Can’t Win ‘Em All

These trays were planted indoors on March 23rd and went outdoors on April 12th. On April 24 I saw the one seedling (in the shadow of the cross bar) and since then nothing else has come up.

Here’s reasons I can think of for the failure:

• The seeds need more time out in warmer weather. (Maybe. I will give them a couple more weeks.)
• The trays are horrible (I’m going with this one. These trays are not staying. Way too putzy for me, and so far, the results stink.)
• The one seed that did germinate was the only viable seed. (They all looked good when I planted them.)

Here’s some positives:

• Even though these may be a 98% bust, there is one seedling, so far. It only takes one.
• This batch was a test of a reverse cross of a wildly successful cross from last year. The pod parent is one of my favorite daylilies, Pink Tirzah, but the data available is a bit scant. Most of what I know about Pink Tirzah is what I have proven out myself, including even ploidy. Now I am working on fertility. The pollen from Pink Tirzah has been awesome, but as a pod parent, not so much. I have only had one other cross that went to seedling with Pink Tirzah as the pod parent. I am hoping for bloom on that one this year. I do love Pink Tirzah, so the work continues. This year, besides seeing how this cross goes, I am hoping to get Pink Tirzah self-seed, as I will not be doing intentional crosses with Pink Tirzah this year.
• And there is still hope. I have a medium pot of seeds of this same (reverse) cross I planted and put out a few days ago, using my usual very successful, albeit quite lazy, method 😉

We shall see how things proceed.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!