"I asked that question of Joe Halinar about the H. fulva from Korea. He told me that he checked the pollen under a microscope, and that it had Diploid pollen. I also asked him who discovered that it was fertile x Tet pollen, and the answer was "I did". Last summer I pollinated one clump of it with diploid pollen, I got an average of 18 seeds per pod, the other clump was pollinated with Tet pollen and I get an average of 5 seeds per pod. What really surprised me was the difference in size. The Diploid pods got bigger, contained more seeds, but they were smaller that the seeds from the Tet crossings" There are a few scientific grey areas with checking pollen to determine if it is diploid or tetraploid in size. If I have a diploid cultivar and use colchicine (or other chemicals) to create a tetraploid version of it I can then compare the pollen size of the diploid with the pollen size of the tetraploid. The tetraploid will have pollen that on average is 30-40% larger in physical dimensions (length, width) or about double the volume. However, if I take a random sample of diploid cultivars and a random sample of tetraploid cultivars and measure their pollen and then graph the results I will find that the diploid and tetraploid pollen sizes overlap. The largest diploid pollen is larger than the smallest tetraploid pollen. Nor is there a simple relationship (or a known relationship) between plant or flower size and pollen size for daylilies. So pollen that looks like it is diploid size might actually be tetraploid but smaller than is typical for tetraploids. Checking pollen of a plant that was collected is not a good method for determining ploidy. Counting its chromosomes is the best method with the lowest chance of producing an uncertain answer. Triploid pollen size is usually variable but fits in between diploid and tetraploid pollen sizes and so any plant with variable pollen sizes may be a triploid. There are known fertile triploid daylilies. The only way to know for certain whether any daylily is diploid, triploid or tetraploid is to check and count the chromosomes in its cells. Seed and pod size are inter-related (as are seed numbers and fruit size and shape in many plants). The more seeds in a pod the larger the pod will be on average. The total amount of resources a plant can put into a pod is typically limited by its biology (at some value - depending on where it is growing, how well it is grown, how large the plant is, how many pods are set, etc). So the larger each individual seed the smaller the number of seeds the pod can support. Plants will abort seeds if there are too many in a pod to support their proper development; they will also abort pods if there are too many. Tetraploid seeds have tetraploid (larger) cells and therefore are typically larger than diploid seeds (again the distributions will overlap for diploids and tetraploids with triploids in between). A pod with many diploid smaller seeds would be equivalent to a pod with fewer larger triploid seeds and perhaps even fewer and larger tetraploid seeds. Dr. Halinar first suggested that diploid x tetraploid crosses could produce tetraploid seedlings. However, many years before, a researcher had tested that idea and found it to be extremely rare. The researcher physically prevented insects from naturally pollinating the test flowers. It would be interesting to check the chromosomes of the Korean fulva (which may have been found in a botanical institute garden) and its seedlings with tetraploids and diploids.

Hi Gale, I am pretty new at this but have read many, many words about daylilys in general. From what I have read pod and pollen parents do not pass on specific traits uniformly. There is some correlation however between the pod parent more likely to pass on plant habit ie. scrape height, hardiness, foliage color, etc. As far as a northern hardy plant, most will be fine up to zone 5 as typical with most perennials. A dormant however probably does need the cold and will not do well south. A evergreen maybe will incur damage from trying to grow while there are still frost thaw cycles occurring. From what I understand if you are using a plant that has a very distinctive features such as ROSE F KENNEDY for example that will pass on to most kids give or take. If you have enough seeds of a cross you are more likely to see the ends of the bell curve of likely outcomes. Hope this helps some :) What I like to do is look up parentage of certain cultivars to see what the kids look like in certain crosses and what passed on and what didn't. David

The first cross I made (1987) was with wild fulva that I had dug along a country road on an unknown dip that I bought at the farmers market. Many older varieties have fulva genes, Stouts book on daylilies lists a lot of them. I still have the three or for seedlings I grew from that cross and every once in a while I try again and I have a fertile copy of fulva that is the same color and shape but a bit smaller----but it spreads like it's poppa and has formed a pretty large clump. I think these are dips and I've sort of lost interest in them, I suppose because it's so difficult to make all those crosses for so few seeds. There are a few people who apparently have used tets on fulva and one Ed Murray on fulva that is supposed to cross with either tets or dips. I've sort of tryed other stuff as I thought I would like some early reds or early eyed daylilies. And I have a clump of Ed Murray that I crossed with Saxton's Orchid Corsage. I am hoping these will bloom this summer, but they are still single seedling fans so I may have to wait another year. I have about twenty seeds from Saratoga Pinwheel X Ed Murray that have been very difficult to germinate; I think these should be tets if I ever get the blasted things to grow. They have been in the refridgerater for five weeks and I'm trying to make up my mind when to get them out and where to put them. The first five seeds of this cross died except one that germinated and then died. Why do I keep this up????-----Weedy

For several years I bought quantity also. Of course they are all beautiful. I wanted as many as I could get and planted all of these in my garden beds to be enjoyed. Several of my favorites are older ones: Mister Lucky is my best breeder for reds and pretty Alabama Jubilee is at the top of my oranges Evening Enchantment is a fantastic purple Steve Trimmer is a great yellow with eye and edge So, I guess I would have more old than new at the top of my favorite list. I still can't buy the newest and I still want them, but money rules. I do have several that just a few years old. OH yes, thanks to Bill Maryott I have 2 of the 2011 but they were wonderful gifts. You will get to a point where you will buy a few newer ones to so many older ones. That point comes when you run out of room or get so darned many you can't take care of them. It was the latter for me. I made a hard decision that I could not just keep getting. I must part with some. It's kinda like your children leaving home. (Well almost, children leaving home can be a good thing!!) Enjoy each and every one. They are all lovely. Blessings to all, Mona