from the Greek Hemerocallis. and just for a day. then the flower fades into a dripping mess and quickly dries to a wisp. moving yesterday’s flower left the ‘ink’ you see on my hand. and there is little question to the size of this little beauty. a cross of Nutmeg Elf x (Blue Lustre x Radiation Biohazard. a strange combination that seems to have worked out just fine. once it is moved from the relative shade of the seedling bed it too will play just fine in the sun. three images…
8/4
yes. another Irish Lullaby seedling. this one is a cross with another seedling – Blue Lustre and Mascara Snake. this one has full formed round petals. it is not as skinny as yesterday’s flower. and it is every bit as pretty.
8/4
at least not tonight. how about this picture ? the flower is an oldie and one that has been used in crosses here before. it needs some more experimentation as i am fairly convinced there are other secrets to be revealed. Blue Lustre is the name. two images…
or shouldn’t. did you ever do something that makes someone else ask why ? scratch their head in wonder or dismay ? well this is one of those crosses. Nutmeg Elf is a small solid yellow flower. Blue Lustre is larger purple full form flower. and Radiation Biohazard is a big open star form. put them all together in one cross and what do you get ? Nutmeg Elf x(Blue Lustre x Radiation Biohazard. something fairly different. still a smallish flower. three images…
8/28
tonight’s seedling shares a relation to yesterday’s flower. cousins, one parent from last night was Trahlyta. and one of tonight’s parents is Unique Purple. these two plants are siblings. both share the quality and characteristic of color. a silver gray purple that responds to temperature and the day. some days the color is more purple and other days a very silver purple. a purple that most days darkens as the day goes on become more purple. both plants can pass this trait to their children. this seedling has picked up some height from the other half of the cross, as Unique Purple is a fairly short plant. the cross is (Blue Luster x Blast From The Past) x Unique Purple. again tonight a picture of the flower, a detail of a petal, and a picture of the parents.
this one is a little flower. one of its parents is Nutmeg Elf, yes it is little with an elf in the name. the other parent is a little bigger but not much. that seedling is Blue Lustre x Radiation Biohazard. not quite sure what Blue Lustre added to the mix, however Nutmeg Elf seems to have controlled the size and the color pattern comes from Radiation Biohazard. except for the speckles and freckles that is. those might have come on their own. and besides this seedling has decent branching too. so what is not to like ? two pictures, one a close up of those freckles.
most of the ‘ rules ‘ of what to do fall into the general folk lore category. that would include flower color. if you put together this color and that color you will get this color. i don’t recall ever hearing a formula that was purple plus purple will give you white. though some of the people were not surprised with the result. after three years of looking at this seedling it still makes me scratch my head and wonder. one of those questions is ‘ what will happen when i throw different colors in now with this white ? ‘ we will find out in time.
here are the parents
Them be the rules. Read them ! You can’t do that ! Well I don’t know exactly where they are published, though they evidently exist in some minds. Depending on your point of view that may or may not be a good thing.
Of course over the last few years I have observed that daylilies do not feel compelled to follow the rules. Oops, did I forget to tell you to sit down first ? Yes some do occasionally follow some rules. Most likely only to give those who read the rules a false sense of confidence.
I have found it is much more interesting to mix things up a bit and see just what the daylilies will reveal. Like mixing a very short yellow pink blend like Little Rainbow with a very tall lavender like Cerulean Star. The surprise is pictured below. It is just as tall as Cerulean Star and so much more purple.
Or a very old and tall plant with a little yellow four inch bloom like Autumn Minaret and cross it with a modern mid height 8 inch bloom plant like Desert Icicle. The seedling these two made is a bright yellow, brighter than either parent and tall like Autumn Minaret. The bloom is somewhere between the size of both parents.
Or lastly another throw back cross of Blast From the Past x another oldie Blue Lustre. Blast From the Past is a plant recently created – but with roots that go back to 1949. It is a child of Challenger. Blue Lustre is a bit newer, from 1980. The mix is tall, about 6 feet tall, and yellow in color crossed with mid height and purple. The child of this mix is pictured below.
I am not sure that I have learned too much beyond what the safe crosses following the rules would reveal. At least nothing that was predicted by the rules. The one thing I am sure of is the results are just as exciting. Perhaps and possibly even more exciting. Please remain seated until the ride comes to a full and complete stop. Or just jump up and down with random ‘yee haaa’ if you see something you really like. Discover new rules. It can be fun.
a north east ohio garden 