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Michael Bouman's Daylilies and Daylily Seeds

7155 Cambridge Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 725-1811
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Daylily Lay is the name of my gardening passion and small business. It's a whimsical name appropriate to the modest scale and the huge investment in hope. In the midst of mixed perennial beds that Sandra and I have developed on a small lot during the past ten years, I grow about 150 hybrid daylilies. Early on summer mornings, I'm out there crossing one daylily with another in the hope of producing special new ones. I'm also out with my camera. All the daylilies on this page compelled my attention and were selected from the hundreds of also-rans. I like including some close-ups to share my joy of looking through the camera's view finder with a telephoto lens.

I have a great time thinking about what I might name them and maintain a list of hundreds of potential names. How do you like "Biker Tofu Oboe?" It's arbitrary, sure, but I like the combination of vowels, consonants, and stresses. Here's a name that will surely suppress sales: "Tenochtitlan." That's the name of Montezuma's city. People tend to avoid flowers with difficult names.

The two seedlings at the top of the page are "futures." I'll register them in the near future, when they have increased enough. The seedling pictured at right bloomed for the first time in 2005 and was numbered and flagged for further evaluation. The cross was inspired by a picture I had seen of a seedling created by hybridizer Bob Carr. His seedling came from crossng 'Ballerina On Ice' x 'Sherry Lane Carr'. (In this nomenclature, the "mother plant" or pod parent is listed first and the source of pollen is listed second.) I reversed that cross in 2003, taking pollen from 'Ballerina On Ice' to my plant of 'Sherry Lane Carr'. Recently I bought Bob Carr's best of that crop, a daylily he named 'Wonders Never Cease'.

Each year during bloom season I make about 1,800 crosses, which results in roughly 600 seed pods. I plant almost 2,000 seeds in St. Louis and send hundreds more to a couple of buddies who find room to grow some of mine with their own creations. If there's a suplus, I sell it on The Lily Auction. Each year, I have to dig out and compost almost 2,000 three-year-old seedlings that I couldn't justify keeping. The "keepers" number fewer than a hundred each year, closer to fifty.

The seedling at left once was a keeper from 'Rose Impact' x 'Sherry Lane Carr'. I've composted it. The picture is included on the home page because I like the picture so well! I was experimenting with a big white umbrella to cut the glare of overhead sunlight, and I saw that as I tilted the umbrella at a certain angle, the orange edge on the petals popped out. So many photogenic daylilies are not fine garden plants. But what the heck! Let's enjoy the look of them during those years that we load them up with hope and wishes and neglect to see them blooming down in the foliage or producing too few flowers. And let's try to notice those things more often before we take up precious space in the keeper bed.

I check the keepers in mid-March and cull the ones that aren't increasing fast enough or that show too much winter damage to the foliage. I am breeding for hardy, carefree plants that look good as plants from March into December, when frost starts to be serious enough to kill the leaves. I select initially for early opening, vibrant color, and floral consistency. Selection is a rolling process, though. Once I've selected the early openers I like, I'll go back to see how they look in the late afternoon. If the sun makes them look bad, I will de-select them, and if they don't retain good substance and appearance into the twilight, I lose interest in them. I prefer seedlings that exhibit good floral spacing on the scape (no demolition derbies for the flowers) and a season of bloom that lasts a month or more.

I selected the seedling on the right for form and color in 2006. It was a low bloomer in the middle of the row, and I didn't see the plant in the detail I would need to make a "save" decision. In 2007 it looked somewhat less vibrant, but I'm going to save it in the keeper bed, where I can observe it in detail. This plant came from seeds I bought on The Lily Auction. The cross is 'Esprit de Corps' x 'Tim Kornder'.

My hybridizing lacks focus, as anyone who looks at my seedling gallery will realize. It's easier to say what I'm not working on than what I am. I'm not working on doubles, minis, spiders, or unusual forms.

The image below is a look at what I love about working with blue eyes on white flowers. The cross is 'Last Flight Out' x 'Clarification'. This was selected in 2007 and will be watched in the keeper bed for a few seasons. I like the dark purple veins that come up through the blue and then leave the white alone. I like the lilt of the flower.

There is no single standard of floral beauty with daylilies, and we're lucky for that. When we see the flower grown to clump strength and given sufficient space to show its "plant stature" in the garden, we can decide if we like the overall proportions and balance of the total plant.

This lilting flower is just one blossom, and the plant proportions are obscured by the close spacing of its mates in a crowded seedling bed. I've moved it now to better spacing in my "keeper" bed. That's where I can see if the plant looks healthy, grows vigorously, and presents more than one scape in a pleasing display. I can see if the flowers have "breathing room" or if they collide. Most important, I can see how they withstand heat, wind, and rain, and if they are consistent from one day to the next. All these things go into "making the grade."

The one on the right amazed me in 2007. I must be careful about getting my hopes up. So many daylilies that amaze in their first season of bloom are a flop forever after. Don't ask me why. No one knows. But if this one looks like this next year, and if I find a good plant under it, I already know what I'll name it.

I register and sell my best hybrids when I have about ten plants to spare. Since I'm easing into this business with a few plants and annual seed sales, there's no printed catalogue or price list, not yet, anyway. It looks like I'll have one or two new hybrids to register every year for the next couple of years, and then maybe a few more than that if things go well.

Seed Sales

Each year in November I sell my surplus seeds on The Lily Auction. I list all the seeds at once and try to move them all in a single two-week period. Thanks to all my customers, and good luck with "our babies." Send me pictures of the ones you keep!

'Bible Grove' (2008) (Michael Vaden x Fudge Sundae) x (Tuscawilla Blackout x Court Magician) Tetraploid. 5" black purple satin flowers with a white picotee and a ring of red fire around a yellow-to-green throat. Vigorous plants with a 37" scape. Six-way branching and 27 buds. Hardiness tested in Central Missouri, zone 5. Fertile both ways. $100 double fan.

'Vincerò!' [pronounced Veen-che-RO] (2007) 'Spanish Glow' x 'Persimmon Punch' Tetraploid, 30" tall, 5" flowers, Dormant, Midseason, 27 buds on 6 branches. Color is an orange blend, growing vibrantly in heat and humidity. Clean foliage, vigorous growth, fertile both ways. The name is better sung than spoken. It's that last thrilling high note in the aria "Nessun dorma" from Pucinni's opera Turandot. $100 double fan

'Peppermint Wind' (2007) 'Kwan Yin' x 'Yesterday Memories' Diploid early morning opener, 29" tall, 7" flowers, Dormant, Midseason, 18 buds on 4 widely-spaced branches. Clear pink with a big rose halo around a large pastel yellow to green throat. $80 double fan

'Papa Davin' (2007) 'Atlanta Orchid Mist' x 'Juliette Whatley Memorial' Tetraploid, 29" tall, 5.5" flowers, Dormant, Midseason, 24 buds on 4-way branching. Medium rose pink with white midrib and green throat. Early morning opener. Exceptionally clean foliage. Not for sale; it was a gift to my lifelong friend, David Watkins, of Ithaca, New York, whose granddaughter, Lily, called him "Papa Davin" before she learned to pronounce "David."

'San Picked Me' (2006) 'Chicago Apache' x 'Brave One'. This 5" deep cherry tetraploid is a gratifying color accent in a mixed perennial garden, looking nice from March until frost and remaining in bloom nearly a month. It increases rapidly without overcrowding. The foliage remains attractive and virtually unblemished. I decided to keep it after I saw the look of a clump, and I decided to register it after I'd given away about thirty pieces to the members of the board I work for and then seen how fast it came back to clump size. Not for sale; it was a 30th anniversary present for Sandra Bouman.

'David and Alan' (2005) This is my first registration. It's a 5" diploid from 'Carlotta' x 'Catherine Neal'. The color is a bold, saturated cherry violet blend with flashing white midribs near the green throat. Vigorous and hardy plant in zone 6 and warmer, but it seems to be a gamble in zone 5 and colder. $50 double fan

I maintain photos of most seedlings that are currently under evaluation, plus a page of images from my collection.  Daylily enthusiasts are welcome to use my pictures for educational purposes or on auction sites with photo credit to Michael Bouman.

From time to time I write about daylilies or daylily people. The Library at Daylily Lay is a download area for PDF files of the pieces I have saved.