did i lead into that gently ? did i leave room for more words ? or did i tell the whole story in the title ? i just might have. is it too late to say it is a nice open star shape and that the color of the eyezone repeats on the sepals ? now about that flower…
some seedlings lead to other things. perhaps not all do. this seedling has been around since 2011. it has a pretty pattern. i am not sure there has been any next plants. there may be some crosses this summer. and it may just move out of the garden to make space for other seedlings. the shuffle of what stays and what goes continues. sometimes the choices are easy. and sometimes less so…
seedlings and plants with Trahlyta heritage. these and a few others are here in the garden. and just in case you are in doubt this line of plants hold my interest. first Trahlyta…
saw an unusual sight the other day. it was not that there were several hundred birds mobbing the feeders. it was just that for the 4th day of the new year several birds seemed to be very out of place. actually more out of time. out of season. red wing black birds are a sign of spring around here. they are gone in winter. yet on that day there was not just one red wind black bird. instead there were four. they were there for only a moment. and then with the other hundreds they were gone. still with their red shouldered wings they lit the beacons of unusual. strangely enough the feeders needed refilling that afternoon. now back to something slightly less unusual, a daylily. or at least the image of one from last summer… and should you be paying close attention this is Jack Sprat not Orchid Majesty. it seems they were transposed in the garden. and only now are things being temporarily set aright…
yesterday’s purple was a diploid. 22 chromosomes. this one is a tetraploid. 44 chromosomes. you can plant them in the same garden. you can plant them side by side. however if you are thinking of making seeds from the two of them prepare for frustration. prepare for disappointment. prepare for another level of confusion and chaos. a cross between a diploid and a tetraploid is rare. it can occasionally happen. and that will lead to other confusions. what are the new seedlings – are they dips or tets ? you have to cross it with a flower known to be a tet or known to be a dip and see if the cross results in seeds. the alternative is very expensive lab equipment.
vocabulary. qualities. vision. daylilies come in many different sizes, colors, and color patterns. and there is more than that. they come in shapes and textures. they come with the ability to hold color and others come with the ability to change color. and in some ways they come with the ability to respond to their environment. give them more water and in many circumstances it will result in either a bigger flower or more bloom. that more bloom can take several forms. it can result in scapes with more branching and more flower buds. it can also result in bigger blooms. and it can result in plants that send up rebloom scapes after the first one has finished blooming. in short they can and are very responsive to changes in their environment. their ability for variety and responsiveness often challenge our ability to talk about then. sometime we find ourselves at a lack of words to describe a quality that differentiates one plant or one flower from another. over time the vocabulary for different can be developed. and we can mover from speechless to levels of verbosity. and then a different daylily comes along and we find new and different ways to say wow…
take the pollen from this plant and put it on that plant. take the new plant from that one and put some of this pollen on it. look at the new plants from those crosses. make choices and try it another time. keep finding changes you like. changes that are little. changes that are bigger. let them build. one of the first plants in one of these building experiments is South Seas x Highland Pinched Fingers . it was crossed to the yellow seedling next to it. the new seedling is next and it was crossed with Lullaby of Birdland. that produced the 14-063 seedling. and that was crossed back to the 11-082 seedling again to get to the last seedling 16-100. you don’t have to memorize the begats. the pictures are in order…
pick up a flower any flower you might choose and apply your whims. whether it is the color or the mix of colors, or some other quality and wish a few or all of those elements into the next edition of that flower. the first flower below is as good as example as any. and one that so far is untried. what to take and where to take it ? well the flower will have a bit to say about that. actually both flowers the pollen and the pod parent. so it will be a bit of wish and a bit of we will see. and then there is a bit of practical experience. the two parents are Naked X-ray Technician and Kyoto Swan. both of them in the purples color range. and two different days of what i am fairly sure are the same seedling from those two parents. one day with a bit of sculptural shaping of the flower. and both of them demonstrating the ability of purples to respond to changes in the weather and temperature. they can and often do drift from the red to blue shades of purple from one day to another. so back to the first question. pick a flower both pod and pollen parent. how would you guide the next iteration ?
so these are the plants that went into both Yin and Yang. Prague Spring × Capulina) × (Satchmo × Lola Branham make up the cross. i guess i need to take another picture of Capulina. there is no tag to help me find it. and i am not going through two or three thousand pictures in the hope i do find it. having that many pictures is both a blessing and a curse. fun to go through if there is the time. and a pain if there is no tag to help find just one specific flower. so here are the parent plants and Yin and Yang…
these first two images are courtesy of the AHS database
not. you can’t always get it. i plant about five seeds from each cross. most of the time i am hoping for long skinny petals. a little twist and dance would be nice too. of course just a step forward would be nice even if that other stuff is still on order. the cross is Black Falcon Ritual x Vertical Horizon. Black Falcon Ritual does have somewhat long and somewhere between fat and not fat petals. height and color came across in an interesting fashion. skinny not so much yet. however it might be possible in the next generation. sometimes possible is a good start…
a north east ohio garden 
