wow. I sure like that SPRING MYSTIQUE. so pretty.I did seeds one time about 5 years ago, with some mini's. I didnt even write down my cross, I was just experimenting back then with some STELLa d ore, PLANTS. HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS CROSSED WITH. Good luck with your seeds.

Jean

Hey Jean. SPRING MYSTIQUE did really good here last year(2012). I bought it from Mark Carpenter in 2011 so hopefully I'll see it again this coming season after our very, very cold winter. It acts more like a sev here. Nothing stays green all winter here.
I think it is fun to experiment to see what will develop.

Julia

Well here is an update.
On the cross of EOA x SM, so far out of the 18 seeds, 13 have germinated (white nub showed in presoak). Not bad but hoping the rest will germinate in the next day or so.

RR x SM , 14 seeds but only 1 so far has germinated in the presoak. Slow going on this one and not sure why. Will this be my slow poke daylily?

Julia

I need to get mine going soon. Bought potting soil today!!!

I bet you get some real special kids out of those crosses! It seems my tet crosses took longer to pop there heads up than my dip. Im still waiting patiently with my fingers crossed on about 25% still not germinated. Whats everyones most anticipated crosses this winter?

I think mine would be Icicles X hooked, and a few of William Marchant seedling crosses that he offered. :)

I'm hoping for something good from these crosses to cross with seedlings from last year IF they all survived this winter. I've learned timing of blooms is everything when planning crosses LOL.

William sure did have some nice kids offered.

NIce crosses, Julia! I haven't started mine yet. I don't want to make more beds, so I'm going to start my seeds late so I can cull my seedlings from the beds to make room for Fall planting. I have a huge amount of dip seeds from Lavender Blue Baby crosses and a ton of color oriented crosses and then auction-caught toothies. I can't wait! I'm tired of being inside. Dani

Hi Dani, I have one cross of lavender blue bay X rose F Kennedy. I love the kids that LBB puts out :) Are you hoping for any that have the "forks" or feathered look? Good luck :)

David

Dani: I always find a way to add a bit more and then wonder why I keep doing that and realize, I love flowers.:-). This year I really cut back on my daylily seed starting.

David: I had LBB X RFK bloom last year. Here are a couple of pics of how mine turned out. Just a sampling as it produced alot of kids.

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Do you have pics of yours? I'm sure I'll use this one also this coming season.

Julia

I sure do like this last one, Julia.Very pretty one.

jean

WOW a couple of really nice crosses it sure will be exciting to see those seedlings bloom, keep us posted.
Linda

Hi Julia, thanks for sharing :) Mine are just a few inches tall right now. I love how it looks like the color clarity is realy passed on. The first and last I think are my favs :)

David

David- Not sure what to expect. LBB does really well for me in WI so I crossed Fancy Face, Chaotic Design, Pattern Maker, Heavenly Angel Ice,Trahlyta, Hush Little Baby, Snake in the grass Boo, Christmas Is, Janice Brown, House Of Orange and some others that don't come to mind right now. Problem is, I'm not sure what took- I didn't have a lot of time to tag the crosses, so it will be interesting to see what I get! Patterns and pretty colors are what I want, but who knows.

And yes, Julia. I could make and make and make beds, but IT WOULD NOT STOP EVER. *smile* I have to learn to control myself...but that probably won't happen. I've got some AWESOME crosses that I want to get planted!!!

Dani

Jean and Linda: Thank you for the comments. Exciting for me to see what will come from the crosses. Sometimes disappointment but other times pure joy :-).

All of the 18 seeds from the EOA x SM cross germinated. So far 12 have been moved off the heat mat to the lights as they have already pushed up some green.

The RR x SM cross has had only 5 seeds germinate in the presoak. Disappointing. None of those yet have shown any green but perhaps this week they will. If the remaining seeds don't germinate by the end of the month, I'll toss them.

One of the reasons I presoak is I don't want to waste materials with seeds that won't germinate. I've got limited space inside and with the other perennials and vegetable seeds I want to start, I need all the space available.

Julia

Progress update on the seeds.
Most of the EOA x SM cross have been moved to the lights. Only 1 of that cross so far did not sprout up any green so when I gently dug down into the mix, the seed stopped growing and turned brown. Tossed it. Still have a couple more on the heat mat so hopefully the rest of the cross shows some green soon.

The RR x SM cross has had only 1 seed sprout up and moved over to the lights. No more have shown germination in the presoak so if nothing by the end of the week, they will get tossed.

Here is a pic of the kids so far

Julia

Looking great! I just bought two of Norris's intros...Substantial evidence (I believe thats EOA grandparent?) and Pigment of imagination. Cant wait to see those this summer :) Looks like you got the Hydrofarm jump start? I did too:) Thanks for the update.

Julia, after looking at those kids of yours of LBB, it realy looks like some blue is trying to peek through. Are you going to further cross those with another blue or maybe LBB again?

Lucky you on the Norris intros. I notice he tends to do back or inbreeding on his intros. Hope that is the right terminology.

Yes, I bought those lights almost 4 years ago on Ebay and they are terrific. I believe these are 4 ft long. I use them for my other seeds that I start indoors as well. I bought my heat mat as well off Ebay. Sometimes you can get a good bargain.

LBB kids: I'm not sure if its blue or shades of purple. I haven't planned out yet who I'll cross any of the kids with yet and from past experience I've learned that bloom timing is not always on my side. Lastly, we will see what survived our very cold winter here this year.

Julia

Juliany -- I know there are other threads about how others do their pre-soaking but I was wondering what you do for yours. I've never pre-soaked before and I'm finding the recent planting I did this winter is looking a bit disappointing. They've been in their flats now out in the greenhouse for almost a month and probably only 5% have sprouted.

Mind you these are not getting any bottom heat so maybe I'm just being impatient given the method I've chosen. I've only ever planted seeds in outdoor flats in warm weather without pre-soaking and had great success. I've never tried starting them in winter time in an unheated greenhouse until now. Daytime temps usually get up around 80 in there, night time temps are usually above freezing or better.

Just my opinion but I think you need to keep the trays warm and not let the temps drop below 60 degrees F. If your just getting above freezing at night then perhaps, just perhaps, they are not getting the constant warmth they need to germinate faster. Once you have a constant warmer temp in the GH, then they will start coming up.

I start mine indoors in Jan/Feb because our season here is short with most daylilies starting to emerge in late April to early May and bloom season is not in full swing till late June to early July. Starting mine indoors helps me get them out in the garden by May and hopefully have some blooms the following season.

I use water and peroxide mix, put the seeds that have been refrigerated for at least 3 to 4 months into the solution (little clear cups)and let them sit on the counter till I see the white nub appear. No bottom heat when they are soaking . I really think some seed crosses just take longer given my recent experience with the RR X SM cross.

I love doing this in the winter. I like seeing the green indoors when it is cold and snowing outside :-). I envy you having a greenhouse. Wish I had one.

Just as a side note, I've typically started well over 200+ daylily seeds indoors but this year, I've scaled way back. I'm planning on starting my vegetable and perennial seeds soon so these guys better get off the heat mat soon.

Julia

This post was edited by juliany on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 21:08

Thank you for posting that info/advice Julia. I'm sure you're right about the temps not being consistently warm enough, I figured that was also a big factor. The original plan was to germinate them in an indoor room where temps are consistently 75-80. I started 6 flats this way but they quickly had to be moved out before sprouting....they got booted in favor of vegetable seedlings which I suddenly realized needed to be started now. My timing was all off. Next year I'll do better. I'll also have double the shelf space to start seedlings indoors next year so that will also help.

Once they're up and green, they can be moved out to the unheated greenhouse, correct? It's just the germination that requires the higher consistent temps?

I don't know since I don't use a greenhouse. But I'd suggest checking out Karol Emmerich blog or even contacting her since I know she grows in a greenhouse. Also, I believe it is either Lee Pickles or Tommy Maddox that also have a blog and use greenhouses. They would know more than I do about growing/moving seedlings to an unheated greenhouse.

I have to wait till our temps moderate before I can move mine outdoors and start to harden them off.

Julia

Hi Julia, About Norris's intros being interbred....From what his words are and just common sense tells me is that he was trying to make recessive traits dominant (mainly the flat face , and habit). He also has one intro that was crossed into itself at least 3 times (dont think it was selfs, but siblings probably) and when something like that comes out that is very strong with its attributes it is "worth its weight in gold". It made all the good, better and didn't make the bad worse basically.

Thanks Julia, I'll check out the blogs. In the meantime, I've got some freed up shelf space indoors so I'm gonna' bring half a dozen flats with no signs of germination yet back into the heat.