Debra, you have some beauties. Now I need to add more Salters to my list. I don't have many, but Canadian Border Patrol and Daring Deception were two of the few dayliies that I grow that repeated this year. Sudden Fire didn't repeat this year, but was spectacular when it was in bloom.

SERENE THOUGHTS, beautiful, always opens even with edge

FORBIDDEN FANTASY, purple with edge

Well, I really don't keep track of the hybridizers, though I have hundreds of registrated daylilies. I always just figure that the progeny has so many hybridizers in it's heritage that once I pay for it, it becomes mine. So ---- that aside ---

I absolutely love MOONLIT MASQUERADE and think maybe the water from the sky makes the difference in it's performance. It is the first to begin the show in early June and then takes a few weeks off only to come back and end up the summer. I have to say it is one of my very best cultivars because of its long bloom season.

WOW!!!!!!!!! I just fell in love 10 times.

Sharon

Elizabeth Salter (1992)

Taken By Storm (1996)

Wow; What some beautiful DL's.I like all of them.Only one I have is Elizabeth salter and it didn't rebloom this year.Last year it bloomed and bloomed.

Jean

When I was doing my Top 10 Salters, I forgot all about FIRST KNIGHT. It has a rebloom scape coming right now! So it definitely ties ROSY RHINO for number 10.

FIRST KNIGHT

TWILIGHT ILLUSION would be #11.

WISEST OF WIZARDS is another great one!

I used to have ELIZABETH SALTER until we had a very wet winter and it rotted. Your photo is really pretty, Random H!

Jake - I just got FORBIDDEN FANTASY this year, and I look forward to its blooms next year.

Debra

Oh my goodness I died and went to heaven looking at all the beautiful daylilies you folks have.

I've never really been a daylily fan until this year. I live in East Texas and most of the ones you see around here are either the old orange (ditch lilies) as I've heard them called and the few at Lowes or Home Depot. Theirs are not usually named, they just say assortited daylilies.

Anyway I planted a few of them about 10 different ones this summer and now I'm hooked. One of mine even went to seed. I harvested the seeds, and got online to see how to raise them. A couple of sites said it was difficult to grow daylilies from seeds. Then thankfully I ran across a couple of other sites that said they were easy. I have my seeds in the fridge right now with a little bit of water in the package. I will probably plant them in about a week. Does anyone have any other instructions they would like to share with me about trying to grow my daylily seeds. Another thing does anyone have any daylily seeds they would share for postage or cheap. At this point I don't really care if I grow something and don't know the names. I'm just so excited about trying my hand at raising some of my VERY OWN daylilies from seed to bloom. I live in the country so I have room to start a couple of seedling beds.Thanks in advance, Marian

Thanks, Debra! I thought I had lost ES to rot last year but she popped up again this spring better than ever.

Marian, not too long ago someone posted a beautiful photo essay on growing seedlings from start to bloom, but I can't remember who. Maybe he will chime in and give us the link. In the meanwhile, search this forum for "starting seedlings" and you will get more information than you need. Keep in mind that the rules change from north to south, so pay attention to where people giving the advice are from.

Thanks Random Harvest (since I don't know your name). Since I live in the country I kind of know what your talking about the changes from North to South and all. We couldn't move cows East and West. They could be belly deep in hay and starve to death. Kind of crazy but very real.

I hadn't even thought about that regarding the daylilies and iris's. I often wondered why my iris rhizones were so much smaller than the ones from up north from Cooley's or Shreiners. They bloom just as beautiful but lacking in their rhizone size. I'm fairly certain the weather here in Texas gets alot hotter and the heat probably last much longer too.

Maybe I should leave my seeds in the fridge a little longer so it will not be over 100 degrees for days on end. I thank you for posting back and sharing information. I'm trying to learn how to get around on this garden site. However I'm not doing a very good job of it. That is one of the reasons I include my email address in my post. I don't know how to add it to my login.

Thank You and I'll check out Starting Seedlings. Maybe I can find some seeds fairly cheap too. Marian
marianwinnsboro@hotmail.com

Debra, enjoyed your Salter photos and picked several to add to my list. Thank you.
Here's my Salter gang:

CANADIAN BORDER PATROL - No blooms, stayed green.

DARING DECEPTION - Limited blooms.

DRAGON'S EYE - First year, stayed green.

PURE AND SIMPLE - First year, limited blooms.

Doesn't look to promising, does it? They're all semi-evergreens so with the right bed placement and mulch this winter, I have high hopes everybody will winter just fine.

The drought has had everything looking like last week's leftovers (no surprise there). Yesterday we set a record daytime low (59 degrees) and now we've had light rain all weekend.

Hoping that will revive some that went dormant and the cooler temps and rain keeps moving south to give you folks some relief.

Avonlady - Some Salters do better than others in drought. PIRATE'S PATCH, AT FIRST BLUSH, COMANCHE MAGIC, DARING DILEMMA, EGYPTIAN MYTH, SPANISH GLOW, NIGHT MIST, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, VISUAL INTRIGUE and WILLIAM AUSTIN NORRIS all had low bud counts and no rebloom this year. All of those except ESB have rebloomed in the past.

Debra

Marian, I live in the country in East Texas, too!

After trying various means of starting seeds that I learned about on the internet and from a daylily hybridizer friend of mine, here is what works best for me (two methods):

Method #1) I plant the seeds (without any soaking) in 16 oz. plastic drinking cups, making about eight drain holes in the bottom of each cup with a sharp kitchen fork, heated on the gas flame. I fill them with Miracle Grow Seed Starter, and soak the filled cups well with water. I make five 1/4" indentions in the soil with the eraser end of a pencil. Once I deposit the seeds in the holes, I cover them with a layer of vermiculite (from Lowe's). I then place the cups in an aluminum foil roasting pan, and fill it with water 1/2 the way up the sides of the cups. I mist them lightly 3-4 times a day with this hot weather, just enough to keep the vermiculite moist. This works really great, and after about a week or ten days, new babies start popping up every day. The foil pan is also lightweight, and easy to move around.

Method #2) I soak the seeds in a mixture of 1/2 gallon of distilled water and 6 tablespoons hydrogen peroxide. I place them about five or six at a time in these small zip lock bags == the kind you can write on (available at Office Depot). I fill the bags with the solution, seal them, and place them in a larger plastic container. I pour some of the solution into the container, in the event a bag should break or leak. I place the container in a dark closet, undisturbed, for 5-6 days. Some of the seeds have sprouted by the time I remove them from the closet.

I separate the sprouted seeds by pouring them out of their zip lock bags, one bag at a time, into a small tea strainer. I then turn them out onto a dark-colored towel, so that I can see the sprouted ones easily. I very carefully pick up the sprouted seeds and place them in a bowl with some of the solution, to make sure they do not dry out before planting. I return the unsprouted seeds to the envelopes and put them back in the dark closet.

I then take the bowl of sprouted seeds, and lift them out one at a time (again very carefully) with a teaspoon, and drop them in the prepared planting holes, as described in method 1).

I continue checking on the unsprouted seeds every day or two, removing and planting the sprouted ones. This is working very well, and it is only a couple of days before I begin to see the tiny green spear-like leaves poking up out of the vermiculite.

I put all my seeds and containers out on a covered porch, where they get morning sunlight. I mist them as needed to make sure the vermiculite does not dry out before the seeds have sprouted. Once they the green leaves appear, they are watered from the bottom only, to avoid damp-off.

For those that are growing, I have moved them to a somewhat sunnier area with afternoon shade.

I have read on-line where people have said the hydrogen peroxide destroys the sprout, but I have not found that to be the case.

I have also planted seeds in large plastic storage boxes (from Wal-Mart), with holes drilled in the bottom for watering and drainage. The lids of the boxes are turned upside down and placed underneath the boxes to hold water. These work fine too, but have the disadvantage of being somewhat heavy to move around. It is much easier to manage one plastic drinking cup or a disposable aluminum foil pan full of these cups than it is to lift one of these large boxes full of damp soil.

When you get to the point where you have seeds from named cultivars, you can use tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, or white plastic picnic knives for markers to identify your seedlings. I write on mine with a Sharpie pen. I understand they eventually fade, but they are fine for temporary markers.

I hope I have been of some help to you. Good luck with your seeds!

Nancy

I think I've already posted photos of most of these, but my list would be:

1. BERRY PATCH
2. ROMAN COHORT
3. WILLIAM AUSTIN NORRIS
4. PAINTING THE ROSES RED
5. CALYPSO BAY
6. ENCHANTING ESMERELDA
7. EMPIRE SRIKES BACK
8. HILLBILLY HEART
9. AUTUMN MEMORIES
10. NORDIC NIGHT

I added a few more this year that didn't blooom, and FINISH WITH A FLOURISH has been here two years with no scapes. I never see photos of that one on the GW. Does anyone have a pic?

Chris

Marian, et al, A great site for seed starting:

pbase.com/ewelch/hybridizing

Yes, that's the one I had in mind! What an excellent site! Thanks for posting the link, homasho. This time I'll bookmark it.

The methods used in that site are fine, but there is one major problem with the use of plastic covers in this area where we live. Covering up the seed boxes or cups with sealed plastic is likely to lead to disaster (damp-off) in our extreme heat and humidity here in East Texas at this time. Once fall gets here, that would be good, but not now.

Here are my non-covered seedlings that are thriving:

Here are the sprouting seedlings that I planted just three days ago:

I would not dare use a cover on these seeds in this heat. I keep them moist by watering from beneath, and misting the surface.

Thats right najoba. What works in Canada doesn't in Texas, or Misouri. Po' folks in z 6 & 7 don't know what to do? Guess thats why Peat and Petit only gave us 5 pages on hybrizing in their "Encyclopedia".

Doesn't anyone else have Salters that gave you a great performance this season?