Hey guys, I haven't been on here for ages, but just found this thread to be of interest. You are right, Gil Stelter has been a pioneer in working with Fulva. Unfortunately, though his website is still there, he has retired and most of his garden was distributed to a public garden, I believe in Toronto. He did introduce one Fulva Europa tet offspring, Gryphon Carl Linnaeus. It is quite vigorous. However, Gil had a lot more luck in hybridizing with other triploid daylilies that are more 'defective' in that they throw off both diploid and tetraploid gametes, both eggs and pollen. These include Gil's collected varieties Fulva Switzerland and Fulva Yunnan. You may also have luck with Fulva Hankow, Fulva Cypriana, and Fulva Korean. All of these will set seed with dips or tets. The seed tends to be smaller than normal tet to tet seeds, and fewer seeds per pod, and with some that won't sprout. However, using these other clones has given me several hundred Fulva seedlings. Whereas Gil hybridized for 'open forms' I have focused on eyes and edges on bagel forms. I understand the worry about the rhizomatous nature of Fulva, but that aspect is lost in the first (F1) generation. Plants are vigorous and like most vigorous daylilies, may on occasion give an offset several inches away, but not much more. The comment on the number of buds is correct....modern daylilies have been selected for more buds and a longer season and crosses to fulva are a bit of a step back on bud count. One other objection that could be made to using Fulva is that the foliage is yellow-green as opposed to the harder dark green of something like H. Citrina. Nonetheless, my hybridization program has been rewarding and in April I will be giving a presentation on it to a northern daylily group. Anyway, here are some photos:
Gryphon Carl Linnaeus from Gil Stelter, bred from F. Europa:
Fulva Hankow:
Fulva cypriana:
Fulva Switzerland:
and here are a couple of seedlings:
Surprisingly, they give up their open form fairly readily. I have some that are more decorative than these, but don't have access to them right now. I will also mention that blooms tend to be in the range of 5.5", so on the small side. Happy Hybridizing!
