If you do Facebook, go join the Daylily Hybridizers Nook. Lots of good info to be had, and plenty of fantastic eye candy!

A good day to find out branching and bud count is to wait until the season is over. When the scapes are dry, we pull them up and bundle all from the same plant together and mark the name of that seedling. Then we store them (in a garage or basement) until we have time to count. You want to take all the scapes from a particular plant so you can get an average of the buds and branches.

Nancy

I gave the bed good care for the first two years. Unfortunately it was neglected for about 5 years after that due to health reasons, Since it was Hint of Blue crossed with Prairie Blue Eyes they all look pretty much the same color. I tried to clean out the weeds, but by this point a few have became mice nests and died and others are likely not blooming because they are old and congested and there is little bloom to be seen on any. There is still room between them however. Obviously not the best treatment. How many years can you leave them before they become too congested to be a good example of their potential?

Very helpful, Nancy! I've saved this post.

Alex

Nancy - Those are excellent guidelines for seedling evaluation!

Mary - Because I live in a hot summer climate, I also evaluate mine for sun fastness. Reliable rebloom can save a seedling too. I would say if yours all look pretty much the same, save two: the one with the most buds and the one that multiplies the fastest (the one with the most fans). Then I would cross those two together to see if I could get one with all-around superb plant habits. If some aren't blooming, do they get enough sun?

Debra

Mary, it's hard to say how long you can leave the daylily before it becomes too congested. It's different with each seedling. In your situation, I would pull them all out and clean up the bed. Divide any that are big clumps and replant them. They should shape up in a couple of years and show you their true potential. Good luck with them.

Nancy

THank you Nancy for the tips above for choosing keepers. I am a newbie hybridizer too. Though my seedlings are mostly first year bloomers, the info above will come in very handy and helpful as I go through the process of culling. Do you also have a bed reserved for on the fence seedlings? How many of these eventually make it to the keepers? Or do most fail to meet expectations and have to be composted?

We keep the seedlings in the same bed for three years (unless there is something that absolutely wows us--it might get moved early). Then we select the ones we want to further observe. They will stay in that bed until we select them for introduction or composting. Some might stay in that bed for several years. There are always some with flowers we like, but bud count is that is too low. Those tend to stay around either for a bridge plant or the hope that they might start throwing better scapes. We don't keep any stats on how many we throw away as opposed to our introductions, but suffice it to say, that not many make the cut. We have registered 3 but have bloomed over 6000 seedlings.

Of course, it all depends on what you want to do with your hybrids. If you want to market them, your criteria might be more strict. If you just want to name them and give them to friends and family, you don't have so picky.

At any rate, whether you register them or not, growing them is a lot of fun.

Nancy

Thanks Nancy! I totally agree that it is a lot of fun to grow seedlings. I am so addicted to it! You are incredibly selective about your seedlings! What a ratio of registered to bloomed seedlings! But I am sure that the ratio will get better as you improve your lines. Do you now use only your seedlings for crosses?

Alex, I want to thank you for your above post about Hybridizers' Nook. I just signed up for Facebook a couple days ago in order to join the group. It has a lot of good hybridizing info from seasoned hybridizers.

Karen - yes, it does! Am greatly benefiting from it myself.

Thank you very much, Alex. I had no idea that Facebook has groups like this.

Karen, we are gradually using more and more of our own for crosses. We still use quite a few from other hybridizers, but we feel that will change as we develop our own lines.

We really want to cut back on the number of varieties we grow from other hybridizers (now 1000+) and focus more on our own. We decided last summer that it was more fun to look at our own seedlings than the named varieties of others.