Selecting which crosses to make
During the winter months, I begin planning the crosses I would like to make during the coming bloom season. First I identify my primary goals (what am I attempting to accomplish with my crosses this year). Then I review my breeding stock (including seedlings) to select which plants have the characteristics I am looking for. These will be the plants I will use as pollen parents in the upcoming year. I make sure that this list doesn't include any plants that have what I consider major flaws as I don't want to knowingly introduce bad plant traits into my line. Actually, this list already exists from the previous year and it's simply a matter of eliminating those that I no longer wish to work with and adding any new stock that I may have acquired.
Then I begin reviewing all my breeding stock for potential crosses with this list of pollen parents. Again, I keep my goals in mind whenever deciding to make a cross. I list each plant and the cross (or crosses) to be made. To help make the decisions, I use something I call my "Hybridizer's Pal" (see sample). It's like a web page with the pictures of pollen parents on the right and all the potential pod parents on the left. I can then compare each cultivar with the potential pollen parents. In addition to showing the bloom I also include my own hybridizing notes regarding bloom size, branching, bud count, and plant habits (both good and bad). Most plants have both good traits and bad and I make sure not to cross two plants that both have the same bad traits. For example, two plants with low bud count will usually have children that all have low bud counts which would be a waste of time and garden space. Instructions for making your own Hybridizer's Pal.
I select the best 4 crosses I want to make with each pod parent. Each of the 4 crosses gets assigned a color (red, black, white, or yellow). That's because I use 3" pieces of colored wire to mark each bloom when I apply the pollen (more on that later).
Different cultivars selected for crossing may bloom at different times. This would turn a "pollination plan" into a "hoped-for cross" list. Fortunately, daylily pollen freezes quite well and if frozen properly will remain fertile for years. I store my pollen in plastic contact lens cases (the plastic ones that hard contact lenses come in that just snap shut). My local optician ordered a hundred for me although he now looks at me rather strangely when I come in for my checkup. I cut off some of the excess plastic and found a couple of clear plastic boxes each with 18 compartments. Each compartment holds 12 of these cases. This allows me to store pollen from up to 18 cultivars in a rather small space in the freezer. Having two boxes allows me to be collecting pollen for next year in one while using the pollen out of the other.
To freeze the pollen, I simply remove the anthers with a pair or tweezers and place a couple in the cup of each lens case. I dry the pollen by leaving the cases open in an air-conditioned room with a ceiling fan going at low speed to give some air circulation. After 12-24 hours I close the cases up and put them in the freezer. When I'm ready to use them, I simply remove a case from the freezer, let it warm to room temperature for a few minutes before opening, and then grab an anther with my tweezers and head for the garden.
If you can find some 'reverse action tweezers' (also called reciprocating tweezers) they are much easier to work with when pollinating. A squeeze opens the tweezers and letting go, they close again. This will hold the anther without having to constantly squeeze like you do with regular tweezers.
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Making and Marking the Crosses
Each night, once bloom season starts, I make a list of the plants that will bloom the following day.
Then, using my pollination plan, I decide which pollen will be used on each cultivar.
Because I usually include at least one cultivar where I have frozen pollen, I am able to
stick to the plan I have laid out prior to bloom season.
The following day I apply the pollen that I selected the night before on each bloom. Then I wrap a 3"
colored wire (as determined in my pollinating plan) around the base of each bloom I have pollinated.
The colored wires are very easy and quick to work with. No writing out the cross on tags is required
and it is easy to determine what the cross was by referring to my pollinating plan. If I later determine
that the cross didn't set any seed, I can just reuse the wire on another cross and haven't wasted my
time writing out tags for crosses that didn't take.
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Seed storage
When the seed pods start to split open, It's time to harvest the seeds. The seeds from each pod are 'air dried' for up to 24 hours ane then placed in a baggie along with the colored wire and a slip of paper with the pod plant name on it. Again, that's just enough information to identify the cross using my pollination plan. The seeds then go in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator.
Once all the seeds have been harvested, they are sorted and organized to make it easy to select the best crosses for planting. It is at this point that I make meaningful tags for each individual cross and assign them a cross number for tracking purposes. Then back in the fridge again until it is time to plant.
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Planting the seeds
As I usually have lots more seeds than I can plant, I have to select the ones from the crosses that I think have the most potential. Selecting the best 1500 seeds from the several thousand seeds I harvest every year is not an easy task. I always try and include a high percentage of seeds from my own seedlings. I feel that the chances of getting a daylily that is different from others on the market are improved when using parent plants that nobody else has.
Usually on Labor Day weekend, I start my seeds in 'tree trays'. The individual cells are 2" wide at the top and 5" deep. They taper slightly toward the bottom which makes it easy to get the seedlings out when it's time to transplant. Each tray has 38 cells. I plant 40 trays which is just over 1500 seeds. I use something called 'Pro-Mix'. This beats anything else I have ever tried (including mixing my own custom mix). I number each tray 1-40 and make notes showing which cross is in each cell on each tray.
These trays are placed in my driveway and kept well watered. I usually get about 85% germination, sometimes more. Starting about a month after the seeds germinate, I begin feeding with half strength water soluble fertilizer (15-30-15) about every 2 weeks or so. I'll do this until I'm ready to plant them in the ground.
I work lots of organic matter (usually composted stable sweepings) into the bed prior to transplanting the seedlings. Then I cover the areas to be planted with a light weight weed block fabric. I plant my seedlings 4" apart in rows 8" apart. I know this is really closer together than they should be, but I have such limited space, it's the only way I can get a reasonable number of seedlings planted every year. Even this close together, I can only get about 1000 new seedlings planted each year.
To transplant the seedlings, I cut a 2.5" cross in the fabric with a sharp knife every 4" along the row. Then I use a dibble to prepare the hole. I couldn't find a dibble the right size for this so I made my own from a 2 foot length of 2 inch round wooden railing available at Home Depot. I just fashioned one end into a point and it works great. By pushing the point down into the soil and moving it around a couple of times in a circular fashion, I have a hole that's almost exactly the same size and shape as the seedling root ball from the trays. I just pop the seedling out of the tray and plop it in the hole. A little pressure around the sides and it's done.
The timing of the transplanting is not that important as the plants keep growing in the trays. I usually plant when I get time, which has been as late as February. Some time in December would be nice but as I live on the gulf coast, we seldom get much of a winter and just about anytime is ok.
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Selecting the keepers
When the seedlings begin blooming for the first time, I mark the seedlings that I find interesting and would like to possibly evaluate further. Because my seedlings are grown so close together, I usually don't get to see the plant's potential until I move it to one of my evaluation beds where it has lots of room. However, I can usually get some idea of the plant's potential by how well it does under these crowded conditions. Unfortunately, I don't have enough space in the evaluation beds to keep every interesting seedling so I use the following procedure to select what get's to be further evaluated.
Each interesting bloom is assigned a number and logged in a book with some basic data such as bloom size, scape height, branching, and bud count. The number is prefixed with the first bloom year and numbered sequentially as they are entered in the book (IE: 2000-001, 2000-002, etc...). I take a digital image so I have a good record of what the bloom looks like. A numbered flag is placed right next to the plant so it can be located later.
In the fall, using my notes and the pictures I took, I pick the best of the new seedlings and move them to the evaluation bed. The evaluation bed provides the ability to see what the daylily will do when grown under good conditions as opposed to the over-crowded conditions of the seedling bed.
I let a seedling bed bloom for two years. After that, any plants not moved to the evaluation bed are discarded. I used to feel bad about discarding these hundreds of plants each year but a hybridizer has to be ruthless or he quickly runs out of room to hybridize. Yes I do discard plants that are at least as good as what you can get at your local lumber yard, but I don't have time to separate them from the ugly or poor bloomers.
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Selected seedling evaluation
Plants in the evaluation beds have their vital signs taken every year (bloom size, bud count, branching, and scape height). New images are taken to keep the archive current. Seedlings being considered for introduction will also have additional information recorded such as bloom season, foliage habit, fragrance, etc...
Each fall the evaluation plants are reviewed and seedlings that didn't live up to my expectations are removed and discarded. Some seedlings that perform well but are just like another daylily that is already registered are also removed. These are usually given away to friends and co-workers. This makes room for the newly marked seedlings.
Selecting seedlings for registration is probably the most difficult part of the evaluation. In addition to the normal requirements of good branching, bud count, plant vigor, rebloom, etc..., I ask myself "would I devote some of the limited space in my display beds to grow it" and "would I be proud to tell someone that I was the hybridizer". If I can answer yes to both questions then I will consider registering it.
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