Growing Daylilies Together

Ideally, the earlier in the morning the better because you need to beat the heat AND the bees.

Some finicky daylilies will not 'take' in high temperatures, therefore, the cooler morning hours provide the highest rate of success. Often if the pistol is very long the pollen will 'cook' before it can reach the ovary, so it is best to hybridize spiders and unusual forms early before the sun is at peak.

If you're not having much success setting pods on a particular daylily, you might try pollinating it the evening before where it will have cooler temperatures for the fertilization to take place. In this case, you will need to gently pry apart the bud to expose the stigma. Since there will usually not be any lubricant on the tip of the stigma because of the forced circumstances, you will have to provide it from the stigma of another bloom. It is not necessary that the lubricant be of any particular ploidy, just that it came from a fresh daylily stigma. Remove one from another plant, break off the end of it, and a small drop of fluid should be exposed that you can use. Dab it on the stigma of the pod parent you are forcing and then dab the pollen on it that you have chosen. Mark the bloom with a hang tag and you're done.

For those that work during the day, you may have noticed that the pollen sacks haven't opened before you have to leave for work. Some hybridizers pick the pollen parent blooms a day in advance for hybridizing with the nex day.  Place these blooms in a muffin tray with water in each of the holes. Then place the tray into the refrigerator, the pollen sacks will open in the refrigerator and the blooms will last approximately 3 days before melting.

You can then take these blooms out the next day and pollinate until you have to leave for work.

_{Updated November 19, 2009}

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