Thanks for the nice comments. I would like to say a few words about seedling selection and what I look for in choosing a daylily for possible registration. First thing that draws a person to a daylily is the bloom and I'm no exception, but we must look at the whole plant from the ground up. The second thing is it must rebloom, I make my selections on rebloom. The third thing I look at and the most important to me is the scape. It must have good branching and bud count, at least four branches and 18-20 buds minimum. The last thing is the foliage, this is what will be seen most of the year. I really don't think I have ever seen a registered daylily that had unsightly foliage.
I plant about about 2000 seedlings per year and on a good year will move about 50-60 to the hybridizing area to watch them a second year and make sure they are pod and pollen fertile, I would never register a sterile daylily. This second year is when I really watch the scape for branching, bud count, height, and bloom size. From this 50-60 I may keep a dozen to watch a third year and from that 12 I may register half or less of the them after lining them out to make sure they don't die when moving them. So from 2000 seedlings I may end up with 6 that I think are exceptional. The ones I sell on the auction have some trait I don't care for, some will turn out to be nice daylilies because they are only 18 months old when I select them to put on the auction. Several people have registered my seedlings so I have let some good ones get out of here. The other 99% are composted. This is a couple of scapes from two I pulled last fall.
