Yes. I was just looking to spin the genetic wheel and see what comes up. I thin k I'll give them a little help pollinating

Remember that you need to cross diploids with diploids and tetraploids with tetraploids. You can put tetraploid pollen on diploids and sometimes a pod will form, but most likely, it will shrivel up in a couple of weeks with no seeds. Also try making your crosses early in the morning. Like Debra said, daylilies don't like to set seed if the temperatures are too hot.

Nancy

How do i differentiate the two? I did a bit of reading on the number of chromosomes in each, but it didn't mention identifying,

Look up Plants Database, under Daylilies. You can type in the name of your lily and it will tell you all about it, most have photos, and it will tell you what ploidy it is. This site is lots of fun! I use it alot to look up all sorts of information. And Nancy is right - pollinate in the morning while it is still cool, especially with tetraploids.

That's great reference, thanks. I don't know the name of some of my daylilies. Are there any other identifying characteristics?

Try to recall where you bought them. Did you order from a garden, buy on the Lily Auction or buy locally? Big Box stores dont carry alot of newer varieties. Maybe you left a tag on the lily and it is buried in the dirt? You might post a photo - someone might take an educated guess. When I buy, I have a computer list for the year and write down who I purchased from, what the lily was, other information I might need. I bought a Brother labeler and label all my plants with that. This really helps. If you cant figure out what they are - and so many look alike - just label them NOID - no I D. You can figure out if they are tet or dip by looking at the bloom - dips sometimes are long and skinny and the end of their blooms are thin - tets tend to be fatter at the ends. Tet seeds are fat - dips tend to be smaller. Figuring out which ploidy can help you figure out what they might be. You can also, when blooming, pollinate one with a known tet pollen, and one with a known dip pollen and see which makes a seed - but be sure to label which is which.

Diploids tend to have thinner scapes and tetraploids tend to have thicker scapes. That doesn't hold true in all cases, by any means. Flower texture is often thinner on diploids too. The only definitive way to determine ploidy would be to examine the grains of pollen under a microscope. Diploid pollen is smaller than tet. If you are serious about hybridizing, I would suggest getting a few named varieties and starting with those. Your noid daylilies might have wonderful garden impact, but you will be wasting a lot of time trying to cross if you don't know the ploidy.

Nancy

I have bred Arabian and Miniature horses for years and understand the importance of a pedigree. I have found it fun to use that Plant Database to look up daylily pedigrees and I can see characteristics of a parent in many. I breed what pleases me - havent had time to do much for years due to farm business and care of my elderly mother. But this year, have had a great time crossing things. I love the Carpenter lilies - Jack was the best at large lilies with substance. Love his lavenders so have a great time looking at pedigrees and getting lilies that have the qualities I am looking for. Its fun to look for and buy the lilies I want to cross with. Just now starting seeds so this will be a long process but what fun! Nancy, I always enjoy reading your posts - you have so much knowledge and are so generous with sharing it!

Judith

I am both unserious and serious. At the moment I'm just paying around. I do have several named varieties and if I get more serious will start keeping a log of what crosses I'm doing.

I've started trying to grow a lot of things in my garden from seed and noted last year there were no seed pods on any of my daylilies. This year I made a concerted effort to not dead head any of them and up until last week, hadn't seen any pods forming. now there are a few and I hope my random pollen swabbing produces a few more. Though I do note from looking up one of my named varieties in the Pant Database that it is a tetraploid, Mauna Loa, and I likely spread some diploid and teatraploid pollen from nearby DL's, so we'll see what comes.

I'm just having fun.

Having fun - that's the point! Mauna Loa is a beautiful orange - you could get some bright colors with that! Read Nancy's tutorials on starting seeds, it is excellent. Mine is more labor intensive but I have so much fun checking the seeds daily and logging onto the computer what I am crossing, putting sprouted seeds into damp cotton rounds to make roots.......as I start more seeds, may not have time for all this but right now its so interesting!

I appreciate everyone sharing their knowledge. I am a longtime gardener and have started lots of things from seeds. I used to belong to NARGS and participated in their seed exchange for several years. What I remember most from those days is do they need stratification, do they need to be sown slightly buried or do they need to be sown on top.

I'll check out Nancy's tutorial, guessing it's accessible from her profile? I'll go click now and look :o)

Hmm, I poked around Nancy's profile, but did not see a link to the seed starting tutorial.

You might be able to look on this site under starting seeds.......I have seen it several places. She says this, and I do it too - soak seeds in 1 T hydrogen peroxide to 1 C water in little labeled baggies in a dark place [I use an old syringe to put a bit of water in the baggies]. In 4 days or so [I have seen in 2] you can see the "radicle"/white nub start poking out. I then move mine into another baggie inside a dampened cotton round, folded like a taco. Put in bright windowsill and check to watch progress. When a green leaf and root show - I pot. I put my first 6 seeds in seed starting mix in tiny pot in a little saucer of water and cover with plastic sandwich bag. I poke hole with pencil and put root/seed in then sprinkle sand to fill in. Sand keeps gnats away and is easy for seeds to grow through [can get a bag from the aquarium section in Walmart]. Since I planted my first 6 seeds July 20 - they are growing great, over an inch tall and starting to get 2nd leaves!

Hi Juniorballoon , Lots of info available at WWW.garden.org . when you open the program look at the top of the page . It will say

Learn

• Plants DB
• Tools
• Community

Click on PlantsDB then click on daylilies and type the name of your plant in the search bar. Hit enter and all the info for that plant will come up .

For the last few weeks I've been pollinating by hand and now have a goodly number of seed pods developing, which is very fun. This year it is a very random process. Next year I'll probably keep track of what I've crossed with what, depends on how busy I get. This year is just about getting some pods, collecting the seed and getting them to germinate.

I've read you want to let them ripen, turn brown and cracked open before you collect. Seems if they crack open you can lose some seeds. Can they be collected just before they crack open? What's the earliest you can collect and still have viable seed?

Thanks.