Month: June 2019

Canna Lily and Daylily crosses

Canna Lilies, Day Lilies
     After losing my hole puncher for the third time I went and bought me a little kit that actually is a sewing/craft box for $ 2.98 to put my scissors, yarn, plant tags, hole puncher (when I relocate it) and perhaps frozen pollen. I found some little stackable containers with screw on lids that seemed perfect for storing the pollen in the sewing section at Wal Mart for 99 cents for a pack of 6. I prefer a soft flexible yarn to tie the pods because it separates into small strands and is easy for me to work with.

     This morning I was able to take a couple of frozen daylily pollen anthers out and let it defrost in a cool dry area before taking it outside. I like to plan the crosses after looking over what is blooming next to what pollen I have available. Then I make my tags and attach the yarn. If I have a lot of blooms and I want to use one kind of pollen to increase my chances of getting pods I will assign a yarn color to one pollen parent and simply spread the pollen and tie the blooms with no tag. I will place the labels for pollen and pod parents when I gather the pods. Today I used Tuscawilla Snowdrift pollen on many of my Red Ribs seedlings just to see what would happen.

      I have some pods forming from Red Little Business,Tuscawilla Snowdrift,Red Ribs and Red ribs seedlings.  I also crossed Raspberry Truffle Canna Lily with what I purchased as Red King Humbert. Here are pictures of some of the Canna Lily parents.

This is a green with red tips seedling from Raspberry Truffle. 
Canna Lily Mai Ping Green Seedling
Container garden with canna lilies and caladiums
Raspberry Truffle
     This red canna lily that is supposed to be Red King Humbert is apparently Red Futurity. It is lovely with a bright red color so definitely still a keeper.