To Hybridize Daylilies: Initial Steps

New daylily hybrids in the raised bed, May 2012

I've been interested in hybridizing daylilies for the last two years. The first year, I grew my dayliliy collection, considered different breeding goals, and built a raised bed for the new hybrids. Last summer, I made a lot of crosses. I visited my garden early in the morning armed with bug spray and a toothpick. Now, half of the raised bed is full of my new hybrids. It’s very exciting!

Daylily seedlings started in a box, March 2012

I'm raising three crosses this summer: 'Fooled Me' x 'Pat Garrity,' 'Janice Brown' x 'Beautiful Edgings,' and 'Beautiful Edgings' x 'Janice Brown.' 'Fooled Me' and 'Pat Garrity' have orange flowers with a red eye. 'Janice Brown' is a gorgeous pink. 'Beautiful Edgings' is probably my favorite diploid, and it has a yellowish, pink, and white flower with a variable edge. We'll see what happens!

I harvested seeds in August and September and then refrigerated them. I planted the seeds into 20 oz styrofoam cups in early February. I drilled holes in the bottom of the cups and filled them with a mix of vermiculite, seedling mix, and a little dirt. The cups were placed in a cat litter box and kept under continuous florescent light (about 40 watts).

'Janice Brown' x 'Beautiful Edgings' = ?

I've killed a lot of seedlings in the last ten years, and most deaths were caused by improper watering. For my precious dayliliy seedlings, I watered from the bottom by flooding the litter boxes weekly. Every once in a while I watered the top, but I was careful about it. Problems develop, in my experience, when the top becomes too soggy or if the vegetation becomes too wet.

'Beautiful Edgings' x 'Janice Brown' = ?

I planted about forty seeds and half of them germinated. In April, most of the twenty or so seedlings developed multiple leaves. Orange roots started to poke out of the cup bottoms. At this stage, I transitioned the seedlings to the cold frame. The transition was slow and careful. At first, I put them out only a few hours at a time, and I brought them indoors when the overnight low dropped into the 40s (F). 

'Fooled Me' x 'Pat Garrity' = ?

In May, after they were adequately hardy, I placed them in the raised bed where they will stay until they flower. That might happen next summer, but a lot can happen between now and then. Stay tuned!

Total Dessication

Making your own daylily hybrids is all fun and games, but what if the two daylilies you want to cross aren't in bloom at the same time? The daylily breeder needs a method of preserving pollen for future use. The Internet has no shortage of opinions, but my four key go-to sources here are: Daylilies: The Perfect Perennial by Lewis and Nancy Hill, Oscie B. Whatley Jr.'s essay The Art of Hybridizing, John Peat and Ted Petit's The New Encyclopedia of Daylilies, and (even though it's not lily-specific) Moulton's Orchids from Seeds for Pennies. 

You'll find some variation in the advice but the experts are consistent about one point: the pollen needs to be dry. Moisture is the enemy of pollen.

A lot of the advice suggests storing pollen in the refrigerator because of its dryness. Some argue that freezing the pollen is better because you can extend its use to the next growing season. The trade-off, however, is that freezers lack proper air conditioning. 

Are you still awake?

First, we need to acknowledge that rain can always ruin our morning pollen collection and application efforts. The breeder should collect pollen early in the morning before humidity corrupts it. My pollen collection skills improved over the course of the summer and I tried a variety of techniques and tools. The easiest method, in my opinion, involves plucking the pollen with a pair of small scissors and shoveling it into a folded Post-It note. 

The pollen goes into a dessication chamber for 12-24 hours. For this purpose I'm using a canning jar with a piece of mesh cloth to create a platform inside the glass. I stir Damp Rid into a 1/4 cup of water until it gets thick, creating a "super saturated solution."

The final step requires a some kind of case, empty pill bottles, weekly pill cases, Damp-Rid, and a drill with a small bit. I store the pill cases in a plastic box. I use a small pill container (with holes drilled in the top and on the sides) with Damp Rid. Some of the weekly pill cases have holes drilled into the inside chambers with the final chamber containing a little bit of Damp Rid. Other pill cases have holes drilled into the top. 

We'll see how it works out next season! 

Sharks, Seed Pods, and Patience

'Colony' (Tankesley-Clarke, 2004)

This is 'Colony,' a 2004 introduction by Eric and Bob Tankesley-Clarke. Let's dispense with the obvious criticisms: the form is a little mangled and it lacks desired bilateral symmetry. It might be due to grower error, its relative newness in the garden, and/or the streak of insane July heat we've experienced in Kansas. I know it might look washed out but (trust me) the color combo is dazzling: lavender, cream, and metallic. The cultivar is a cross between 'Wedding Band' (the "pod parent") and 'Desert Empress' (the "pollen parent"). You can see the influence of 'Wedding Band' in the gold edgings. Like 'Wedding Band,' photographs fail to convey its beauty, but a close-up is the next best thing. 

'Colony,' ready for its close-up

In the first photo, you see a green seed pod ripening on the scape. It's 'Spacecoast Scrambled' x 'Cosmic Sensation.' 'Cosmic Sensation' was probably my favorite this year owing to the vivid purple/white color contrast and the shark-toothed edging. Keeping with the theme, I recently purchased Elizabeth Shooter's 2001 introduction 'Playing With Sharks.' I bought it from Blue Ridge Daylilies, the only daylily vendor on Cats and Catts "Kitty Approved!" list. I'm on the lookout for 'Barracuda Bay' (Salter 1996) and 'Iwanna Piranha' (Kinnebrew 2006). In the meantime, my ('Spacecoast Scrambled' x 'Cosmic Sensation') could be the next Stout Silver Medal winner, or birds and bugs could be devouring the pod as you are reading this. Smart money will bet on the latter.

My latest MUST HAVE -- 'Playing With Sharks'

 The garden has only a few more blooms left before it closes down for the season. Daylily seed pods take about 40 days to mature from the day of pollination, so I need to stay with the daylily garden into early September to harvest the seeds. Plant-wise, I'll be enveloped into the orchid world from September to March. In March, daylily seedlings (started indoors) will go into the cold frame. Fireworks from the established daylilies will begin a few months later, but only after I've been thoroughly distracted by daffodils and tulips.


Gardening seems like it requires a great deal of patience, but I'm not so sure. I have orchids, daylilies, and other perennials at different stages of growth. I never need to be patient because there's always something in bloom, something in a death spiral, and everything in between. Every gardening day brings new challenges and joys, just like life. 

All That Glitters

This is 'Glitter Gal' (Mix 2005). I purchased it last year at the Topeka Daylily Sale. It's hard to believe that someone was willing to part with it, but it only produced three flowers for me this year and it might have done less for its last owner. It's a long way from the 6-way branching and 45 bud count promised in the catalogs. You have to have patience if you're going to court a glitter gal.

In other news, I'm on twitter. Follow me! But know I'm using it as an all-purpose account, so you'll find my political retweets and nutty Katy Perry updates right alongside the orchid and flower posts. 

Pollen Pushers

'Siloam David Kirchhoff'

I'm not the only one who collects pollen in the early morning. I compete with the insects, and they're probably having more luck than me. Some of my crosses have been a complete bust. I want to blame the weather, but I probably could've done a better job watering the garden. I took the resilience of the daylily for granted. The seed pods need hydrated soil to develp properly. 

'Fooled Me' x 'Pat Garrity' has produced nice pods and I'm almost confident I will have something to harvest in a few weeks. 'Janice Brown' x 'Beautiful Edgings' also shows promise. Other crosses might come through with a pod or two and, with a little luck, I'll have enough to fill the raised bed for next season. It's all a big experiment. Hybridizing daylilies might seem like it takes an extraordinary amount of patience, but it occurs with lightening fast speed compared to seed-to-flower time for orchids. And I kind of like the slow pace. 

I Love the Smell of Diethyl-meta-toluamide in the Morning

Early morning pollination

DEET doesn't smell like victory, but it allows me to leave the daylily garden without a ghastly array of chigger and mosquito bites. It's important for me to be outside during the summer months for at least two to three hours a day. The early morning is ideal. I collect daylily pollen, make crosses, water the orchids, take a few bird photos, and settle into work. Forgive me for talking about the weather, but the Midwest summer morning always seems like it's going to last longer than it does. For instance, it's a lovely 83 degrees right now and, although I know it's going to surpass 100 today, the perfection feels like it could last forever. Why wouldn't it?

'Beautiful Edgings' (Copenhaver 1989)

The extreme weather hurts the viability of my daylily crosses, but there's not much I can do. I made about twenty today and I will be happy if one or two set seed. Like so many things in gardening/life, hybridizing involves a balancing act. On one side, I'm playing a Darwinian numbers game. I want to make a large number of crosses in the hope that a smaller number of them survive. Then, I'll select from the best of the survivors the following season. On the other side, I don't want to make too many crosses because doing too much dilutes my efforts. My garden could produce nearly 100 hybrid combinations despite its small size, but when would I have time to water and care for the orchids? 

Here's my modest list of June crosses (the first name listed is the pod parent and the second name refers to the pollen parent):

'Early Snow' x 'Cosmic Sensation'

'Fooled Me' x 'Pat Garrity'

'Spacecoast Scrambled' x 'Royal Renaissance'

'Peach Candy' x 'Royal Renaissance'

'Cheddar Cheese' x 'Pat Garrity'

'Janice Brown' x 'Beautiful Edgings'

'Pat Garrity,' I hope, gives its offspring flatness and a giant red eye zone. I'm looking at 'Royal Renaissance,' 'Cosmic Sensation,' and 'Beautiful Edgings' to impart an awe-inspiring edge to their kids. The notion that my crosses will result in this greatness is wishful thinking (hence the Darwinian numbers game), but -- like the lottery -- you can't win if you don't play.

'Fooled Me' (Reilly-Hein 1990)

The month of June evaporated on me with unpredictable quickness, but July affords me more time to update you on the daylilies, the orchids and, of course, the kitties. Hello July!

Cosmic Sensation

It's daylily time! I know it's that time of year because I have a slew of mosquito bites. Do you remember the scene in "The Right Stuff" (1983) where the astronauts undergo a battery of tests? And do you remember how one of the tests entailed Sam Shepard being stabbed in the flesh between his thumb and forefinger to test his pain tolerance? Mosquitoes bites on the hands are not on the list of world problems, but maybe they should be. 

Enough mosquito talk... Some of the new cultivars I purchased are starting to show their stuff. So far, 'Cosmic Sensation' (Salter 2002) is my favorite. The white shark-toothed edge jumps off of the lush purple background. It's been a generous bloomer and the flowers are perfectly spaced on the top of the scape. 

'Pat Garrity' (Stamile 2002) is another standout. The gold is bright and clear, but the strengths of this flower are its flatness and huge red eye. "Flat" is a relative concept when it comes to daylilies and -- compared to hybridizing programs for many orchids -- it's not coveted as an important breeding goal. The red eye is impressive because, despite the size of the eye zone, the break between the gold and the red is clean and unmuddied.

Finally, here's a cultivar I bought at the Topeka Daylily Club annual sale ('Oklahoma Kicking Bird' by Marley, 1987). The bloom is gigantic! I'm not immediately drawn to spider-form and unusual-form daylilies, but this one might win me over.

'Griffin's Hello World'

In daylily circles, it's considered especially poor form to name a cross that's not officially registered with the American Hemerocallis Society.  This make sense.  If everyone named their crosses willy-nilly then tracking the parentage of different cultivars is that much more difficult.  As Oscie Whatley noted over twenty years ago in The Art of Hybridizing "Such fervor to stake a name claim hasn't been equaled since the Oklahoma land rush.  Consequently many a good name has been gobbled up forever by cultivars soon forgotten" (pg. 25-6).  Relatedly, a breeder shouldn't register a cross unless it contributes to the overall universe of daylily hybrids.  A named daylily should be exceptional. 


So, I'm committing some grave sins here, but at least I'm aware of it and making a public confession.  I tried several crosses this summer but this is the only one that worked, and this is the only seedling that sprouted this autumn. Griffin is standing watch over 'Griffin's Hello World' (noid pink daylily x 'Siloam David Kirschoff').  I decided to document it now because it could easily die on me.  I've done my homework, but daylily hybridizing is definitely a learning-by-experience endeavor.  Given its infancy, it's ridiculous that I would name it, even for internal record-keeping.  Yet, I wanted to make note of the small victory.

I did, however, check the Tinker's Gardens database to see if it's already taken (there's a 'Hello World' from 1966, but no 'Griffin') -- I'm not that much of a daylily barbarian. 

Insane in the Cold Frame: A Cats and Catts Instructional Essay

By BDo & Bean

This Cats and Catts instructional essay discusses how to build a multi-use cold frame.  You can use it for specific cold-tolerant orchids, and a cold frame can extend the time some of your orchids can stay outdoors. Cold frames can become an integral part of vegetable gardening or, you can do what I’m going to do, and use it to germinate daylily seedlings.

There are plenty of cold frames kits for sale online and plenty of internet advice about how to build one, but I promise you that my Insane Cold Frame design is the best.

The reason that this is the Best Cold Frame Design Ever is because I designed it with Selena Sabine by my side and her tail whacked at my hand as I sketched the diagram, thus inserting the proper degree of torque and resistance into the design plan.  I drafted it on the back of an envelope for an added element of professionalism. 

The other great thing about the Insane Cold Frame is that you can build it with minimal sawing as long as you take all of your measurements ahead of time, walk into Home Depot with a plan, and have them saw your wood for you free of charge.  If you take advantage of this service, you lose some control over the building process, but you can save time, avoid the shame of making miscalculations at home, and everything will easily fit in the car without bungee cords or back injury.

Step 1: Find the Sash

You need to design around the window top, or what horticultural types call the “sash.”  Don’t do anything or buy any supplies until you have the glass sash.  You might find something appropriate at a garage sale or thrift store.  Or you can do all of your shopping at Home Depot.  The important thing is to take a careful measurement of the dimensions of the window frame.  You need to know the length and width of the wood or aluminum frame -- not the dimensions of the glass.  Those two numbers are important, so take multiple measurements just to be careful.

Step 2: Make a Shopping List

Ideally, your cold frame will face South and will maximize the space running West to East.  Therefore, it’s going to be wider in the front compared to the sides. 

You’re trying to build a wood frame that will fight snugly around the sash, so add ½ inch to the width and length measurements of the window frame (I forget my exact mathematical reasoning for adding a ½ inch, but it worked out).  This will give you a small number (the width of the glass frame as it will run along the side of the cold frame plus ½ inch) and a big number (the length of the front and back of the wood or aluminum frame plus ½  inch).

Here’s what you need:

* One piece of WeatherShield 2 in. x 4 in. x 7 foot Prime Pressure Treated Lumber.  

* Several pieces of WeatherShield 2 in. x 6 in. x 8 foot Prime Pressure Treated Lumber.  I pulled about six boards, but I think the guy only needed to use four for my 33” x 35” frame.

* Two skinny pieces of 1 in. x 2 in. boards, enough to run across the front (that may or may not be sold in the same section as the other lumber).

* You’ll also need a box of 3” or 3 1/2” screws, a box of 1” deck screws, a cabinet handle, two heavy-duty hinges, and paint.

Step 3: Shopping

Find one of those over-sized steel grocery cart contraptions, preferably one with a broken wheel.  Roll over to the WeatherShield lumber.

My Home Depot strategy relies on the kindness of strangers instead of math.  You’ll want a specified number of 2x4s and 1x2s, but the number of 2x6s depends upon the size of the glass frame.  You don’t have to be precise – just get more than you think you need and load them on the metal cart.

Sidebar: Have you ever bought lumber from Home Depot?  I think it’s like buying yogurt – you might want to reach back beyond the first few rows to get the freshest product.  The wood that previous customers have rejected as too twisty or John Merrick-like often remains in the front of the stack.  If you want to look like you know what you’re doing and, perhaps, avoid buying bum lumber, set it at a diagonal and stare down its length.  Do you see any weirdness on that flat plane?  Then, set the board down on the concrete.  Does it lay flat?  A good Home Depot employee will help you inspect the boards and will be honest in rejecting the ones that are lousy.  A bad Home Depot employee will try to rush you by grabbing the first board he sees and will try to put it in your cart before you have a chance to detect its faults.  I’ve experienced both, with the former outnumbering the latter.

Step 4: Requesting the Cuts

The Home Depot team is often busy helping other customers.  It would seem that risking permanent injury cutting other people’s lumber would be a highlight of their work experience, but maybe I’m wrong.  Anyway, if it’s a busy Saturday and you find yourself being ignored try this approach: Walk over to the wood cutting station with a small piece of wood in your left arm (there should be some scraps lying around near the station) and place it near the blade.  Take your right arm and stretch it in the direction of the control panel.  Someone will assist you shortly.

Now that you have their attention, tell the lumber cutter that you want the 2x6 boards cut into five pieces of x-inches [the small number, the sides) and five pieces cut to x inches [the big number, the front and back].  The guy might say “With as many boards as it takes to make five of each length?”  You should mutter something like “Yeah.”  (See?  No math!).  Next, before he leaves, tell the dude to cut the 2x4 into two 12” pieces (the front posts) and two 18” pieces (the back posts).  As a final request, take one of the short, recently cut, pieces of 2x6 and tell the dude to cut it at a diagonal.  This will produce two triangles with a 6” back that will align with the back of the cold frame.  The hypotenuse of both triangles will create the downward slope on the cold frame, maximizing sun exposure.  You could have your lumber-cutting friend cut the 1x2s in half if you want easy transportation in a car.  Those pieces will be cut to spec toward the end of the assembly.

Step 5: Paint

Prime all of the pieces, including the wood or aluminum on the window frame.  I used Kliz 2 Latex.  Two coats are better than one, but wait until the first one dries.

Step 6: Assembly

Here’s what I think you should do (not necessarily what I did).  I would lay out and stack up the lumber so you can visually understand what you’re trying to do.  Then, I would create a big wood box by screwing the 2x4 posts into the side pieces (the short 2x6 pieces).  Then I would screw in the front and back.  You’ll want the longest piece of the 2x4 for all four posts facing the front of the cold frame.  The top of the front posts should be flush with the top of the box.  The back posts should extend to allow the final long piece in the back.

It should be obvious where to place the two triangular pieces.  I pre-drilled two holes in each piece of triangle wood and carefully screwed them into place.

Step 7: Paint Again

Step 8: Hinge the Sash

Use 1 ½ ” screws to attach the two hinges to the window frame and the back of your cold frame structure.  The little scroll thing on the hinge should face inward.

Step 9: Finishing

You’ll use three pieces of 1x2s to hold the window in place.  These pieces will be screwed into the top of the frame and will run in front of the window and along the sides.  You’ll be setting the wood “tall,” so that its narrowest side abuts frame.  Therefore, it’s especially important to pre-drill holes before you drill in the screws, otherwise the skinny lumber will split.  I went light on the screw action and only used two per board.  The seal doesn’t have to be perfect, and cold frames need ventilation.  Foam weather-stripping offers a nice and inconspicuous way to seal corners that need to be sealed. 

I screwed the handle into the middle of a 1’ piece of 1x2.  Then, I attached it to the window using multiple screws, pre-drilling all the way.

That’s my Insane Cold Frame plan and, despite my vast reservoir of inexperience doing things like this, I think it turned out well.  Although Bean and I designed it, and I did all of the labor (expect for the Home Depot wood cutting step), I can’t take all the credit.  I need to warmly acknowledge the carpentry and woodworking mentorship of Crazy Eyes Jonny, Rockin’ Randy Mac, and KDo.  All of the flaws in the design and execution, however, are solely the fault of Selena Sabine.

The Curse of Free Wood

Our fence line running North to South receives a ridiculous amount of Midwest sun, but the soil is terrible and nothing wanted to grow in the modest 3'x4' plot I've tried to work over the years.  I wanted to create more space for daylilies and daylily seedlings, so a raised bed seemed like a logical project.  I had leftover wood from a broken fence and a bundle of boards picked up from the roadside.  I reasoned that it would be an easy afternoon project.


Here's what I learned.  If a board has five nails or screws that need to be removed, four of them will pull out easily, but you'll spend five or ten minutes wrestling with the last one.  The time quickly adds up.

Also, the boards I selected were of different widths and thicknesses.  The project became like Jenga or Tetris, with heavy lifting.  I found no amount of creative math would make it work.  Soon, the free wood felt like a curse. 


So, I gave up on the free wood for the raised bed.  "The Perfect Raised Bed" instructions from Sunset Magazine online seemed too easy.  All of the math involved whole numbers.  Better yet, I could walk into The Home Depot with the measurements and have the dudes cut the lumber for me for free.  And, suddenly, the probability of me losing a finger to a saw accident went to zero.

After I returned with the pre-cut lumber, the Sunset instructions were as easy as they appeared.  In fact, I added an extra layer of lumber after following the lead of the article's comment section.  It took longer than an afternoon, but not a whole lot longer, and I didn't have to pull out any rusty nails. 

Daylily Phase

The daylily phase of the garden started in full-force when Gaby, a frequent (and it's all relative, folks) Cats and Catts commenter and noted Hemerocallis pusher, moved to the East Coast.  The good news was that her husband had an amazing job to look forward to, and they both had a path of happiness stretching before them.  The other bit of good news, from my perspective, was Gaby's need to unload a number of daylilies and irises before the big move.


The prospect of a fresh set of plants in the garden was exciting and it gave the place a new focus.  There was a reason that the pink daylily that we planted years ago was one the few survivors.  Daylilies are, indeed, the perfect perennial.  


I could leave the soil alone and they would thrive, but the new additions inspired me to improve the garden in a number of ways.  First, I got rid of that succulent and threw it the corner of our fence to die.  Now, the plant's healthier and bigger than ever.  Just like my hollyhocks, singling them out for death only put a bounce in their step.  I also renewed my vigilance against weeds and took greater care to improve the dirt.  I added a (very unscientific) home-made mix of potting soil, peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, Back to Nature cotton burr compost, and mulch.  A little garden work in October, November, February, and March paid huge dividends this year.  I found weeds easier to control and no one could argue with the brilliant flower show.

Like orchids, daylilies offer multiple layers of pleasure.  One thing I especially like about them is the way they quickly change the "portrait" of the garden every eight hours or so.  For instance, prominently displayed reds in the morning might fade back by early evening to allow a mass of orange daylilies to spread out. The garden becomes a slow-moving fireworks show.  There's also something meditative about removing the spent blooms.  Finally, the social world of daylilies is almost (almost) as crazy and obsessive as the orchid world, and the history of daylily hybridizing is equally fascinating.  As Gaby explained early on in my daylily education, the American Hemerocallis Society hosts a daylily database full of cultivar names that stretch back in time.  Unlike orchids, daylily breeding and hybridizing is pretty easy.  You don't need agar, a sterile box, and the patience of a turtle to appreciate your own creations. 


This has me thinking.  What would be my ideal daylily?  What's the perfect perfect perennial?  I love whites and creams (remember, at Cats and Catts, we're big fans of Brassavolas and porcelain-colored Paphs.).  Maybe it should have diamond-dusting and a reddish edge -- something subtle.  I'll get Riley working on it.

First Gardens

Amy Stewart's From the Ground Up, a memoir about her first garden, was on my summer reading list, but I don't think I'm going to get to it.  I don't know the precise mathematical equation, but my ability to finish gardening memoirs is closely tied to the number of hours I spend in my actual garden.  There's something perverse about reading about someone else's garden when there are weeds to pull in your own.  Maybe I'll save the book for January.

But simply having the book on my shelf made me think about my own first garden.  I know some people argue for a more expansive definition of "garden," but when I think of our garden I think of the 16' x 6' bordered box of earth that I've been working the last several years.  I don't necessarily count the full-sun tomato-growing space I've used a few times, the hosta spot, the designated catnip spot, or the daylilies on the side of house.

We still have hollyhock, purple catmint, and the pink daylilies from the original garden.  The daylilies are now a centerpiece.  I recently moved the catmint to make room for more daylilies.  After the first summer, I tossed the hollyhock in the back of the house to make room for more milkweed.  It flourished.     

The garden Trixie and I set up has gone through three overlapping phases: The Butterfly Phase, the Mixed Perennial Phase, and the (current) Daylily Phase.  I'll share thoughts and photos for each phase during the next few days. 

The First One's Free

James Dodson recalls meeting Philadelphia Flower Show competitor Jeanne Francis, who uses the screening test her son employs in his alcoholism recovery job to convince Dodson he suffers from horticultural addiction (Beautiful Madness pgs. 49-51).  Denizens of the flower world frequently use addiction metaphors to describe their hobby, and so do their enablers.  The supposed ethos of sharing in the gardening world is just a sneaky smokescreen for being a seed slinger or plant pusher.


A friend gave me a dozen daylily and iris cuttings last summer and, at the time, it seemed like a purely altruistic act.  Now, I realize that this was an elaborate ruse to get me hooked on the H. -- and it worked.  

So, with these four (pictured above), I'm making room for more daylilies, paying it flower forward, and trying to recruit another addict.  We bought two of the unknown pink variety in 2003 and both have multiplied into big clusters.  I decided to pass on one group much like the sample that drug dealers in After School Specials give to kids in order to grow their client base.  And daylilies (Hemerocallis) are the perfect gateway drug to a horticultural habit.      

Flower Show Car Crash

I arrived at the Topeka Daylily Show to a light display of flashing police cars and EMS vehicles.  I thought to myself, "This flower show is going OFF!"  Maybe the continued controversy over spider form daylilies was leading to fisticuffs?  I'm so glad I had my camera ready.  


Surprisingly, the incident had nothing to do with competitive flower shows.  An elderly woman drove into the Hallmark store during the Fairlawn Plaza sidewalk sale.  You can read the full story in the local paper.  No one was injured, which was incredibly fortunate because the sidewalk was pulsing with dog owners, ice cream eaters, and bargain hunters.  One eyewitness recalled, "The old lady was sitting in her car and looking forward as if she were still driving on the road.  When someone opened the door to get her out she had a complete blank look on her face and even a slight smile."  Another said, "This lady was clueless as to what was going on.  Even when she hit the wall her tires kept spinning and she was looking around with a completely puzzled, and surprisingly calm face."  I arrived as the driver was talking to police.  I took a few photos and walked across the way to the flower show.

'Pardon Me' won Best in Show. 'Missouri Moon' (pictured here) won Best of Class for Doubles/Polymerous. For me, 'Jealous Jake,' 'Sears Tower,' and 'Take My Hand' were also standouts.  Here, I should note that I know practically nothing about daylilies, especially showing them for competition.  


That could change.  I brought home nine cuttings ('Cheddar Cheese,' 'Beautiful Edgings,' 'Ruffled Dude,' 'Siloam David Kirchoff,' and two red giveaways) and an application for the Topeka Daylily Club.  Trixie looked a little rattled, like I'm cheating on the orchids, but I explained that all of my purchases for the day amounted to less than what a paid for a tiny  Phrag. kovachii hybrid in February and that the annual dues for the Daylily Club are only $5 (a fifth of dues for the Orchid Society).  "And, you know, I have to admit that the daylily people are kind of cool."  "As cool as the orchid people?"  Trixie asked.  "Please! Don't be ridiculous..."