A few more from my gardens ...........now lets see yours !

Whoa - they're GORGEOUS!!! That is so exciting to see! I'll have to wait till 2019 to show mine. :) Now to pick favorites...in the 1st batch: the first purple and the mauve and pink UF; 2nd batch: really hard to choose: 3, 4 and 6 - especially the white 6 with the purple eye; 3rd batch: #5 definitely - the dark black purple with the gold edging.

Alex

A lot of really nice blooms! How long have you been hybridizing? hard to pick a favorite, the pinks and purples usually get me first.

Sherry

Nice seedlings, Signet! I especially like #3 and the last one from the the first post and #6 from the second post and the rich purple from the third post. The color on the rich purple is amazing.

Here are a few of mine.

My Friend Mary Jane x Crimson Stories

(Pumpkin Prince X Lemon Fringed Pastel

Wolverine x On Your Knees You Will Find Him

All Fired Up x Goldenzelle

Apricot Symphony x Horns

Ashwood Summer Sunshine x Saber Tooth Tiger

Bear Claws x Bass Gibson

Belle of Ashwood x Bristling Fury

Belle of Ashwood x Cactus Blossom

Empire of Dawn and Dusk x Ruby Lipstick

Nancy - those last two have really caught me. Absolutely stunning.

Alex

Nancy, your Belle of Ashwood crosses caught my eye today, couldn't remember what it looked like so I looked it up. The results are always interesting.

Signet, what have you used in your crosses?

Sherry

Signet, you have a wonderful bunch of seedlings! So do you Nancy. I'll pick one from each of you as a favorite.

Nancy, Belle of Ashwood x Bristling Fury is stunning! This was a no-brainer choice for me. I hope it does well for you.

Signet: I'll say the last one in the first bunch, a dark purple, really catches my attention-so very pretty. It wasn't easy to choose because 3 or 4 others caught my eye as possible favorites.

Thanks for the nice comments. I find it so hard to choose that is why I have so many .....I just cant decide to toss any ( at least not yet) I think purple comes out as a very rich color that is why so many people love the purple ones.

Sherry I have been hybridizing almost as long as I have been growing daylilies . I joined a yahoo group that was focusing on UF and Spider cultivars which were my main interest and I thought I would try and grow some of my own . They in turn talked about the lily auction and I ended up buying some seeds there ..and the rest is as they say ....." history" . Only one problem , I planted and recorded and marked each and every seedling only to have many of them heave out of the ground due to frost and I lost quite a few . I had used plastic knives with the names written on them of what crosses they were (at the suggestion that others had done this) I not only ended up having the plastic markers knives heave out of the ground along with many dayliies but the permanent marker wasnt.....permanent that is. So all of the early years of seedlings are all unknown x unknown because there was no way to be certain which plants were which of the ones that managed to survive. being tossed out of the ground in february. ( Its no fun having to try to replant daylilies in mid February but it is a testament to the hardiness of some daylilies !!!! Now I select for a nice bloom and height .......I love tall daylilies ........the taller the better for me . The short ones get given away.

Nancy I love # 2 ....what a gorgeous soft glow on that one and #,3 and 5 in your group of pics. And boy,# 1 has a lot going on! It is excellent ! You will note that my daylilies are not ones with teeth . That comes from focusing on UF's and Spiders.....which weren't really being grown with a focus on teeth at the time . Of course as we all know , that has changed.

My biggest challenge I think is trying to figure out what a potential cross might look like. To that end , one year I made a number of crosses with a very old daylily ( Pink Damask) as the pod parent. After growing out oer 200 seeds of those crosses, I have come to the conclusion that you really cant predict ........I got everything from yellow to orange to red to purple offspring . I was able to determine that the pod parent ( at least in my cross) was responsible for the shape of the bloom . The variety of colors I am guessing came from the pollen parent.

I want to try another "long" cross again this year I just haven't decided on the pod parent .

Signet - as I am just getting into DL hybridizing, I am interested in any of the "mechanics" people post. That issue with markers is something I've dealt with already on a small scale with other things - both the impermanence of the ink and the heaving of markers out of the ground. For the next round of 350 or so seedlings which I'll be planting in the spring (they're still seeds in the fridge at the moment), I will have the advantage of the fact that I am starting fresh in empty bed space, and can line them up in regimented rows with a corresponding map - it's how I do the zinnias. But, of course, they don't stay in precisely that one spot, do they? And there will be deaths and culls as well, which will throw the count off - meaning that: seedling A x B may no longer be #3 in row #25. If I were able to stay on top of it, I could update the map constantly - which, of course, I should. But it would be better if there were individual markers, at least per each batch of a particular cross.

So - what method of marking are you using now? I ordered myself some zinc plates and made my own zinc markers for the relative handful of named varieties I now own as of this year, but can't really afford to do that immediately with the upcoming bunch of crosses. Gradually, maybe as I see which are keepers.

Alex

I buy paint pens at craft stores for the zinc plates, never a problem.

Sherry

As always, my hat is off to those of you who hybridize. Although a worthy endeavor, I still confess I am neither organized nor energized enough to do this! But I do love looking at your creations! Signet, your purples are beautiful. They are indeed a very rich color and also appear to have the tall characteristic you are looking for. Nancy, the colors on some of yours are amazing. And it appears you are getting quite the teeth you are looking for on many. All are beautiful-especially in this "gray" time of year. So nice to see such beautiful colors.

Kate

Thanks, Sherry. I haven't used paint pens yet for markers, but I think Brad had mentioned them before, too. Still, wondering what to do in the interim, before I start putting out zinc markers. Well, I guess I'll see what happens.

The paint pens at Wal-Mart are cheap and work well. In the fabric dept.

Alex, I don't use paint pens or permanent (not) markers , I use pencil ......I know it sounds elementary but I have tags that have lasted over 5 years that are buried with pencil on them . I make my own tags for above ground (I would rather spend my money on daylilies than tags) I make them out of pop cans , names are made on a label maker and are designed for using outside stuck to the tags and plastic coated coat hangers .

Here is what a tag looks like up close

I also bury a vinyl blind tag rolled up in a coil ( with info written in pencil) under the dayliliy when I plant it and another one planted beside the plant at 3 o'clock in relation to the position of the daylily . That is to say if you stand and look down at the daylily and pretend there is a clock face there the tag goes in at 3 o'clock I wiil never have an unknown daylily again . If the dogs steal the metal tag in front of the daylily , I have the one buried at 3 o'clock to fall back on and if for some reason that one goes missing ......I have the one buried beneath the daylily . When I started I tried the plastic knife thing ....somewhere down the road from me I think there is a whole slew of plastic knives that got heaved when the frost comes out of the ground . LOL ! I can laugh about it now but I didn't then . I also mapped the plants but when they are seedlings if one dies it throws the map off and it is possible to think that a daylily is not who it says it is . I got so frustrated at the beginning trying to keep track of my daylilies that I was determined to never run into that situation again.

The paint pens do work on plastic wood and rocks, you name it. I've read posts on gardenweb about label makers failing after time. I'm sure paint pens would work on your homemade aluminum markers!

Sherry

Signet - those are some good ideas! I especially like the idea of burying a marker in the same position for each daylily. I have notice in the past how some of the plastic markers that I've put in have survived when they inadvertently were buried under debris, etc. beside the plant. I could still read the writing on them even after a couple of years.

As someone who doesn't hybridize, I can't join in this post but I will say that I am impressed with those of you who do! You have shown some beautiful and worthy seedlings. WOW!!! Obviously all of these are lovely to the eye but I wonder how these perform for you (bud count, vigor, etc.)? I would imagine it would be hard to cull out those which are gorgeous blooms but aren't great plants. Maybe that is partly why I don't hybridize or dabble in seedlings....I am too much of a 'softie'. The other, more probable reason is that I have NO ROOM. I have less than an acre and it is crammed full of dozens of gardens, over 700 named daylilies plus roses, perennials, ornamental trees and shrubs, water gardens and vines. It's amazing how many plants a crazy gardener can fit into a small space with lots of determination...lol. I just wanted to say that your seedlings are truly beautiful. It would be hard to pick favorites of all that were shown.

I do have ONE seedling that I did not hybridize but I can't bear to part with even though it's pretty ordinary. It was sent with an order as a bonus, just an unnamed seedling. I almost didn't keep it since I only grow named cultivars and the first year it didn't bloom. It is quite tall and sturdy (probably 3 feet tall), 6 inch bloom, and multiplies well. Bud count is average for my zone. The color starts the season in sunset colors of salmon and coral, then as the season progresses it becomes a lovely true pink. It has a fine gold edge. As I said, it's nothing extraordinary but it has remained in my garden because, as I said, I am a softie. And, I like it.

Starts the season like this......

Looks like this in the later season......especially when nights are cool

Hi Sherry, yes , the paint pens probably would work but I personally like the nice clear clean label .instead of the mess I would make with a paint pen. Some labels here have been on the tags for over 5 years. If I notice that for some reason the label is not faring well , I just make a new one and replace it .

Celeste , wow that's an amazing change in the bloom over the season , very pretty at both stages in the season. Also I think the reason you gave for keeping this seedling is the only one that really matters! Because you like it . I have 3 seedling beds , One has about 600 seedlings in it , the other two maybe half that much in each .........Of course not all the plants are what I am interested in . I have given away a fair number of my seedlings to others.....that way I dont feel like the time and the space to grow them have been wasted.

Celeste - your seedling is beautiful and the color change makes it even better; doesn't seem ordinary to me at all. And for me, the thing about hybridizing is two-fold. First, I just like starting things from seed - it's never ceased to amaze me how a big, beautiful plant, shrub, tree - can result from one small seed. To see the first root tip, and then the first green - wow, what a rush! Secondly, with hybridizing, there is that element of the unknown. The expectation of...Well, you don't know what is going to be the result! Could be something wonderful like the seedlings exhibited here. I've already said it elsewhere on these threads, but I'll say it again - I wish I had started with daylilies 20 years ago; time is so short now. Ah, so it goes.

Alex

Alex, after several years of trial and error, we use four methods for identifying seedlings. First, all of them are on a map. Second, each cross gets two plastic plant tags, one at the beginning and one at the end of that cross in that row of seedlings. We use pencil on these tags and find them readable after three years, Third, at the beginning of each cross in the row, we use an aluminum Impress-o-tag tied to a bamboo stake. That is to be able to easily see the cross name when plants are in bloom without referencing a map or digging around in the dirt for the short tags. Fourth, because the bamboo sticks may be broken off or pulled out of the ground by deer or dogs or frost heave, we use an old zinc metal plant marker (we have switched to Kinkaid markers and have a lot of old ones lying around) beside each bamboo stake so they are easily replaced if they are out of the ground. (We don't put the name on this--it is simply to mark where each cross begins.) The biggest area of confusion is in replacing the bamboo stakes in second or third year plants where there is a lot of foliage and the small tags have been buried or have disappeared. The zinc markers make the stake replacement easy.

One thing we have learned is that permanent markers are never permanent. With Garden Markers they barely last up to two years in full sun. Pencil will last indefinitely, but the plastic you write on will become brittle and shatter after a couple of months or years depending on the quality of the marker. We have also tried the wire and also the plastic surveying flags, but the flag portion weathers away and you end up with rusted wires or plastic sticks everywhere, with no ID.

These impess-o-tags last indefinitely and cost about $25 for a hundred tags. i use 4 feet x 3/8 inch bamboo which will last about three years. after that the select ones get new tags. Bamboo can be purchased at local garden centers but we use a lot so we buy it online to get the best prices--about $75 for a bundle of 500.

Nancy

A few more seedlings. Typing is really slow for me right now. I had shoulder surgery and one arm is immobilized in a sling. Because of this I will not capitalize anything--which goes against the grain since I was an English teacher.

chomp x ruffled strawberry parfait

interview with a vampire x crimson stories

the next two are siblings--interview with a vampire x randy stephens

jewel of jewels x dr jules michael vinkman

lavender oasis x tet. rose f. kennedy

pumpkin prince x gavin petit

back draft x identity crisis--a future intro

triple cherries x bodacious bite

velvet eyes x unknown

nancy

Nancy - sorry to hear about the shoulder. Wow on the seedlings. Had to go look up background parentage on the disparate siblings - cool. There's a cream colored parent behind Interview with a Vampire. I love this stuff!

Nancy, I love your double! You've got a really nice group of blooms. Hope the shoulder heals quickly!

Sherry

Nancy - OK, so why is it that I didn't see your post about the garden markers until now, after I saw your post with the seedlings?! Is it just me being blind, or did Houzz not post it till now? I have just now bookmarked yours and Signet's posts on markers, so I don't have to go back through a gazillion posts later looking for them.

Anyway, don't want you to have to do a bunch of typing with your shoulder as it is, but later some time, I'd like to hear from you all who have, or are intending to, register your plants. Or if you know of a post or article in which this process is described. I don't mean the particulars that you write on the registry form - I can get that from the AHS site (which I did join, BTW) - I mean, how do you decide whether something is register-worthy? I look at the seedlings on this thread, and they ALL seem register-worthy to me. I suppose one has to observe how they perform over at least a couple of years?

Alex

Here are a couple of seedlings that I am watching:

Amber Spyglass x Last Flight Out : It is much taller than either parent. Blooms are consistent in size and shape.

The next two are from the same cross. I just don't know what it was.

This one is out of two lavenders Metaphysical Moment x Smooth Jazz. I like this one because it is a pale yellow to near white with a gold edge.

Again, I don't remember the cross. It was similar to Rodalinda by Maryott, but it is taller and more vigorous. Rodalinda no longer has a spot in my garden.

I love the throat coloration of this one.

I can't remember what this one is out of.

South Seas x Neon Flame. This one is hot in color. It is a reverse bitone.

This is out of Siloam Gumdrop. I love the green throat and its contrast with the eye.

Thanks for looking.

David

David, they're all wonderful! I think that first one is my favorite - so much subtle color variation and that double wire edging is very pretty.

Excellent, David!

Hoosier_Nan.........great images of your seedlings. I love the faces on pumpkin prince x gavin petit and velvet eyes x unknown in particular but sure would not refuse any of your seedlings .Chomp x ruffled strawberry parfait is a real looker ! The double is quite lovely too. . Hard to believe that the two sibs are sibs ......they are so very different.... which is why to me , daylilies are phenomenal. You just never know what a seed will throw .Astonishing. Hope your shoulder heals quickly .

David, you have some nice seedlings there . Are you hybridizing with any particular goals in mind ? I love your seedling Amber Spyglass x Last Flight Out. Is it a double or triple edge on that? Love the streak t of pure white emanating from the eye .

signet_gw: I would like to narrow down my goals, but they change every year. As I wander the garden every summer and look at the various blooms and plant habits, I usually say to myself "I like this bloom and I like that bloom and they have at least three way branching and more than 12 buds. Lets make a cross and see what happens." Being in Zone 5, I can't compete with the folks in FL, so I try to experiment and make some crazy crosses, just to see if anything will come of it that is not destined for the compost pile. Each year, I have a different focus. Last year it was green throats. This year it is going to be gold edged dips and using Bud Bennett's intros along with Ed Zahler's intros. I am already on the list for CONWAY SERENDIPITY. May not get to use it this year, but I will have it for 2019.

David