Seedlings...Learning Curve

As my seedlings begin to bloom, I've already learned a few lessons for the future. Things are often not as easy as they seem.

Here are three of the four first seedlings that have bloomed. The one of the left is a cross of Golden Tentacles x Moment in the Sun; the one in the middle is Cindy Jones x Crystelle's Love; and the one on the end is my very first (and still favorite...for a lot of reasons) Ed Brown x J T Davis. I should mention that the GT x MITS is a first flower (the others are second), so we can't be too hard on it. All the parents in these crosses are very wonderful daylilies. They'd set you back a bit to buy them. Which is one of the reasons I bought seeds! I do own Ed Brown and J T Davis.


Now, these are babies, and like young children, they will improve with time. I see positive things about each of them. Next year should be even more exciting as they attain full blooming strength with, hopefully, additional fans and scapes with corresponding higher bud counts. But, let's be real here...they look remarkably alike, don't you think?? Without me pointing out their differences (which I'm not going to do right now), you're looking at them and thinking they're probably all from the same flower! Their colors are all very close...the picture doesn't show it too accurately...the center one and left one are actually kinda peachy. The one on the right has little of that, more of a pearl color. I suppose my overhead light could be casting a yellow effect.

Anyway, all of that to say...yep, now we begin to see how and why those big bucks hybridizers do long crosses and dispose of thousands upon thousands of seedlings to get the few they offer.

With all that, a new one opened today (number 5, if we're counting...which eventually, we'll have to stop because there should be lots!)...I found it interesting just for the learning aspect. The seeds were sent as a bonus and the cross is Spacecoast Starburst x Unknown (I guess a bee got there). My first reaction was not exactly grateful, as I can have plenty of my own unknown crosses. I just don't have the space and time to fool with them. But, it was just a few seeds, I thought, and while I have owned Spacecoast Starburst for quite a while, I've never tried to use it. And, too, since I was trying to buy seeds from fancy late (expensive) daylilies, who knows what might be in the seller's garden...well, that was my thinking! Lol!

Here it is, first flower:


You'll appreciate this more when I show you a picture of Spacecoast Starburst from my garden last year:


Either Spacecoast Starburst gives up its genetics very readily (I don't know) or we have a serious unknown! Well, I'll still get a kick out of seeing where it's going...is it heading toward an unusual form (ufo) or a bitone? I know this, it's an EMO (early morning opener)...which is not a small thing, especially on an overcast day like today (picture was taken about 6:30 a.m.).

I'll stop for now as I am trying to organize pictures from my garden for the last couple of days (yes, strong on daylilies...lol!).