2004 Selected Seedlings

Last updated 10/25/07.

Mike Huben's garden page.

Welcome! This was an exciting year for new seedlings, with my first near-white F2's blooming. Unfortunately, they didn't rebloom, but I know I'm on the right track, and they're excellent material for further work. Strong rebloomers are popping up with greater frequency. The tall-and-small program is progressing as I expected; some could even be considered for introduction if they perform well. A few odd and interesting things are popping up here and there. All-in-all, I'm rather happy with the direction things are going. My one regret is that I don't get instant bloom from seed the day I harvest the seed....

Mike Huben (mhuben@world.std.com)

MH0207K (BOSTON SYMPHONY * EARLY AND OFTEN) * (MILLIE SCHLUMF * EARLY AND OFTEN) 20 E 3.5, NearWhite Self, Dor Dip Noc Ext MH0207K compared to STELLA DE ORO MH0207K compared to EARLY AND OFTEN MH0207K compared to MAY MAY

This is not a rebloomer. Curses! And neither of its parents (MH0029R and MH0015.5) rebloom either. Yet it was my most heavily used parent in rebloom lines this year for a number of reasons. First, it probably carries a great many of the genes needed for rebloom (a sibling does rebloom) because both parents are kids of EARLY AND OFTEN. Second, it is flat-out the whitest seedling I've yet bred, with a nice green throat. Third, it is the earliest white I've ever had by far, blooming 9 days after STELLA DE ORO (only 2 after EARLY AND OFTEN.) The vigor seems fine, the foliage is excellent, the face is good and ruffled, it's a little bigger than SDO, and it has the same 8 buds as SDO (so far.) The flowers last a full 24 hours, opening at about 9PM, and are at least as sunfast as SDO and EAO. It's also a really good self-cleaner by daylily standards: the spent blooms furl tightly and look tidy until they fall off two days later, as you can see in the picture with EARLY AND OFTEN. By my standards for Evaluating Reblooming Cultivars (which are peculiar to my breeding goal of white rebloomers), this seedling rates very highly: Characteristic: Stella De Oro Early And Often MH0207K recur 4 4 4 clarity 0 3 5 vigor 5 5 3 early 3 2 2 face 2 3 3 size 2.75 4 3.5 foliage 3 3 4 _____ __ ____ TOTAL 19.75 24 19.5 So how white is it? Very. It is unmistakably a NearWhite. It does have some other tints: a minute amount of yellow in the very green throat, and some touches of apricot on the sepals. My pet name for it is "White Enough", but the truth is that it was done blooming before any well-known whites were open for side-by-side comparisons. Here are the three comparison photos I took: SDO, MAY MAY, and EAO. You can judge the difference clearly, unlike MH0067D two years ago which is only a couple of shades lighter than MAY MAY. If this rebloomed at all (and it might in a warmer site or summer), I'd definitely introduce it. I may introduce it anyway for earlyness, whiteness, and unusually good foliage for a NearWhite (free of leaf streak.) It could use the ridiculously fast increase of EAO and SDO: I've backcrossed it onto this grandparent and great-great-grandparent to try to recapture the rebloom and increase.

MH0279F MH9928G * MH0029R (PASTEL CLASSIC * EARLY AND OFTEN) * (BOSTON SYMPHONY * EARLY AND OFTEN)

This seedling is also exciting, though its thunder was stolen by MH0207K (which opened the day before.) While I don't have measurements handy, it was a much larger and better formed bloom than MH0207K with a glorious green throat. However, the plant was runty, the foliage is only so-so, it has sepal problems, it has few buds, it is not as white, and it did not rebloom either. Still, it will be a heavily used parent next year with parents that (hopefully) can fix some of those problems. I'm very impressed that I'm getting seedlings such as this which are much whiter than their parents and have even better green throats.

MH0139A PINEGARDEN PURITY * EARLY AND OFTEN ? EM 4, Melon Self, Dor Dip

Another non-rebloomer, but the palest melon with a green throat, good size, form, and substance. Plans for this one include crosses to all the strong rebloomers I've got. Not much budcount.

MH0203D FREQUENT FLIER * (MILLIE SCHLUMF * EARLY AND OFTEN) MH0203D (Compared to LULLABYE BABY on the right.)

Unless there's some conspicuous fault that appears, this three time bloomer will be a future introduction. It is a pale, icy pink that is much clearer than LULLABYE BABY, as you can see from the comparison. (Note to southerners: here up north, LULLABYE BABY is a pale melon pink, not nearly as white as I've seen it down south.) The green throat is outstanding. I'm learning that FREQUENT FLIER is a terrific parent of reloomers, and easily loses the yellow. The only drawback is low budcount and branching (9 buds on this one), though that is probably from the other parent. I'll use it on many other rebloomers and kids of EARLY AND OFTEN.

MH0203E FREQUENT FLIER * (MILLIE SCHLUMF * EARLY AND OFTEN) 24 EM Re 4.75, Melon Polychrome, Dor Dip

This sib to MH0203D is also a three time bloomer with 9 buds, and also likely to be a future introduction. It's my first large flowered rebloomer, and perhaps the most interesting face I've yet produced. Click on the photo to see this one larger! The petals have wonderful ruffling and movement, so that the bloom has a graceful and informal shape. This is a polychrome in the palest pastels: cream and melon base colors, a feathered violet eye, lavender midribs. And those colors are set off by an excellent green throat. I've got lots of breeding plans for this one!

MH0251L MH0016H * MH0067D MH0248L MH0015.14 * MH0067D 10 E 2.75, Lavender Bicolor, ? Dip Sel

A lot of interesting looking minatures are popping out of my program. These are both tiny, but may not be much in the way of plants. We'll see how they fare in the next year or so. Chances are I won't be working these, though they carry a lot of rebloom genes. Neither has rebloomed.

MH0288J ECHO THE SUN * POLAR PICTURE

This one lacked the height and branching of ECHO THE SUN, and the whiteness of POLAR PICTURE. Hopefully it can throw both in its seedlings, because it has the prettiest face I've gotten yet in tall-and-small breeding, and a very clear melon color. I used it heavily this past year. It has a minor tongue on one petal: a serious fault according to Bob Sobek, but I'll test how big a problem that is for breeding.

MH0219I (CORKY * EARLY AND OFTEN) * PINEGARDEN PURITY MH0233D MH0067D * (CORKY * EARLY AND OFTEN) MH0217C (CORKY * EARLY AND OFTEN) * BOSTON SYMPHONY MH0217D (CORKY * EARLY AND OFTEN) * BOSTON SYMPHONY

These are four kids of my MH0042D (CORKY * EARLY AND OFTEN). Once again, I'm demonstrating that it's easy to go to near white from species-like gold (in CORKY) in two generations. These are all small flowers, not miniatures, but they're on graceful, slender, 36 inch scapes with some branching, melon-based white colors, and very green throats. These show a variety of forms, and I've used them heavily this year with the other two seedlings elected for tall-and-small. In my experience, I should be able to get some much improved near-white colors in their kids. I'll be using them again this coming summer: I have a large number of other second generation tall-and-small crosses due to bloom. All of these flowers are substantially smaller than the other (near white) parent. We'll see how they increase, and how well they produce scapes. In the mean time, MH0042D will be used a little more on some of the taller, lighter varieties such as Saxton's LILAC SPIRE and MELON SPIRE, as well as the second generation tall-and-small crosses due to bloom.

MH0047Q AERIAL * BOSTON SYMPHONY 42 E 3.5, Melon w'Cream Polychrome, Dor Dip Emo MH0047Q

The face and color on this one are so-so, but oh! The scapes! 41 buds and six branches on the larger. I pollinated every bloom of this one this summer. I took a picture of the two scapes with 70+ tags fluttering, and wanted to call it "when good hybridizers go bad." Unfortunately, my iPhoto program hiccoughed and I lost the picture. This is the type of scape I want for my tall-and-small program. I've got a slew of seedlings coming from this now, and I'll use it again a lot next year.

MH9872I (HAPPY RETURNS * DEICER) * (THREE SEASONS * MONICA MARIE) 26 E Re 4.25, Cream w'Pale Midrib, Dor Dip

This is the parent of my MH0067D near white (barely) rebloomer. It does send up a set of rebloom scapes every year, and is increasing moderately. This year, the clump was spectacular for well over a month. Bob Sobek recommends that I introduce it, so it will probably come out next year if anybody expresses an interest. It does throw strong rebloomers, but it is a poor pod parent as diploids go.

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