HybridizingADaylily100_0392

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Comment by haley mills on August 15, 2010 at 10:57pm

Most of the dead flowers got picked off, left a few for seeds.
Its been way to hot for several weeks now, so most of my reblooming day lilies are finished for the year
they are alive but no more blooms.
Except on the 2 yellow ones, which is weird because they are the only ones that bloomed last year. (1 st yr)

Comment by Dr. Bob Stanton on August 15, 2010 at 8:09pm

Heather,

In general, plants tend to grow better if they don't set seeds. However, if you want to create new varieties, you have to be willing to accept this. I have no experience with Crocosmia, so I don't know how seed setting will affect them. If you wanted to see if you could get new plants, I would try removing all but one or two of the seed pods, and let those that remain mature.

The regular use of spray-n-grow is definitely helpful if you want to dabble in seeds.

Comment by Dr. Bob Stanton on August 15, 2010 at 7:58pm

Dear Haley,

I'm sorry to hear about your son. Hopefully now that they have identified the problem it can be treated appropriately.

As for your daylilies, it isn't the color that determines whether a cross will be successful. Weather has a lot to do with it; rain will ruin an attempted cross, and heat tends to make pollenation more difficult. There is also something called ploidy, that I probably shouldn't get into.

Crossing different color daylilies often leads to muddy colors in the offspring, certainly not desirable. However, it can also lead to something truly distinctive.

The daylily in the picture is a cross of TRULY ANGELIC with J. T. DAVIS. The former is described as "Mauve rose with lavender watermark pink eye and gold edge" while the latter is a "Light yellow pink blush blend with gold ruffled edge", in the description listed in the Daylily database. I was surprised at the results; a lot of dull reds, with an occasional lavender, and an orange-yellow mix. Incidentally, the camera makes the flower look better than it is.

I'll try to post some of my first year seedlings after I get my pictures organized.

Comment by Heather L. on August 15, 2010 at 4:59pm

Thanks for such a thoughtful photo response, Dr. Bob! :D My daylilies don't seem to have produced seeds, but the Crocosmia did (and they're weird looking pods, too). I was curious, is it alright to let the bulb-type plants go to seed, or should they be dead-headed before they produce pods? I thought you pluck off spent flowers to encourage the bulb to store energy for next year? I'm just not sure if I should be leaving the Crocosmia produce seed pods or not...

Thank you, though!

Comment by haley mills on August 14, 2010 at 4:23pm

Sorry I haven't answered sooner, but this went to my spam folder.
That so cool about the seeds, so for now I'm leaving the dried up flowers alone.
Now we are dealing with People DNA, son was born sick and this summer had DNA test
and they found that he has missing pieces.

I have different color lilies next to each other, so would they some how mix?

Comment by Dr. Bob Stanton on August 9, 2010 at 8:37pm

Haley,

Thanks for your interest! Daylily seeds are black and shiny, so it sounds like you found some. Daylilies increase from the roots; that is how you get more fans. When you get new fans this way, they are genetic duplicates of the original plant. Daylilies that come from seed are different from the original plants; having characteristics of both parent plants, and maybe some that you don't expect, thanks to recessive genes. This is how new varieties are created. Careful selection of the two parents by hybridizing greatly increases the chances that the seeds will produce good offspring. However, the chance of producing something truly exceptional and distinctive is very small.

Dr. Bob

Comment by haley mills on August 5, 2010 at 10:26pm

I have a question for you??
When I was cutting off the stems where the flowers where,( and had dried up)
I noticed on some there was a dried up flower and inside there was little black looking seeds
sounded like a baby rattle.
So question is .... are those really seeds plus I thought the bulb multiplies and thats how we get more
flowers every year.
So the ones cut off my sister in law took the others I left alone.