Our Hybridizing Philosophy
We have been hybridizing for 4-5 years now. I can’t say as I have seen anything that
could be called a “break”, but I am having fun!
How do you hybridize?
It is quite easy and probably the single most rewarding experience I have gotten out of
gardening. Simply put, you take the pollen from one daylily and place it on the pistil of
another daylily. If the pollen “takes” a seed pod will form and ripen in 7-8 weeks. The
seeds inside the pod can be refrigerated for a few weeks or months and started
indoors under lights or outside in spring and in two years you will get a plant that will
exhibit a combination of characteristics of both parents. When you see a flower bloom
for the first time that you created, it is indescribably elating. This is the process by
which new daylilies are bred. There is much more to this topic .If you are interested,
perhaps you should consider joining AHS to learn more.
Our Hybridizing Goals
We want to produce beautiful, hardy daylilies with good plant habits. I know many
Northern growers who won’t order a new plant or hybridize with one unless it is a
dormant. This is a conservative approach. I have seen and grow too many beautiful
Southern bred (but hardy) Evergreens and Semi-evergreens to discard them as
garden subjects and potential parents. Many crosses we make involve a southern
bred plant with Northern one.
It seems that what I like is always changing. I would like to breed some cool colored
Tet unusual forms and some Northern hardy gaudy edged daylilies. We do abide by
some rules. I rarely will cross two plants from the same hybridizer. I try not to cross
colors on opposite sides of the spectrum.
I realize there is far more I do not know then what I do know about hybridizing
daylilies. I plan to have some fun along the journey of learning.