Pages - AHS Region 2

AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter
Region 2 Symposium 2000 (continued)
The Legacy of Ladybug Beautiful and the Dynamic New
Tetraploid Program of Dan Hansen (continued from page 25)
have a daylily partner. Dan outlined her many accomplishments
in the world of daylilies, particularly winning
the Bertrand Farr Hybridizing Award in 1999.
Interestingly enough, many of Ra’s award-winning daylilies
did not perform particularly well in her
Florida garden. They were introduced because they had
done so well in gardens of her friends in the North and
who had encouraged her to introduce them. Dan explained
that he was going to continue to introduce the
daylilies that Ra had selected and named, and that he
would continue to select and introduce the best of her
remaining seedlings. However, he is not going to continue
her breeding program.
We were treated to slides of some of her most successful
past introductions and possible future introductions,
including some that–unfortunately–may have been lost
when her garden was moved.
The second half of Dan’s talk was devoted to his own
tetraploid breeding program. One of his primary areas
of interest is “daylilies with contrasting borders
but no eyes.” He showed slides of his 1999 introduction
ROSES IN SNOW, which was named by Ra, and
also of seedlings with darker petals and lighter edges
having ROSES IN SNOW as a parent. It is a sunfast red
with an ivory border that passes on lighter borders
readily. Dan’s 2000 introduction PINK INTRIGUE and 2001
introduction LONELY HEART are at the center of his hybridizing
for seedlings with lighter petals and darker edges.
Most instructive were slides of his recent and future introductions
surrounded by those of their first and second generation
offspring, revealing what traits were passed on and highlighted
in breeding. Dan emphasized that tetraploids skip traits some
generations and that to bring out recessive traits, a hybridizer
has to recross the best seedlings. He also showed slides of daylilies
with blue eyes and patterned eyes out of a tetraploid conversion
of his mother’s introduction BEN LEE (1994). Other
breeding lines that Dan displayed with slides were those for
narrow petals, teeth, whites, and edges and eyes.
Many of them drew oohs and ahs from the audience. By the
end of the talk it was obvious that Ra has left a tremendous
living legacy, both in her own introductions and in Dan and
his hybridizing program.
A Second Presentation by Dr. . Kevin Vaughn
Genetics, Intuition, and Safe Sex
by Dr. Bill Powell, Wisconsin
When I first read the title of this presentation, I expected
that Dr. Vaughn would illuminate his subject
matter with something approximating a full frontal
centerfold of a daylily (complete with airbrushing). But,
before we got to the imagined visual delights, he prefaced
his remarks by recounting his move to the Mississippi
delta country and thanked Midwesterners for
sending their topsoil south to the folks down there (see,
in a sense, he’s really hybridizing and growing in Regions
1 and 2 after all!).
After further remarks had whetted our appetite, and
with clammy hands and beads of anticipatory perspiration
gracing our upper lips, the lights were dimmed
and the slide show began. What followed were slides
of his work hybridizing small flowered cultivars–and
(continued next page)
You bet we had fun at the Region 2 Symposium 2000 in
Cleveland! (Sharon, Dawn, Hiram, Gene, Gail)
Dr. Vaughn reviewing the basics of Mendel’s law.
Page 28 Spring/Summer 2000