2020 Select seedlings
(ALL THAT MATTERS X MASTER AND BOLD RULER) This one was marked to keep on its initial bloom. A HUGE flower, it has the intense, velvety color from its pod parent with the size of M&BR. Blooms are held on large, substantial scapes which do not lean even in high winds, a negative I am finding with many of the extra-large flowers. Fertile both ways.
( MAN OF THUNDER X MASTER AND BOLD RULER) This gorgeous guy looks like this every day, and holds well in the sun. A 6" bloom on sturdy 30" scapes, I used the pollen on several half-sibs from M&BR.
(BOWTIE AFFAIR X BLUE SWALLOWTAIL) From several nicely patterned siblings, this one rose above them all for plant habit, branching, and consistency of the bloom pattern. It is a sinfully pod fertile plant, and I did load it up. Blooms are 4" on a 2-year triple fan plant. Scapes have 4-5 way branching. Plant appears to be a semi-evergreen, so I am hoping for good performance in the north. Can't wait to see the kids from this one!
I AM NUMBER TEN 2025 intro (DRAGONFLY DAWN X PERSISTENT ILLUSION #10) This poor guy grew at the end of a long row, getting little extra water or fertilizer, and still produced a beautiful scape with these unusual blooms! My favorite of the new patterns this year, it rebloomed while still holding a pod. Love the 'watercolor' blending of the colors, and its smoky looking petals. Quite different from any of the sibs, I am looking forward to growing this one out, and seeing what its seedlings look like.
(HOT MAMA x OVERHEATED) X LUXURIOUS OH,MY! That was my reaction when this nearly perfect red tet bloomed! The plant habit was enticing even before the first bud opened as it produced 5 fans, and the scapes had 5-way branching! But that color just blew me away! A 6" clear, scorching red with a brilliant green eyezone, nice watermark and fringy green/yellow toothy edges. May turn out to be the best red I have yet produced in 30 years of breeding red tetraploids!
SUNSET DELIGHT X (PINEBELT KALEIDOSCOPE X WRITTEN IN RED) What a striking seedling this one is! It takes its plant habit and size of bloom from SUNSET DELIGHT, and its color from the pollen parent. Blooms are about 7" in size and are just lovely! Probably will be an intro when it increases enough. I find very few faults with this seedling.
(COSMIC KAL -KAL INT x NBWB) X A WORLD AWAY #2 What a great parent A WORLD AWAY has turned out to be for me! This kid is a 6" plus bloom on a 37" scape with 4-way branching. From a 2-year old seedling no less! Very excited about this seedling! Colors are intense and do not fade in the heat or rain. Fertile both ways too!
BLUE SKY BREEZE X (BA-NBW13x TK-NBWB) This is one of the best blue-eyed dips I have bred for its clean colorations and the excellent scape. It is also an EMO and looks just like this every day. And it is extremely FRAGRANT, a wonderful plus.
(TL-EM STRBRST x KI 1) X SWEET ANNIE This is a HUGE daylily! Both in plant and size of bloom, and it has a PATTERN! I have found most patterned diploids to be fairly small in plant habit and bloom, so this seedling is a welcome addition to the selects. Blooms are 8" in size and are nearly 100% patterned. Scapes stand about 48" with 5-way branchng, and hold the blooms up well. This particular bloom went through a beating rain storm and still looked this great! OH, the future of patterned diploids continues to improve!
Registered as NATURE'S BLUE RHAPSODY 2025 The pic does not do this seedling justice! This is the only plant from the cross to survive both a flood and a brutally open winter, so I thought it well worth keeping. Blooms are about 6" with scapes standing 29" with lots of buds. Reblooms readily and is sinfully fertile both ways.
MORNING LULLABY X BLUE SKY BREEZE This is another clear colored blue-eyed seedling from BLUE SKY BREEZE. Flowers are 6-3/4" on a 3-way branched scape. Scapes produced lots of prolifs this summer. Fertile both ways. Coming from MORNING LULLABY, I am expecting the branching to get much better on maturity, and the plant should rebloom as well. From a very crowded row, this seedling stands out from a distance!
BLACKBERRY BUTTERFLY X A WORLD AWAY Here is another A WORLD AWAY seedling which is just an awesome diploid daylily. The blooms are at least 6" and stand on well branched 27" scapes. While similar in color to its half-sib, it has a character all its own. With FENG ZHU as a grandparent, I am hoping it will throw some patterns in future generations. Fertile both ways, I was able to obtain quite a few seeds from crosses with its half-sibs. So EXCITED to see what these future lines from A WORLD AWAY will generate!
(NATURE'S BLUE WITCHES BREW X GOOD CLEAN LIFE) This is the reverse cross to GOOD CLEAN BREW, which is proving to be a tremendous parent for myself and others. I wanted to try to improve the branching and bud count by using the power of NATURE'S BLUE WITCHES BREW as a pod parent, and boy, did the plant habit improve with the 2020 seedlings!! Very tall plants at about 40" with at least 5-way branching. The blooms averaged about 4" and there are tons of buds. Sinfully fertile, I set tons of seeds on these kids with both sib crosses and patterned parents. I am keeping 3 for further observation. The seedling pictured is an example of the beautiful colors and varied eyezones presented in the cross.
NATURE'S BLUE WITCHES BREW X GOOD CLEAN LIFE Scape has 4-5 way branching on 2 year plant
MORNING LULLABY x CHILD OF SHADOWS #1 This is just an interesting diploid seedling from two of my favorite and most popular introductions. The blooms are 5-1/2" and are carried on 40" scapes with 4-5 way branching. Not only are the blooms bicolored, there is stippling in the petals of the bloom around the eyezone. On some days, variegated rings are produces as well in the eyzone. I can't hardly wait to see what this seedling will produce in future generations, as I was able to obtain quite a few seeds from it and its sibling shown in the next slide.
This seedling and its sibling (above) are two of my favorite diploid seedlings from the 2020 crop. The 4-1/2" blooms are presented on 35' scapes with 4-5 way branching. Tons of buds keep this seedling in bloom for weeks, and it tried to rebloom as well. The colors are beautiful pinks, all washed together into a flower which looks like the morning sky. A really beautiful pink diploid to work with!
CONVERGENCE X FANG ZHU This seedling was my go-to all summer of 2020 for difficult pollen in the patterned genre' of diploids. With its clean-colored 4-3/4" blooms on nicely branched 27" scapes, it has the plant habits and colors I look for in breeding stock. The chevron patterns are fairly consistent, and should become more so as the plant matures. Very satisfied with this kid, which survived both the flood and the brutal, open winter which destroyed nearly an entire crop of seedlings in 2018-2019.
With the pandemic, this has been an unusual year to begin with. The 2020 seedling bed was, by necessity, an hodgepodge of seedlings, as a flood in 2018 washed out most of the first planting of seedlings. Following the flood disaster, an open and brutal winter with below zero temps for weeks caused many seedlings to be heaved and frozen to death. That said,some terrific new seedlings to work with were born in this crop. Several goals were attained in the respective genres' of hybridization, some of these lineages going back over 30 years. The following album is of both tetraploid and diploid selected seedlings;tetraploids are denoted by an asterisk before the parentage cross in the title. As these are first year selected seedlings, none are available for sale at this time. I would be happy to answer any questions concerning my plants, hybridizing efforts, or if you just want to 'talk' daylilies. Home phone is 217-443-3760. Leave a message, and I will return your call as soon as possible. Enjoy the flowers!!