Viewing post #1601930 by Cpschult

sooby said:Good luck with your program! Not to start a war on semantics because it can be a contentious subject, but if you're searching for cultivars in the AHS registration database or anything derived from it, the term "bearded" is not used because the AHS does not recognize it for daylilies. That's because it is an established botanical term that doesn't fit daylilies, at least not yet (basically it means having hairs). In the AHS they would be registered as cristate.

On another note, dormancy does not automatically convey hardiness, and evergreen does not necessarily imply tenderness. Also a daylily may behave differently in different climates as far as foliage habit is concerned. I have southern registered evergreens that set dormant buds in winter here in Zone 4, and emerge with the typical "spear" shoots. I also have evergreens that just do the mush thing, die back completely, and then continue growing where they left off come spring. They're all equally hardy and we don't always get much snow cover here (although we're getting some right now as I type this!). Where the plant was hybridized may convey more about its potential hardiness than foliage habit.

I briefly had 'Texas Feathered Fancy' but it did not make it through its first winter here, sadly. That doesn't necessarily mean it woudn't survive for someone else in a cold winter area but is just my experience.

Thank you! Any input is appreciated and everyone has more experience with daylilies than me. I'll have to keep the foliage habitat in mind when I'm looking for plants to expand my collection. The foliage habitat is really confusing and it's hard to find a lot of information on how daylilies perform in different zones.

Char said:Part of the difficulty with your search for cristate forms may be linked to the terminology you are using. This Form of daylily is recognized as Sculpted cristate.
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...

As Sue said beard is not a recognized term used with daylilies, it is botanically incorrect. That said I have seen the term beard used as a descriptive term for Sculpted cristates by some people even though it is incorrect.
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...
Cristation, or crested would be correct descriptive terms to use.

While Lavender Blue Baby appears to be able to express cristation when used in some crosses, there are a majority of the 309 child plants that do not show or produce any characteristics seen in Sculpted forms. I wouldn't consider it a base plant for getting Sculpted cristates, but it may be useful in crosses.
Sigourney - cristate
Strikingly Dramatic - cristate, tender in the north
Aqua Tech - No, not cristate. Aqua Tech is pleated, but could work well with cristates.
Texas Feathered Fancy - cristate, although Sue has lost it I have had it growing in my zone 4 garden for a number of years.
Midrib cristation is the simplest variation of the cristate form. More complex variations can be seen in combination with pleated or relief subforms, all three Sculpted subforms work well crossed together.

To help with your search for cristates you can search the database here for Sculpted cristate forms by going into the Daylily database and clicking the Search By Characteristics link.
The Daylilies Database

Scroll down to Bloom Form and check the Sculpted Cristate box. Scroll back to the top and click Search. This will take you to a page with 109 Sculpted cristates, both tet and dip.

Sculpted cristate definitely narrows it down. Thank you for the tip on looking for bloom form, I was poking around on the search function and didn't find that last night. What would you consider a base plant for developing the sculpted cristate? Michael's sword was one I felt I had to have. I wanted to play with diploids since there is so much less genetic variability than any of the tet options.

JWWC said:I would add a few things to your list, and strike some others.

Tet - I would look at Snarky from Dan Hanson. It is relatively new so it might be somewhat more expensive, but I would add that before Strikingly Dramatic. SD, while it has survived for me, does little of the cristating. Another to think about is Bonibrae Inner Demons. I think (and this is purely opinion/speculation) the teeth it can throw in the throat would be very advantageous to the form you would like. I grow Mr. Tumnus - I have had it since introduction and have made exactly 0 seeds with it. You might ask others like Rich if he has had any luck.

Dips... Bee's Bettie Sue and Bees Bob Baker are nice but around here they are very very inconsistent. I would add something like Wooster Mindcraft over either of them. Shaggy Pumpkin is very nice - not always very shaggy, but I've been using it to try and add size back into some of the other lines.

Thank you! For now I'm going to stick with diploids. I don't have a lot of room or time (two kids under three) so for now I thought I'd stay simple.