Hemerocallis Europa : Hemerocallis hybridizing (engl.)

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Hemerocallis Europa e.V.

Hemerocallis hybridizing

The hybridization of daylilies started shortly before the Englishman George Yeld showed his first daylily cultivar called APRICOT to the public in 1892. Since then more than 55000 human made daylilies got registered and it is almost unbelieveable what was achieved in such short time. Patterns and colours which can not be found in any of the Hemerocallis species are meanwhile present in many cultivars, and there is no sign of having reached its end. Probably in some years also the missing colours of pure white and blue will be achieved and patterns will be even more complex than today. But there are other things on the hybridizers wishlist like longer flowertime, longer flower season, staying green in winter also in colder climates without getting muddy and yellow, and much more; especially also all the different possible combinations of all these traits.

If you are now more interested in daylily hybridizing, here are some basic infos:

pollination (i.e. putting pollen on the stigma) is normally more successful on newly open flowers then on almost spent flowers
pollination is normally more successful when done not during the hot parts of the day (i.e. it is better to do it in the morning or for nocturnal flowers in the evening)
pollinations between diploid and tetraploid plants is possible but very often not successful (sometimes diploid plants produce unreduced gametes which can be used to pollinate tetraploid plants; some diploid plants are known for producing regularly unreduced gametes)
the seed pods should be harvested when they start opening or getting dry (if you harvest the seeds too early they may not germinate; if you wait until the pod opens, you may loose the seeds that already dropped off and maybe unknown seedlings may develop within a clump of a known cultivar
if you plan to store the seeds in plastic bags before sowing them out, please make sure that the seeds are not wet or too humid (one can store them a few days at room temperature before placing them into the plastic bags)
the seeds can either be sown out in autumn or in spring; most people in colder climate zones sow them out in spring and overwinter them in plastic bags in the refrigerator
for germination the seeds need to be in humid soil (slightly covered with a little bit of earth); during and after germination the earth should not get dry, but should also not be too wet (they are no waterplants)
in order to know what results you can expect, it is preferrable to note on a attached label at least from which cultivar the seeds come from

If you are now even more interested in daylily hybridizing, and want to do it a little bit more professionally, here are some further tips:

when pollinating, mark the pollinated flower with a weather-proof label (paper is not recommended; plastic labels are much better on which a number or some characters can be noted and be attached to the pedicel of the pollinated flower via a thin cord)
if you want to increase the chance that the pollen grains are not eaten by e.g. the hoover flies after pollination, protect the stigma e.g. with a cylinder hat out of tin foil (this also protects against pollination with other pollen)
keep track of your pollinations in a log-book with e.g. the following information (date, internal number/characters written on the label of the pollinated flower, pod parent, pollen parent and maybe intent of the cross)
as not every pollination is successful, repeat the same pollination on several flowers (hopefully a few will produce some seeds)
do not pollinate everything with everything; please make first your thoughts what traits you like to combine or what results you like to get (also sometimes these "lucky pollinations" can produce nice or unpredictable results)
if the plants which you like to pollinate do not flower at the same time, you can also store pollen and use it later (please see also HE pollen exchange for further info)
do not mix the seeds of different pods; maybe despite having them pollinated with the same parent pollen, they may have different pollen on them due to hover flies which eat the pollen but may also accidentally put other pollen on the stigma
set a few goals before starting with hybridization and do not change them every few years; professional hybridizers stick to their goals for many years, that way they produce breeding lines for these goals and get with every new generation closer to the goal
do not sow the seeds too closely especially if you have enough room; it is difficult to separate young seedlings without hurting them too much (the closer they are the more difficult it is; the longer you wait to separate them, the more roots will be violated; if the seedlings already started to have more than one fan, it is no longer clear if a fan belongs to this or that seedling)
do not throw away a seedling after the first year of flowering; the very first flower as well as the first year of flowering may not show how it really looks like when the plant is really mature in the following year(s); the changes in the following year(s) maybe to the positive as well as negative side; please note that unusual forms may not be seen in the first year of flowering and that first years flower have normally smaller segments (i.e. tepals)
if you have produced a seedling which you like to introduce, please register it at the AHS (= American Hemerocallis Society); even if you do not plan to make money with this seedling, the money is well invested especially with every additional information which is delivered for the registration (parents, branching, number of buds, ...); you as a potential professional hybridizer also like to have this information for the plants with which you hybridize (for registering a seedling, please see http://www.daylilies.org/AHSregister.html)

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