Daylily Experiment

A few years back I read that daylilies and bearded iris were easy to cross, so I decided to give them a try, with visions of creating the next hot cultivar. What possessed me to think that I could outdo professional plant breeders who spend their lifetime developing new crosses, I will never know.

Still, it was a learning experience and it was fun to see the results. The bearded iris were a little difficult to figure out where the pollen goes to pollinate them. A few trips to Google and the internet and I was on my way. The process is not very obvious, involving lifting up a small flap in the flower, akin to lifting up a women's skirt to get the pollen into pollinate the stigma.

Daylily crossbreeding is much more obvious. The anthers with the pollen are out front and center, and the stigma where the pollen goes is in the center of the flower. I learned that there are diploid and tetraploid daylilies (number of chromosomes), and the two will not cross. Not knowing which plants I had in my 6 daylily varieties (I think I can tell the difference now based on common characteristics), I crossed everything and anything.

The first of 7 resulting plants bloomed this year. The others will need to grow up a bit more until they flower -- maybe next year. I am certain the parents of this one are the common orange ditch lily and 'Night to Passion,' based on the color. The first bloom came out a week ago, and was striped - I think the colors got bleached out in the strong full sun and the camera emphasized that. Daylily colors tend to do that. The later blooms were something I rather like. The flower form was nice, and the color was deep a rusty orange. It's a keeper in my book.

Now I need to give it a cultivar name.

For The Record:   • Moderately clay soil   • Well-drained soil at top of sloping bed   • Full sun   • Very little fertilizer   • No serious pests/disease