Tag: Daylilies from seed

A Big Beautiful … Mess

This weekend my gardening time opportunities got chosen for me. It is very warm and humid and we have also had some thunderstorms. I also have a summer cold. Doing long amounts of time outside or doing heavy gardening was not going to be a smart choice.
Sometimes making lemonade out of lemons is the path forward. And so, this weekend was a perfect time to putz, and to analyze and plan a path forward for this small scope hobby of mine called daylily propagation from seed. I have held it loosely, so loosely that I have seedlings where the source information, written in pencil, washed off with no backup record, and this past week I had a first bloom on a seedling that, although beautiful, left me wondering if I had correct data. Not that any of that is super important, this is after all a hobby, but it was a thinking moment. And I have put off doing crosses this year due to no plan. It was nice to have dream time, to think more deeply and more forward on what I really want to do with this hobby.

My journey with harvesting different types of daylily seeds here and growing the seedlings to finally, this year, bloom, started over 5 years ago. A lot has changed since then. When I started harvesting our daylily seeds here, my record keeping was a garden binder and a flip top bin to hold the tags from what I bought. Nowadays the garden is abundant. I do not buy any new plants or infrastructure of any type to put in the ground at the townhouse. My garden buys nowadays are super simple – bulbs and mulch for the historic cemetery ♥️- and then any leftover bulbs I force for indoor winter blooming go up north. Sidebar – the deer resistant of those forced bulbs are blooming and not being eaten each spring. Another success.
Anyway, back to topic, my old garden record keeping strategy no longer applies.

Now to be clear – I (and many others I am told 🥰 yeay!) still very much ENJOY what I have invested in the gardens at the townhouse. I UTILIZE my investments in the gardens at the townhouse to create new things. I OPTIMIZE my investments in the gardens at the townhouse through maintenance. I even laugh at the bunny antics eating my investments in the townhouse gardens, but I am no longer monetarily investing anything additional in the gardens at the townhouse. So garden record keeping via saving tags from purchases doesn’t work. Harvested seeds don’t come with tags 😉 The need has shifted to a new system.

A primary consideration for my new record keeping is that the planting system I use is pretty simple. The daylily seedlings I grow from harvested seed here don’t go into the ground for quite a while – often until the fall – because I plant the harvested seeds in pots and have a mobile seedling screened planter. If I didn’t protect the tiny seedlings, the squirrels would dig them out. On a whim I tried not protecting some annual seedlings this spring. The result was we have no annual seedlings that survived the squirrel antics. It’s ok. Lesson confirmed.
A secondary consideration is that there is no more room at the inn. New mature seedlings are only planted in the ground at the townhouse if something else moves out of that spot.
So what would work? Without a crazy complex or expensive setup?

I have thought about it long and hard.

First, the scope. I have already decided I only want to do 2-3 crosses here this year. Since this is at minimum a 3 year rotation system, I have already bumped up against surplus seedlings, where they have not yet bloomed. Part of that is sun exposure, and I have now corrected for that. But I can’t process boatloads of “started” projects. I don’t enjoy being in September and trying to figure out where to put surplus “unknown” daylilies, and I would like to see the bloom color at least before planting the seedlings in a longer term location, like the historic cemetery. So the scope is small, quite small.

I have 3 “for sure” diploids, and one “I think” diploid. Only three of those bloom at the same time, and of those only two have a coloring combination I am looking for. The diploid crossing choice is easy, and I have started to make that cross. Since I want to keep it simple, every time that diploid blooms, if the other diploid has a bloom that day, I will do a cross. If not, I will deadhead that bloom the next day. That way it will not go to self seed and there will be no confusion as to what was crossed and what was not, on that daylily clump. Also, I made a mistake with my tetraploid “go to” for crosses, and let it self seed. I think it may have affected the plant strength, and, sadly, those daylilies are in tree roots now and not able to be divided and restarted. My mistake. And since I am not buying, they will not be replaced. It is what it is.
On that topic, the tetraploid cross is a little more “tbd”. My “go to” cross for tetraploid is is Marque Moon. It is also, unfortunately, besides being the daylilies enmeshed in tree roots, also either a big bunny or a wandering deer’s favorite. If the Marque Moon buds all get eaten, I may forego the tetraploid cross. I am going for more toward light colored and creamy pastel and I don’t have matches I am looking for ie I’m not looking to cross deep salmon or deep orange with pink or purple.

For the question of letting the rest self seed – deep breath – I know I should deadhead. My gardens here are small enough to do that. And believe me, I am swimming this season in self seed seedlings from 2023 seed. Logically, rationally, I do not leave our other plants to self seed. I trim the hostas when they are done blooming for sure. And I don’t have any trouble at all trimming the Asian lilies. Goodness! What would I do with all those seeds! Out of control lol 😂 We shall see what discipline I can muster. Even incremental would be progress.

For markers I’m going super low tech here. Store bought large craft sized (popsicle) sticks, daily close up photos to monitor seedling development, and printed photos labeled with planted seedling bunch location info. When I do an intentional cross I am going to write the cross information on both sides of a craft stick, put the stick in an envelope (so when I am busy both in harvesting and in seed planting season, I have the labeling at the ready), and write the same cross information on the envelope, with the cross dates so I can look up the pics for reference if needed. The marker writing on the craft stick and the envelope will be done with a sharpie, not a pencil. Made that mistake and shall not repeat 😉
Then if seed pods form and seeds mature:

  • All seeds that get harvested will go into a marked envelope with a marked craft stick already included.
  • The envelope will go into storage.
  • The seeds will go to stratification in Feb with the craft stick still in the envelope.
  • The seeds will get planted in pots indoors after Easter with the already marked craft stick.
  • When the seedlings get planted into the ground they will already have a proper label 😂

So the craft sticks are already bought and they are with my garden bin. Next up is a new printer. (Ours finally printed it’s last). And I already have a garden binder and plastic sleeves for photos to rotate in and out.
I am hoping it is that easy.
We shall see.

Yellow

Well, hello yellow!

The first ever daylily seedling to bloom here from harvested seed is a very petite bloom, and yellow.

It is from a seed from one of our Marque Moon daylilies, a two year old seedling (from 2022 seed). Although the bloom does not look like it reverted to Marque Moon parentage, it is not wildly different, so I am guessing our bee or butterfly friends (or even just the wind) accomplished self pollination. It is for sure not a cross I made. I am trying to think of a fun name, just for use here. It is a perfect yellow to my taste, and I love the dainty tissue thin transparency on the edge, along with a bit of ruffles. Something “transparency”. It is just for fun for me so …

This first full success is exciting, especially as I still have a 5 year old seedling from South Seas, assumed to be from self pollination, that has never even produced scapes. I moved it into more sun last fall so I am being extra merciful. It gets one more year here. If it doesn’t bloom next year, it is destined to move up north next fall. 5 more South Seas seedlings (assumed to be from self pollination) are nipping at its heels. And some Purple D’Oro seedlings. And 11 seedlings from intentional crosses between Marque Moon and Pink China Doll (2023 seed) which I am soooo hoping bloom next year. My husband has already proposed they will be called China Moon. I think Pink Moon. Unless they go the way of the 5 year old South Seas seedling, because that would not even qualify as blooming once in a Blue Moon.

Ok, enough for today. Catch you tomorrow with today’s blooms, which from all accounts looks like 17. And they are GORGEOUS in their early morning opening state.

I leave you with yesterday’s other two blooms.

Heat

My mind wants to go to the historic cemetery garden and while away a couple hours trimming and weeding and dreaming about next steps, but the hot humid weather reminds me to be careful. Maybe an early morning this weekend. In the meantime, unknown big ruffled yellow daylily bloomed again today. Doggone if I can figure out what it is. It might have been a freebie with order, that was mismarked? It sat there not blooming for 3 seasons and now that it is showing off I cannot find a saved tag that matches up. Those crazy busy unorganized years are biting me now. But she sure is beautiful!

And two more Purple D’Oro blooms today.

I should do some crosses but I just haven’t decided on which ones this year.

And in the meantime I should also remove the old blooms, but I just cannot force myself to do that either. The bees are having so much fun! What will they accomplish? And at the same time though, wherever will I continue to put seedlings from harvested seeds from their work? I am so out of space. As if on cue, Bunny helped with one, bit it right off, its fair share for us enjoying its shenanigans.

The unplanned seedling from Marque Moon is getting a yellow bud. An Enchanted April coloration would be so bonus!


First daylily seedling with scapes

Albeit fun, and a great challenge, it has been a multi-year process to get the first daylily seedling to produce scapes in our townhome gardens. And even so, it is pollinator created, from Marque Moon, not an intentional cross. But I am very C C pleased. It is progress. And I have learned a bunch that should help get our intentional crosses from 2023 on better footing than their predecessors.

Here was my happy discovery today

I am expecting blooms that look like Enchanted April or Admiral’s Braid, the parentage, but we shall see.

I have taken a bit of a meandering path to get to today’s happy discovery. Here is a bit of history and my personal experience so far:

Planting direct sow, into the ground, is a slow boat. My first daylily seedling attempt was doing that with pollinator created seeds from our South Seas daylily 5 years ago. Those seeds were viable, but produced a very slow growing daylily clump. Less than 6 hours/day of sun exposure probably also had a small impact. I moved it into more sun last fall and it now looks more robust, but still no scapes.

Planting daylily seedlings in a raised bed, in a sunny location, without watering beyond rain, even if it is hugelculture, does not work. Also not protecting from deer does not work. I did that combo 4 years ago. None survived. I wish I had that money back! Those frames are now disassembled and what was remaining of the hugelculture decomposing has been smoothed out.

Planting daylily seedlings in a sunny, perpetually somewhat moist area probably did work, but we sold that little house so I cannot say for certain. It looked successful when we were there.

Planting daylily seedlings into a well watered garden with less than 6 hours of sun produced slow growing seedlings that are now only turning around because they were transplanted into more sun this spring.

Transplanting daylily seedlings into a well watered and well drained very sunny location produced very robust 2nd year plants this season so far. One of those is the daylily with scapes, year 2.

Trying intentional crosses without planning and looking up ploidy doesn’t work. Nuf said there.

I stratify in Feb/March, and then after Easter, I plant the same type/species/crosses seeds together in a pot, indoors, covered with plastic. Yah, I know, unconventional. I have tried all the conventional methods without success. Can you say gross, mold, dead seeds? In May I usually put the pots out in the outdoor seedling box, covered loosely in plastic, with the screened cover over top. I have been fooled, and put them out too early (think late snow), but the seeds and seedlings seem to be smart. They just take their good sweet time, and commence growing when it is consistently warmer again.

I do need to get back to being much more diligent with my labeling and record keeping (diagrams). For labeling, I was careless this year and tucked the empty envelopes with the seed info into the seedling box. The ones written in pencil washed off in the rain. That I do regret. I also need to keep diagrams of where I plant in the garden. My record keeping workaround is going to be a printed out photo with labeling. My planting is in clumps, so that should be a satisfactorily resurrected method from my past to re-employ 😊

Hopefully more of the seedlings will produce scapes this year.




Success, Squirrels, and Pencils

Last year was my second year of trying intentional crosses to create new daylilies. This is something just for fun for me, and an opportunity to learn more and try out new challenges. I am not doing it to create anything certified. Nothing fancy. I put all the “same cross” into one pot. This is, as the old saying goes, “for kicks and giggles”.

The crosses between Marque Moon and China Doll were definitely the most successful last year. Of 38 seeds, we have eleven seedlings. We also have other seedlings – of the pencil mishap variety. I labeled some batches in pencil and it got washed away. On those I can guesstimate, but I cannot say for absolute certain what they are. Although a bummer, I’m still happy those worked, and if/when they bloom I will have fun guesstimating what they were.

And then there are the squirrel mishaps – where they seedlings were outside the box and the squirrels dug in the dirt. Those were a loss. Those very naughty squirrels!

Learning as we go here. This year I will do only two or three types of intentional crosses so that everything fits in the planter, protected by the screen.


It is Transplanting Day

Today was transplanting day. I had thought about it long enough. It was time for “Do”.

First up, this beauty moved. Poor thing. Believe it or not, she is a coneflower. She needs more sun.

She will either go to the historic cemetery garden (pending approval) or to the new daylily seedling bed. (More on that later). In her place, initially, went the Praying Hands hosta, but later the Praying Hands hosta moved and the Patriot hosta went in the old coneflower spot. I didn’t think I would get to moving the Patriot hosta today, but Yeay! Now the Patriot hosta is in the shade most of the day, tucked in by the Weigelia and up front with the red daylilies, white-ish Marque Moon daylilies, and Bluebells clematis (which, by the way, do rebloom). Pulling out that Patriot hosta was very hard. I am probably going to feel it tomorrow, but It was burning up in the sun year over year, and, recently someone’s dog was finding it interesting 😞

Here she is in her new location.

Next up was an un-named hosta. I used to know the name but I can’t remember it off the top of my head, so it shall be named “un-named”. It was one of my very first purchased hostas. I bought it from a lady who was having a plant sale out of her yard. It has been in the spot I pulled it from today for at least 15 years, and probably longer. It was fading. It needed new digs, and some dividing. She went to the middle back of one of the patio area gardens, in back of the old seedling bed.

The Praying Hands hosta was there for a year, but did not thrive in that spot. Last fall, we moved the Praying Hands hosta back from the little house up north (that we sold) and plopped her there. Poor thing. She will do much better quietly going about her business in a less visible role, in the spot where the peach daylily used to be.

The peach daylily, poor thing, languished in the shade when we had our smaller Traeger, and this year she did not bloom at all in the shade of the bigger Traeger. She needed to get back in the sun. She got to go to the spot where “un-named” hosta was. I’m thinking she will think that is “just right”.

And … 5 year old South Seas daylily seedlings got her chance to have more sun. She now sits between South Seas and tall cream colored daylily, in the spot where Patriot hosta used to be. I hope she blooms next year. If not, up north she goes, where she runs the very high risk of being deer yummies. Just sayin’. Bloom please.

Still left is the potential new seedling bed. It would be here.

That area was supposed to be the pepper bed but believe it or not, the peppers didn’t like it. So daylily seedling bed it might be.

The other option is to put them in with mature daylilies. And give them one year to bloom.

(They are unintentional crosses, so that is less likely. Now that my intentional crosses are going to seed I may stop harvesting any other seeds, to keep the daylilies from expending extra energy. All up in the air this fall. First I need to see how the intentionally crossed seeds perform.)

And last year’s seedlings? They will be tucked into the front of the old seedling bed to see if they can get a bit bigger with more sun. They are still pretty small.

But that is for another day. I am being wise. I have to work tomorrow. The seedlings bed decisions can wait for another day, or week.

4 years

This is my first ever daylily seedling to have a scape. It is not our first seedling – that one is still TBD. But when I saw this today my gardener heart was happy. It is from a pollinator created seed, and it got repeatedly trampled on from the lawn maintenance, but I moved it last fall and IT SURVIVED!

So much else also going on, and I will put a post together tonight hopefully with all that.

For now, here’s pollinator created Purple D’Oro seed seedling first scape. I will follow up with progress too. Bunny better stay out!

And hopefully this is the springboard to successful intentional crosses.

Hybrid – bonus

Oh boy! I was afraid of this! My garden blog ideas got together for lunch with my decluttering thoughts, and collaboratively raised a question. A very small one in the grand scheme of things, but nevertheless …

“Are these seeds worth putting in an envelope and saving for next spring’s planting?”

There – it’s out there.

These are seeds from a 2 year old, first year blooming daylily that enticed pollinators, and then enticed the bunny, probably “Gigantus Bunimous”, to try it’s luck at midnight dinner, and, alas, must have been driven away, or preferred something better. It was left on the ground 5 feet away from the daylily, but I knew where it came from because I was watching, hoping, the pod would produce viable seeds.

Remember, I am a gardener, not a landscaper. I rescued that seed pod from being breakfast for the squirrels, and put it in the seedling box, on the off chance it was mature enough to somehow produce viable seeds. And seed it did produce. But they do not look viable. And they are sitting, where? On my clutter hot spot – the dining room table.

Discipline!

Will they go in an envelope, or out to the garden for critter enjoyment?

Look closely.

New seedling planter

I recently had a milestone birthday. The kids, as always, asked what I would like. I told them I wanted something special that would be fun for years. I asked for a long rectangular planter with a squirrel and bunny proof lid to grow my daylily seedlings each year.

Wow! It is beautiful, and perfect for me!

They bought the planter part, and put that together, and then designed and built the squirrel and bunny proof part. The top is built with a lip on the frame so it doesn’t slide around, and it just lifts off, so no hinge, no chain, and no tipping if there is no weight in it yet each spring.

I want to be able to move it at leisure, so no dirt directly in it either. (They brought me 3 buckets of dirt from the local garden store.)

I used to plant the seeds indoors in March, and have a table of seedlings indoors for 10 weeks, but last year I said no to that, and now plant all of the seeds from the same parent together in a pot (or two if there are a lot from that plant). I do that in late May, because we can get frost even until Memorial day, and I want those plants to be hearty. They get covers until germination and about an inch or so of seedling, and then – open air. I know – but last year I had a bumper year compared to other years with other methods.

This year I used five plant pots – two pots with seeds from Purple d’Oro, one with seeds from Marque Moon, one with seeds from China Doll, and one with seeds from South Seas.

I identify the parent plant just for fun, but, in reality last year’s seedlings all got planted in one new garden, with no markers identifying the parent plants. I know! 😦 But I’m not the propagator. The bees and birds are. I’m just in it to see what happens. So far a lot of greens, but no blooms. Yet. Still fun 😊

I only have one daylily from the direct sow years. It is four years old. I am hoping it finally blooms this year.

“Baby” from “South Seas” parent, surrounded by forget-me-nots that will bloom next year.

I have 15 plants from the potting method – three from two years ago when they were started indoors, and a dozen from last year when they were started in a “community pot” of same parent, outdoors. All still waiting to bloom. Some still tiny.

This takes patience – haha!

But it is fun.