Our featured hybridizer this week is Ned Roberts.
For this week’s hybridizer pick we choose a hybridizer neither Juli nor I have ever had an opportunity to meet. While researching for information to present a brief introduction and start a conversation about Ned and images of his introductions, I found myself pulled in by the personal comments written by the people who knew him and the chapter he wrote in the AHS publication “Caught In The Web” Spiders and UF’s. This brief introduction may be a bit longer than the last due to a quick change in the weather which kept me inside and a desire to satisfy my own curiosity about a man they called “Spiderman”.
In the 1980’s Ned was drawn to and embraced the differences of the narrow segments seen in the early Spider and Unusual forms going completely against the current fashion of the round tetraploids becoming popular at that time. He was known for his great sense of humor and a willingness to share information for better understanding of the narrow forms he loved. Ned was passionate about the Spider and Unusual forms, no stranger to the controversies surrounding them and looked forward to a time when, with positive change, others would recognize the beauty of these two forms.
Ned started hybridizing while working at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in the late 1980’s. He had begun to acquire daylilies that would contribute the characteristics he desired and form the backbone of his program. The cultivars of John Lambert, which can be found in the background of many of his introductions, were highly regarded and collected. A friendship developed after meeting Bill Oakes of Oakes Daylilies in 1989 at the AHS National and Ned and Bill began to work together with their shared common interest of spider and unusual forms and the Lambert cultivars. During the early 1990’s Ned’s selected seedlings were grown in Tennessee at Bill’s. In 1995 Ned and his wife Betty moved the Albuquerque hybridizing program with them to Colorado Springs, Colorado so they could be closer to their family. Bill Oakes passed away in 1998 and the collection of Ned’s daylilies at Bill’s was then moved to Dan Hansen’s Ladybug Daylilies in Florida where he continued to hybridize and introduce with the help and friendship of Dan Hansen. The intriguing names of many of his cultivars reflect his interest in Native American folklore. Ned passed away in 2006.
His first introductions in 1994 were Banana Glow, Happy Hopi, Fat Man, Lavender Handlebars and John’s Heritage. Among his many award winning cultivars are Brer Rabbit’s Baby which won the Lambert Webster Award for Unusual forms and an Award of Merit in 2010. Desert Icicle received the Lambert Webster Award in 2012 and Skinwalker was awarded the 2004 Harris Olson Spider Award and the Stout Silver Medal in 2009.
Skinwalker the 2009 Stout Medal winner
In 2007 Ned received the Bertrand Farr Silver Medal in recognition of his hybridizing accomplishments , if my memory serves me right I believe his wife Betty was at the National that year and accepted the award for him( if my memory has failed, someone please correct me). Also in 2007, in honor of his memory, the AHS established the Ned Roberts Spider/Unusual Form Award for the most outstanding clump of a registered Spider or Unusual form seen in a convention tour garden to be awarded yearly during the AHS National Convention. At the 2011 AHS National Convention Ned’s Licorice Twist received this award.
If you would like to read more about Ned Roberts, his cultivars and the history of the spiders and unusual forms there is an excellent article in the Winter 2007 Daylily Journal by Sharon Fitzpatrick. For a general history the “Caught In The Web” Spiders and UF’s publication from AHS is recommended. For those on the AHS email robin a search of the archives will give more information. I also found a link to a website with a tribute to Ned Roberts.
http://daylily.shannan.f-m.fm/...
A few of my favorite Ned Roberts cultivars are
Bark at Me - a few years ago I built a bed for dayliles with a dog theme. Bark at Me was one of the first placed in the new bed.
Navajo Grey Hills - tall, with a huge flower and sturdy scapes.
Purple Many Faces - excellent for getting clear colors in seedlings.
Purple Corn Dancer - a fun twisting late bloomer here.
and Talon - strange, interesting blooms with sepals that frequently are upright rather than recurved.
