I see a lot of photos of Integrated Logistics that are a darker reddish purple; there is a lot of color variance among the pics. I like Baja California, and maybe it would do okay here. It will be interesting to see Valentine Sweetheart. Your Sun Bear seedling seems to be well budded.

Well Debra, I am also awestruck by Midnight Castle, that is a wonderful rich color, love the edge, and the halo in the center, everything I love in a daylily all put together. And to get that kind of bloom after a storm. I like the orange spacecoast one too, really catches the eye with that bright color. Your seedlings look great, I wish I got seedlings that looked half as nice as yours!

Integrated Logistics is fabulous followed by Pretty Desirable. Oh, now I'm gonna want them both. All very lovely and the color on Spacecoast Francis Busby looks almost like an orange red. Nice.

Mantis - Integrated Logistics is usually darker. But after several days with the heat index from 98-100, it has faded a bit in the bud. Here's how it looked last year:

Here is "Valentine Sweetheart," the sib to SOT X RR posted above. It's a much faster multiplier, has always rebloomed and had good form. Plus, I like the more triangular watermark and white edge. The scape of the fan that gets the most sun blasted, so I don't have a good bud count on this one yet. Plus it gets shaded out more than ever by one of the dormant Sun Bear kids.

Oh, both my Sun Bear kids have bud counts of 20-24. The one not pictured here has some five-way branching this year.

Debra

That Midnight Castle is a beauty. I love that one. they all very pretty, but that ones my favorite.

Nancy and Jean - Midnight Castle's color in my photo has more red to the purple that you see in person. It's a very dark blue purple to my eyes. And the bloom is so large - it just trumps all my other purples.

Julia - Spacecoast Francis Busby is a red orange, but it's looked more orange red here the past two days. The petals seem to be orange overlaid with red. I noticed today, it looked more red in the afternoon. Integrated Logistics and Pretty Desirable are both terrific performers. I have large clumps of both, so if you're interested in trading, those are available.

Debra

They are all very nice, Debra. My favorites are Integrated Logistics & Midnight Castle.

Thanks Brad! I'm thinking you must be a fellow purple lover.

Wow, Midnight Castle is a perfect looking flower. Love it! I have Integrated Logistics and have to get it out of the pot and into the ground this year. Last year was the first year it bloomed for me, not a lot of blooms and no pinching yet, we'll see what this year brings.

Debra, Yes, I am a purple lover! Probably almost 1/3 of my collection is purple or lavender.

Laura - The two years I grew Integrated Logistics in a pot it multiplied but didn't have many buds. It has to be in the ground and established before the throat will pinch. It took two years after I got it in the ground for it to do throat pinching. Get yours out of the pot as soon as possible. I don't recommend growing daylilies in pots, although I am doing just that right now because weather conditions precluded me redoing beds this spring.

Last year at the Daylily show they had two of Stamile/Pierce newish purples: Midnight Castle and When Royals Dream almost side by side. It was interesting to be able to compare the two together..........I really really like SC Francis Busby. I would imagine the color really pops in the garden. How colorfast/sunfast is it for you?...........It's hard to tell in pictures, but from what I see you picked the prettier of the two deep pink daylilies to name. Don't get me wrong. The other pink is very nice too, but Valentine Sweetheart has a shade and depth of color that's richer to my eyes. Of course the stats count as much as a single pretty face, so you are the best judge of which is better.....Maryl

Maryl - So when you saw Midnight Castle and When Royals Dream almost together, which did you like best. I've always thought When Royals Dream looked like a fabulous purple too. When the heat index is 100, SC Francis Busby fades a bit. It is very bright in the "red bed." With scape blast and one of the Julie Newmar seedlings taking over the seedling bed and robbing the others of shade, I can't get accurate stats on Valentine Sweetheart. At this point, VS has better increase and reliable rebloom but a bud count of only 8-9. The sib has developed rebloom and has a bud count of 14. Since they do have differences - one with the gold edge and the other with the white, I might end up introducing both of them as some point. VS had one fabulous scape developing before the blast, and I thought it was going to develop the lateral branching. Because of the rain wave followed by the heat wave, I could not risk moving VS to the new evaluation bed I made. If I ever get than one in good soil and enough sunlight, we will see what she can do. Both are shorter than I would like - 24 inches tall.

Debra: on When Royals Dream vs Midnight Castle. I personally preferred When Royals Dream. I like the look of the purple on Mary's Baby/Bela Lugosi with it's darker plush purple color. So with that bias in mind, to me When Royals Dream had a better color then MC (and the form was better too). WRD is on my long list if the reviews on it stay positve and I can find an inexpensive rust free source.......I meant to say too that I even like the name you picked out for Valentine Sweetheart. A taller scape height would be nice, but as long as it's above the foliage that will be alright. Bud count - hummm - perhaps it will improve given better growing conditions. With such limited space in my garden, a registered minimum of 16 BC is what I look for. Of course if it has great repeat maybe even that would work out. I know you are a discerning buyer and will be just as discerning as a hybridizer before you put your name on anything. It's a beauty that's for sure and fingers crossed that that pretty face develops an equally pretty set of stats......Maryl

Maryl - It's interesting that your pick was When Royals Dream. Was the color that much more of a blue purple than Midnight Castle? The white edges always sway me. I really don't care for the chartreuse edges, which When Royals Dream is supposed to have, and was never a big fan of gold edges either. As a hybridizer, I don't want to register anything with less than 18 buds. I see some well known hybridizers introducing some with 12 or 13 buds. But it would have to be something very special for me to consider it.

A daylily friend I mentioned this post to said that maybe I had mis-remembered and it was Castle Rock not Midnight Castle that was next to When Royals Dream. It's possible I guess, but I don't remember it that way. Of course this was indoors where lighting plays a part on color and who knows if I got the best example of each from the entrants garden. I agree with everything you said about edgings, but I really don't remember the edgings on When Royals Dream. I've been encouraging a vendor of mine to buy When Royals Dream so that she can have it and trial it for me. She loves how I spend her money.....Just from your honest assessments of daylilies in general I knew that you wouldn't put anything out there you wouldn't want to buy yourself. It's got to be hard when you come so close to getting a good one yet in the end have to throw in the towel. Someone once showed the cull pile from a famous hybridizer and we all groaned a little. It was a small mountain of possibilities that some of them would still have liked to explore.............Maryl

Maryl - I recounted the buds on the best scape of Valentine's Sister, and there are 16 now. There must have been a couple tiny buds that weren't apparent the first time I counted. That's a pretty bud count for part shade. I am crossing Valentine Sweetheart with other good pinks in my garden to try to get that pretty face on taller better budded scapes. The seedlings it has produced are the most vigorous of this year's crop.

Wow! I had missed some beauties for sure, stuck working on the baby quilt.

Midnight Castle is beautiful, and Integrated Logistics is just stunning. And I always love Francis Busby. Not a clunker in the bunch. Beautiful group, and your seedlings are gorgeous, Debra.

kay

Kay - Thanks for the sweet comment about the seedlings!