Historic Daylily – Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing is another of our historic daylilies in the townhome gardens.

Like Naomi Ruth, I’m not sure I would plant Cedar Waxwing for naturalizing, but it is an absolute beauty in our Worker Bee garden at the townhome.

Cedar Waxwing was registered in 1979. Its parentage is sdlg x sdlg, so there is not much information on Cedar Waxwing’s parentage that could aid in choosing parentage features for crosses. There is also no info that I can find on its fertility, but it is registered as a tetraploid and I have proved out it is pod fertile with a cross I did with Coral Majority.

Cedar Waxwing may also be pollen fertile, but that has only been proved out with one year’s self-seed in our garden, and I am not even sure it went to seedling. And that Cedar Waxwing self-seed is where the intersection and mystery with Hello Yellow lies.

Hello Yellow is one of my own seedlings.

I have been working hard at identifying Hello Yellow’s parentage. It is a bit of a mystery because back in 2022 and 2023 when Hello Yellow was “born” in our gardens, I was still doing minimal record-keeping. Basically, writing parentage on the envelopes when I stored the seed, and then taking pictures at planting times. Yah. Life was simpler then haha! Luckily, I do have a picture of the envelopes atop the planted pots. So, I kind of know the varieties. More on that in a minute.

When Hello Yellow bloomed only one year after planting, I was delighted. That was uncharacteristically fast for our gardens. When I went to identify what would yield a small yellow bloom, I discovered it was time to get more serious about record-keeping.

Through process of elimination, including ploidy testing and bloom recognition from other known crosses, I think I have narrowed down to two reasonable possibilities. It is either a wacky chance that my early recording practice was not in error, and Hello Yellow is a very rare tetraploid x diploid cross that slipped through, or it is a Cedar Waxwing self-seed seedling. I doubt that I successfully got seed from a Marque Moon (tetraploid) x Pink Tirzah (diploid) cross. I definitely have not been able to replicate it. And I really tried. But maybe. You never know. I have, however successfully crossed Marque Moon x Pink China Doll. It is purple. Turning to Mauve in the strong sun of a long summer day. And kind of tall. Definitely not short. Definitely not yellow.

So, this year I did a Cedar Waxwing x Cedar Waxwing intentional cross. One try. It worked. It has a pod. Now I will see if the pod goes to seed and if the seed germinates (next year). Then if it blooms in 2+ years and it looks like Hello Yellow, by golly, the mystery will be solved. It will go into my personal records as Cedar Waxwing x Cedar Waxwing. If not, I am out of ideas lol and it will remain a mystery.

And that is it for my info on Cedar Waxwing, and for my mini-series on historic daylilies in our gardens. I do have others, and I have done crosses with them, that went to seed and seedling, and they are in our gardens, but the daylilies themselves have either waned or underperformed in our gardens, and, because I have so many seedlings in progress, I am going to just allow those daylilies to live out their natural lives in parts of the garden that I rarely go into for crosses. They can just “be”. Lucky daylilies 😉

Historic Daylilies – Tender Love and Naomi Ruth

This is historic daylily ‘Tender Love’. Tender Love is our third oldest historic daylily in the townhome gardens, and I am not at all hesitant to say I wish I had more than one. With time and patience, they will multiply and need dividing.

Registered in 1970, ‘Tender Love’ is 56 years “old” this year. Remember, though, that registration does not reflect the actual age of the daylily variety. It takes years to get to registration – making the cross, harvesting the seed, bringing it to seedling, then waiting for bloom, and after that waiting to see how it matures (determining consistent characteristics and features it displays).

I purchased ‘Tender Love’ from Oakes Daylilies in 2020. It took a few years to establish. Back then I was planting in fall. I had a number of failures with that approach in our Minnesota gardens and have since shifted to spring planting when I do purchase, which is now pretty uncommon. (I have 29 new seedling varieties due to have first bloom within the next couple years, and that will keep me at capacity for this thing I am calling a “hobby”.)

This year ‘Tender Love’ is looking exceptionally beautiful. It is much more mature than previous years, with four scapes and multiple buds going to bloom per scape.

‘Tender Love’ is a diploid, a late season bloomer, has a beautiful form I very much appreciate, and is nicely fragrant.

On the hybridizing scene, ‘Tender Love’ is both a pod and pollen parent in our gardens. Last year I had two successful crosses that went to seedling – one with ‘Autumn Red’ (yesterday’s featured historic daylily) and one with ‘Pink Tirzah’. Both of those seedling varieties are awaiting bloom in the next couple years. This year I did a re-try of a “Tender Love’ cross that has failed in previous years, with ‘Naomi Ruth’, our fourth oldest daylily in our townhome gardens. TBD on that result.

‘Naomi Ruth’ was registered in 1972. It has one of my favorite forms, it is a diploid, and it is also late blooming. It would not be a daylily I would think of for naturalizing, but it was an excellent pod and pollen parent with ‘Romantic Rose’ and with “Pink Tirzah’ last year producing a plethora of seeds that went to seedling this year. Those blooms should debut in 2027-2028.

‘Romantic Rose’ is not an historic daylily, but it is a long-time part of our gardens.

‘Pink Tirzah’, from what I can gather, is also not an historic daylily. In fact, I cannot find it on garden.org or the AHS site. I bought “Pink Tirzah’ from Park’s many years ago, as a 1-year-old bare-root. ‘Pink Tirzah’ is also pod and pollen parent to multiple years of crosses, including ‘Autumn Red’, yesterday’s featured historic daylily.

Tomorrow we will be on to Cedar Waxwing, and Oh, the story of that one! Just a sneak peek – Cedar Waxwing may hold the key to the Hello Yello mystery.

Historic Daylilies

This year I began my focus on historic daylilies. I am absolutely enamored with how old homesites can have barely ruins of what was once there and still have daylilies coming up.

This year we found some historic daylilies that had naturalized at the historic cemetery. Autumn Reds and Fulvas, so far. AI tells me seeds would not survive birds digestive system. Those Autumn Reds and Fulvas were probably planted there by a loving family member or friend or a volunteer gardener. Can you imagine the stories they could tell?

I got to thinking – those daylilies have probably survived grass cutting and deer munching for decades, maybe longer. Fulva could have been planted when the historic cemetery began. A testament to their endurance.

We had a drought this year. The historic cemetery does not have sprinklers. The garden looks rough. But the daylilies bloomed and even made abundant pods (which I pulled and put in compost). The greens are fine.

And I thought of the Autumn Reds out front at the townhouse. They are not part of the sprinkling pattern. They survive on rain, and even through drought they look beautiful.

I looked at my daylily inventory, and also my own seedling list. A vast majority of the seedling varieties have at least one historic parent. Many have both. Which ones would survive drought and low to no maintenance best? I am guessing the historic ones would fare best.

And I thought to myself, what would happen at the historic cemetery if I replaced fading plants that are not very drought tolerant to historic daylilies? What would it look like in 10, 20, 50 years? Would they still come up and bloom? Would they naturalize if the cemetery volunteer program faded, as has happened various times during the cemetery’s history? I am guessing the daylilies in the garden would be there, blooming away.

Daylilies, Daylilies. Yes, please, more historic daylilies 🙂

Quite the Path

The dog days of summer are upon us, and the wildfires up north are making being outside suboptimal. Our time outside has been minimized. But I am optimizing the time and paying attention to something that has been on my mind for a while – how the Autumn Red daylilies seem to be rising up as my historic focus next year.

I have tried to put my thoughts about this into words but it has been long. It is not about the features and crossing to try to keep the curls on the sepals while keeping the trumpet shape without going spidery, and it is not about getting to a different color. It’s that I have been on a path with those daylilies for a few years, and, as much as I have put them into the Steady Eddy category, there is continuously more to them.

It is time to address the plan for them out back. It is probably going to be a bit more than I thought.

The daylilies out back are heading into the second half of the season, and the look is changing. Although the look includes quite a variety of colors, heights, and interest, admittedly, it is also a bit of a mix mash. That is the annual norm. I enjoy every bloom.

Out front where the Autumn Red daylilies have been blooming for over a week, things look nice and uniform. There is a long line of Autumn Red daylilies with occasional recessed Autumn Joy Sedum. And the Ninebarks. Soon the Autumn Red daylilies will swap focus from the one Pink Tirzah that is wrapping up at the front door. It has been in bloom for weeks, and is exceptionally prolific this year. Every year it keeps the entryway interesting after the Bluebells Clematis is done blooming. It is gorgeous and I will be sad when Pink Tirzah, once again, wraps up for the season.

And yet, as WOW as the Pink Tirzah is, the Autumn Red daylilies also look great out front. They are even more full this year than last. They are the perfect height, a great little pop of color, and they span a nice stretch to the front door and then following the path, they lead out to the back. They are wonderful. And I have crossed them, a lot. So far, they only like Pink Tirzah. They don’t care if they are pollen or pod parent. They just want to be paired up with Pink Tirzah. So far.

Autumn Red has been in my gardens for a long time – probably 15 years. I bought them in a bag at a big box store. I planted them at the back of one of my gardens, and they were there until 4-5 years ago when I saw they weren’t blooming very much anymore. That fall my husband helped me dig and divide them, and I planted them in a wave out front. 6 clumps, 2 areas. I was going for a red, white, and blue theme with the Bluebells Clematis and the Marque Moon daylilies. And of course, the Autumn Reds started thriving again. I have been delighted that they have done so well.

But that’s not the end of the Autumn Red history in our gardens.

I am fascinated with how daylilies naturalize and how they can be found at historic sites long after structures are gone. Last year I started digging deeper on the history of daylilies, specifically how long daylilies have been around the US, and in what form. I started to research more seriously on the daylilies I have and where I want to go with them at an intersection with history. I found that Autumn Red is a historic daylily. It was registered 85 years ago. It was my most senior historic daylily until I intentionally added Hyperion this year. But that is as far as I went on the topic for months. I let those efforts rest while I planted all my seedlings from all the daylily crosses I did last year, and while I intentionally spent time just enjoying the gardens.

Last week Autumn Red came up again in an unrelated conversation. Someone asked my opinion on a daylily, and how it might have gotten at a site. It was, it looked to me, a patch of naturalized Autumn Red daylilies.

Now, to be fully transparent, I had seen what looked like a large patch of naturalized daylily greens at that site before. I even briefly asked about it. It just wasn’t top of mind, though, so it slid way back in my “backlog”, and I didn’t pursue anything more about it.

Well, when things come back to the front like that, but are not a priority, sometimes I still let it sit in my mind until I can give it proper bandwidth. Sometimes it sits for a while. This time it was about a week. Until the Autumn Red in the front row of Sandy’s Corner started blooming. That clump also has a story.

There was a little daylily seedling I moved 3 years ago that I thought was one of the Purple D’Oro self-seed seedlings. Last year as it got the sun it needed it bloomed its first. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was an Autumn Red. (I am guessing it stayed in the ground when we dug and divided the Autumn Reds and put them out front.) This year, very happy in its new location, it is now much larger and starting to bloom. It has quite a lot of scapes and quite a lot of buds on each scape. It is right at the entrance to Sandy’s corner, at the start of the path. In fact, it is overarching the path. I planned to move it. Red is not even the right color for that front area lol. But the height, the size, the form, the little curls on the sepals. And, best of all, the sprinkler is not hitting it.

“Well”, I thought. “That Autumn Red might stay right there.” Might. For one year. As a worker. Crossing with Hyperion.

I bought three Hyperion daylilies this spring. They are historically even more senior to Autumn Red. I planned to cross them when Hyperion starts to bloom, hopefully next year. I would only use the Hyperion pollen next year, and only do a few crosses so I don’t overwork the Autumn Red. It would be great to have it so convenient, and out back.

And so, I guess that backlog idea of Autumn Red has now become front row.

I have done crosses with every one of my historic daylilies except Hush Little Baby, which will bloom its first in our garden soon. And I have done all the crosses I was interested in and even retried fails year over year. Maybe it really is time to start focusing on crosses with the seedlings of our historic daylilies, starting with the oldest ones.

I have yet to have self-seed germinate from Autumn Red. It has produced self-seed, but it did not germinate. Self-seed would be something I would like to try again.

There should also be a cross available next year. Hopefully.

We shall see..

Historic Abundance

We are past our most recent blizzard, past our sub-zero weather last night, and now we are starting to see larger numbers of Robins. It is a wonderful moment on this St. Patrick’s Day, and I am hoping that Spring truly is beginning.

And so, after the long wait, with lots of computer time to keep my mind “garden happy”, we will soon be starting to plant daylily seeds. A few weeks yet, but soon.

While I waited for this time to arrive, I continued to work on the Historic part of what I want to do with the daylilies. I recently took the time to look up the introduction dates of our daylily inventory, spurred on by the discovery that Autumn Red is 85 years old. I found that many of our daylilies are technically considered historic. The AHS (American Daylily Society) classifies a daylily as historic if it is 30 years old or older. Most (all but four) of our daylilies are older than that, and some are quite a bit older. A large portion of our inventory has been crossed, which, of course means that my work with historic daylilies is technically much farther along than I thought. I still want to work with old, old, old daylilies, but wow! Now my mind is full. And I needed to know more. So, I dug deeper.

Along the way, researching parentage of the older of the historic daylilies, I also discovered that ploidy was often changed with a thing called colchicine. What in the world!!! Yah, I can write on that in another blog, but colchicine is responsible for getting us tetraploids, and since South Seas (a tetraploid) is my best self-seeder, and the entire focus of my 2026 planned daylily crosses, I then started to wonder – do tetraploid self-seed daylilies ever go back to their farther back parentage and then change ploidy, back to diploid? I know some of our South Seas self-seed results are pod fertile, and that they cross with tetraploids, because I did crosses and got seed. Whether that seed goes to seedling will be seen in a few months, and bloom years out. But this year I only plan to add four daylily crosses, and they are all from South Seas self-seed. Two of them are with Hello Yellow (whose parentage is unknown) gasp! And one is with two South Seas self-seed. Oy! What am I doing? And will I start creating situations where ploidy changes? I need more research! 😉

And that is what I have been up to.

There is so much to learn! I think I will probably be very busy researching until the daylilies start to bloom. That is a very good thing.

In the meantime, todays pics are holiday appropriate – shamrocks that I over-winter.

Be Blessed!