Pinewood Gardens

We registered Royal Throne in 2020 with the intent of releasing it for sale in fall 2021 with spring shipment 2022. This spring we will line it out for increase and see how many we will have in fall. Here is a little information on Royal Throne.

Royal Throne – 29″, 5.5″, ML, Dormant, 28 buds, 4 branches, tetraploid. Year of Jubilee x All Things to All Men. Fertile both ways

In 2015, we kept 9 seedlings out of Year of Jubilee. These were evaluated over several years. Some were evergreen and weak growers and were discarded. Of the ones we kept until 2019, seedling 536-9 was the best and was lined out for evaluation. It looked great in 2020 and we decided to register it although we thought it should grow another year for increase. We were able to set 8 pods on the plants and collected 44 seeds so it is pod fertile.

The clear purple color comes through from grandparent our own Lydia’s Cloth while the fancy edge is from All Things to All Men (Emmerich). The flowers can be quite spectacular. The following pictures are of Royal Throne from the summer of 2020.

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Pinewood Shiner first bloomed in 2014. It was striking and stood out as a potential introduction from its first bloom. Over the next 6 years, we found it to be a moderate grower with average statistics. It was hardy in our garden but not as vigorous as some other daylilies. That is one reason it took longer to grow enough stock for introduction. What never changed was the striking appearance with the dramatic eye and edge. It was a standout in the garden in 2020 and showed rebloom on many plants.

Pinewood Shiner

The pod parent of Pinewood Shiner was seedling 135-1. This seedling was a cross of our dormant Adorned with Joy and Nicole Harry’s Dovealicous. Seedling 135-1 never made it to introduction but was a parent of Pinewood Shiner.

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The pollen parent of Pinewood Shiner was Waldo Gone Wild. Named after our mini Schnauzer Waldo, Waldo Gone Wild proved to be a fine parent.

We think Pinewood Shiner is a dramatic jump in flower quality over the parents and good blooms of Pinewood Shiner standout in the garden. It is a little on the short side, so we recommend planting it in the front of the garden beds.

This seedling will be named and introduced for sale in 2021. We have found it to be a complete plant with the characteristics we look for in a daylily. Beautiful flower, great scape, saturated color, fertile both ways, and hardy dormant. It is an early bloomer and should begin in a week or so.

The parentage includes 386-1 (Heir to the Throne seedling x Year of Jubilee) crossed with seedling 156-8 that includes the saturated color from Ancient of Days. The result is a much darker flower with a saturated burgundy color.

Seedling 407-8 will likely be a 2021 introduction. It has been somewhat slow to multiply and is 2 years behind some of the plants from the same year class that were introduced in 2019. This flower is worth the wait. We collected statistics on this flower and it is a 6″ flower with average height of 28″ and up to 30 buds. The genetics are interesting as we crossed reds into purples on both parent sides.

The pod parent is a seedling we never introduced – Lydia’s Cloth x Born to Run (seedling 171-1). Lydia’s Cloth is our introduction that has been a breeding powerhouse combining many genetic lines into a dormant purple with white edge, nearly blemish free petals, and great scapes. Born to Run is a clear red evergreen from Floyd Cove Nursery. The seedling is a clear red but has purple genetics in it.

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The pollen parent is another seedling we did not introduce – Lydia’s Cloth x Harold Steen. This seedling (244-2) had a purple color but carried the big edge genetics from Harold Steen.

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The resulting flower has the rich color from Lydia’s Cloth (possibly more burgundy than purple.) The big edge apparently comes from Harold Steen as that has the biggest edge in any of our dark flowers. We look forward to coming up with an appropriate name for this flower and releasing it in 2021.

Daylilies are often difficult to photograph and get the colors right. Especially difficult are purples and “blue/lavender” eyed flowers. I photograph all my flowers with Canon digital SLR – mainly the 70D model with 100 mm macro or 28-70 mm zoom lenses. Since I photograph nearly every day through bloom season, I have developed a system that seems to work throughout the season.

An advantage of digital cameras (more so with the 70D compared to the older 20D I had which had a small viewer) is that I can view the photo just taken next to the actual flower and see if the color is a good match. I shoot all my photos in RAW format which allows me the ability to adjust the photo outside the camera much the same as I can in the camera. However, I try to match the color in the garden as close as I can as memories can be distorted later.

I use the white balance tool in the camera menu. Mine gives me 9 different settings. Some are Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, and color temperature. I have found color temperature to be the best tool as I can adjust it depending on sky conditions and natural lighting. As an example, the standard settings of Daylight (5200 K), Shade (7000 K), and Cloudy (6000 K). The higher the color temperature, the warmer (colors more red and yellow) the colors are. I typically shoot photos in the range of 5100 K to 5600 K.

Many years ago, there was a movement among the daylily world to standard colors using the Royal Horticultural Society Colour Charts. This seemed like a good idea but my experience is that daylily flowers vary considerably in color throughout the season and selecting one standard color for a flower will not help a buyer be confident that the flower will look the same each day.

As I looked at last summer’s photos, one extreme example makes an important point. These photos are taken on different days of the same seedling – 922-4.

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The photo on the left was taken on 7/26/19 at 7:48 am. I adjusted the color temperature to 4800 K (made it cooler or more blue) to enhance the purple color of the eye versus the reddish color on the original taken at 5100 K. Other photos that day were on the warm side and I suspect it was a cloudy day resulting in warmer natural light. The photo on the right was taken on 7/28/19 at 9:31 am. I suspect this was a sunny day (you can see splash of sunshine on background foliage) with bright blue skies leading to cooler natural light. I adjusted the color temperature on this flower to a warmer 5600 K (less blue and more yellow) due to strong blue skies. So the blue looking flower on the right was adjusted to be less blue while the purple one on the left was adjusted to be more blue. Which one is the right color? Are either the right color? I have to say that both colors are approximately right because that is what they looked like when I took the photo. The difference was in the sky color that reflects on the plant and possibly night time temperatures may cause color variations. Wisconsin low temperatures and humidity vary greatly during bloom season and can impact flower color. By adjusting the camera white balance, I can match the color that day on the photo to what I was seeing in the garden.

In the above photos, I did not make either flower look different than what I observed in the garden. A good check is to look at the green foliage next to the flower. If the foliage is an unnatural blue color, then the flower will be unnaturally blue. If foliage looks consistent with what we normally observe in the garden, then the flower color should be OK. In these two photos, the foliage on the right has a bit more blue in the color but that is consistent with the sky color influencing appearance in the entire garden. Neither foliage is unnatural in appearance.

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The above photos were taken on 8/4/19 in shade on a clear day. I used a color temperature of 5500 K (a little warmer than normal) to get the green grass and foliage looking correct. Notice blue plastic handle as a comparison. This example shows what I believe is accurate color for that day. Photo is of seedling 804-6.

Photo above is same seedling 804-6 taken on 7/29/19. Note water drops from rain. Cloudy skies means no blue light and noticeably different color. I adjusted the color temperature on this photo to 4800 K to get a little more blue tone in the flower that was not showing up on the camera. Again, true color in both photos with lighting heavily influenced by sky color. I also believe that the weather also impacted flower color beyond the sky color.

Photographing daylilies in the garden is a challenge when working with blues, lavenders, and purples. One solution may be to take flowers into a studio with artificial white light and do all photographs there. But that is not the real world in the garden and not practical for most gardeners. Daylily colors will change with temperature and sky color but enjoy the variations. Use your camera tools to get accurate pictures but they will not all look alike. Watch for background colors that may show excessive color manipulation.

Rock of Refuge is a 2019 introduction and is a fine garden plant. The flowers feature petals that are seldom blemished and rich colors. The scapes have good height and proportion. In addition, it is a vigorous grower. The genetics include some of our own introductions. Most of the flowers we have introduced that have Upon This Rock (one of our first introductions in 2005) in the background get named with some kind of mineral theme. Living Stone is an example from 2020 introductions.

Rock of Refuge has Built on the Rock (pod parent) x Dark Gethsemane (pollen parent). Built on the Rock was a 2014 introduction and has been a fine parent. It carries on the genetics from Upon This Rock 3 generations back. Built on the Rock is a half sib to the fabulous Harold Steen with One Foundation being the common parent.

Dark Gethsemane is often stunning in the garden with large size (6.5″) and rich color. Dark Gethsemane was introduced in 2018 and is a late bloomer for us. the parents of Dark Gethsemane include on of our best purples (Year of Jubilee – pod parent) and a fine though smaller flower – Feast of Victory (pollen parent). Photos below

We are still selling Rock of Refuge, Dark Gethsemane and Year of Jubilee. All three are beautiful flowers, hardy in our climate, and useful parents.

Hailey Annabelle is named for our youngest granddaughter. She is a great joy to us. We named a wonderful flower for her and while it is sold out at present, it is well worth obtaining if possible as it is a spectacular northern flower. It is very dormant for us (if that is a correct term). This week it is just emerging while the adjacent plant (also dormant named for Hailey’s sister) is well above the ground. Photos of Hailey this week and in bloom are below:

Hailey Annabelle is a unique northern plant with the huge edge of southern plants but with northern hardy dormant plant habit. The edge has a notched tip and never hangs up here in spite of the huge edge. We will see a larger crop of seedlings bloom this summer so we hope the fancy edge gets passed on. The parents of Hailey Annabelle are (Pod – Heir to the Throne x Heartbeat of Heaven) x (Pollen – Heartbeat of Heaven x Song the the Redeemed). Karol Emmerich’s Heartbeat of Heaven is on both sides as is our Heir to the Throne (Song of the Redeemed is [Heir to the Throne x Shores of Time]). Pictures of parents are below:

Seedling 727-7 is pod parent (Heir to the Throne x Heartbeat of Heaven). This never made to introduction but a full sib was named Heaven’s Throne and was a great garden plant till we sold it off to make room for newer ones.

This was the pollen parent – Heartbeat of Heaven x Song of the Redeemed. Gorgeous – why did this flower never get named? If it looked like that every day, it would have been named. However, it struggled to open consistently and never achieved introduction status in spite of our wishing it to be so. Even so, it produced the fabulous Hailey Annabelle so it was worth using for several years as a breeding plant.

Green Ghost was a 2019 introduction and is one of Luel’s favorite diploids (in general, she prefers tetraploids). As we have worked on diploids, we have found that getting plants with good bud count was more difficult than with the tetraploids. Green Ghost stood out with good budcount (registered at 23 buds). We also appreciate the many things going on in the flower – large green throat, lavender band next to green (I like that color combination), small rose purple petal color, strong bicolor with lighter sepals, and a fine white edge around the petals.

The background of Green Ghost breeding shows what we developed in our breeding program and what outside sources we used to get diversity. The pollen parent was seedling 115-1 (Arno’s Bow Tie x Emerald Starburst). We first developed Arno’s Bow Tie from out initial green throated breeding plants and then crossed it with the much sought after Emerald Starburst from George Doorakian. Emerald Starburst was a lovely flower on a so-so plant but we successfully incorporated it into our breeding program. Seedling 115-1 never made it to registration but was able to pass on the genetics to Green Ghost.

The pollen parent was seedling 226-1 (Search for Green Pastures x Cosmic Kaleidoscope). We purchased Cosmic Kaleidoscope from Jack Carpenter to bring patterns to our green throats. Seedling 226-1 showed a little patterning but never made it to introduction. We found CK to be evergreen and not necessarily hardy here. Many of the seedlings from CK were also evergreen and were not vigorous. We always crossed evergreen plants with our hardy dormant plants and sometimes it takes several generations for hardy dormants to appear. Search for Green Pastures was one of our introductions and is a dormant with Emerald Starburst as one of the parents.

We suspect Green Ghost’s large lavender band may be due to CK genetics in the background but the large green throat was from our green throated breeding. Green Ghost has been a vigorous grower and is fertile both ways. While the first seedlings are under evaluation, we are seeing some promising results. Below are some we are evaluating:

Seedling 704-8 is out of Cosmic Bow Tie (Arno’s Bow Tie x Cosmic Kaleidoscope ). Seedling 720-1 has the pod parent the reverse of Cosmic Bow Tie ( Cosmic Kaleidoscope x Arno’s Bow Tie). The large lavender band in the eye is the unique feature of this seedling.

From our seedlings out of Green Ghost that bloomed first last summer, (all the seedlings starting with number 9) we see a wide variety of shapes and colors. We look forward to evaluating them this summer.

Luel and I (mostly Luel as that is her favorite) have been working on “blue” eyed daylilies going back to some of our first crosses and introductions. While Pinewood Mirror Lake (2018 Introduction) is the subject, the background on that cultivar takes us back many years. It has taken us a long time to get fancy and hardy daylilies with hardiness being the most difficult part as most of the really fancy blue eyed flowers available were all evergreen. The parents of Pinewood Mirror Lake were seedling 947-1 x seedling 229-1. Hope you enjoy the past and future of Pinewood Mirror Lake.

Pod parent 947-1 was a cross of (August Wedding x Destined to See) x Spring of Living Water. Spring of Living Water is a cross of two of our introductions (Arnold’s Daughter and Growing in Grace). Both of the parents had Destined to See in the background. Seedling 947-1 never made it to introduction status due to plant habit but was dormant and proved to be a good parent (also parent of Pinewood Evening Star).

Seedling 229-1 was a cross of 908-3 x Molly Marie. Seedling 908-3 was (T. Lavender Blue Baby x Destined to See) x Spring of Living Water. Molly Marie was one of our introductions and was a Spring of Living Water seedling x Cerulean Warbler.

Based on our background check, Spring of Living Water was in the background of almost all of the seedlings used in the breeding of Pinewood Mirror Lake. Spring of Living Water was an evergreen but grew well for us here and had good scapes. Seedling 229-1 was also quite pretty but was evergreen and never made it to introduction. However, crossing 229-1 with its great color and white teeth onto the hardy 947-1 gave us a plant we could introduce – Pinewood Mirror Lake. As a reference, the seedlings beginning with a “9” were from crosses made in 2007 and first bloomed in 2009. That is ancient history for daylilies. This points to two facts – 1-we have been working on this color for a long time and 2-we are getting old.

Pinewood Mirror Lake is proving to be an excellent parent. We started crossing it to some of our hardy seedlings and are getting big jumps in the size of the edge and eye.

Seedling 804-6 is a dormant seedling from another long line of blue eyed genetics back to Blue Hippo crossed to Pinewood Mirror Lake.

Seedling 806-1 is another Spring of Living Water seedling crossed to Pinewood Mirror Lake. The teeth come from Pinewood Mirror Lake.

This seedling comes from our Healing Waters (dormant introduction from 2016) and Pinewood Mirror Lake. Not much cream petal color.

Seedling 825-1 has seedling 585-1 as a pod parent. 585-1 is a cross of the beautiful lavender Saracenia (from Nate Bremer) with a Cerulean Warbler seedling. We love the rich color on this one.

Seedling 830-1 is a cross of a purple seedling out of Heartbeat of Heaven x Pinewood Mirror Lake. The blue eye came from Pinewood Mirror Lake.

Seedling 923-2 is a new seedling with Pinewood Mirror Lake as pod parent and our new double, Double Blessing as the pollen parent. A different look with that watermark eye.

Due to being stuck at home, I was prodded to update my blog on our website after several years on inactivity. I am starting with Ransom Paid. This flower was introduced in 2017 and is a cross of our Rooted in Love x Waldo Gone Wild. We loved the great contrast of petal and eye/edge and the plant proved to be hardy and worthy of introduction. As a parent, we will have at least three introductions from it.

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Wild About You is a 2018 introduction with Ransom Paid crossed onto a New Paradigm seedling. This is a larger flower that is eye catching in the garden. This is an early bloomer as are most of the New Paradigm kids.

In 2020, we introduced Ransom for Many. This is also a Ransom Paid x New Paradigm seedling cross. While this flower also has a large eye and edge, the edge is in three colors – purple to match the eye, lavender, then a good toothy edge. This fancy flower is also proving to be a good parent.

In 2021, we intend to introduce a third Ransom Paid kid not named yet. This is a dramatic flower with a large eye and edge than Ransom Paid. This is seedling 543-3 and it is proving to be a good parent.

When 543-3 was crossed to our Healing Waters, seedling 819-2 resulted and is spectacular. All the plants shown are dormant and hardy in our zone 4 climate which should be valuable to gardeners and breeders in northern climates.