And Another

A fourth cultivar put in its appearance yesterday.  It's called Lucifer's Fire.  Introduced in 2009 by Nate Bremer at Solaris Farms in Minnesota, Lucifer's Fire blooms late mid-season, producing "brilliant red-orange [flowers] with yellow throat."  Six-inch flowers are held aloft on 29-inch scapes (stems).  The Solaris catalog comments: "Large strong plants that produce many flowers.  Gorgeous in a clump."

Where do all these daylilies come from?  Many daylily enthusiasts are also hybridizers, crossing cultivars to achieve new, better, more colorful flowers.  Some hybridizers are professionals, like Bremer.  Others are amateur "pollen daubers" who enjoy producing new cultivars.  Here's how Lucifer's Fire came to be:

Cross Aquire the Fire...

...with Hallie's Smile...

...and you get Lucifer's Fire.

At last count there are more than 30,000 registered daylily cultivars.  There's little chance of getting bored with these perennials!  And there's no reason to plant just one kind of daylily. •••