Confessions of a Hybridizer: The Big Edit

 In my last post, I talked about daylilies.  More specifically, I talked about hybridizing daylilies.  

The act of hybridizing is super easy.  What follows in the coming years sometimes isn't.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from a local hybridizer was to be brutal.  Don't save every seedling; few will be truly worth keeping.  Are you KIDDING ME?!  After all the waiting--about three years--to even get to see what you've got... and now I should maybe throw it away?!  

Absolutely.

Much like a good writer, one of the greatest lessons any gardener can learn is to edit.  As Elizabeth Lawrence once said, seeking out good plant material is as important as getting rid of the bad (super duper paraphrasing; sorry, Libba).  When a friend of hers was lamenting a poorly performing plant in their garden, Libba asked, "Are you cruel enough to be a gardener?"  

I think about that quote so, so often.  When my seedlings bloom each year, I evaluate them more and more harshly.  If something isn't up to scratch, and it hasn't been for at least three cycles, it's got to go.  One of the most common problems I have encountered is flowers not being sun-fast. 

SO gorgeous at the beginning of the day.

By the end of the day, not so much.

 Have I shovel-pruned it?  Nope.  Should I?  Maybe.  Or maybe I should transplant it to a place that only gets morning sun.  

Then there are those that produce amazing flowers, but they're so close to the ground, the slugs and snails enjoy them more than I do.  This one has really nice flowers, but its stems are consistently too short.  It's much nicer to have flowers at least a few inches above the top of the foliage, if not fully clear of it.

This beauty's flowers are about 8" across, slightly fragrant, and completely sun-fast.

This is from a 2008 cross.  It's bloomed every year since 2011.  I think 13 years is WAY long enough to get an idea of what it will (or won't) do.

Consistently too short.  It's got to go.

It is tough to root out something that you raised from seed.  It's harder to root it out when you made the cross yourself, harvested and sowed the seed, and grew it on for several years before you decided it was nice enough to keep... only to come to realize it really isn't worth keeping after all.  That's when you just have to be cruel enough to be a gardener (hybridizer), and embrace The Big Edit.