Ashton - Congratulations on your very first registration!!! When it has been approved, I hope that you will share a photo and the name of your very first intro!!! I want to see it. Way to go!
So you have been growing and hybridizing daylilies since you were 9??? If so, that is 6 years! (Longer than I've been in it!) I guess I will need to start directing some of my hybridizing questions your way.
Honestly, I thought you were like 17 going on 18. You fooled me! So you and Jon are actually about the same age. I think you two will become good online (and in real life) friends and become "friendly" daylily hybridizer rivals! A little competition can be a real motivator and will keep you both laughing with the joking going on back and forth!
Now .... I expect to hear that Jon has an intro in the works! (Though he just got into daylilies a year ago so he may need a year or two to get there.)
Ok, now I am going to get on the topic of hybridizing questions again....
I have been reading about many professional hybridizers who are well-known for their intros. I am not going to mention names, but I was really bummed out that one in particular is using rusty daylily seedlings as his signature daylily parents for many of his intros. He would definitely have rust because he is in a warmer state, but he sprays for rust as do most of the pro hybridizers. I am sure he knows it too. I am sorry, but that was disappointing for me personally, because I saw many of his intros I would love to have, but when I checked their pedigree I realized that they very well might be rust buckets in my garden. How hard can it be to incorporate rust resistance in your breeding program? I bet the majority of daylily home gardeners do not spray regularly for rust or other diseases ... so they live with the ugly foliage like I have been doing. Daylilies only bloom for a short time compared to the rest of the year, so for me - it really is an asset to have nice foliage during the rest of the year.
I do know that most of the hybridizers here in FL are trying to add rust resistance to their breeding lines. And I think the majority have had much success with that.
How hard can it be to add rust resistance to your breeding program if you live in the south? If they own acreage, can't they designate an area away from their sales stock to try to hybridize some more good parents that show rust resistance?
