EARLY AND OFTEN (Huben 2001) 26 E Re 4, Peach Polychrome, Dor Dip Ext Fra
Sunny Honey * Sobek 94.12
(Stella De Oro * Brocaded Gown) * (Three Seasons * Tuscawilla Tranquility)
My first introduction! Available in Fall 2001.
Written 2/12/01
EARLY AND OFTEN (Huben 2001) 26 E Re 4, Peach Polychrome, Dor Dip Ext Fra
Sunny Honey * Sobek 94.12
(Stella De Oro * Brocaded Gown) * (Three Seasons * Tuscawilla Tranquility)
My first introduction! Available in Fall 2001.
This year, I seem to have a LOT to say.
2000 was a disappointing year for newly blooming seedlings, but an exciting year for breeding and a confirmation of three out of four strong rebloomers selected last year. (See "Selected 1999 Daylily Seedlings" for images.)
My big thrill this year was the repetition of last year's outstanding rebloom and increase by my seedling MH9761A, which I have now preregistered as EARLY AND OFTEN. Not only does that name accurately describe the performance, but it also refers to a campaign slogan of Boston's reknowned criminal Mayor Curley (who served part of his fourth term of office in jail in the 40's.) "Vote early and often for Mayor Curley of Boston."
EARLY AND OFTEN started blooming one week after STELLA DE ORO, and bloomed and rebloomed continuously for 9 weeks, until I divided it in early August. This was its third growing season from seed, and it had increased to approximately 25 fans, an unparalleled rate of increase in my poor growing conditions. In spite of my having podded almost every flower that it had last year and this. I thought I would have to wait until 2002 to introduce it, but it has increased so rapidly that I will now register it and start shipping single fans this fall. How many northern hybridizers can start shipping a new variety in just four years from seed harvest? That's rapid increase, and in my conditions it is unbelievable. In the mean time, it is being trialed in 10 gardens. All told, I have about 1200 seedlings coming from it.
MH9734C, a very greenish yellow UF selection from last year, also put on an amazing rebloom performance, with 3 sets of scapes on some fans and three full months of continuous bloom, June to September. Nothing else in my garden bloomed like that. It is now preregistered as TWIST AGAIN.
MH9755B was preregistered as the very accurate double entendre FLOWERS OF SULPHUR. It rebloomed like a champion too.
MH9779I, which hasn't rebloomed since its first year, was also preregistered as DELICATE LACE.
The above three of these have increased well enough that they should be introduced by 2002 or 2003. They are all on trial in tour gardens for the 2001 and 2002 National conventions and in several other gardens.
One disappointment was MH9771A. It rebloomed well its first and second years from seed, but this year it went to grass and only put up a few scapes. I've lined it out, but doubt it will ever be introduced.
Jack Bilson suggested that rebloom might be correlated with heat zone. This jibes very well with my idea of growing degree days. So I did a little research. Here are the definitions and sources:
American Horticulture Society Heat Zone Map
http://www.gardeningplaces.com/heatzonemap/
"The 12 zones of the map indicate the average number of days each year that
a given region experiences "heat days"-temperatures over 86 degrees (30
degrees Celsius)."
Corn Growing Degree Days
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/cdus/degree_days/grodgree.txt
"A corn growing degree day (GDD) is an index used to express crop
maturity. The index is computed by subtracting a base temperature of
50oF from the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures for the
day. Minimum temperatures less than 50oF are set to 50, and maximum
temperatures greater than 86oF are set to 86. These substitutions
indicate that no appreciable growth is detected with temperatures lower
than 50 or greater than 86."
I decided to compare the locations of the major hybridizers of northern rebloomers.
heat zone degree days
Doris Simpson 7 (21210) 3789 (Baltimore, MD)
Steven Kendall 6-7 (84010) 3703 (Salt Lake City, UT)
Darrel Apps 6 (08302) 3777 (Philadelphia, PA)
Bryant Millikan 5-6 (46220) 3774 (Indianapolis, IN)
Bill Potter 5-6 (60604) 3708 (Chicago, IL)
Martin Kamensky 4 (48317) 3181 (Detroit, MI)
Mike Huben, Bob Sobek 4 (02120) 2860 (Boston, MA)
(The heat zone was approximated from the zip code in parenthesis, and the degree days were approximated from the city in parenthesis.)
This explains a lot about why I get so little increase and rebloom. Of course, microclimate in a particular yard would greatly affect the actual degree days and zone measurements. For example, field conditions might be much warmer than my partly shaded yard. Bob Sobek lives in a frost pocket. And both he and I have yard temperatures substantially below those recorded in Boston proper. Locally, I've observed much more rebloom in some gardens than I get in my own. So I feel justified in concluding that I'm at the low end of the scale in terms of heat among rebloom breeders. Hopefully, this gives me an advantage in selection of the strongest rebloomers. I'm testing that theory out with trials of my future introductions in about 10 gardens.
One contradictory fact that may need explanation is that Bill Potter complains that he is unable to grow melons (while I can), yet he gets rebloom on things where I don't. I suppose then that melons must have different requirements for production than daylilies have for rebloom, but I haven't yet got a theory for that.
The seedlings from my 1998 seed crop were largely disappointments in terms of rebloom breeding. That year I used MH9650E very heavily because of its extraordinary first blooming year behavior: 4 sets of scapes on one fan. Since then, it has not increased significantly and has barely rebloomed. This has led me to rethink my theory of rebloom: I think I might have "pumped up" that fan to southern-style performance by starting it from seed indoors in September. I'll be more cautious in the future.
A few of the seedlings that showed some rebloom or were particularly good F1's (rebloomer * pretty) have been crossed with EARLY AND OFTEN. In the miscellany were a good near-white (didn't rebloom), a few things with pretty faces and good foliage, and a bunch of tall, pale yellow, early cascades from yezoensis * WHITE STALLION. I don't think any are good enough to be introduced.
One parent particularly stood out in the 98 crosses: Kamensky's GRECIAN PEARL produced particularly good form in the seedling blossoms, and outstanding foliage. I used three of its seedlings and GRECIAN PEARL itself this year with EARLY AND OFTEN.
Another '97 seedling smacked me in the face as being worthy for breeding: MH9714A (PENNY'S WORTH * SNOWED IN) 32 E Re 3.25, Yellow Self, Evr Dip. It's not much to look at, except that of all the PW seedlings it's the only one with great increase, scape count, foliage, reasonable buds, LONG BRANCHING, earliness, and carries melon. The face is plain, narrow-petalled, and unimpressive, though it has no faults. As bridge seedlings go (and I've grown more than 1000 bridge seedlings between whites and rebloomers), this is perhaps the best, combining most of the attributes I want. It doesn't rebloom much: just one scape of rebloom this year. I'm hoping it will throw some very small melon colored seedlings, perhaps with good branching. Like everything else in my garden, it's getting pollen from EARLY AND OFTEN.
One '97 seedling struck Bob Sobek as the best seedling in the bed by his lights. And pretty darned good by mine. MH9735A (yezoensis * SNOWED IN) 50 EE Re 4, Yellow Self, Dip Fra Noc Ext, is a pale yellow with some green. Its narrow petals have an open trumpet form. It produced 9 scapes in its 3rd year, almost unheard of in my garden. It is a multiflora that opens at 7pm, lasts 24 hours, is very vigorous, very tall, has good branching (6) and budcount (24), carries melon, and blooms WEEKS before STELLA! The sole conspicuous fault is that the scapes lean a lot, This too is another great bridge plant. Bob had me set 4 crosses on it. Six weeks later I handed him roughly 2000 seed from those crosses: I was getting up to 47 seeds per pod! Very little rebloom (as expected in bridge plants.) But of course I put EARLY AND OFTEN on it too.
These are bridge plants, and won't likely be introduced. However, they are available to other breeders who want to work on earliness, tall or small stature, or rebloom.
The 1999 seed crop, which will come into bloom in 2001 at roughly 2 years old, are sitting snug in their bed. Roughly 1000 of them, spaced six inches apart. Fortunately, most of my crosses have fairly small stature.
This is where I expect to see my first crop with lots of reblooming seedlings. I have intercrossed all my heaviest rebloomers together, and also crossed those heavy rebloomers onto F1's and F2's that were promising for earliness and color, even if they didn't rebloom.
A few of them bloomed their first year, and among those were some very clean, pale melons with green throats. If they show behavior like their parent EARLY AND OFTEN, they will supplant it in my breeding. As in the past, none of them will be pollinated until they display rebloom. But even if they don't display rebloom, I may use them as pollen parents to backcross to EARLY AND OFTEN.
The 2000 Seed Crop And A New Project.
It's hard to talk too much about seedlings that are just a few months old, but even so I've noticed a few things that are worthy of comment.
First, there's significant dormancy that can be observed in young seedlings grown in the winter, with or without deciduousness. The vast majority of my seedlings cease producing new leaves at about leaf 10, then grow their crowns and dormant bud a month, and then break dormancy with a flush of new leaves that are (initially) shorter and wider than their predecessors. I know the crowns and buds are growing because the bases of the old leaves split from the growth. A few of the seedlings display deciduous behavior, and their leaves senesce, leaving what looks like an empty pot. But in a month or so, they emerge. And a few other seedlings are evergreen, and just never stop increasing in size. One advantage of this dormancy is that I am getting increase at 4 months: lateral bud growth seems to be stimulated by dormant bud formation. I now have several seedlings with three fans (and quite a number with two fans) in those little tree pots!
Bob Sobek and I were discussing seedling vigor, and I used the above observations to show him that there are three things that could be confused: vigor versus stature versus dormancy. Stature first: we all know that some plants make bigger fans than others, and it also stands to reason that some seedlings start with more food in bigger seeds and thus have a head start. Most of my breeding happens to be with plants that have a small stature like STELLA DE ORO. Dormancy in a seedling grown in the winter can give the illusion that it is less vigorous than an evergreen, but that's not relevant here in the north where a plant will be exposed to normal seasonality forever afterwards. I consider vigor to be a measure dependent on the environment: how much a plant can grow, bloom, and increase under a given set of conditions. In short, I don't think you can say much about vigor of seedlings indoors that will be relevant to their outdoors vigor. I suppose that a few will be extremely runty, but I'm skeptical of diagnosing vigor in crosses at an early stage.
One further observation on this season's seedlings: purple stockings (the red or purple bases of leaves that we see in citrina breeding and in a number of white lineages) seem to be a simple recessive.
My crosses this year took a number of clear-cut directions, predominantly aimed at my same goal of extra early white rebloomers. I'd already intercrossed my own 1997 crop of rebloomers last year, so rather than simply remake all of those crosses, this year I aimed to diversify and increase my rebloom lines by crossing EARLY AND OFTEN into other people's rebloom programs.
From Darrel Apps, I used ROSY RETURNS and EARLY ELEGANCE. From Martin Kamensky, I used GRECIAN PEARL and CHIPPEWA BRIDE. Steven Kendall was kind enough to send me some of his "Iron Rebloomer" crosses. From Roger Mercer, I used MARATHON MELODY and THISTLE TRACE. And finally, I used a few more of Bob Sobek's seedlings from his rebloom breeding.
I made a number of outcrosses of EAO to produce F1's with varieties that show some rebloom elsewhere combined with desirable colors, forms, or other plant habits.
Some additional crosses were aimed at producing extra early whites and melons, to help draw the start of the season earlier and earlier. The species start blooming here in late May: that's 3 or 4 weeks more possible season for rebloomers.
And finally, I've started producing a small F1 generation for a branch project: tall and small daylilies in colors without yellow. The F1 breeding has started between my EARLY AND OFTEN and Phil Reilly's BOSTON SYMPHONY (which are not tall) crossed with several old-style tall and small varieties such as GOLDEN CHIMES, TOY TRUMPETS, ECHO THE SUN, AERIAL, and CORKY. In the next year or two I'll incorporate a bunch of unnamed seedlings from Bob Sobek's rebloom, altissima, and other lines descended from the old style tall and small. I see no reason why I shouldn't aim for early season and rebloom in these lines too. I'm sure I'll get midseason spinoffs on the way.
In summary, this year EARLY AND OFTEN and BOSTON SYMPHONY were my most heavily used parents, together accounting for more than 90 percent of my seedlings.
These crosses are listed on my seedlings web page.
Once again, I had terrific spring sickness among the seedlings this year. An experiment with early-spring applied Ortho Rose Systemic showed no apparent effect.
For the past two years, I grew my seedlings under banks of fluorescent lights strapped underneath Home Depot ventilated shelves. I fit roughly 1000 seedlings onto one stack of 4, 3x4 foot shelves in tree pots. Directions and sources are available at my web site. Three other members of the New England Daylily Society tell me they have followed my directions, assembled identical lights, and love them. I really love growing under the lights at home: the incredible brightness and added warmth and humidity are really pleasant.
Last winter, I finally kept the fungus gnats under control under the lights by placing pieces of yellow sticky traps on the soil surface. However, for sentimental reasons I violated my stringent quarantine: my son wanted a beautiful flowering vine, and since it's in his bedroom, how could I say no? Consequently, I had a terrible infestation of spider mites. Control measures all failed, and rendered the room uninhabitable for a month. The seedlings came through, but it probably set them back a bunch.
This winter, I decided to switch to using the greenhouse space rented by the New England Daylily Society, 15 minutes from my house. Why? At roughly $350 for a 6x14 foot bench, I get almost twice as much usable space, better growing conditions, pest control, and frequent meetings with others. All for a little more than the lights cost me in electricity and other upkeep. And I can use the space underneath for still more plants.
I had a slower and lower percentage germination rate in the greenhouse. I suspect it was due to giving up the bottom heat I had with my lights, and perhaps due to harvesting most seed at exactly 6 weeks, rather than when the pods spontaneously split.
I brought my potted EARLY AND OFTEN in to the greenhouse on the first of December, and it broke dormancy in less than a week. We'd had very little freezing or frost, but that seemed to be enough vernalization. I hope to get a year of even higher increase in the greenhouse (and a little extra seed setting.) This is the first time I've brought it into the greenhouse: until now, all of its rapid increase has been under my normal, miserable garden conditions.
Many people ask me what are good rebloomers. Rebloom is particularly difficult in my garden: you might get better performance in yours. Here are my observations from my garden.
These little yellow varmints routinely send up three scapes per fan, but often overlapping in bloom so that they are done by August. Behavior in other people's gardens is likely different. Stella De Oro (Jablonski 75) 20 E Re 2.75, Gold Self, Dor Dip Fra Ext Three Seasons (Sobek 90) 21 EE Re 2.62, Yellow Self, Dor Dip Noc Ext Happy Returns (Apps 86) 18 EE 3.13, Yellow Self, Dor Dip Fra Ext Noc Lemon Lollypop (Simpson 85) 24 E Re 2.88, Lemon Self, Dor Dip Fra Noc Ext These varieties routinely produce 2 scapes per fan, for a long season of bloom. Sunny Honey (Millikan 89) 24 E Re 3.5, Yellow Self, Sev Dip Madras Gown (Millikan 93) 26 ML Re 6, Pink Self, Evr Dip Strawberry Candy (Stamile 89) 26 EM Re 4.25, Pink w'Red Eye, Sev Tet Ext Sunblest (Waltermire 71) 27 E 6, Lemon Self, Sev Dip Ext Marathon Melody (Mercer 92) 22 EE Re 3.75, Pink w'Rose Eye, Dor Dip Noc Prince Redbird (Sellers 86) 26 M 3.5, Red Self, Dor Tet Scentual Sundance (Blew 95) 18 E Re 4, Yellow Self, Dor Dip Fra Ext These varieties intermittently produce second scapes on some fans, often too late to be interesting. Absolute Zero (Millikan 86) 20 M Re 4.5, NearWhite Self, Sev Dip Boothbay Harbor Gold (Celler 99)24 EE Re 4.5, Gold Self, Dor Dip Fra Frosty Lemon Puffs (Kamensky 96)16 E Re 3, Yellow Self, Dor Dip Ext Millie Schlumpf (Guidry 81) 20 EE Re 6, Pink Self, Evr Dip Siloam Plum Tree (Henry 78) 24 EM 4, Purple Self, Dor Dip Ext
Evaluating Reblooming Cultivars
I've been toying with an evaluation scheme for rebloom cultivars for my breeding purposes. Here are some partly subjective, partly local measurements I use with examples. I included the non-reblooming H. dumortierii to show the ends of some of the ranges. So far, I have only totalled the ratings. In the future, I may decide that some need greater weight than others. I may rate a number of cultivars this summer. One thing to be careful of: ratings will vary greatly within a variety depending on growing conditions.
recur clarity vigor early face size foliage TOTAL
Stella De Oro 4 0 5 3 2 2.75 3 19.75
Happy Returns 3 1 4 1 2 3.13 3 17.13
dumortierii 0 0 4 5 1 4 4 18
Early And Often 4 3 5 2 3 4 3 24
Explanation of measurements:
recur: 0 never
1 seldom
2 usually on some blooming fans
3 2nd set on most blooming fans
4 3rd set on most blooming fans
5 on beyond zebra
clarity:0 gold
1 yellow
2 pale yellow
3 no yellow beyond eyezone
4 yellow only in throat
5 no yellow in throat
vigor: 0 dwindles and dies
1 never increases
2 increases very slowly
3 average increaser
4 good increaser
5 exceptional increaser
early:
0 midseason
3 early season marker
5 first to bloom
face: 0 dog ugly
1 species like
2 improved over species
3 somewhat modern
4 thoroughly modern
5 to die for
size: in inches
foliage:0 sickly pale, showing pests or disease, inappropriate dormancy
3 average foliage
5 worth growing for the foliage alone
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