2007 Garden Update
ADENA DAYLILIES
Michael Derrow
RD 2 Box 156-C
DIPLOIDS
PINK STRIPES
PINK STRIPES - 2006 introduction –
Diploid, Dormant, 32 in., 7.5in.
Writing this in late December of 2006,
I am reflecting back on my apprehension over how PINK STRIPES would be received
by the daylily community. Richard
and Jan Norris were right; my fears were pointless, as the plant was purchased
by daylily enthusiasts all over the U.S and by two international hybridizers. Plants
of and seeds from PS crosses have appeared on the auction sites and created
great interest. And since the plant
is proving to be an even better performer than I had originally noted, there is
great excitement here for future enhancements of this striped trait.
This past summer my large
hybridizing clump of PINK STRIPES had three sets of scapes, beginning bloom on
June 26th and having the last couple of blooms on the last scape
killed by our first frost in early October. Both striped siblings to PS also
demonstrated heavy rebloom. We also found that PS is a bud builder.
Initial scapes appear to have 5-6 buds per fork of the top Y of the scape
but late season examinations show 11 to 12 bloom scars on each fork of the Y. Add
those blooms to the blooms from the two lateral branches and many of the scapes
had 34 or more buds last year.
I have had reports from
several growers that PS also rebloomed for them and many noted excellent
increase too. One grower in
And the seedlings from PINK
STRIPES-wow! I am not sure what
the genetics are behind the effect. It certainly does not act like a
‘simple’ recessive or dominant trait, as we are seeing striping on
approximately 30% of the first generation (F1) seedlings out of PINK STRIPES
when used as a pollen parent. Of
those, approximately 5% of the seedlings show as much striping as PINK STRIPES
itself.
PINK STRIPES SEEDLINGS
The
five seedlings above are from a cross of INDIAN
GIVER x PINK STRIPES
SUBSTANTIAL
EVIDENCE x PINK STRIPES INDY
FLOPPY MAMA x PINK STRIPES
9
in. bloom
7 in. bloom
You will notice no seedling
numbers with any of these – that is because I did not number any.
I will wait until this coming summer to select and number any worthy
seedlings. There will be
another 1000 or so seedlings bloom this coming so there is a good chance that a
few will rival or surpass these. The main thing is to make sure that seedlings
are improvements on PINK STRIPES or show the same traits in other colors.
Two years ago, I lost over
50 pods from various pollen parents set on to PINK STRIPES to deer.
That represented an entire summer of cross attempts with hundreds of
pollinations. PINK STRIPES has
always been a somewhat reluctant pod setter for me in the past, but this year I
got lots of pods on it from ALCHEMIST and NORTHWIND DANCER (over 250 seeds from
each cross.) I also remade the INDY
FLOPPY MAMA x PINK STRIPES cross both ways with hopes of more purple and rose
colored striped blooms showing up.
And yes, I am definitely
excited to see what the striping will produce in the future.