (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 28.5" 2-way/12 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Banned in Boston')
Registered: Scape 26" (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 25" 2-way/6-9 buds

This one I really noticed the lack of a "wow effect" when passing it in the garden:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Bridgeton Celebrity')
Registered: Scape 25" - 5-way/31-35 buds
Mine: Scape 26" - 3-way/12 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Cedar Shingles')
Registered: Scape 30" (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 29" - 2-way/11 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Count Radish Plus')
Registered: Scape 24" - (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 29.5 - 2-way/7 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Designer Jeans')
Registered: Scape 34" - (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 26" - 2-way/5 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Eenie Fanfare')
Registered: Scape 12" - (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 12.5" - 2-way/6 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Egyptian Queen')
Registered: Scape 38" - 4-way/31-35 buds
Mine: Scape 26.5 - 2/way/6 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Gizmo')
Registered: Scape 22" - 3-way/16-20 buds
Mine: Scape 22" - 2-way/9 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Highland Lord')
Registered: Scape 22" - (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 22" - 2-way/4 buds

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Indian Ripple')
Registered: Scape 24" - (no branching or bud count given)
Mine: Scape 24" - 1 to 4-way/8 to 20 buds

Sue

I completely understand your position as people living up north are at the mercy of the weather. I well remember a summer in my Michigan garden where snowflakes were coming down on the 4th of July and we wore our winter parkas to go out on our boat to watch the fireworks. That year, everything in my garden had extremely low bud counts, practically no branching, and the "season" passed in a few short weeks as there were so few buds to bloom. So it is not your imagination that things were not like this last year...your plants probably were better branched and budded last year. Living where you do, increase can be poorer, as well...you can lose parts of plants each winter that leaves you thinking that a plant looked better last year....it probably did. Without keeping meticulous records you would not realize that you have half the fans that you had last year because you still have a plant growing in its spot.

I thought that moving out of Michigan and into the Mid-Atlantic would solve these weather related problems. It did to some extent. I get wonderful increase here from a longer growing season, and I no longer lose parts of plants. But there are still weather related issues that go to branching, bud counts, and scape height. I keep meticulous records of every promising seedling...recording scape height, branching, bud count, and bloom diameter every single year from the time a seedling first blooms thru introduction. This is very hard work but part of the evaluation process. This year has been a confusing and difficult summer. I've been doing my measurements in the last few weeks....some plants are exactly the same year after year and others seem to be at the mercy of the weather and measurement ARE much different than last year. So some plants are held back from introduction for another year to see if the changes that I saw this year are permanent or not as I don't want to introduce a declining plant. I don't think many people who buy daylilies even know the work that takes place in a hybridizers garden to bring high quality plants to market.

So my opinion (for all it is worth) is that you do put off doing "plant reports" during a particularly difficult year until you have accumulated data over a number of years to see if you have given the plant a fair assessment.

I love to read posts like the one Davi wrote above. It gives me an inside peek at things most of us are not aware of. I must admit I don't think many of us outside of the daylily hybridizer and grower profession realize all the record keeping involved. That has been the most challenging thing for me to accomplish, every year I say I am going to keep better records and each year I fail accomplish it.
I would love to see a short video of her going through the garden taking bud counts, heights, etc. and thinking out loud as she does it. I would love to see some of the actual records (form, report, computer printout) whatever is used to record all those stats. I would love to see a video showing how to go through the garden and measure all those things...how to measure the bloom on all the different forms of daylilies, how to measure scape height, and show some examples of forms used to record all that info.
I just yesterday ordered the Plantstep software Flower program hoping it would help with all those things. I was surprised how quickly I was able to add all my named variety plants in the program. I had 218 named varieties, the database in the program was only missing two plants and I added those manually. I did notice a few were actually listed twice, not sure if that was a mistake or if it has some purpose. Still having trouble with pictures, and have not yet ventured into the hybridizing part of the program.

Thanks Davi, great input from your viewpoint!!!

Larry, I have Plantstep and it was a report from there that I printed a record of the daylilies I have. I used that to go into the garden and make notes of the scape height and bud count (only some bloom sizes as many are already done for the year). I too would like to see a video or tutorial. Especially of measuring the bloom. I guess I need to learn all of that before posting plant reports to make sure I'm doing it right.

Don't you think that gardeners in ANY climate, not just the north, are at the mercy of their weather? We can water if too little, we can amend soil, we can spray, but Mother Nature controls the majority of conditions. Bud count and branching certainly may be improved with good genetics, but even great genetics may perform poorly if challenged by late freezes, extreme drought, extreme heat, etc. What I note here is that plants need consistent and abundant water when forming scapes and buds. If given supplemental water when natural water is lacking, performance improves exponentially. If adequate water is not given during this crucial formative period, no matter how great the plant is, how well it performed last year, or how remarkable the genetics are, the plant will likely have sub standard performance.

Larry

I would be embarrassed to show you an actual record because they get pretty messy as I need something that is portable to take out into the garden year after year. But this is what I use to keep records as I have always kept handwritten records. Each year, I make a new book listing the seedlings that I have selected that year that have been moved out of the crowded seedling beds and have been given a space of their own to clump up and develop.

Thanking you so much for that! The spiral index card is new to me, I had never seen that before. I love the size of it. I try notebooks but sweat so much the pages get completely messed up. So your notes would probably look prestine to me. I know we all just want to show the good, but it often helps us beginners(very late starter) to see the messy along with the good, just to let us know what can be expected, and that stuff just happens sometimes.

My notebooks look terrible. I have dropped them in water, had them rained on, and splattered mud on them. Oh well

I have not seen the spiral bound index cards, either. They look great. I must look for those the next time I am near a Staples.

I found them at WalMart today. However, Davi's are 4" x 6". The ones I found are 3" x 5", still 50 count. I bought a couple to test them out.

Edit: I like using these. Reasonably priced and easy to carry along in the gardens. Thanks Judy!!!

I buy the 4 x 6 ones at Staples and I like them that size because I'm able to make a standard 4 x 6 photo printed on paper from my home printer that fits the card exactly...and they give me a little more room to write. But you may not need the photo at all unless you are recording seedlings...it is a handy reference to jog your memory of what the seedling looked like. The heavier card stock is more indestructible in the garden than notebooks with paper. I've left them out overnight in heavy dew, accidentally spilled coffee on them, etc and have genetic records at my fingertips going back to the 1990's without taking up too much space. I know there is probably a more modern electronic way to record information, but the garden can be a muddy, wet place that isn't good for electronics. I have a pretty organized "system"....once measurements have been taken and recorded, I'll cut or pull the spent scapes (except the ones with seedpods) so I always know which ones have been measured.

I've been trying to ignore this subject altogether. Since I first began breeding daylilies last year, I've learned so much, so easily, because it's fun. I can do this!

This important subject scared me. I don't do technical well, but you guys are explaining it and showing it to us in such a way that I could get used to it. Like breathing!

Thank you, you are my heroes!

Judy - Thanks so much for sharing your system for recording stats on seedlings! Great tool!

I just ordered two of them from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00290J29O/
Mead Wirebound Ruled Index Cards, 4 X 6 Inches (63138)
Price: $3.65 Free Shipping for Prime Members

Staples has some a little bit cheaper, but I'd have to pay for shipping, or drive an hour round trip to pick them up.