Michael Bouman's Daylilies and Daylily Seeds
7155 Cambridge Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 725-1811
Contact
Photos at Flickr.com, user boumanm
Blog: Creating Interest
About Daylily Lay
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 I developed on a small lot during the past twelve years, I grow about 300 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.
Speaking of selection, here's a photo of me with my best "keeper," Kathy Wofford, who became Kathy Bouman in front of my daylily garden at The Green Center on July 19, 2009.
I have a great time thinking about what I might name the best daylily seedlings 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 Moctezuma's city. People tend to avoid flowers with difficult names.
The daylily
pictured at right bloomed for the first time in 2005 and was flagged for further evaluation and moved into my display bed to see how it would compare. I registered it in 2009 in honor of a friend who was knighted in 1996 by an organization whose Latin name translates into "Knights Templar." It's named 'Lady Alisha' and I've given her the whole clump except for a plant for my own garden.
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 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 2009 it showed itself to be of registration quality. This plant came from seeds I bought on The Lily Auction from Penny Stormann in Topeka, Kansas. 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. I've also stopped trying to breed better reds than the ones I can buy.
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 has been under evaluation since then. 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. I'll probably register this one just for the gorgeous look of it. I wish it were taller. I wish it had a scape like 'Clarification.' But I am happy with the consistency of the floral appearance. It is truly a joy to behold.
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, just this web site. 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!
Ordering Information
Please contact me before sending an order, as supplies are limited. I ship USPS Priority Mail. Postage cost is $7 plus $1 for each additional plant.
2010 New Hybrids
'Goodnight
Kisses' (2010) (David and Alan X Party Pinafore) Diploid. Sev.
5" deep cherry pink-red flowers with much lighter ruffled edges and
curvalicious rounding. Wonderful, hardy grower in the mid-late season with 30" scapes.
Early morning opener. Excellent 5-way branching and 21 buds.
If I were still breeding diploids, this would be a focus of attention
because it represents the potential of two outstanding parents. $100
double fan. Limited supply for 2010 
'Symphony
Chorus' (2010) (Mandala X Rose Impact) Tetraploid. 4.5"
early-opening polychrome flowers with a bit of salmon, pink, lavender, and
yellow, plus a bright band of strawberry jam above a citrus throat of tangy
orange and lime green. Sleight rose veining from Oscie Whatley's superb Rose Impact. Healthy
dormant plants with a 30" scape. Four--way
branching and 34 buds. Fertile both ways. Limited stock, so one per
customer at $100 a double fan.
'Mom's
Mirth' (2010) (Collector's Choice X Rose Impact) Tetraploid. 6-7"
bright popsicle cherry with darker veins. 31" tall, early morning
opener, hardy evergreen that has survived an early December move.
Four-way branching, 27 buds, reliable rebloom here. Fertile both
ways, but pods are scarce. Slow to increase, but quite a specimen as
a clump, and a lengthy period of bloom. Limited supply; $100 double
fan. 
'Abbey
Purple' (2010) (Round Midnight X Bela Lugosi) Tetraploid. 6.5"
vibrant purple flowers, darker than pictured and impossible to photograph
accurately. Hardy semi-evergreen with 38" scapes, 4-way branching,
and 35 buds. Early midseason and early-opening flowers.
Transmits the plant habit and branching that comes from two of the best
purple parents. Fertile both ways, but pods are scarce in field
hybridizing. Selected by my friend, Mike Derrow, who grew half of
this cross at his garden in northern West Virginia. $75 double fan.The Beds at Daylily Lay
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.
The Library at Daylily Lay
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.