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Daylilies made in Europe 


 
Apricot (Yeld, 1893)
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.

  • Newer Registered European Daylilies
  • European Hybridizer with its Registered Daylilies

  • 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).

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