Without a doubt there were many seedlings this year that looked outstanding. However, many of them were not finished products ready for introduction. They had some flaws that need to be cleaned-up, or need some development to better show the traits I am looking for. There were a couple though that were so nice that they really don’t seem to need much improvement. Here is one in particular that really caught the eye of Renee:
The petal color is rich and clean. Difficult to describe what the color is– a reddish magenta? The excellent petal color, the white stripe of the petal midribs, the near-white sepals, the green to yellow throat– they all combine form a really nice look. On this particular bloom the top and left petals are recurving slightly, which I like also.
Here is it on another day. Quite lovely and striking.
Here is what the bloom looks like at the end of the day. The petal color has faded a bit after being in the sun all day, but it still has very nice color and looks very good. Being able to fade well like this is a big plus for a daylily.
I’ll have to see how this daylily does in terms of branching, bud-count, and foliage performance over the next couple years, but so far this daylily looks to be a winner.