Author: Korth

Cast Your Crown is a 2009 introduction out of the famous Forestlake Ragamuffin and a purple with white teeth seedling from Karol Emmerich.  The red color with gold teeth is a nice compromise of the two and fortunately is dormant.  Cast Your Crown has already produced Pinewood Light in the Darkness when crossed with a Upon This Rock x T. Lavender Blue Baby seedling.  When we crossed these plants with Jamie Gossards fine breeder Heman, we got the following seedlings:

Seedling 133-1 (Cast Your Crown x Heman)

Seedling 133-2 (Cast Your Crown x Heman)

Seedling 134-2 (Pinewood Light in the Darkness x Heman)

Seedling 183-1 (Cast Your Crown seedling x Heman)

Heman has been fun to work with for hybridizing but the colors in the first generation seedlings can be spotted or muddy.  The above flowers are some of the best. 

 

We have enjoyed several patterned daylilies the last few years that are evergreen but striking in the garden.  The flowers below are the same cross – (Grace Like Rain x Tet. Lavender Blue Baby) x Cerulean Warbler.   Seedling 994-1 is the less vigorous of the two and we made 40 seeds on this plant.  It has the “bluest” eye we have seen.  Seedling 994-2 is a better pod setter and we made 237 seeds  on this plant.  We look forward to seeing them in 2014. 

Seedling 994-1 – great blue eye zone.

Seedling 994-2 – nice pattern with teeth. 

Seedling 250-1 – (Grace Like Rain seedling x 994-1)

Seedling 2003-1 – ((JTDavis x Tears for Gus) x Purify My Heart) x 994-1

Seedling 229-1 – (T Lav. Blue Baby x Destined to See)x Spring of Living Water) x 994-2

Seedling 234-5 – Spring of Living Water x 994-2

Seedling 947-1 is a dormant plant that we used for hybridizing again in 2012 after seeing many good seedlings bloom in 2011.  We decided against introducing it because it blooms rather short and just above the foliage.  However, dormant patterned parents are hard for us to find and we enjoyed using it.  In 2012, we made 13 pods and collected over 100 seeds. 

Seedling 947-1 (August Wedding x Destined to See) x Spring of Living Water

We put pollen from 947-1 onto our introduction Zoe Josephine and got seedling 1011-1.  This was one of our most striking flowers in 2011 and we were happy to see it is dormant. 

Seedling 1011-1 – Zoe Josephine x 947-1

Another nice dormant seedling has different breeding with the dormant genetics from an older Benz introduction Picotee Glamour. 

Seedling 1012-1 – (Oceans 11 x Heaven’s Proclaim) x [(Picotee Glamour x Light of the World) x Arnold’s Daughter]

We were unable to set pods on 1011-1 or 1012-1 last summer.  We kept them in the same spot in the garden and hope they are more vigorous and better able to set seeds in 2013.  These look like great parents to us.

Another challenge we face in our patterned daylily program is having dormant plants to work with to maintain hardiness in our climate.  Patterned breeders like Luddy Lambertson and Ted Petit produce wonderful flowers but are evergreens bred in Florida.  Jamie Gossard is a northern hybridizer but has produced many evergreens as well by using Elizabeth Salter’s converted evergreen diploids.  Northern hybridizers need a larger base of dormant tetraploids – they will come – Jamie has produced some and we have as well.  Our breeding program in patterns started with Destined to See and a few others and we did get some dormants with it.  As we see from the lengthy crosses, it is taking many years to get some decent dormant patterned daylilies.  Hybridizing is often a lesson in patience. 

Seedling 146-2  – Secret Ambition x [(August Wedding x Destined to See)x Spring of Living Water] – Nice eye and triple edge.

Seedling 166-3 – Swallowtail Butterfly x [(Delta Blues x Destined to See) x Heavens Proclaim] – Nice petal width and clear petal color.

Seedling 169-1 [(Grace Like Rain x (Monterrey Jack x Clarification)] x [(Picotee Glamour x Light of the World) x Arnold’s Daughter] – Nice double edge and patterned eye -good opener.

You can see from all these crosses that there were a lot of seedlings we used as bridge plants that never made the cut for introduction.  Hopefully some of these seedlings are getting close to being potential introductions.

Lydia’s Cloth is a 2013 introduction that has been 15 years in the making.  One of our first breeding goals was a purple daylily with a white edge that performs well in our climate.  We started with Munson varieties like Court Magician and the narrow white edges from T. Grand Masterpiece like Moldovan’s Ruffled Royalty and Hanson’s Tupac Amaru.  These plants did not yield a breakthrough in larger white edges on purple flowers. 

Our first break was our Tears for Gus.  While evergreen and not a vigorous grower here, Tears for Gus did pass on white edges and was the parent of Ancient of Days.  This clear purple with large white edge was evergreen but had a lot of dormancy in the genetics and produced many dormant kids.  Of these, Lydia’s Cloth was the best.  The genetics of Lydia’s Cloth also includes T. Lavender Blue Baby and Joan Derifield.  In 2011, we had a clump of Lydia’s Cloth in the garden that had well over 200 blossoms and we set over 35 pods.  We should see over 150 new seedlings from Lydia’s Cloth bloom in 2013.  With Lydia’s Cloth being dormant, having excellent scapes, and yielding clear purples and reds, we have achieved one of our goals of having a white edged purple that does well here in our climate.  Photos below show Lydia’s Cloth and some of the seedlings we saw in 2012.

Lydia’s Cloth

Seedling 30-3 – (Heartbeat of Heaven x Lydia’s Cloth) – This seedling has been one of the best purples we have bloomed in the garden.  Nearly flawless blooms that open perfectly has been the most impressive feature.  Our larger clump this year got the rot that was common in the midwest in the 2012 growing season.  I think we salvaged the plant but it was set back and will delay introduction.  We will have a separate blog post on this flower later.

Seedling 16-13 (Violet Victory x Lydia’s Cloth)

Seedling 244-13 – Lydia’s Cloth x 4-2

Seedling 244-17 – Lydia’s Cloth x 4-2

 

 

 

 

Early in the summer bloom season of 2012, we found a seedling that Luel called “dog ears”.  It is an open form with the flower size averaging 8 inches.  The pod parent was seedling 227-1 ((Forbidden Fantasy x Dawn in Lorien) x Tears for Gus) and the pollen parent was Karol Emmerich’s Entwined in the Vine.  These flowers are pictured below.

Seedling 227-1 (Forbidden Fantasy x Dawn in Lorien) x Tears for Gus

Entwined in the Vine – Emmerich 2008

The “dog ear” seedling was consistently large sized, clear in color, and opened well.  We used the pollen successfully on a variety of plants including Earth and All Stars, Swallowtail Butterfly, and Cooler by the Lake. 

Seedling 207-3 (227-1 x EITV)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we told the story of buying 2 plants in Can-Am in 2008 with the first being Violet Victory, the second plant was the dormant introduction from Pleasant Valley  Gardens – Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding.  Tom Polston told us this is a good hybridizing plant.  We brought it in the basement the following winter but it did not bloom early enough to use so we were slow to get to use it.  In 2010, we had a large enough plant in the garden to hybridize with and saw our first seedlings in 2012. 

Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding pictured above.  Not a spectacular flower but it makes fancier seedlings as shown below:

Seedling 265-5  – Lady Stephanie x (((Tet. Lavender Blue Baby x Destined to See) x Tears for Gus) x Heman)

Seedling 265-11 – Lady Stephanie x Heartbeat of Heaven seedling – Great color and teeth

Seedling 265-12 – Lady Stephanie x Seedling 4-2  – Seedling 4-2 has been our super edge breeder and this seedling will have its own blog post later.

Seedling 265-13 – Lady Stephanie x (((Tet. Lavender Blue Baby x Destined to See) x Tears for Gus) x Heman)

Seedling 281-3 – Song of the Redeemed x Lady Stephanie – Nice color and wider petals than LSVR.

Lady Stephanie Victoria Redding still has a high retail price and is in demand for hybridizing.  We have a small plant left over that we will continue to hybridize with in 2013. 

 

Luel and I were asked to attend and speak at the Can-Am meeting in 2008 held in Toronto.  While we were there, we bid and won two daylilies at the auction.  We did not know much about them but they have turned out to be excellent hybridizing plants for us.  One was Violet Victory – a purple introduction from Mort Morss.   We have found Violet Victory to be a good pod parent and produces a good percentage of dormant plants for us in spite of its evergreen growth habit.  Below is a picture of Violet Victory in the garden.

Violet Victory

Seedling 16-3 (Violet Victory x Tet. Lavender Blue Baby seedling) – We love the patterned eye on this seedling.

Seedling 16-10 (Violet Victory x (Ancient of Days x Rolling Stone)).  This dormant seedling has a great rich color with white teeth. 

Seedling 16-13 (Violet Victory x Lydia’s Cloth) – This flower is bigger with larger edge than Violet Victory – great clear color comes from Lydia’s Cloth

Seedling 200-4 – (Sawtooth Predator x Violet Victory) – Nice teeth and lavender/blue watermark

Seedling 273-2 (Violet Victory x Heartbeat of Heaven seedling) – Great color contrast with watermark and edge. 

As shown above, Violet Victory has produced purple/lavender flowers with watermarks, white teeth and clear colors. 

 

 

 

Our northern hardy plants are showing some huge edges.  Blown Away has a huge edge and is passing it on to it’s seedlings.  Another plant that was used little but shows excellent results is Chang Dynasty.  This Floyd Cove evergreen was only used one season but we are getting some great seedlings from it.  The following seedlings are from the 2011 seedling crop. 

Seedling 122-8 – Blown Away x Orange Blossom Trail – We love the burnt orange color on seedling 122-8.  The flower has a watermark and matching edge that makes this a classy flower. 

Seedling 122-10 – Blown Away x Spirit of Hope – Seedling 122-10 is out of our new 2013 introduction Spirit of Hope.  The bright colored edge is highly visible in the garden.

Seedling 144-2 is Chang Dynasty x Natalie Grace – Another brightly colored flower with a huge edge.  Natalie Grace helps this flower open well.

Seedling 144-4 – Chang Dynasty x Yellow Rain Coat – This flower is all about the edge with the edge 1.25″ wide.  The flower is dormant and opens well.  We are amazed at how far ruffled edges have come and our program takes a back seat to no one when we see flowers like this.  And it is dormant!

Rooted in Love is a 2010 introduction out of our popular Purify My Heart.  In 2010, we set a lot of seed on Rooted in Love and saw many seedlings bloom in 2012.  Beginning in early July, the Rooted in Love seedlings put on a show for brightly colored eyed and edged flowers.  The pollen parents were Dovealicious (Nicole Harry’s fine pink eyed and edged flower) and our own Restore the Roar, Waldo Gone Wild, and seedling 57-3 – a future introduction also out of Purify My Heart.  Below are some examples of Rooted in Love seedlings:

Seedling 221-1 – RIL x Dovealicious

221-4 – RIL x WGW

Seedling 221-7 – RIL x 57-3

Seedling 221-9 – RIL x 57-3 – Great clear color

Seedling 221-11 – RIL x RTR