There is always the unusual case like us. (Terry and Ashton). Ashton is my 15 year old son and he got us started when he was 9 years old by constantly bugging me during growing season about the daylilies. My dad lives next door and has always grown DL's as his favorite plants and Ashton hung out with grandpa in the garden everyday. His DL's were not the latest or most modern, but DL's that were collected by my grandfather and additions from club and local garden sales. Ashton looked at the latest hybridizers websites and took me there time and time again asking how they were created. So, I told him if he was that interested we would learn. There are no hybridizers in our area and I work so much on the job and have a farm so we don't get to go to the daylily events except our local club. We are just out here doing something that is unusual for our part of the country without any mentor. Our goals are not that narrow for color or size or shape but instead we are hybridizing for great garden plants. High bud counts, long bloom season or at least a great show for the booming time (early, mid or late).
We registered our first daylilies in 2015 and have a lots of possibilities for the future. We compete with ourselves and each other. We grow 500 registered DL's and we have our seedlings compete with all of these hybridizers plants for beauty, bud count, re-bloom, extended bloom and vigor. The past couple of years our seedlings are the stars of of our garden for putting on the show in bloom season. We cannot afford the latest and greatest but do add some plants each year to work with. We also buy a few seeds to get new genetics. We use our own seedlings and we do some unusual crosses and collect DL's to use that are not in most modern hybfidizers gardens (I like some of the older cultivars to cross with the modern.)
You can do your own thing and you don't have to follow anyone, but if you find a mentor or a direction that you like and someone is already going that direction, it may be helpful.
No rich folks around here, no fancy gardens with great landscapes, (but I would like to have a show garden), no daylily bed full of the latest and most expensive cultivars, just an old farm with seedlings growing everywhere with too much grass and weeds in the beds and an environment that can be tough on plants.
You just have to like what you are doing and if you are always anticipating the next bloom season and what possibilities the new seedlings may show then you are doing just fine with the daylilies.
Gardening is such a universal activity that you can join and learn and have your own type of success and enjoyment.
Terry
