Pages - AHS Region 2

When H. ‘Gerda Brooker’ was crossed with Curt Hanson’s H. ‘Wind in the Rigging’, a hardier cultivar, the result was a more vigorous plant
and flowers with a heavy substance, like that of the pollen parent. Combining this seedling with a dormant partner, Bob Schwarz’s H.
‘Tuxedo Junction’ has produced some interesting semi-evergreen seedlings and flowers with a very heavy substance. A couple of
examples are shown below. Their colors are complex, and form corresponds to the pinched crispate definition of our Unusual Form guru,
Bob Schwarz.
Left: H. ‘Gerda
Brooker’ X H.
‘Wind in the
Rigging’ (28 7)
Right: (H. ‘Gerda
Brooker’ x H. ‘Wind
in the Rigging’) X
H. ‘Tuxedo
Junction’ (28 7)
Right: (H. ‘Gerda
Brooker’ x H.
‘Wind in the
Rigging’) X H.
‘Tuxedo Junction’
(32 8)
I have begun using daylily offspring from that champion of super tough northern daylilies, Melanie
Mason. Her H. ‘Astral Voyager’ produces some delightful kids that are both hardy and vigorous, like
the cockerel form shown to the left.
(H. ‘Gerda Brooker’ x H. ‘Blue-
Eyed Guy’) X H. ‘Astral
Voyager’ (30 6)
Third: Adapting Tender Tetraploid Spiders and Unusual Form Daylilies to the North
Pat Stamile is far ahead of everyone else in creating tetraploid spiders and large exotics, so I get his
collection of these each year. His tender evergreens probably do as well or better here than most
Florida daylilies. I’ll use the example of his 2001 introductions as they have been here long enough to
be evaluated fairly. Of the nine cultivars, four are fairly vigorous and show good bloom: H. ‘Igor’, H.
‘Octopus Hugs’, H. ‘Lurch’ and H. ‘Purple People Eater’. Two hold their own but show little increase:
H. ‘Wings on High’ and H. ‘His Highness.’ Three have dwindled: H. ‘Navajo Talisman’, H. ‘Inky
Fingers’ and H. ‘Lavender Arrowhead’.
Seedlings from some of these, crossed with dormant, hardy stock, are shown below. The first three are
crosses with cultivars introduced by the late Richard Webster, who greatly furthered the development
of hardy tetraploids. These seedlings have had their second season of bloom and appear to be on
their way as strong northern plants.
Left:
H. ‘Fuchsia
Fashion’ X H. ‘Inky
Fingers’ (36 8)
Left:
H. ‘Red Suspenders’
X H. ‘Royal
Celebration’ (38 9)
Right: H. ‘Red
Suspenders’ X H. ‘Web
Browser’ (36 9)
The three seedlings, left and below, have only had one bloom season and will be watched carefully for
hardiness. The first two are crosses of dormants by Pat Roberts and Bob Schwarz with evergreens
from Stamile. The last seedling, the gold spider, is the product of two very hardy evergreens from
Stamile and Luddy Lambertson.
Left: H. ‘Wings on High’ X
H. ‘Ondine’ (36 8)
Middle: H. ‘Star of India’ X
H. ‘Navajo Talisman’ (38 8)
Right: H. ‘Octopus Hugs’
X H. ‘On Silken Thread’
(40 10)
AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter
Fall 2005 - Winter 2006 Page 13