Creating a "Homestead" daylily 101
                                                                                    By David Burris, Murray, Ky.

Hello from western Kentucky. My name is David Burris, and along with my wife, Laura we grow and hybridize daylilies in the lakes region just west of Murray, Ky. Brian Mahieu of Missouri also has his hybridizing program here with us as well.
As I’m sitting here pondering my notes on what I wanted to write about, I realized that there needed to be a way to welcome new daylily people with some basic info on daylilies. To help them be more comfortable with their new found passion.
I also wanted to share some ideas and thoughts that would perhaps give some insight to people that were more experienced as well. So my solution was to address both sides of my thoughts but focusing mainly on the basics. I have never considered myself a writer so to speak, so please don’t be too judgmental if my thoughts wander from time to time. Also I would like to add that any tips, tricks, or methods I speak of in this writing are only from my experiences and what has worked for me.
I hope you enjoy my thoughts and hope after reading this that you can come away with a few new ways to look at things, or a few techniques to make life a little easier.

"Once Bitten"
Let me first warn all you "newbie’s" out there. Once you have been "bitten" by the daylily bug, your fate will be sealed.
Symptoms start out with getting a few mail-order catalogs, and getting anxious, breathing heavy and making a wish list. Then you start getting night sweats, sleeplessness and find yourself going to the internet at 2:00 am looking for the best deals on this or that flower. The last thing that seals the deal will be the discovery of the auctions and forums, where you have found others with the same systems, bidding and buying, swapping and discussing. Finally you find out through all your hard work that there is a society that brings all of this information together in one place.
That, my friends is the AHS. You will find very quickly that the people of the AHS are very informative, helpful and friendly. The AHS website offers you a wealth of information. Most members will be glad to help a newcomer find their niche and in time your new hobby will truly develop into a passion.
Here is the journey that I have made and some basic information I hope you will find helpful.

"A Galaxy Far, Far Away"
My first recollection of daylilies was the orange "ditch lilies" (H. Fulva) that grow in massive rolling streams of orange, that seem to saturate the roadsides during the summer here in west Kentucky.
As I grew older and started developing interest in gardening, (something I credit my mother with) I found that perennials were much more satisfying for me, because of the low maintenance involved with them.
I was introduced to an elderly woman by a family member, who really started the ball rolling for me. How could I have known that one visit would shape my future? Well it did.
This visit is where I was introduced to the world of daylilies that I had previously thought only orange daylilies existed.
When I saw all of the reds, yellows, purples and pinks, spiders and full forms, minis and ……you get my point. Then I turned the corner and saw H. Big Bird. My jaw dropped. Never had I seen such a massive, tall, and bright yellow as this. When the woman asked me if I would like a start of a few daylilies, I had to bite my tongue slightly, and choke down my excitement and answer "sure, I would love to have starts of a few" while on the inside I wanted to jump up and down like a kid at Christmas. I had a box full of daylilies when I left her garden that day. Some that I remember were H. Crimson Pirate, H. Black Plush, H. Grape Velvet and of course H. Big Bird.
Jumping ahead a few years found me with several more varieties in a wide range of interest. I started learning about hybridizing shortly there after and remember making a very long cross of H. Black Plush X H. Crimson Pirate. I planted hundreds of seeds from that cross, and over the next couple of years they sat and grew in a long row in my vegetable garden. The year they finally bloomed I was walking the row and thought to myself "not much different here". All were either reds or dark purple-reds and of some spider-variant form.
Late that summer after the seedlings had stopped blooming; I was tilling what was left of my veggie garden into the soil, when I noticed one of my seedlings blooming. "How this could be", I thought. At that time I knew nothing about rebloom. I looked at the little lone bloom coming off of a small scape and was shocked at what I saw. Here was something so different from all the others.
I took a photo of it so I would have a record of what it looked like. (No digital back then, just a Polaroid.)
Carefully, I divided it from the rest of the other seedlings in that row. It was just one small fan. I planted it in a special bed in the front of the house where I would hopefully see it grow for years to come.
In the next few years things in my life changed dramatically and the daylilies got put on hold. I moved around a bit for a few years and in 1998 ended up in central Nebraska. Before I moved away I relocated my daylilies to my mother’s garden, along with my little seedling. When I would visit family and friends back in Kentucky, I would always make sure to visit mom’s garden to see the daylilies in bloom. My little seedling had now grown into a mature clump and was really shining.
In 1999 I met my wife Laura, and a year later we decided to move back to Kentucky. After we settled into our new home we started moving some of my daylilies from my mother’s garden and yes, my little seedling too. While I had been soul searching over the past few years, my daylilies didn’t get a lot of care as my mother was getting older and not as able to do as much as she once could. Nevertheless my little seedling still managed to thrive.
When we dug my little seedling, I divided the clump into five pieces. From those five pieces, I kept dividing it and it kept increasing. Laura finally convinced me to take the next step and register it with the AHS. My little seedling, the one that had trudged on though thick and thin, was now going to have national recognition and have a permanent record of existence. I was nervous about how it would be received by other gardeners, but visitors to our garden all seemed to love it, and that conformation helped to put my mind to ease.
In 2004, my little seedling was registered. I remember the day the registration papers came, how excited and relieved I was. For my little seedling, coppery-salmon seedling with the dark black eye, that was a rebloomer, not a late bloomer like I first had seen, was now my first into-- H. Galaxy Explosion.

"Basic Training"
Now that I’ve shared how I arrived here with you, I felt as though I should share some basics for success in gardening with daylilies.
Daylilies for the most part are either Diploid (22 chromosomes) or Tetraploid (44 chromosomes), although there are other daylilies that are Triploid (33 chromosomes) and occasionally Aneuploid (irregular number of chromosomes). For this article we will keep with the diploids and tetraploids.
One thing I would like to emphasize is that the Tetraploid gene pool is only as deep as the amount of diploid material that has been converted to Tetraploid via induction of chemicals such as colchicines etc., or by utilizing theories of unreduced gametes. Although I do dabble in some tets, my main focus on a personal level is diploid.
When choosing plants for the garden, you should draw out a roadmap to what you want the outcome to be. Do you want small round minis, full form middle of the border plants or perhaps some towering, monster size spider and UFO’s. What colors are you seeking, and what bloom season?
Maybe you want a mix of some of each. Either way, have a plan. It’s a lot easier to shift plants on paper that in the ground.
When planting daylilies, you need to know your plants. Don’t plant a vigorous increaser one foot away from another plant or you will be dividing every year or two. But at the same token, don’t plant smaller, slower increasers three to four feet apart if you want plants to fill in quickly. It’s all about balance, and again knowing your plants.
If your new found interest takes you into hybridizing, the same rules should hold true as for growing for the garden.
Know your goals. What are your interests? Do you want to focus on diploids, tetraploids, full forms or minis, or spider and unusual forms? Do you want to breed with dormants or with evergreens? What does your zone and climates tell you?
If you live in Wisconsin you cannot possibly breed for a new line of evergreens, and if you live in south Florida it will be hard to breed a line of dormants. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just not very advantageous. What about colors? By researching parentage of possible plant choices you can get a general idea of what the outcome might be.
Just remember, for example, that crossing two yellows doesn’t always mean a yellow outcome. Both species H.citrina "Baroni" and H. Hakunensis #2 are yellow to orange but give up that color in one generation of seedlings. Cross those F-1 seedlings one more time to a good rich color and "boom" you have a line of breeding started that should have exceptional buds and branching, rock-solid hardiness, as well as gorgeous blooms. This is just one example of a path you can take. Focus, Focus and know your plants.
After you have done your research, and picked out plants to hybridize with, it’s now time to make some magic. The basics of hybridizing are pretty straight forward, so I’m going to keep it simple.
A lot of people I talk with feel it makes no difference as to which plant is the pod parent and which is the pollen parent. I’m inclined to agree somewhat, but in my own hybridizing have noticed that the pod parent side seems to pass more genetic material to the seedling in the way of plant habit, structure, and buds and branching, whereas the pollen parent side seems to have more influence on the flower itself (color, form, etc). These are just my observations and not etched in stone but something I always keep in the back of my mind when doing crosses.
Before I make a cross, I make out my cross tags (I use paper jewelers tags with cotton strings) of what the cross will be with a #2 pencil, not a pen, as a pen will fade in a few days of sunshine. I always put the pod parent on top and the pollen parent on bottom. Always date the cross so you will be able to refer back, when seeds are getting ripe (usually 30-45 days).
Go ahead and make your cross by touching the pollen of your pollen parent to the pistil of your pod parent’s bloom. Label that flower with your prewritten string tags, (or whatever you decide to use) by wrapping the string around the base of the flower, pushing it all the way to the stem, then sliding the tag back though and cinching it down snug. Congratulations you’re on your way; you are now officially a hybridizer.
If your cross has succeeded you will, in 2-3 days, see the base of the bloom swell as the flower dries up. From this point, as mentioned before, its 30-45 days until the seeds mature.
When the seed pods are ripe, they will start to crack open. Most of the time the pods will be brown but I have seen green pods crack opened in hotter weather. As long as the allotted time has passed for maturity, the seeds should be plump and black. White or light brown seeds generally are immature, they will not be viable, and should be discarded.
I carry a garden tray with me when collecting seed pods. I fill it full of paper cups so when I pull a pod, it goes into a cup with its tag. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep the tag with the seeds though the whole process.
After gathering pods for the day, go to a table and start shelling your seed pods. Each seed cross goes back into the cup with the tag, where they need to dry for 24 to 36 hours.
After drying, gently pour each cup of seeds, one at a time on the table and sort good seeds from bad ones. Bad seeds will be mushy or soft. I place the remaining good seeds into a 2" x 3" Ziploc bag along with the tag, along with the quantity marked on the outside of the bag, and seal it up. Now they go into the crisper drawer of the refrigerator until ready to plant. I leave mine in the fridge for at least 2-3 weeks minimum.
I’m not going into detail on how to plant seeds because everyone has their own way of doing that. Basically whether you plant in pots or in the ground, plant seeds about 1" deep. Whether in a greenhouse, or outside in warm weather, the seeds will usually germinate in 7-14 days on average. I usually add some bone meal into the soil, this will give the roots of the new seedlings a boost to help them establish quicker. I also us a product called Nitrozyme (an organic growth hormone extracted from North Atlantic kelp), to help the seedlings grow and establish quickly, but most any balanced fertilizer will work.
If planted in the ground, I plant my seeds in cross groups, spaced about 8-10 inches apart. If in pots, the whole seed crop of that cross goes into a pot or in 2 pots if needed. I always tag my crosses clearly and make a map of the bed where they are located.

"Only the Strong Survive"
As the summer trudges on, the heat and droughts no doubt set in. It is now that you need to start watching your seedlings closely and start weeding out the weaker ones. I plant so close that usually the weaker ones get crowded out by the stronger, more vigorous ones. By summer’s end its time to start digging up your seedling crosses, or unpotting them, depending on which technique you decided on. Either way it’s time to transplant in the place where they will be growing until maturity. Any seedlings that do not show vigor and good root structure at this point are culled and composted. Some say I’m a little to extreme when it comes to culling but in today’s ever changing climate, I feel as though it s a crucial step one must take.

"Making the Grade"
My culling process is very straightforward, when transplanting new seedlings, any that have poor root structure, or are small and puny as compared to the rest of the cross are composted. When transplanted, those seedlings that do not "bounce back" and thrive, are toast.
Over the winter months, I check constantly for winter damage, bad foliage (especially semi-evergreens) and for frost heave (an indicator of poor root growth). Any plant showing any of these issues is pulled up and tossed into the compost pile.
Then the next spring and summer, I look for insect damage, leaf streak and rot. Any that exhibit this are composted immediately. Once scapes form, I look for higher bud counts and good branching. Without good, open branching, all the buds in the world won’t do much good because they will not have adequate space to open well. Any showing a scape that resembles a wishbone with a few buds on top are also composted.
Keep something in mind, all of this culling is done BEFORE I allow anything to even bloom. At this point, I’ll bet that visions from long ago from "The Soup Nazi" from The Seinfeld Show come to mind.
This is a crucial step one needs to take to guarantee that the daylily doesn’t end up as an expensive annual.
"Fire and Ice"
The year 2007 was a challenging one at best for daylilies here in the southeast. But even here, with severe drought and 21 straight days of triple digit heat, (one day it hit 113) I still felt it was one of the best years we ever had with daylilies. What, you say? How is this possible?
When everyone was complaining about the freeze on Easter (4 nights down to 13 degrees) after the warmest March on record (average 82 degrees) I was watching my plants be naturally tested and culled. Had I not paid close attention to what the plants were doing, I would have never known that I had some seedlings that acted like they had antifreeze in there veins, or the plants I had admired so much the year before, really were not as hardy as I thought they were. I say "bring on the extremes" we need them to help us do what we other wise would probably not be able to do on our own.
In mid May, the rain stopped. We did not have one drop of rain from May 14th through July 2nd. None! Again I slowly started to watch as all of the lush green turn brown, and finally disappear into the ground.
No water you say? Sure, I have water and could have watered everyday if needed, but instead I saw this extreme as yet another test. Two lucky breaks to test hardiness in one season. How lucky can one get! I intentionally withheld water until bloom season was well underway, so I could see the direct effects of the one-two punch of the heat and drought. Granted, I didn’t get as good a pod set as I would have normally had in a wetter year, but the ones that did exhibit good plant habits, and bud and branching you can set assured will be even better in most garden settings.
The rains came on July 2nd and it rained 6 inches in 3 days. After that point, I went ahead and started watering our hybridizing beds so we could get some seeds before bloom season was over. Did we get seeds? Sure did. Did we get as many as in a "normal season"? Probably not, but we still ended up with close to 1,000 crosses. Enough to keep me busy for a while. And besides, what is more important? A few lost seeds, or establishing a whole line of breeding that is exceptionally hardy in our ever-changing and volatile climate.
"Here a weed, there a weed"
Weed control is one of the most problematic things we all face as gardeners. A variety of strategies can be put in place so you spend less time weeding, and more time gardening.
There are two basic classes of "weedy" plant life you will encounter, broadleaf weeds and grasses. Both have varieties that are perennial, annual and bi-ennial. There is also another group called sedges that are extremely hard to get rid of once established and are in a class all of their own. Because of the risk to my blood pressure going through the roof, I will not be discussing sedges.
For control of broadleaf weeds, I use a product called Amine 400 2, 4-d at the mix rate of 1 ounce per gallon of water. Depending on the severity of the weed outbreak, I may choose to either spot-spray for minor weed outbreaks, or for bad infestations spray over the top of the beds.
Although I have seen some twisting of daylily foliage for a few days after spraying, I have seen no lasting affects over one week or so. One week after spraying I’m left with nothing but clean beds of green daylily foliage.
For control of grasses, I spray a product by the name of Hi-Yield Grass Killer, also at the same spray rate of 1 ounce per gallon of water. I have never seen any side affects on daylilies when this product is sprayed, even directly on them. Total kill of grasses usually takes between 7-10 days. To maximize results, both products should be used early on in the season when weeds and grasses are young. They both work best on hot sunny days with temp in the 80’s or higher.
Another method of weed control is spraying Roundup directly over the top of the daylilies while they are either dormant or growth is dramatically slowed by winter. I usually will do this to kill off winter weeds and grasses to help me get control of them before spring. This method has worked well for us in the past and we usually combine the use of all three sprays mentioned during the course of a season to give us more time gardening and less time weeding.
Note: Please use all safety precautions when spraying herbicides of any kind. The chemicals mentioned here in the weed control section, in no way guarantee that kill off could not occur if protocols are not followed. Please do not use, if in doubt of these techniques mentioned. This is what has worked for me only and do not want to imply that damage or loss may not occur. I will say, that I have never personally lost a single plant using these techniques.
If chemicals are not your cup of tea, then perhaps tilling and hand weeding is the avenue you should take. Although considerable more work is involved, the outcome is much more "organic" in the long run.
I’m constantly tilling between rows not only to help eliminate weeds, but to keep the soil from compacting and to add compost as well. If you own a roto tiller and have time to hand weed that’s always the better way, but it’s nice to have a backup plan with some chemicals in case things get out of hand.
Because I till so much during the year, I do not use mulch in the production beds. Mulch is great if used on top of undisturbed soil where it can work properly. If using mulches, make sure you get aged mulch and not mulch that is freshly made or "green" as I like to say. "Green" mulches can do two things to your plants. 1) They can burn the plants by the release of resins that have not yet broken down. 2) They can deplete the soil around the area of precious nitrogen, as they begin to break down. Both of these problems can be avoided by simply using aged mulch.

"Bugs, Good vs. Evil"
I hear quite often people worrying about their daylilies succumbing to pests. What to spray, what not to spray. My advice concerning insects and daylilies is simple. Let natural predation take control. Here, in our gardens, we have a huge ladybug population, which once established in the spring, keep our plants pest free all year. Be very careful in considering spraying for "bad bugs" because it’s inevitable that you will also wipe out the "good bugs" while doing so. The aphids usually hatch out 2 weeks or so before the ladybugs and yes, they usually get a head start on damaging plants. But once the ladybugs establish for the season in early spring, they quickly launch there assault and wipe out the aphids totally and completely in just a few short days…I have literally counted upwards of 100 or more ladybugs on a single clump. If you do not have "ladies" in your gardens you can get them mail order or possibly locally at a garden center and get them established in your own garden. Once the population increases to a large number, let them do their thing and you will see to that ladybugs are right for you.
Note: If you do choose to spray insecticides, please read the labels carefully as most will kill "good bugs" as well as "bad bugs."

"Abracadabra"
Tricks and tips, and bits of redneck wisdom
I would just like to take a minute and review a few things and share a few tricks and tips I have learned along the way, hopefully, so you can avoid mistakes I have made.

1) Of all things that are important to daylilies, the most would have to be water. You can forget about fertilizing, deadheading, spraying or whatever. But do not underestimate the power to adequately hydrated daylilies.
2) Cull your seedlings feverishly so as not to introduce an inferior plant into the marketplace.
3) When selecting parents for a possible cross, do your homework, because what you think you will see is many times not what you will get. (Remember, yellow X yellow doesn’t always equal yellow)
4) Don’t always go with traditional thinking that diploids have to be crossed with diploids and tetraploids with tetraploids. Experiment around a bit. You never know what could happen.
5) To achieve an explosion of hybrid vigor, either backcross or outcross to species or interspecies crossed plants.
6) Try night hybridizing, especially if you’re having trouble setting pods on your nocturnal daylilies. Temps are generally cooler at night and sometimes a welcome relief from summer’s heat. Also don’t be afraid to "open up" blooms the night before on diurnal (day blooming) varieties. Your crosses will be much purer this way.
7) If you are having trouble with the end of the pistil(stigma) being dry and void of stigmatic fluid, break a donor pistil from an unused bloom nearby and squeeze some of fluid onto the bloom you are wanting to pollinate. Then dab your pollen as usual. You will be amazed at how your pod set percentages will increase.
8) Be persistent. If a cross doesn’t take the first time, try again. If after a few tries you still do not get pod set, check the plants, and parentages of those plants to see if there are sterility issues. Again, know your plants!
9) Leave a small amount of your beds or yard natural. Let a few weeds grows in certain areas. If there are no places for "bad bugs" to hang out, then beneficial insects will not have prey and will eventually leave the area. It’s all about balance.
10) Take care of weed and grass issues aggressively. That 2" tall weed you could have handled today will be 2’ tall after 4 days of that unsuspected rain you knew would miss your garden.
11) Incorporate composts and natural fertilizers whenever possible to keep the soil alive and healthy.
12) When developing a "line" of daylilies, be different. Do something that hasn’t been done yet. Put your "stamp" on your line so it is easily recognized.

So what does it all mean?

In conclusion, I would like to say that daylilies can be very rewarding with a minimum of care, compared to most other perennials and plants. What I wanted to accomplished by writing this was to give newcomers (growers and hybridizers alike) a brief overview of the basics for daylily success. I didn’t attempt to target seasoned veterans in this writing, as we all have different opinions of what works and what doesn’t. But that is what makes the AHS such a great place. Everyone has tips they can share and a lot of knowledge to pass on. The next generation of daylily people, will no doubt be able to take our beloved plant to even more exciting levels. I’m sure blooms will get bigger, taller, or perhaps shorter and smaller. The one thing I hope we all never loose sight of is that selecting for the plant should come before the bloom. With this mentality, rest assured that daylilies will always be found on the "old homestead" long after we are gone.