WHAT I AM WATCHING FOR IN MY SEEDLINGS
Daylily Characteristics being looked for are:
Hardiness i.e. Able to withstand very hot or very cold weather or very dry or wet weather and still bloom beautifully
No Bleeding i.e. No running of color ( this sometimes happens in daylilies with very deep coloration often during or after rain)
No Melting i.e. the blossoms stay looking as fresh late in the day as they did when they opened ( some times the extreme heat of a day can cause a daylily to basically melt in the heat )
Good Configuration i.e. Blooms placed well above the foliage , stems strong and not prone to bending over
Good Branching i.e. lots of well placed branches means lots of blooms that are not crowded and the daylily plant has a long bloom period
Good Bud count i.e. lots of daylily blooms which open spaced over a period of time which gives plants a long season .
Rebloom i.e. the daylily plant grows a new scape to replace the older bloomed out scape .
Instant Rebloom i.e. the initial daylily scape has not finished it’s bloom cycle and a new replacement scape is growing up to replace it which translates into a long very floriferous blooming plant .
Fertile plants i.e. not all daylilies are fertile that is to say they don’t all produce seeds .This can be for many reasons .
Some daylilies are stoloniferous . This means they propogate by sending out runners underground and so don’t need to produce seed.
Some daylilies are fertile only one way . That is to say they may be pod fertile i.e. able to produce seeds or pollen fertile i.e. they are not able to produce seeds but their pollen can be used on other daylilies to produce seed. Most daylilies are both pod and pollen fertile.
Bud Builders Also welcome are daylilies that are called bud builders i.e. as the plant progresses through the season it continues to grow more buds on the scape which ultimately means more blooms and a longer blooming season
Extended Bloom Extra bonus points go to a daylily plant that has extended bloom i.e. the blooms last longer than 24 hours
Fragrant daylilies are always a plus (not all daylilies have fragrance)