I have now had time to sit with the data on the 2025 daylily crosses. I am a bit shocked, but not totally. I harvested 422 seeds from our gardens here. 277 seeds are from diploids. That is not surprising, as I know what Pink Tirza does. There is a reason Pink Tirza is my diploid line. This year Pink Tirza was an incredible pod parent. Last year it was the opposite – Pink Tirzah was our top pollen producer in 2024. Naomi Ruth and Pink Tirzah don’t do fantastically well together, but Naomi Ruth was a top pollen producer this year, as well. Peach also typed out as a diploid (which did surprise me – a lot), and we have seeds from Peach. And with the Red daylilies in the mix and at an overwhelming quantity of 8 clumps, red boosted the diploid numbers.
Then there are 111 tetraploid seeds. Not surprisingly, South Seas took the prize for tetraploids. South Seas is my tetraploid line for a reason. South Seas is a powerhouse. And Coral Majority, one of her children (which I did not know when I purchased Coral Majority, but bonus!) continues to amaze. In fact, South Seas may have daylily grandbabies in the next few years in our garden due to Coral Majority. Fingers crossed. We have seed. It would be kind of cool. We shall see.
And then we have 34 self-seed from our gardens. Mostly – South Seas and Coral Majority, but a few Red and Just Plum Happy.
Not in the above numbers are 99 seeds harvested from Oakwood – 78 of which are Stella De Oro and look kind of iffy, but maybe they will do something for those gardens. I will try. There are 2 Red Volunteer seeds I harvested from a Red Volunteer I planted there last fall, and then 17 seeds from some new daylilies I don’t remember from last year, but they did very well this year.
So – 521 seeds. Oof! Yah. But I have my thinking cap on. I will figure it out. Lots of other people do this, at a much bigger scale. We shall be creative. There are 4 large success crosses. The rest can go in little seedling pots. Maybe direct sow the self-seed.
I did it! I have been talking about maybe doing this for a while. On and off for 3 years. But with the loss of the 11 hostas, I finally made the decision. The daylily “farm” can be handled with raised boxes. It can. Truly.
Now, I say “farm” very lightly. I know it is not a farm. Of course I do. And if I could, I would have a great big daylily farm. But it ain’t happening. Our land up north is for our off-grid time, and that is not changing any time soon. So, my personal townhome style daylily “farm” is going to expand, but just not in a conventional farm way. I am going to work with what I have, to do the most I can do with what is in my heart. And that is to continue to be creative, do intentional crosses, harvest those seeds, and work to bring them to seedling, plant, and something new and hopefully fun for bloom. I also am fascinated by what the birds, bees, and butterflies accomplish with the daylilies, and I am not going to count out continuing to harvest those seeds as part of my daylily “farm” effort 🙂
Hello Yellow is a self seed daylily, and it has a very special place in my garden mama heart.
So there you go. A townhome style daylily “farm”, doing intentional crosses and harvesting the bird, bee, and butterfly contributions as well. As our oldest grandson says, “Do It!” Yes, I think I will 🙂
In a previous post I fully discussed the loss of 11 hostas in the townhome gardens. Although I miss the big, beautiful hostas, I shall not be replacing them. It would be foolish. The same issues that most likely led, or at least added to their demise, remain. Fertilizer and herbicide overspray will not be going away, and growing tree roots were already expected to make part of the garden ground unusable at some point in time. We love those big beautiful trees as well! Bottom line, the time is now here. I need a new format. I can think and think and think, but I still come up with the same solution for my daylily “farm” – raised box containers. That is the only way I can see this working, long term.
So, decision one is made – raised box containers are needed. I have one, a wonderful cedar container with a wire mesh lid that my children made me for my 60th birthday. It is wunderbar! But they aren’t making me more, so I went shopping. Here were my “must haves” when shopping for the raised box container(s):
Must be secure from squirrels, bunnies, and birds who dig. (We will assess if birds try to nest there. I hope not.)
Must be low maintenance. Nothing “fussy”. No need to continually paint or stain, not flimsy.
Preferably can be left outside year-round. Maybe I will holiday decorate with them. Aw, who am I kidding? Probably not. Maybe I will put bird food in them lol
Must have drainage.
Not metal. I want a daylily “farm” but not a livestock metal trough look.
Must be raised enough to miss as much applied fertilizer and herbicide overspray as possible, and in fact, it would be great if it stopped those granules in their tracks, so they didn’t go farther into the garden.
The options available are pretty impressive! I ended up choosing an HDPE raised bed box. One at first, as a test, to see if I like that particular product. Yes, plastic. It is made of the same type of materials as my path, which is 20 years old and no problem. I get it, plastic is a dirty word, but I bought eco-friendly and sustainable. No, I did not research the company to see if it really is eco responsible … I am hoping what they claim is true, but I am not growing food, and I do not expect to need to continually replace them 🙂
The new raised box(es) will hold all daylilies in progress, from seed to season’s end seedling. (It will be an expansion of my existing seedling box.) I am keeping my tried and true one pot per harvested seed type method. The boxes will hold those pots. There may be exceptions where I use multiple pots per seed type. Right away I am thinking about the 60 seeds I harvested from the same cross type last year. But by and large, one pot per harvested seed type. I will use cloches (wire baskets) over the top of the pots that are designed to protect the seedlings from diggers and mess makers. I already have those. And, best of all, the raised bed/box is not slotted nor elevated on legs. It will make a border on the inside edge of the rock that acts as protection from granular fertilizer and herbicide overspray on the garden on the other side of the raised box. Hurray!!!
So that is my next steps plan. Nothing is perfect, but it is directionally correct, and we shall hope it is successful. Plus, it is portable, meaning I can take it if we ever do move to another home.
I will begin with the first box this weekend, and if I am pleased, I have room for another box right away this year. As mentioned above, I have 60 seeds of the same intentional cross to get planted by the beginning of June, plus all the other assorted intentional crosses and self-seeds. They all need a summer home to get started, and whatever goes to seedling will need protection once they get planted this fall. Fingers crossed, the solid raised box with cloche method takes care of all of that.
And yes, if all 60 same cross seeds germinate and go to seedling, I am fine with that. I did some significant family genealogy this past week and the results had an unbelievable tie in to the parents of that daylily seed. Almost freaky weird uncanny. So that seed is now also dedicated, and seedlings will be shared 🙂
Susan's Daily Garden 