The hybridizing of daylilies goes back to the end of the 19th century. In 1893
George Yeld showed the first human made daylily hybrid; it was a cross between
the species H. lilioasphodelus x
H. middendorffii which he called APRICOT (see picture above).
George Yeld has introduced 37 daylily cultivars between 1893 and 1937.
Beside George Yeld there was another Englishman who bred daylilies for some decades, his
name was Amos Perry (1871-1953). He introduced 279 daylily cultivars, but most of them are
probably lost and no longer cultivated anywhere. On the European continent there were at the
beginning of the 20th century mainly two other persons hybridizing daylilies, namely
Charles Sprenger and Willy Mueller in Italy. But soon, may be due the the first world war the
hybridizing was mainly done in the USA by persons like A.B. Stout, Nesmith, Sass, etc. and
Europe missed the bus. This was certainly caused by the two World Wars and the time afterwards
to rebuild Europe. Also in Europe the daylilies are not so well known and not so
often seen in nurseries and garden centres. But in the past decades the interest
started to grow slowly and there are some hybridizers living in Europe that are
known at least under European daylily enthusiasts. Probably the three best known
European hybridizers at the moment are Tomas Tamberg (Germany), Harald Juhr (Germany)
and Marc King (Italy). But there are more and more to come and you can find out who and
with what by using the below listed links.
A rather complete list of European hybridizer and its cultivars can be found
in the attached Excelfile
(approx. 1.9 MB in size; the last 1-2 years are still incomplete).