How to Cross Pollinate Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
Almost everyone loves daylilies. They're hardy; they come in countless colors and sizes, and they grow in almost all regions of the United States. One of the reasons there are literally thousands of named varieties of daylilies is they lend themselves easily to cross-pollination and hybridization. Try this in your own garden and maybe you can create your own variety of daylily. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Tags on string
- Soft lead pencil
- Cotton swabs
- Plastic zipper bag
- Envelopes
Instructions
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The parts of the daylily of most interest when you are cross pollinating are the six stamens, which hold the yellow pollen, (the male component) and the pistil (the female component), which is where the pollen needs to go. Pollen travels down the pistil to the ovaries of the flower, where, if pollination is successful, seeds form. You're going to transfer the pollen of one cultivar of daylily to another.
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Assemble a kit of tools so you can make a quick tour of the garden on your pollination journey. Toss everything into a plastic bag or zippered plastic case; choose something waterproof since it's going to be in the garden with you.
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Before you start gathering pollen, take a minute to see what's blooming and which plants might make good parent plants. Most modern day lilies are the result of years of cross-pollination and hybridization programs, so in your garden, you probably have plants that are related. Look for the flowers and plants that have characteristics you would like to see carried on: large blooms; a large numbers of buds; strong scapes, which are the stems that hold the flowers above the foliage; lots of branching on the scapes; or ruffled edges on the flowers.
Also, look for flowers that will be open on the same day. You can cut the stamens from a flower that opens today and use them on an open flower the next day, but if you're trying to keep the process simple, stick with blooms that are open the same day.
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Keeping records is part of hybridization, but how much you want to record is up to you. Detailed record keeping is crucial, if you're at all interested in tracking the resulting flowers for possible submission to the American Hemerocallis Society for registration. If you just want to see if you can cross pollinate plants and get new flowers, then keeping detailed records is not necessary. If you get a flower you like, it is helpful to know where it came from.
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When you've made the list, make a plant tag for each cross you're planning to make. Write with a soft lead pencil on the tags; permanent markers, ironically, fade in the sun, as does ink. You can cover the writing with a piece of clear tape to protect the paper tag from rain. Do this the night before, so you're ready to hit the garden in the morning. Write the pod plant name, the pollen plant name and the date on the tag. If you don't know the names of your daylilies, just write unknown and the color of the flower.
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Collect pollen with a cotton swab. The best time to collect pollen is mid morning, after the pollen has ripened but before it starts to deteriorate or blow away. Use a fresh swab for each flower. Gently brush the swab across the stamens, getting a fair amount of pollen on the swab.
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Move to the flower on a different variety you want to pollinate. This is the plant where the seeds will form. Hold the flower gently by the stem and rub the pollen across the pistil. You don't need a heavy hand here; be gentle and let the pollen adhere to the sticky surface of the pistil.
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When you've made the cross on the pod plant with the pollen, hang the information tag on that flower. Be gentle; you don't want to snap the flower off. Attach the tag and continue making your matches.
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The daylily flowers will be faded and withered by the next morning. Don't snap off the faded flower, as you would if you were deadheading, or you'll probably snap off the developing seedpod.
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After a few days, if the pollination was successful, you'll notice a swelling at the base of the dried flower where the seedpod is developing. That pod continues to develop over the summer. Leave it alone and let it develop.
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After a wait of 40 to 60 days, look for the seedpod to start splitting at the end, which indicates the seeds inside are ripe. You'll be able to see the shiny black seeds inside. Carefully remove the pod. It's best if you snip it off with a small scissors rather than breaking the stem.
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Collect the pods, with their tags, in individual envelopes. You can take them to one location, write the recording information on them and put the seeds inside. Throw out any seeds that are mushy or shriveled. Copy the information from the tags and then add the date you picked the pod and how successful the pollination was by noting the number of seeds. Don't seal the envelope yet.
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Prepare the seeds for storage. Dry the seeds in the envelopes for a day or so. Check them again for any moldy seeds and toss them.
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Seal the envelopes and rubber band the envelopes together. Place them in the refrigerator. In most areas of the country, seeds spend the winter under the ground, frozen until spring, so the refrigerator works. If you live in a part of the country where you can plant in the fall, keep the seeds in the refrigerator for at least 6 to 8 weeks. In the spring, plant the seeds and see what your efforts have produced.
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Tips & Warnings
Some daylily varieties are sterile and will not pollinate.
Daylilies are either diploids or tetraploids. "Ploidy" refers to the number of sets of chromosomes in a cell. Daylilies are either diploid, with two sets, or tetraploid, with four sets. In most cases, daylilies do not pollinate with plants not of the same ploidy. You can search online to find the ploidy of your plants, but you can also assume that varieties created in the recent past are tetraploids.
This can be a very addicting hobby. Patience in all areas is necessary as well.
References
Resources
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