So at our last meeting at the Waywood Acres garden (in the rain/sun) we talked about hybridizing and how we might cross daylilies to get seed that produces new plants that might possess the best attributes of each parent. Of course rain does not promote hybridizing and release of pollen so we just talked a little about it and did a quick demonstration. Here is a recap and review for those that couldn't attend. Above you see two potential parents that have desirable characteristics. One has wonderful branching and bud count and the other has a beautiful rich color and flower shape. My goal is to produce offspring that have both. Hold on a second, in the garden we looked at flowers and talked about ploidy (the number of chromosomes). Remember, diploid plants (22 chromosomes) and tetraploid (2 X chromosomes or 44) plants. For hybridizing purposes you cross diploids with diploids and tetraploids with tetraploids. You can't cross diploids and tetraploids. You know ploidy from
