Stout Daylilies and Iris: BUILDING BETTER FLOWERS THROUGH HYBRIDIZING


2011 Intro DUSK TO DAWN with over 30 buds and 4 branches

   Once the initial thrill of seeing what happens when one wild looking flower is crossed with another, hybridizers should be thinking about building better flowers. How do we do this and what does "better" mean? Having some idea of what's available out there, knowing the specifics of the parents to be used and keeping foremost in our minds that the goal isn't just to make a flashy daylily or iris, but to make a perennial that is an asset in the garden all year.

   When selecting parents we want healthy plants with disease resistance, good bud count and branching to handle all the buds and the flowers. The foliage is important as it's what hangs around long after the flowers are gone. Remember if one stalk of a daylily only has ten buds and a couple of branches, that's a maximum of 10 days of flowers (if they open one at a time) out of 365 days in the year! I hope you love that foliage as it will have to do for the next 355 days! We need plenty of buds and rebloom to make plants worthy of purchasing.

   Fancy flowers are the bonus and a smaller bud count can be tolerated if we have some kind of break through. For instance variegated foliage in iris is starting to make progress and would be a huge asset in the garden after the flowers fade. But the flower form is lacking as is bud count and variegation consistency.

   The goal is simple, improve the daylily or the iris by combining good habits in one plant to the good qualities of another. Put the gorgeous flower that's low on buds with a strong grower with prolific habits.
     (TO BE CONTINUED)