JOURNAL 



OF 



The New York Botanical Garden 



Vol. XXXVI September, 1935 No. 429 



NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN DAYLILIES 1 



The daylilies are hardy herbaceous perennials of the Lily Fam- 

 ily. They are, so to speak, half-sisters of the true lilies and like 

 them they possess flowers of conspicuous size, color and beauty. 

 Most of you who are gardeners are, I am sure, familiar with the 

 Lemon Daylily, known botanically as Hemerocallis flava, and the 

 tawny or fulvous Europa Daylily, known as Hemerocallis fulva. 

 These two plants represent the general characters of the group. 



All plants in cultivation are either members of wild species that 

 have been brought into culture or they have been derived as the 

 descendants of such plants. Hence the development of any group 

 of garden plants, such as the daylilies, involves, ist, the discovery 

 of wild types which are brought into cultivation ; 2nd, the selec- 

 tion of chance variations which may appear and attract attention ; 

 and, 3rd, the deliberate effort to obtain new types by hybridization 

 and selective breeding. When a seedling daylily is obtained it 

 may be multiplied by division to give what is called a clonal vari- 

 ety or a clone — spelled c-1-o-n-e. All members of a clone are 

 merely branches of one original seedling. The clone is a unit 

 of plant life especially important in horticultural practices and the 

 distinction between a clonal variety and a true variety, all members 

 of which are grown from seed, is fundamental. The develop- 

 ment of horticultural clones of daylilies, as for many other peren- 



1 From a radio talk given over Station WOR on July 12, 1935, as a part 

 of The New York Botanical Garden's contribution to the programs of 

 the Radio Garden Club, under the general direction of the Extension 

 Service of the New Jersey State College of Agriculture, Rutgers Uni- 

 versity. 



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