Mr Cape, meet Miss Lemon Flurry Mr Flurry, meet Miss Toreador's Cape ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Lemon Flurry ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Toreador's Cape ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Bee with brush(I only do this for the tetraploids) Buzz.......buzz........buzz Jerry
Way to go, Jerry. I had no idea that youhad an alter-life....like Superman and all those super heros. What a good talent to have. I hope that you will do some posting on this subject when you have some new flowers. I like things like this and am very curious how your brushing turns out.
Last year I did that with my tomatoes and had a jungle out there. This year I didn't manage to do it and had very few tomatoes. I did do my eggplant this year and have had some luck with each plant having at least one. It does work. I use a q-tip though and go from flower to flower to flower playing bee. dooley
Sjoerd, each flower is tagged with a velcro tag to monitor if a seed pod develops. Pictures tomorrow. Dooley, Each year I have about 500 seeds from daylilies, most are diploid. Few are from tetraploids. As I only have 6 tetraploids I have decided to do my own pollination in hopes of getting more seeds with larger more colorful daylilies and stronger scapes. Jerry
I find this fascinating. I hope you do manage to get more seeds from your tetraploids Jerry. Do keep us informed of how your pollinating has gone and show us the results. However, I can't get the mental picture of you buzzing around your lilies dressed like a bee out of my head.
Very cool Jerry. Thanks for the photo demonstration. I would love to try that, but I think it will have to wait for retirement (my list grows ever longer..) Question for you: what is the difference between diploid and tetraploid daylilies? Are the common ones 'Happy Returns' and 'Stella D'Oro' diploids? And the the gigantic ones tetraploids?
The difference between diploids and tetraploids(a polyploid) is the number of chromosomes. Diploid daylilies have 22 chromosomes, 11 from mom and 11 from dad Tetraploids have 44 chromosomes The majority of daylilies are diploids. Stella de Oro and Happy Returns are diploids Tetraploid flowers tend to be larger, the scapes(stalk) are thicker, colors are brighter. Tetraploids are more vigorous Diploids have a larger color range(more pinks), more shapes i.e. spider and doubles Diploids are easier to propagate so that makes tetraploids more of a challenge You can cross tetraploids only with other tetraploids and diploids only with other diploids. Have fun, experiment!! Good luck!! Jerry
Sjoerd, These are the cross-pollination tags I mentioned. Toreador's cape with pollination tag ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Lemon Flurry with pollination tag ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden ) Jerry
Ahhh...I see. This is quite interesting, Jerry. Have you been doing this long? BTW--That "Toreador's Cape"is a real looker. Fingers crossed that seed pods develop for you.
Sjoerd, I started a few years ago when I realized that the tetraploids were not producing as many seed pods as I thought they should. With the cross-pollination of Tetraploids, pod production has slowly increased. I guess as long as I get more seeds, whether it's bees or me, seeds are good. It takes about 3 years for me to get flowers. I might see results this year or next. Each year I see new flowers from groups I planted years ago. Jerry
Jerry--How intersting! Sounds like fun. Did the tetraploids occur naturally or were they bred? I tried to research this & couldn't find out. I am guessing the species are all diploids so I am wondering where the tetraploids came from. Come to think of it, I remember when newly introduced daylilies suddenly became bigger & taller. I bet they were tetrapoids. This was some years back, maybe 20?
Tetraploid daylilies were first developed in the late 1950s when diploid daylilies were altered using the chemical colchicine. The flower now had 4 sets of 11 chromosomes, hence, tetraploid. Jerry
