Hemerocallis

[Guff]

Few more

 Always Lovely and pretty butterfly
 Palace Garden Beauty
 Unchartered Waters
 Royal Braid
 Voices In Fog

[Paul T]

Guff,

That butterfly is a beauty, as is 'Palace Garden Beauty' (no pun intended).  Love that lavender eye zone and ruffling etc.  Quite subtle colours really, but nice combination. 

[Guff]

Paul, I have 6 pods on Palace Garden Beauty x Bella Sera. I Should get something like this or maybe something even better.
http://www.patrongdns.com/images/Henrietta-McIntyre-opt.jpg

I have been told that the butterfly is Nymphalis antiopa/Mourning Cloak

[Paul T]

Wow, Guff.  I bet you'd be pleased if you DID get something like that.  I know I would be if in your position.  Great stuff!! 

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for the butterfly ID, Guff.  It is really lovely.

[Regelian]

Paul, I have 6 pods on Palace Garden Beauty x Bella Sera. I Should get something like this or maybe something even better.
http://www.patrongdns.com/images/Henrietta-McIntyre-opt.jpg

I have been told that the butterfly is Nymphalis antiopa/Mourning Cloak

Never say never!  I would expect you will get plants similar, but different.  In any case, an excellent cross to make.  Be sure to send fotos of the seedlings in a couple of years!  Really.

[Guff]

Jamie, will do. I may grow 10-20 seedlings through the winter to get a jump on the time factor. Also for the first time, I have 3 seed pods on Bella Sera that have kept growing. Two with Palace Garden Beauty and one with Destined To See pollen. It will be interesting comparing seedlings.

[Regelian]

Guff,

I've tried starting seedlings in the Winter to get a jump, but, after comparing with seed sown in the late Winter and Spring, there was no notable advantage.  Actually, most crosses didn't look as good.  They really need light for the first few months and, in Winter, it is simply to little.  I now plant my seed around the end of February, pot on in April-May and the bigger ones get another pot end of August or come in the ground.  I can get flowers in 2-3 years.

[Anthony Darby]

The 'Mourning Cloak' is a very rare migrant from Europe to the UK. I think the UK is the only northern country in which it doesn't breed.

Here it is called the Camberwell Beauty. Here is what Moses Harris wrote in 'The Aurelian': "This is one of the scarcest flies of any known in England, nor do we know of above three or four that were ever found here, the first two were taken about the middle of August, 1748, in Cool Arbour Lane near Camberwell; the last in St. George's fields, near Newington Butts, the beginning of that month; but as these appeared very much faded and otherwise abused, I conclude they appear from the chrysalis, with the peacock, about the middle of July, and being of that class it is reasonable to suppose that they live thro' the winter in the fly state, and lay eggs in spring that produce flies of this class, and as the common opinion of Aurelians that their caterpillars feed thereon; but their caterpillar and chrysalis, is to us entirely unknown, and the food a mere conjecture."

E.B Ford wrote in 1945: "It is a fact that this prized species, which is in reality an immigrant, was on a number of occasions, and in different years, captured near the village of Camberwell, where it was attracted by willows which grew so abundantly there; and that to this circumstance it owes its best known English name. One of these original Camberwell specimens (from 1793) is perhaps the last memento of "the village" long ago engulfed by the catastrophic growht of modern London."

Specimens probably arrived on imported timber from Scandinavia, having tried to find places to hibernate?

[Guff]

Good info about Mourning Cloak.

I have been growing 5 seeds each (25 plants)from my best crosses through the winter. Pictured are 2 seedlings Bella Sera x Destined To See. Pencil is to show the size of the fans.

[Guff]

Two seedlings I had flower last summer. I didn't get around to taking pictures for some reason or another of the seedling beds.

 

[Guff]

Starting to see some Bella Sera Seedlings flower this year.
Picures 1 -5 Bella Sera crosses
Pictures 6,7 Destined To See crosses

[Paul T]

Guff,

Excellent results.  I'd be pleased to grow any of those in my garden here.... I love the edging and the ruffling.  Very, very nice.  I wish I grew Bella Sera to try getting seedlings like that.  Beautiful.   Thanks for posting.

[TheOnionMan]

I'm not a Hemerocallis grower, nor even an ardent fan, although I like my share of these fun and showy summer plants.  I have a friend who is a daylily hybridizer, Mike Huben, and it is fascinating to experience his passion and insight into daylilies and hybridization from his perspective.  I upload one photo showing his front yard, with 2-year old seedlings all in flower, my Subaru in the background.  He grows in a very small yard in an unban setting, but he's able to squeeze in thousands of his own hybrid seedlings yearly (and he discards thousands too).

I include a link to Mike Huben's BlogSport, starting at his 2010 introduction H. 'From Darkness Comes Light', I believe it to be a breakthrough holistic daylily hybridizing.  One of my frequent rants is that daylily hybridizers are not paying attention to breeding for good foliage; in most daylilies, I see foliage that is unattractive, sometimes grossly so, particular after flowering when the plant goes into a quasi-dormancy state.  Mike has been breeding with certain characteristics ignored by other breeders, his new introduction named 'From Darkness Comes Light' showcases two of those special qualities; very dark stems (near black early on, but lightening up somewhat as the buds/flowers mature), and really attractive vase-shaped growth with slender arching foliage, making a garden worthy plant on foliage alone.  His other breeding goals come into play too; high bud count, rebloomers, smaller but elegant light-color flowers, etc.
http://hubendaylilies.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-darkness-comes-light-huben-10.html

Some of Mike Huben's daylily introductions at Harmon Hill Farm in Hudson, New Hampshire, USA, a short 20-minute drive from my house... acres of daylilies.
http://harmonhillfarm.com/mikehuben.htm

I recently went on a field trip with Mike to another daylily breeders garden (sorry, but I have lost that person's name) in Bedford, Massachusetts.  This is a full acre lot, filled to the brim with innumerable daylilies, mostly his own hybrids, and mostly of the giant-flowered, carnival-colored, exuberant types.  But he has been breeding for green centered flowers, and to that end, he has bred one of the greenest daylily flowers I've ever seen (it is not introduced yet)... ugly lanky habit and ugly course foliage, but dang if that isn't the greenest daylily.  Lots of his hybrids had these bold green centers to the flowers.  This person also had a strongly white-variegated foliage daylily, also not named, but would have potential for breeding.  I upload two images, not good ones, as the plant was crammed in amongst lots of other daylilies, but you'll get the idea.

[Tony Willis]

to introduce a bit of misery following these wonderful pictures,about three years ago we noticed distorted flower buds and now have gall midge rampaging through our small collection. We are having to reluctantly give up on them as there seems no cure. Spraying with provado has not worked. Any ideas for a cure would be welcome