BUD COUNT

8 years ago

OK, it's snowy winter here, though I know some of you are still working out in your gardens. But this is maybe still a good time for a Daylily 101 type question. This may seem obvious to you veterans - help me see the obvious, please. :)

How and when are you counting your buds? I mean, the scapes keep growing, don't they? Don't they add a few new buds as the season progresses? And sometimes the buds don't manage to open, so what about those? Are you only counting the ones that open?

If there are multiple scapes, are you adding all the buds of the multiple scapes together for your total, or do you make an average of the counts of each individual scape?

And if there's rebloom, are those added to the main count, or does the count start over at that point?

O thou, of greater wisdom - share with me, if you will.

Alex

Featured Answer

shive

8 years ago

You can't get a total bud count until the scapes are finished blooming. I'm not sure what most hybridizers do. Karol Emmerich seems to take an average of scapes.

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Comments (7)

samhain10 - 5a
Original Author
8 years ago
Debra - so, let me see if I understand you: after the bloom cycle is finished, even if spent blooms have been removed, you can still see to count where they were on the scape, right? - and you count the total bud scars on each of the scapes and take an average of those totals? Have I got it, as you understand it?
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Nancy 6b
8 years ago
That is what I do, they are pretty easy to count then. I intended to count averages on all my daylilies after they finished this year, something I've never really paid a lot of attention to unless they are really blooming well, or really bad. Not surprising if you know me, that didn't happen. Maybe next year. As for rebloom, I don't know what professionals do, but I count rebloom separately, often rebloom is very much lower than first bloom & I just want to know. On some plants I may only get 3 or 4 blooms on rebloom on a plant that bloomed nicely first time around.
samhain10 - 5a thanked Nancy 6b
samhain10 - 5a
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks, Nancy - think I've got it. I'll want to make counts on my seedlings next season as it's their 3rd year, and I'm going to TRY to keep decent records of things. Which if you knew me, you'd know isn't exactly my forte either - LOL.

Alex
shive
8 years ago
Yes Alex, you've got it!
samhain10 - 5a thanked shive
hoosier_nan (IN z5b/6a)
8 years ago
Alex, we find it really hard to count buds during the flowering season--too much to do then. Plus, until the scape is fully developed, some of the buds seem to hide and then are revealed as it develops. If the plant is a bud builder, this could go on for some time. One hybridizer that I know of collects (by pulling them out of the ground, not breaking them off) all the scapes in the fall and bundles them together with the seedling's name or number and then gets his stats in the wintertime. I think he piles the bundles in his basement. (I bet his wife likes that.) It's easy to see the scar or little nub where each flower was. Then is a good time to count branching and get a scape height too.

The AHS says that the bud count should be an average, not a range. I don't think that includes rebloom. Like Nancy said, rebloom is usually less that the first time around.

Nancy
samhain10 - 5a thanked hoosier_nan (IN z5b/6a)
samhain10 - 5a
Original Author
8 years ago
Nancy - thank you for the part about gathering and labeling the scapes for later count and measurement - wonderful idea!

Alex